ICE Follies

I was off to a good start on this bitter cold but clear January morning. I'd hit the road early - way early - and only upon reaching Hampshire or Genoa did the coming dawn brighten the skies enough to call it anything other than pitch darkness. Cautiously proceeding west from Genoa, I rolled through Kingston and was more than a little pleased to notice the westbound block signal there displayed "Stop". Ah, this was a good sign, particularly so since the radio had been silent so far since I first turned it on way back at about Route 59 and 20. Now I was either overtaking a westbound train, or more likely, was about to encounter an eastbound. I could live with that! With my eyes glued to the tracks, I headed west as far as Kirkland... Bam! Here comes the eastbound. I made a quick turnaround, and headed east to follow him. The sun wasn't up yet, but soon enough it would be. I just needed to find the right spot.

I attempted a shot on the west side of Genoa, but promptly screwed it up. I was using Autofocus with this new camera, and still hadn't mastered all the little quircks of it. Even though the sun was not yet up, I tried my shot at Genoa and was quite embarassed as the lens hunted back and forth to find focus, no doubt its little electronic brain numbed by the headlights of the locomotive. The shot was worthlessly out of focus. Not to worry though; the train was going slowly and the sun would be up in a few minutes. Again I made a move east; setting up my tripod trackside at the tiny town of New Lebanon.

I liked what I was seeing at New Lebanon. The trees were covered with ice and the snow on the tracks had been sculpted in interesting patterns by the wind. The first little hemisphere of sunlight was peeking over the horizon behind me and was ever so faintly starting to shine on the classic New Lebanon grain elevator. I watched in silence as the smoke cloud over the tracks slowly materialized into a headlight as the train crested the little rise between Genoa and New Lebanon. Oh My Gawd did this have the potential to be a stunning shot. The train moved ever closer and the weak but noticeable sunlight splashed across its nose as it peeked in and out of the various tree and house shadows. From where I stood, I couldn't be absolutely certain the locomotive would be in sunlight (after all, I'd picked this spot and set up the tripod before the sun had peeked over the horizon), but it was too late to change anything now if it was not. I was here and I was going to have to make it work.

The train got into my pre-focused zone and I squeezed off about three shots. It looked good in the viewfinder. Quickly dismounting the camera from the tripod, I stashed everything back in the car and got the engine running and the heat blowing. I checked the monitor on the back of the camera. The locomotive was indeed in the sun, and the cab windows reflected the orange sky. The ditch lights lit up the sculpted snow on the tracks in a neat way. In fact everything jumped out at me as though it was 3-D. It all worked - it was a screamer! This was going to be a good day.


Two or three hours later, I was marveling at such terrific luck I was having that morning. The Chicago Subdivision of the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern Railroad was no fantasticly busy mainline; for the most part a pair of manifest trains in each direction each day, a local train six days a week and occasional ethanol trains made up almost everything one could possibly expect to see on this stretch of railroad. Sometime around the first of the year (2008), they'd made a flip-flop and moved the longtime daytime trains CCHU and HUCC to nights and put the old nighttime trains CCNA and NACC on during the day. For photography purposes, this was a good thing, since timekeeping became a LOT more reliable, particlularly for the eastbound NACC. My train at New Lebanon, however, wasn't the NACC at all; it was a late-running HUCC. A bonus! So a few hours later, with the Davis Local and the "regular" daytime train NACC safely in the camera, I was feeling pretty good about the day's efforts.

I forget exactly where I ran into the other railfan. Perhaps it was at Kirkland where I'd set up to shoot the NACC. Maybe it was a little later when the CCNA was heading west and I set up for a photo at the Genoa "mulch pit". Its not important exactly where. At any rate, somewhere later in the day I ran into another railfan; a guy whom I'd describe as a Man with Many Credentials. He didn't seem the talkative sort, although maybe he felt I was a hack and unworthy of smalltalk. Still, I pressed on, feeling pretty good about the morning's photography so far. I commented that the ICE was running "like streetcars" on this cold morning. He squinted at me as though I was a bug, and commented, well, sure, only if you're counting the one that arrived right at sunrise this morning. Oh, you bet I am - I got a killer shot of it. He was silent. Evidently he wasn't there in time to catch the HUCC. Oh well, you snooze, you lose.

September 5-7, 2009

Labor Day Weekend! Time for a road trip.

Its been a long tradition with me, dating back to the big Bayview Junction/Toronto trip over Labor Day (or is it Labour?) weekend of 1983. VIA FAs and FP7s, RDCs, big CN Alcos, PCC streetcars, GO transit.... It was all too cool and I shot them all. Scratch that, I didn't shoot the streetcars. I was too cool for them. My mistake.

Since then, Labor Day has evolved into the holiest high holiday of the summer. Gotta do a road trip every year! Pennsylvania, South Dakota, southern Illinois, Detroit, upper Michigan, the Algoma Central (pre-WC), southern Illinois again, Cleveland, the Hoisington Subdivision.... All were memorable and some were overwhelmingly successful, the epic DM&E trip of 1997 and the Conrail trip a year later chief among them. Others were busts, like the "mini-DM&E" trip to Winona in 2002. And with all that, there were some years I stayed home, when the weather looked bad or I didn't have the interest.

How about 2009? I didn't have a clue where I might want to go. Detroit might have been nice but I didn't want to risk another scrape with the law like what happened the last two times I was there. St. Louis might have been OK but the weather looked questionable. Kansas City looked even worse. Finally, at the last minute on Friday night I signed on for two nights at a Motel 6 in Ohio and I was making plans for the railroad crossroad towns of Deshler and Fostoria.

Deshler is close enough to Chicago that its possible to get a decent night's sleep before departure and still get some shooting in on the way. I left at something like 2AM Saturday and encountered a foggy dawn in northwestern Ohio somewhere around Archbold or Delta. Time to get the shot! Jumping off the Turnpike at Delta, I meandered toward town and followed the US highway eastward trying to get to the tracks. Pockets of dense fog which didn't seem too bad before the sun came up turned into blinding pea soup due to the sun's glare. I could hear an eastbound NS train coming my way as I headed through Wauseon so I knew I needed to find a shot - any shot - and fast. Scenery wasn't going to matter too much since everything was socked in by fog. Finally I set up just east of town and had just a few minutes to fool with focus and exposure before this guy materialized out of the murk, crawling east out of respect to the poor visibility.

Not the most exciting shot in the world but it'll due given the circumstances. The conductor gave me a friendly wave, perhaps comforted to see another pair of eyes keeping an eye on his train. Not like I'd have been able to do anything had I seen anything dangerous.

Back into Wauseon, I set up to wait for a train at the cool ex-NYC signals there in downtown. I'd shot here before but unfortunately never in Conrail days. Its a long-lens shot and thanks to the 1.5x crop factor of the digital, my 300mm is perfect here. Of course nothing ever goes as planned and I sat and waited and waited and waited for the next train. I listened to NPR's "Cartalk" program in its entirety and yet not a peep on the scanner. The fog was by now long gone when eventually some static on the radio materialized into an eastbound calling out his signals over the radio. The camera was quickly mounted back on the tripod and focused and the train was nailed. This might have looked better using my autofocus 300 but then I'd have to clone out a headlight reflection at the most inopportune of locations so perhaps this is for the best. The heat waves were building and nothing in the photo looked sharp, even while composing the picture. Oh well. High sun is coming and it was time to get to Deshler.

With the onset of high sun, I took my time getting to Deshler. I think there was a lunch stop somewhere. Eventually I made it to Deshler and found it to be full of fans of all ages, sizes and shapes. An odd group.

Thankfully, the midday high sun coincided with a lull in traffic on the CSX. Several fans lamented the dearth of trains but I was fine with their absence - as long as they all start moving later in the afternoon. Finally a couple eastbounds rolled through, nothing worth shooting however. Chatter on the radio indicated a Q375 was coming. Finally! A westbound which by all accounts should begin a parade of trains which with any luck might last up to sunset. What are the odds? Hah.

Q375's headlight finally materialized off to the east. He was taking his sweet time getting here. Much to my concern, one very LARGE cloud had also materialized and had also crept ever closer to the sun. This cloud had been visible for perhaps the past hour, building and lingering just off to the west waiting to strike. Now with the first shootable train within sight, the cloud had picked up its anchor and had moved ever closer to obscuring the sun.

I still wasn't sure what the problem was with Q375. He was clearly crawling west but was still a few miles east of town. A cool breeze came up as if from nowhere as the sun was obscured by the giant cloud. Crap!! This cloud meant business. I studied its shape and direction and figured it would be about 45 minutes before the cloud was gone, and here was a nice looking westbound train just waiting to strike while the sun was gone! Disaster!! I jumped in the car and raced east to intercept the train in the sunlight at the edge of town and again it was touch and go as the train crawled toward me and the cloud shadow raced towards the train. The foreground went dark just as the train reached shooting distance. Just awful. I didn't even take the picture.

I drove back into town, fully planning on sitting in my car and fuming as the Q375 tramped across the diamonds in heavy overcast. This was not a good omen for the rest of the weekend! I was known to throw in the towel and go home for misadventures less than this one. I considered calling Motel 6 and cancelling my reservation and heading back to Chicago.

Q375 entered downtown Deshler at about 5 MPH and started making the curve around the connection towards the line to Lima. What's this?!? How could I have been so dumb? This guy was crawling because he's heading around the wye towards Cincinnati! Now I can shoot him in good light after all; I just have to race south and get past the cloud before the train gets out of town. For the second time in the past five minutes, I again found myself racing through the residential streets of Deshler trying to get a sunny shot of a CSX SD70.

Racing throught the south side of town, I soon found a rural road which headed south roughly paralleling the tracks. A mile south of town, I made a left on a country road and headed for the tracks. OK, this was looking promising. I was well south of the giant cloud shadow, and even better, at the grade crossing I was confronted with two classic B&O color-position light signals. Tasty! In full bright sunlight, I quickly set up my tripod and set up for what looked to be a pretty good shot. I'd catch the Q375 between the signals. The light looked great. The actual town of Deshler was visible in the background, looking like a strange dark land thanks to its cloud companion. The train slowly inched its way toward me. The only thing I didn't care for was the windshield glare.... Suddenly disaster strikes! The windshield glare goes from bad to worse and with the train almost upon me, the actual reflection of the sun becomes visible in the glass! Oh this is horrible! The little graphical meter readout in the viewfinder goes nuclear as about 30 extra EV are picked up by the camera's electronics. After a second or two of panic, I did the only thing I could think of - I grabbed the camera off the tripod and shot handheld from a location considerable wider than originally planned; just enough to get that damned sun out of the windshield. Oh was I pissed! A 10-MPH train and two attempts at shooting it, and I come away with one missed shot and one fire drill handheld shot. This afternoon was going bad in a hurry.After the Q375 shot, I was soon headed back into "downtown" Deshler to attempt more photography. I was sweaty and exhausted after the Q375 ordeal. Back in town by the gazebo, erected near the diamonds as part of Deshler's "Railroad Park" facility, the other railbuffs all seemed happy to have gotten the Q375 in clouds rounding the curve at the east wye. None of them got it in sun though.

More westbound trains were soon approaching Deshler. With the cloud out of the way, it soon became apparent that any westbounds would soon be becoming noselit. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't. There are ways of dealing with noselit photos; if its getting noselit, just move in tighter and shoot more head-on. Use a bigger lens. Cross to the "dark" side of the tracks. I spent the rest of the afternoon shooting the varied westbounds which graced the B&O mainline that afternoon; nothing terribly exciting but at least the quantity made up for the long lull between the NS at Wauseon and the Q375 fiasco. I'll take it.

I wasn't sure, but I think I started getting the "evil eye" from some of the fans gathered at the Railroad Park gazebo. I'm sure they were wondering "What is wrong with that guy?" "Why can't he stay in one place like the rest of us?" Not only did I pass the "No Trespassing" signs to move in for a tighter shot, but I (horrors!) crossed to the dark side to get a westbound single-stack train. The railfans must have been having fits. But it served to drive home a point. Winter probably brings good light to Deshler all day long but in summer, prime light in both morning and afternoon is noselit for most traffic. But if this day was any indication, most wintertime traffic here probably comes after the sun has gone down.

As the afternoon shadows started growing long, radio chatter revealed a most interesting train - a southbound K185 ore train coming south from the Toledo Docks. This was something I'd been wanting to catch here badly; the Toledo Subdivision still has many choice B&O CPL signals including the one right here at the diamond. But true to form, the Q375-style bad luck I was experiencing earlier threatened to nix any possibility of a photo of this ore train. Somewhere north of Deshler, the female engineer reported mechanical trouble of an unknown nature that had left them stalled and blocking several rural roads. The dispatcher asked if they needed assistance from the mechanical department, and began making plans to send out some additional locomotives to push the ore train into the clear somewhere to get it off the road crossings. It appeared this train wouldn't make Deshler in daylight, if it even moves at all.

Just when it appeared all was lost, the engineer radioed that they had cured the problem, at least temporarily, and had the train slowly underway. Brimming with confidence, she thought she might get the train into Deshler where they could clear up. The dispatcher agreed, and advised her to pull into Deshler and wait in the clear for a northbound which would be coming to drop off an extra locomotive for them. The problem was, however, the northbound was still in Lima, which was probably over an hour away, and the K185 was instructed to wait north of town so as to not risk more difficulties and possible block the diamond downtown. More bad news for any further prospects of photography.

But wait! The K185 calls again to report they were making good time and actually managed to convince the dispatcher to let them come through Deshler and possibly meet the northbound at Cairo or Leipsic or with a little luck, maybe they could even keep rolling all the way to Lima. Much to my surprise, the dispatcher agreed, and lines them up all the way through Deshler. Is it possible that a little good luck would come my way?

It did indeed. The tripod was set up at the road crossing, framing the DTC block-limit sign and CPL signal prominantly in the photo. As if on cue, the headlight appeared in the distance. No worry about windshield glare this time, the light was low and perfect. The train came and it was perhaps the best picture of the trip up until now.

After the excitement of the K185 was over, most of the fans gathered at the gazebo took off for dinner or their motels, but I noticed one thing that they didn't. There was still another westbound train coming. Its signal glowed green for about 20 minutes as the sun dropped just about to the horizon. When the train finally came, I think I was the only one remaining to shoot it. The light was pretty soft, but it was colorful. Time to pack it in for the night.

Sunday morning dawned cold and hazy. I cruised down to South Deshler to try a moonlight silhouette shot of one of the B&O signals there; it came out OK. I grabbed some snacks and waited for the light to get better at the Deshler railbuffing park.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, most of the same fans I saw there on Sunday morning were the same ones I saw there on Saturday. Some were relatively local, while some had stayed overnight in nearby towns; Fostoria, Bowling Green, etc. One guy and his wife had spent the night in a tent which they'd set up in the southwest quadrant of the crossing, hard by the wye tracks, in the grassy lawn the city maintains for crazy railbuffs like them. They'd had an uneventful night for the most part - the trains on the B&O mainline rolled through at enough of a distance from them that they'd hardly even noticed them at all. However, at one point in the night a Q500 or Q501-type train took the connection between the mainline and the Toledo Subdivision, and the squealing of the wheel flanges on steel rails made it sound like the train was inside the tent with them. Well, I don't know about anyone else, I slept well in my Motel 6 bed.

I let a couple cloudy CSX trains go by without shooting them, and eventually radio talk revealed a Q501 making its way north from Lima. Ah, this was one of the "must-have" shots I was seeking to get here in Deshler. The sky was finally brightening enough to get some serviceable photos, too. In a neat bit of dispatching, it turned out CSX had an empty ore train closely following the Q501, and rather than slow down the ore train while the Q501 crawls around the wye at Deshler, likely causing Ohio's steel business to go into shutdown mode, they instead decided to pause the Q501 in the pass at Cairo and let the empty ore around him. I screwed up my shot of the ore empties so it won't be seen here; happily I had a second chance just a few minutes later with the Q501. The B&O CPL signals were tasty and the train was moving slow so even clumsy people like myself and all the other railbuffs in Deshler could get the shot.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog about trains and railfanning. This one is separate from my other blog - my photography blog. This one will discuss photography too, as well as trains, railfanning, "foamers", and the like. Lots of rants too. If there was ever a hobby worthy of ranting, its this one. Nothing is sacred here.