'Color"at Port Henry

 

 

Every once in a while “color” shows up in the form of foreign locos leading on the NS power dominated 931/930 trains operated and crewed by CP over its ex-D&H route, hauling CN & NS freight between Binghamton and Montreal. Last night was one such occasion as a pair of newly built SD70ACes wearing owner BNSF’ “Swoosh” paint scheme visited. Running much earlier than 931 usually appears on the North End to suit the glamour of the paint scheme, I had all I could do to get over to Port Henry ahead of the train with time to set up lighting and climb up onto the bowed roof of the ex-CP RS-18 1800 on display with the 5D and tripod. When I jumped out of the civic upon arriving, I could hear the distinctive BNSF air horn to the south already! Part of the attraction of shooting passing trains at night for me is the drama involving visual and audio delights to the senses. This sort of drama where you can already hear the trains air horn before you start to set up any lighting was certainly an attention grabber! lol! At night though, it’s not over until the head end is by you and I went about calmly setting up the various flash units as 931s BNSF power drew closer. To my advantage, as you might conclude having enjoyed this view before, “by now” I have the lighting down for this angle from the roof of the RS-18 for a northbound, and track speed south of Port Henry is around thirty mph for freights.

Once I have the lighting in place, I climbed up onto the RS-18 via the front pilot then the chop nose up onto the bowed roof, with permission as the steps are plywooded off now, set up the tripod, set the focus and mounted the 5D. Looking at the times I took test shots, less than four minutes later I took this shot! Whew! Considering it takes sixty minutes to drive over from Hinesburg, VT., and I took the time to brew a thermos of tea before leaving..................I was thankful remembering my decision earlier to brew the tea that only needs twenty second steeps per pot, rather than the tea that needs four or more minutes! Oh yeah! A key part of finding...........Success! Again here at Port Henry! Maybe it is due to constantly seeing dirty dark red CP engines here at night, but dosen’t the spotless pair of newly built BNSF SD70ACes look elegant under the lighting at night!? And.............the same pair should return south tomorrow night leading 930s train!

Talk about being most fortunate! Ten nights ago I was last here shooting southbound ethanol 644 behind ex-SOO SD 60 6223 from the other end of this location. Out in the field behind the trailing BNSF engine in this photo. One of my eyeglass frames became loose and one of the lenses fell out.................into the snow...........at night of course............and I never noticed until I was having trouble manually pre-focusing the lens on the camera! What to do!? I retraced my steps that night when collecting the lighting but, you can imagine trying to spot a lens for eyeglasses in the snow......... So I figured once the snow melted it would show up, as I knew my steps that night setting up lighting, and more whitetail deer roam around in that field than people. Tonight there was still plenty of snow cover, but on cloud nine after capturing this image, I went over and retraced my steps when I set up the flash units in the field, looking intently with the head lamp in the snow...............halfway down the back of the field along the tree line there it was! The missing lens, lying flat atop the snow, right where I set up a flash unit! Talk about lucky! I counted my blessings more than once driving back to Hinesburg from Port Henry tonight! Shot on March 29, 2014 at 20:15. A Special Thank You to Bill Kozel for the hot tip! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

All The Best In 2014;

Gary Knapp