Sunday, September 7, 2014

Radio Active

It's been a really good weekend for catching Norfolk Southern Heritage motors. The third new one for of this weekend was the only one I'd planned on, go figure. The NS1074 Delaware Lackawanna and Western came through earlier in week on 16T so I knew there was a chance it would come back on 15T this weekend ... and it did! 

The one major flaw in the plan was that the T's usually run through Jonesborough at night, so I had a funny feeling I would have to get a night shot if I wanted a picture. My success rate with night shooting trains is awful. But I went on anyway. 

It was a trifecta of fail because tt was just starting to rain, so I found an overhang to shoot from under, but this limited me to a small alley because I was shooting with a fixed 35mm lens which meant I had to be a certain distance form the rail to get the train in the frame. 

The resulting picture below serves only to prove that I actually saw the engine. I hope to get another chance real soon so that I can remove this one ....


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A new heritage engine for me, I'm at 18 of 20.

#00  1030 The Forgotten Heritage Engine
#13  1065  Savannah and Atlanta
#15  1066  New York Central
        1067  Reading
#12  1068  Erie
  #1  1069  Virginian
  #8  1070  Wabash
 #16 1071  Central RR of New Jersey
#11  1072  Illinois Terminal
  #4  1073  Penn Central
 #18 1074  Lackawanna
 #17 8025  Monongahela
  #2  8098  Conrail
#10  8099  Southern
  #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
_______________________________________________________________
This is not a new Special Interest engine for me.
#1 6920 Honoring Our Veterans
#2 6963 GoRail
#3 Southern 630

Mongo

It's been a good weekend for train pictures ... I saw another of the Norfolk Southern Heritage engines today, the 8025 Monongahela, and it was a complete surprise! I had been watching the 8025 on a web site that tracks them because it had been hanging around the Birmingham area, and that's where the 16T originates. 

I was chatting with a FB friend, making plans to get a picture of a different heritage motor that is on a different train when we heard the dispatcher give a track authority to the 8025. I sprang into action ... well actually I got my camera and drove to my usual place in downtown Jonesborough to wait on it. Low and behold it really was Mongo leading the m42. I'm not sure how it got all the way from Birmingham to Jonesborough without someone reporting it, but there it was.




__________________________________
A new heritage engine for me, I'm at 17 of 20.

#00  1030 The Forgotten Heritage Engine
#13  1065  Savannah and Atlanta
#15  1066  New York Central
        1067  Reading
#12  1068  Erie
  #1  1069  Virginian
  #8  1070  Wabash
 #16 1071  Central RR of New Jersey
#11  1072  Illinois Terminal
  #4  1073  Penn Central
        1074  Lackawanna
 #17 8025  Monongahela
  #2  8098  Conrail
#10  8099  Southern
  #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
_______________________________________________________________
This is not a new Special Interest engine for me.
#1 6920 Honoring Our Veterans
#2 6963 GoRail
#3 Southern 630

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Jersey Girl

Thanks again the Facing Book for alerting me to another Norfolk Southern Heritage motor that I hadn't seen. This time it was on train 22A, it wasn't leading, but it was still coming through. 

I wanted a shot of the rear of the engine, the side and the nose. I also knew it was facing rearward so shooting at my usual train shooting spot was going to be a bit trickier than normal because at the time of day it came through the angle of the sun makes serious glare at certain points. 

I got there about 30 minutes early and it was raining ... bummer ... but then it stopped ... yeah ... but then it stayed cloudy ... bummer ... then the clouds started rolling away ... yeah. I'm glad I had time to work on camera settings for a while because It was much darker than I expected so I need a lot of test shots to gets a happy medium between speed - for a clear shot of a moving target - and brightness.

I thought I was positioned properly for the three shots I wanted, but I was a bit too close. so the butt shot had the nose clipped, the side shots were off center, and most of the nose shots had spots of glare. Well darn. The following is the best of the bunch.



The nice thing about it being on 22A is that it's likely that it will return on the 23G in a few days. So hopefully I'll get another shot at getting it right.

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UPDATE: (09/10/2014)
The 1071 made a return trip through the are on train 23G, and this time it was leading! It's notoriously hard to get the timing right on 23G, but it had made two recent trips through here about 7:00AM, so I was hoping for a repeat, but Just to be sure I was up and ready to go at 6:00AM. 

When I heard it clear Jonesborough on the scanner I took off for the bridge over Boone Lake in Bluff City. Traffic was with mr and I arrived in plenty of time ... just to find the whole place socked in with fog ... crap! It was too late to go to another spot so I stayed at the bridge hoping the sun would get up high enough to burn off some of the fog before 23G got there.

The wind picked a bit and the fog blew in and out, mostly out. When the train got to the bridge the fog was just about right, but I didn't get the exposure just right, so the pics are a bit darker then I'd like, but there's a nice reflection. All in all it's not too bad; I'd like another shot at it though.


__________________________________
A new heritage engine for me, I'm at 16 of 20.

#00  1030 The Forgotten Heritage Engine
#13  1065  Savannah and Atlanta
#15  1066  New York Central
        1067  Reading
#12  1068  Erie
  #1  1069  Virginian
  #8  1070  Wabash
 #16 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
  #9  8102  Pennsylvania
 #14 8103  Norfolk and Western
  #3  8104  Lehigh Valley
  #6  8105  Interstate
        8114  Norfolk Southern
_______________________________________________________________
This is not a new Special Interest engine for me.
#1 6920 Honoring Our Veterans
#2 6963 GoRail
#3 Southern 630