Eastern Railroad Discussion > Pure Luck

Last weekemd the sun was actually out in Erie, PA. I had to get out, as I might not see it again until April. Anyway, I was trying a little different shot at a rural road crossing, set up for a side shot of an eastbound. As he gets close, I am looking through the viewfinder waiting for the moment to fire. Totally surprising me a westbound comes racing along. I see it in the viewfinder (didn\'t even notice it coming!) and start shooting. I am hoping the shot turns out okay, it all happened so fast. I was planning to get the train coming from the left side, the surprise WB is coming from the right.

I could never have planned this shot in 100 years. If I tried, I would never get it. So what is the luckiest, most un-repeatable shot you have taken?

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I was chasing Conrail WAHA-22 north from Hartford, Conn., to Springfield, Mass., and I was plenty pleased that its power du jour was a pair of GP15-1\'s. One of the spots I set up for was the long bridge over the Connecticut River between Windsor Locks and Warehouse Point. The freight train was about halfway across the bridge when a southbound Amtrak entered on the other main track, and I nailed the meet out over the river. Not only was it pure luck, but it is unrepeatable, both because Conrail is gone and because the bridge was single-tracked within a year or two of the photograph!

I dont know what is more impressive. A) the sun actually being out in Erie. Or B) The shot itself.

Great photo anyway...

-Brad

Rob, I\'d think that since the lake is now nearly frozen over, you might start seeing the magic orb in the sky a bit more frequently. How much snow do you have on the ground?

The crew of 4501 noticed me crouched down by the puddle (I guess) and kept the cylinder cocks open well over 500 feet past where they normally shut them off when leaving the now gone Alexandria engine terminal.

No steam any more in Alexandria :-(

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=281

Back in the mid 70\'s I was on a sailboat just about to pass under the NEC Perryville bridge as the sky was starting to clear after a late afternoon thunderstorm. Just as we got to the "perfect angle" a n/b Amtrak with a GG1 went across the bridge with an unbelievable sunset sky for background. It has to be the luckiest shot I\'ve ever gotten in over 30 years of doing this stuff.

Bob

bobdavis wrote:

> Back in the mid 70\'s I was on a sailboat just about to pass
> under the NEC Perryville bridge as the sky was starting to
> clear after a late afternoon thunderstorm. Just as we got to
> the "perfect angle" a n/b Amtrak with a GG1 went across the
> bridge with an unbelievable sunset sky for background. It has
> to be the luckiest shot I\'ve ever gotten in over 30 years of
> doing this stuff.
>
> Bob
>
> [%sig%]


Wow, sounds like an amazing shot, Bob! Ya gotta post it here sometime.

DTIDave

I was on the Geneva sub of the UP taking some sunset shots to end the day. I never noticed the train until I looked up after I snapped the shutter. I thought it was pretty cool with the reflection off the sides of the train and the clouds and colors in the sky. I wish I could say I planned it that way.

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Back in 1997, me and the wife took my 69 Charger to a car show in Greensburg, Pa. and took the long way home back to Maryland. We were going to the flood museum in Johnstown and heard a horn. Knowing I was not near the then CR mainline, I investigated and the CSX Rockwood/Johnstown switcher had three, Chessie painted, straight GP40\'s. The crew wanted to know about my car and I wanted to know about their power. They said it was their\'s, probably for another two weeks. I went back up the next day and chased them down to Rockwood. About a year later, I went to Somerset, Pa. to shoot that local from the Pa. Turnpike embankment. Lo and behold, a solo Chessie GP40 brought about 10 cars through town. Those are my two favorite "can\'t do that again" chases...

The SD80MACKing...

A couple years ago in Trains mag was a shot of two Hiawathas meeting at a grade crossing, a similar lucky shot. This reminds me of it.

Gonut

doubledumb wrote:

> I was on the Geneva sub of the UP taking some sunset shots to
> end the day. I never noticed the train until I looked up after
> I snapped the shutter. I thought it was pretty cool with the
> reflection off the sides of the train and the clouds and colors
> in the sky. I wish I could say I planned it that way.
>
> [%sig%]

What, are you deaf? Looks like the engines are 1/2 mile down the track & that you are within 150ft of the track. Cool photo, though.

i\'m not a photographer at all,but the luckiest catch i had was last summer in late july at lakeview,ny on csx\'s chicago line. i just went to the tracks without a scanner for a few minutes,figuring i might catch a westbound intermodal or so on csx considering it was late morning,and i heard a horn about 4-5 miles west of me,and it was Q380 showed up with 2-3 CSX units leading,but there was an SF B unit tucked in behind the CSX units,and the last unit was an MBTA F40PH heading back from boise rebuilding to service on the MBTA. in all my years of railfanning,i had seen maybe 1 SF unit in the blue and gold scheme,but this time i saw another one without a cab!


dave

One time I had the sunset and it was reflecting off a long string of auto racks boy was that a sight!

You reminded me, I gotta change my vote.

Was out doing photo work prior to the 1984 LA Olympics, but the local police wanted to take New Years day off, so we had nothing to do. Convinced a fellow worker to "go for a drive in the mountains."

First trip to Cajon, first Santa Fe train I ever saw. The two SD45B units are 2 days old, on their first run, in perfect SD45 A-B-B-A lashup :-))

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=346

what a good catch mr.davies,besides the relettering to bnsf now,not too much has changed in the paint schemes in those units. also that berea tower shot with CR 6686 was nice too you posted a few days back. with all the mergers and stuff now,its rare to see power like that. just another reason i always tried to see K236(coke train from the WC now CN obviously) because he usually had WC power.


dave

I have shot a couple of nice lash-ups in Newport News, VA over the years.

One shot on 24DEC92 was almost a perfect B&OHS set! It had CSXT/CS/B&O GP40-2 6058 (6063 would have been the former GM50), CSXT/CS/B&O GP40-2 4447 "Arch McElvany", and CSXT/B&O GP30 4264, still in the sunburst scheme.

On 27MAR94, the yard engines here were the CSXT/B&O GP30 4253 (repainted for the B&OHS in the sunburst scheme), and CSXT/SBD GP38-2 2556 (nee-Durham & Southern bicentenial 2000, and SCLs 2nd bicentenial as 556). They were put away in the coal bin, which happens to have a nice bridge that spans the entire locomotive area. Plenty of good elevated shots that day! Both units hung around for about a week, and then were in and out on several occassions.

On a trip to Cincinnati last May with tetsuo and CJ, we got up early to go shoot the sunrise and after we all had fired off lots of shots i reallized that I had just one left on the roll. So being the smart individual I am (I hear u all snickering back there)I decided to finish off the roll cuz i knew if i didn\'t I would get caught with one exposure left for something REALLY cool that deserved many shots. So I fired it off at what i thought was WAY underexposed. Didn\'t compose the shot or nuthin\' (as u can see it\'s not level!!)

Turns out this was the only one that turned out because I overexposed the rest of the shots by about 2 seconds or more. Well here\'s the result...

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Shortly before their demise, I caught the cabooses of NS 145 and 146 passing, perfectly framed on an overpass. I think it was 1994 or \'95. The cabooses were only used on these two trains because they were required in Canada. When the rule was changed, the cabs quickly disappeared. Also caught a string of cabooses being removed from the territory (Conneaut,OH) once they were retired. This was all luck, before I worked for the RR.

The once-in-a-lifetime shot for me came at Batavia, NY. Chased an Eastbound Conrail merchandise to town and set up on the abandoned road above the Tonawanda Creek Truss Bridges. Lo and behold, my eastbound showed up crawling on the controlled siding. Meanwhile, an eastbound intermodal showed up on the far left track (#2). He was going to overtake my merchandise train on the bridge at the same time so I set up for a shot. Then I heard rails on #1 (middle track) pinging, and here came a westbound intermodal!

As my bracketing shows, all three trains met on the bridge right below me...

That was dumb luck!!!!!!!!!

\'Spatcher out....