Like Old Times

Responding to suggestions from Rob Dennis and John Cullinan that I should look up the nighttime D&H local operating out of Saratoga Yard serving the Battenkill Railroad connection at Eagle Bridge, I drove down to Mechanicville, NY last night to attempt to capture an image of the train passing by the newly restored XO Tower. Did I mention D&H GP 38-2 7304 had been recently assigned to this job? One of only three engines on Canadian Pacifics vast locomotive roster wearing the D&H lightning stripe paint scheme, I concluded the chance at an image of 7304 passing XO Tower worthy of the three hour drive each way from the compound. You see, this scene used to occur often at night when the sprawling yard was in place, lightning striped engines were frequently moving around XO. With the tower now restored, I had an opportunity to include both in a night photo! I checked the area around the tower out beforehand on the home computer via Google Maps. What I spotted increased my desire to visit Mechanicville at night. There.......beckoning from the computer monitor.........was a sweeping curve just to the east of XO Tower! Seeing that curve I thought to myself, I know what to do with that location! Get far enough below it with a telephoto to include the tower in the view! Once I arrived in town after an uneventful trip down, I only made one wrong turn before I heard an air horn and found a Pan Am job slowly departing eastward. Pulling up to the crossing the train occupied, there off to the left was XO Tower. Remembering the layout of the area from Google Maps, I found the back street I needed to access the view of the curve and pulled in to park. Time was 00:30ish. The D&H local was called for 23:00 at Saratoga, and I figured no way would Pan Am want that local working out at Eagle Bridge ahead of one of its freights, so I poured some tea and waited. Several minutes later I could hear the EMDs hauling the Pan Am freight up the grade on the far side of the Hudson River, then quiet returned. Some twenty minutes later, a pair of always lit signals beaming red at me protecting the Pan Am main changed to yellow over green! An air horn is heard behind me, then headlights appear.......followed by sounds of a non-turbocharged 645.............this could be them! And it was! Running long hood forward, D&H 7304 comes past me with a handful of cars for the Battenkill! Disappearing around the curve, it is time to get to work as Eagle Bridge is not that far away, and the crew only has to setout their cars, and then pick up the outgoing cars before returning past me. I hardly have begun to set out flash units when I see not one, but two police vehicles heading my way! I never thought Mechanicville to be that large of a town! I go out into the street to greet the officers. The officer I speak with is friendly and allows that I can be believed to only be photographing trains. We wish each other a safe night and I return to setting up. An unusual high-wide move of several cars goes slowly past bound for Kenwood Yard, than a man appears in the street. He confesses to turning me in to the police, and offers an apology, as he had some stuff stolen out of his truck earlier. Watching my activity from his house, he is amazed I have yet to take a picture LOL! “That’s a lot of work for a picture,” he comments but I reassure him its worth it. With my social hour ending, I finish setting up lighting for the train on the curve then walk down with a couple lights to illuminate XO. Back atop the stepladder, test shots reveal the great restoration job done on XO, it glows under the lights! A couple flash units send the “not so quick” message, and thirty minutes of tweaking begin. This less dramatic part of the night comes with the territory, and knowing what can come from patience at night.....................like success, I am going back and forth between a pair of flash units when 7304s air horn is heard announcing the jobs returning from Eagle Bridge. Hearing the hollow sound of the train on the bridge over the Hudson effectively ends the tweaking, and minutes later I am up on the stepladder savoring the scene as 7304 slowly rounds the curve, looming into the scene. In a silent pressing of the shutter release, the flash units do their thing, capturing an image in 2012 of a scene that was witnessed many times each night in the Lightning Stripe Era on the D&H when Mechanicville Yard was a major interchange point for the B&M and D&H. In tonights view, 7304 is on Pan Am track, with the D&H main to Kenwood on the right. That manicured ballast edge (on Pan Am track!?) betrays the presence of Norfolk Southern to me! LOL! Special thanks to John Cullinan and Rob Dennis! Shot on March 7, 2012 at 03:01 with the 5D and Zeiss ZF 100/2 lens set at f2. Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

All The Best In 2012;
Gary Knapp