Eastern Railroad Discussion > Eclipse With A Signal and a Signal Eclipse

I got lucky and got today off, the North American Eclipse Day Monday April 8th 2024. I went big and decided on Muncie Indiana as there would be trains to watch and MITS was operating a special Eclipse Bus. Traffic was bad as predicted in places, people were camped out in the parking lot at the Flying J in Cambridge City, all along the route there were people out finding their spot. I got to Muncie a little after 1 pm. My spot was the Diamonds where the NS New Castle District crosses the CSX Indianapolis Line there were already other railfans, several took off when I arrived (yeah, I care). Their was a guy from on the border between Illinois and Wisconsin, a couple from north of Cincinnati and one guy from the southern part of Germany. Good time hanging out looking up at the sun periodically with those special eclipse glasses. The MITS Eclipse bus of course crosses Walnut Street next to the diamonds which I took pictures of as well. Things started getting dark around 2:30ish and looked almost like the light before a thunderstorm by three. A couple minutes later we could hear pinging in the rails from the temperature drop as things went almost dark except for an intense beam of light. Right around 3:08 pm the main event! Almost total darkness! I took several with the aperture almost closed then went over to the signal for the NS crossing the CSX and opened it up a bit for some decent shots. The one include you can even see a planet or something under the lower signal hood. I chose Muncie for almost four minutes of totality as not disappointed! Then light came back and all the sudden it was over. Well, I called up my sister who said she had called some bad words when she had looked at the NASA maps and figured out how much totality I got to experience by going to Muncie. I then called up mom then bid my Eclipse Railfanning friends goodbye and rode a trip on that Eclipse Bus of course. After a scenic trip to the Prairie Creek Reservoir Jackie, the driver, dropped me off where I could say goodbye again to the group before everyone packed it in for the day. On the way home I checked several of my alternate choices and found that I made the right choice on Muncie. Of course at Ansonia I was able to recreate an eclipse of different kind using a Type G signal instead of the moon. 

Thank you for looking!

Jim

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Neat images, Jim!
I live on the western edge of Muncie, in the Yorktown community (per my moniker).  NS #123 came through eastbound from Cammack just before totality, and I thought about how lucky they were . . . . the crew would have been traveling southbound toward Richmond and on to Cincy in the direct centerline of "max darkness" at the optimal time.
It was a fun afternoon,
Rich



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/24 03:37 by NSyorktown.

Thanks for sharing the wonderful photos. I was home in Fort Wayne just outside of totality, and we got to see the phases with our glasses. Streetlights came on and birds really started chirping right before totality. But totality was a bomb.

If you go to the Princeton, Indiana railcam at about 1400 cdt, you can see the change of light with a freight train at the crossing.

Victor Baird

Posted from Android

Cool shot! I was in the bullseye at Vincennes IN. I think we had 4:06 of totality. I took some cell phone shots but really just soaked it all in looking around. Like a 360' sunset! Birds were flying/chirping and the chickens just huddled next to the garage. LOL! Our 100 year old dad was also checking it out. He still lives on the farm! L439 passed by 25 minutes too early. Glad you got to see it and that the skies cooperated.
Not sure how to correct the photos. I tried but no luck. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/24 05:52 by CSX2605.

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My creativity went dark as soon as it hit totality in Sandusky, Ohio coupled with the entire NS dispatching network completely down at the same time.

My pics of only two trains and the eclipse will be up tonight.

Michael Fair
Royal Oak, MI

Photo one is an historical beauty (And it's less than a day old as I write this!).
Bob

Here you go CSX2605! 
Dad isn't in the Rhubarb Patch?
Gonut

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wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Thanks for sharing the wonderful photos. I was
> home in Fort Wayne just outside of totality, and
> we got to see the phases with our glasses.
> Streetlights came on and birds really started
> chirping right before totality. But totality was a
> bomb.
>
> If you go to the Princeton, Indiana railcam at
> about 1400 cdt, you can see the change of light
> with a freight train at the crossing.
>
> Victor Baird
>
> Posted from Android

I'm glad I only had to walk15 feet to see it, which is about what it was worth to me. It ended up being a company sanctioned 15 minute goof off break.

Posted from iPhone

Fantastic photos thanks a lot the signal shot was awesome 

Wayne Crabb
San Gabriel, CA

Great shot, one of the best I've seen of the eclipse so far!

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

Thanks for posting!  IOTD candidate.

Oliver Barrett

tq-07fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...The one
> include you can even see a planet or something
> under the lower signal hood. I chose Muncie for
> almost four minutes of totality as not
> disappointed! Then light came back and all the
> sudden it was over...
> Jim

I've been told that planet is Venus.  You don't see Venus that high in the sky except during eclipses, otherwise you only see it near the horizon.  When totality is over, it's like someone fired a big flare!  Hope you also saw the solar flares.  I saw four with the naked eye at Centralia, IL, even better with binoculars.
Edit: three solar flares visible here around the edges of the sun-  Wabtec Test Track-CSX Erie, Pa. and an Eclipse (trainorders.com)

mapboy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/24 18:02 by mapboy.

An astrophysist recently reported that:

"There are many (incorrectly) reporting that a solar flare was visible during the total solar eclipse," [u]Ryan French[/u], an astrophysicist at the National Solar Observatory in Colorado, [u]wrote on the social platform X[/u]=18.9px. "This is sadly untrue, and the bright feature seen by millions was actually a prominence. These are longer-lived plasma structures, and not explosive like flares.

Unlike solar flares, which eject plasma as they explode from the sun's surface, prominences are plasma structures that remain connected to the solar surface for days or weeks, normally forming a large loop, according to [u]NASA[/u]. Prominences can eventually snap and fling plasma into space like a CME, but this didn't happen during the eclipse."

Victor Baird


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/24 13:08 by wabash2800.