For the second time within as many weeks, I found myself chasing the BNSF 739 & 740. This time they were powering the O-WHIKCM1-28 director's special passenger train. He supposedly operated in daylight from Whitefish, MT to somewhere between Great Falls and Laurel on Sunday, then was again in daylight between about Edgemont, SD and Ravenna, NE yesterday.
This was definitely a BIG gamble for me, as the chances of NOT getting screwed by either the weather or the railroad are almost zero. Yet, everthing went off like clockwork. I left Alliance yesterday morning about 05:45 local time, and headed to Crawford Hill, arriving just before sunrise. There was a lot of traffic on the Hill, both east and west. It was about 08:15 before the shadows were such that shooting was possible. About that time, I heard the DS tell a westbound he would meet the directors special at Ardmore, on the SD/NE border. This would put the special on the Hill about 09:00 or so, I figured. The weather was perfect, in spite of the forecasts I heard before I departed which said it would be partly cloudy. I guess I must have missed that part of the cloud, as there were none anywhere in the state all day long. Not only that, there was no haze, no humidity, and no wind. Amazing. My main fear was that I might get scrwed by a westbound, which WILL block the shot of an eastbound at the point I had chosen. However, they were running so many eastbound trains, they had to hold westbounds back at Hemingford to allow the special room to run around all the loads. The train arrived about 09:15, which was absolutely perfect timing. Any earlier, and there would have been a tree shadow on the first car. Much later, and the light would have been getting crummy. As it was, I could not have timed it better if I had wanted to. When you look in the dictionary under the term 'picture perfect', this is the picture that is there. The train had the 739 leading (facing east) and the 740 trailing (facing west), with 19 passenger cars. The cars were about an equal mix of SF stainless, and BN Grinstein, though the Glacier View looks quite nice in stainless now. I'm NOT a passenger train fan, but this train did look pretty neat. I was NOT able to shoot him again until east of Alliance, as he had a much quicker route from Crawford to there than I did. In Alliance, he stopped in a position where no shots were possible, so I headed east and waited for him at Ellsworth, about 30 miles east of town. The train got to Ellsworth about 13:00 local time. I found a shot where the light wasn't too bad, though it was a bit harsh from the mid-day high sun. I knew I wasn't going to be able to do much after that, what with the track heading east, and the sun being in the west. Security for the train was VERY tight, as there were two chase vehicles, one in front and one behind. I was never hassled, but I did get some nasty looks as I went blowing by them at about 80, trying to overtake the train, time after time. East of Ellsworth, I settled for broadside across-the-field kind of shots. A couple of these may turn out ok, though they certainly would not have been my first choice, had lighting allowed otherwise. The train got stabbed pretty bad by the East End DS, mostly due to the usual clusterf.., um congestion, and trackwork. I think he was actually a little early at Crawford, exactly on time arriving Alliance, just slightly early out of Alliance, and then probably at least an hour or more late by the time he got to Ravenna, where it was dark. One thing is for sure, this train royally screwed up all the other traffic on the line, as they held trains more than 100 miles ahead of this guy to make way for him. Needless to say, the road crews were generally NOT amused. Not surprisingly, the coal trains I shot 24 hours ago on Crawford Hill have NOT yet made it anywhere close to Lincoln (a distance of about 400 miles), as one I checked was still about 160 miles west of here this morning. A long day, to be sure, but a very successful one. Mission accomplished. Beats work anytime... Jim Gilley [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.eesoft.com/rr --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects
