Friday, October 26, 2012

Narrow gauge adventure

In mid October I took part in a photographers charter on the Cumbres & Toltec Narrow Gauge Railroad. This was a 5 day event, organized by Lerro Productions and FarRail of Germany. I set off early to spend some time in White Sands National Monument (another blog, later) and ended up in Chama the day before the event. We had some very early mornings, which were quite cold, but the experience of riding in an open gondola behind two hard working steam engines before dawn is unforgettable. I find it difficult to shoot both video & stills, the video pays the rent, but with five days and multiple runby's, I was able to shoot both. We had perfect weather for five days, the foliage was pretty much gone unfortunately, but the white aspens still looked good against the firs. We had an awesome pre dawn chase up the mountain in dead still air, the engine could be heard for miles, and in the still air the smoke just hung. Stunning! I did find it quite difficult lugging the camera & tripod on and off the train and up and down hills at altitudes of 8-10,000 feet, and it seemed that others did too, as there was a lot of heavy breathing. A big group, rather more than I like, but it all worked out and I have some great video, and some decent stills.
































Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Utah, Montana and Idaho

In early September I set off to Price, Utah to meet a friend from Connecticut to chase the Utah Railway. Traffic is fairly light these days, but a good bet was Soldier Summit right after sunrise for the Utah empties. The loads were going up the mountain in the afternoon, and had all 11 of the Utah's six axle units, the MK 50-3's and SD60's. the helpers, a six unit set, come off the train at Colton, a few miles below the summit. In addition to the Utah coal train, there was generally a UP & BNSF train each way, plus an odd extra.

From Utah I went up to Montana to have a look at the west end of Montana Rail Link. Montana was burning, but fortunately most of the smoke cleared after the first day, and I had some fun chasing the gas train, with an SD40-2 and an SD45 over Evaro hill and the 10th sub. I did 453 miles one day chasing. I also chased the Paradise local with a pair of GP9's. Can't remember the last time I got to chase geeps! MRL rarely ventures west of Thompson Falls, so it was all BNSF to Sand Point. I did manage some nice reflection shots near Trout Creek.

Finally, I shot BNSF's Funnel, something I've wanted to do for years. Idaho was smokey too, which helped with a couple of nice sunset shots overlooking the big trestle across Lake Pend Orielle. I did get to meet the BNSF police in Spokane, but no problem. I stopped off at Paradise on the way home, I wanted o chase a train to Missoula and shoot some stills, but there was so much smoke I just came home. Coming down through Utah I had a look at Coral Pink Dunes State Park. Almost 5500 miles for the trip.





















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