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
