Eastern Railroad Discussion > Stalking the NS 955 Office car special - Skunked by the

The NS f units were to pass through Columbus this afternoon/evening and with the nice weather I decided to go hunting. I wanted to try and capture this train with the Columbus skyline as a backdrop and the timing looked to be about perfect for a low angle sunset shot...

I arrived at a place called LM Cabin or Scioto depending on the language you speak and found out that my object of prey was second out to appear on the stage I was ready to set up... This would work great as it would allow the sun to get into perfect position. Then I found out CSX was going to play hell with my plans. CSX decided to run a couple of their own trains before the NS would send me my target... Understandable I guess, so after the cross traffic the first NS westbound made its appearance. The sun was getting to the danger zone, but I figured this would allow me to test my exposure...

The first westbound came into view and I made my image... I hoped the f units and passenger cars would be close behind... The NS and CSX decided to throw another curveball and run a train each, before the Office Car Special. Damn. It was getting to the point where it would be too dark.

I moved my location and decided that since I had waited an hour for this train I was going to still try and capture it... With the last light fading fast, it finally showed up...

Oh well...

Andy

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That light level worked really well! The buildings nighttime lighting adds a lot to the scene!

The results are stunning. Good job, great effect with the buildings lit up.

I'd say 'Oh well' turned into 'Oh my!'. Excellent work!

-Justin

Awesome!!

Um... that actually really worked out for you... sweet shot.

Thanks so much for catching this fellow... No other pics I could see from this run of the Special. I was on my way to bed at 5:30am MY time and caught it sliding past the Cresson cam quite by surprise. I don't have chat available even though I am a member. As it happens, also caught NS 8098 Conrail heritage out of Altoona this afternoon headed east with a mishmash of power.

I agree that it worked out pretty cool.

As for the "schedule," it's pretty rare for a OCS deadhead move from Altoona to Cincinnati to make it to Columbus by sundown. With no dignitaries on board, they're not priority moves.

Hi
That was still agreat job catching the train and the lighting
Tom Boylan

Andy, I would take dusk shot any day. Good work.
John

toledopatch Wrote:
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> As for the "schedule," it's pretty rare for a OCS
> deadhead move from Altoona to Cincinnati to make
> it to Columbus by sundown. With no dignitaries on
> board, they're not priority moves.


As a matter of fact... When the OCS comes this way (from Altoona) for events, with or without passengers, it can be counted upon to show up between 5 and 7 p.m. Actually, I can't think of a time that it didn't make this window. Yesterday, no exception, except that it sat for over an hour on the Weber Connection due to the congestion at LM Cabin.

In retrospect I should look at last nights stalking as successful... The first train I caught was the eastbound intermodal on the Columbus Subdivision on CSX. A train I have never seen. It met the Ohio Central right at LM Cabin. Then two NS trains and the CSX Y222 (Busch Job), all while waiting on the prize... Total of 7 trains in an hour. If the sands were not running through the hourglass in terms of sunlight, how could one not be happy...

All in all, it's all good ;)

Andy