Being a railfan in the era of social is pretty darn cool. Keeping track of the movements of the Norfolk Southern Heritage fleet is done quite well through a several pages on the Facing Book. The latest win was the Norfolk and Western 8103.
Most railfolk knew that it was scheduled to drag the NS611 steam engine from Roanoke to Spencer, NC for the Streamliners at Spencer event the weekend of May 29. But it had been hanging around in southern Indiana for a a couple of weeks. It snuck (is that a word?) into Knoxville TN in the late evening of 5/17 and was gassed up and ready to go somewhere. I was hoping that it would be making its move to Roanoke on Sunday morning on 38Q, which usually gets to Jonesborough about 6:30AM.
Armed this info I decided to take a chance and just go hang out in Jonesborough about 6:15 Sunday morning and see if it was on 38Q. I reckoned that since it was still very early and the clouds were really thick that I'd need some street lights to help make a picture. The scanner has been completely quiet so I had no confirmation of train movement to go on.
Just as I got to to Main St in Jonesborough I saw rail cars going by ... crap crap crap ... I missed it. So I banked hard left and drove back toward Johnson City, hoping that I could outrun it to somewhere that had street lights or was really open toward the morning sky. I decided on the crossing at OmniSource (Johnson City Metal) which had both. I'd never shot there so I knew I would need a few minutes to see if there was a reasonable angle with reasonable light. I fired off a few test shots with the F-stop wide open and kept bumping the ISO and shutter speed until I had a workable histogram. I knew the pics would be noisy at ISO 800 but you gotta work with what light you have. About a minute later I heard the horns.
As you can see below, the pics are noisy. When I got home I saw how underexposed they were and that will only make the noisier when I brighten them up in LR5. Regardless, I have pics of a new heritage motor for me! I'll get better pics when it comes back through, they always come back.
It wasn't until I got into post processing that I noticed the front door was open and the lead engine was #8013 (close to #8103).
It wasn't until I got into post processing that I noticed the front door was open and the lead engine was #8013 (close to #8103).
NS Heritage 8103, Johnson City, TN (05/18/2014) |
NS Heritage 8103, Johnson City, TN (05/18/2014) |
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This is a new heritage engine, # 14 of 20.
This is a new heritage engine, # 14 of 20.
#00 1030 The Forgotten Heritage Engine
#13 1065 Savannah and Atlanta
1066 New York Central
1067 Reading
#12 1068 Erie
#1 1069 Virginian
#8 1070 Wabash
1071 Central RR of New Jersey
#11 1072 Illinois Terminal
#4 1073 Penn Central
1074 Lackawanna
8025 Monongahela
#2 8098 Conrail
#12 1068 Erie
#1 1069 Virginian
#8 1070 Wabash
1071 Central RR of New Jersey
#11 1072 Illinois Terminal
#4 1073 Penn Central
1074 Lackawanna
8025 Monongahela
#2 8098 Conrail
#10 8099 Southern
#5 8100 Nickel Plate Road
#7 8101 Central of Georgia
#3 8104 Lehigh Valley
#5 8100 Nickel Plate Road
#7 8101 Central of Georgia
#9 8102 Pennsylvania
14 8103 Norfolk and Western#3 8104 Lehigh Valley
#6 8105 Interstate
8114 Norfolk Southern
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This is not a new Special Interest engine for me.
This is not a new Special Interest engine for me.
#1 6920 Honoring Our Veterans
#2 6963 GoRail
#3 Southern 630