Seeking to burn some FF miles and vacation time, both which were due to expire at year's end, I returned to the SW yet again this past week, to see if I could shoot some more SF. Thanks to my gracious host, chauffeur, and comrade, John Benner, I was able to accomplish everything I set out to, and then some.
The trip began as I flew from Omaha to Las Vegas a week ago, arriving there about 17:30 on Saturday. John was returning from CA, and was waiting at the airport as I arrived. We proceeded to Kingman, where we spent the night. Sunday morning found us in Crozier Canyon, with fair skies and several trains. As luck would have it, four of these trains made it through the canyon before the sun was high enough to obtain a shot, but we did shoot one EB leaving the east end of the canyon, before hiking back into a more central location. Our goal was to capture the fall colors of Crozier. We shot two WBs at the SE corner of the canyon, before hiking to the SW corner, where the best WB shot is. Once we got there, we shot one more train before packing up and heading east. A mid-afternoon lull in traffic allowed us to make it to Yampai before we encountered any more WB trains. We shot several at the top of the hill, using ever last mm of lens available. Our last train there had two BNSF pumpkins (old style) as power, so we chased him west to Hackberry, but our shot there was spoiled by clouds. Overall, I think we shot 8 trains on Sunday, most of which were pretty decent shots. Monday began much as Sunday, at the east end of Crozier, waiting for the sun to come up high enough to shoot EBs. We got two that day, and decided to head east, instead of hiking back into the canyon. As we passed Seligman, we became aware of a fleet of WBs coming our way, so we set up just east of Crookton, on the cutoff. We shot 4 trains here, before continuing east to Williams. Since the peaks were snow covered, John wanted to shoot at MP 372, so we set down there and waited for traffic to arrive. SF had the north main closed for trackwork, and this was screwing up WB traffic. We did manage to get a train, but only after several hours of waiting. By the time the real WB traffic started to show up, it was nearly dark. I believe the days total was 9 trains, again, most of which were good shots. Tuesday morning, we woke up in Winslow to a few clouds in the sky. John wanted to shoot some backlit glint shots just west of town, so we headed there before sunrise. As the sun came up, the sky was an ablaze with orange, the clouds a dark purple. We shot two westbounds in very interesting light conditions, as they passed under a signal bridge. Although I ordinarily don't shoot artsy-fartsy shots like these, it WAS an interesting change of pace, and Mike's suggestions were still fresh on my mind. As I know nothing about how to expose these shots, I tried a couple of different settings, and took careful notes. These shots will either be spectacular, or they will go in the trash. Once the sun came up, we headed west to Cosnino. True to my luck, our first EB shot was screwed up by a WB, but we got a solid red consist shortly thereafter which made up for this loss. We stayed at Cosnino to shoot 2 more EBs in nice light, one of which had our pumpkin lashup from Sunday's WB train, plus an extra red -9. A minor vehicle problem forced us to take some time out at Flag, which was no loss at all, as SF was not running anything mid-day, and the sky was clouding over. We headed west to Williams, only to find the trackwork mess had gotten worse, and the skies were uncooperative as well. Consequently, we headed back to Cosnino, in search of some holes in the clouds and WB traffic. We got both, but the BN lashups did NOT make John very happy. I wasn't bothered by these, as they are no different than the trash I see every day here, and besides, the scenery at Cosnino is considerably better than that found in eastern NE. Wednesday was the cloud day. We started at Winslow again, doing some backlits at a different signal bridge. These shots looked amazing through the viewfinder, but the slides will be the proof. >>From there, we headed east, as all hope was lost of getting any sunny shots west of there. We ended up east of Gallup by mid-morning, and I decided to use the cloudy conditions to experiment with film and exposures. I took out a roll of Velvia, hoping its nuclear saturation would help boost the lack of color from the gray overcast. To get the exposures I wanted, I decided to push it 1 stop to 100. Throughout the course of the day, I managed to blast this entire roll away, in conditions which varied from totally overcast and dark, to almost sunny. We'll see how my experiment turned out. At worst, the results will keep the garbage can from getting hungry, and at best, I will have learned how to use yet another tool. The highlight of Wednesday was a WB junk train with 3 new SD75Is as sole power, all facing forward. It was a real shame the light was not better, as this was an awesome looking consist (in spite of the fact I don't like the new style BNSF red scheme). We shot him on both sides of Gallup, and then hung out for the rest of the afternoon up by the Divide. Even sun wouldn't have helped all that much, as there was no WB traffic for several hours, and the fleet didn't show up until long after dark. As luck would have it, our lineup showed the freshly washed 745 super pumpkin on the point of the 199, and we heard the 739 on the point of an Albuquerque to Barstow train, but both were night trains in western NM. Thursday morning looked cloudy and dark, but I still had a few frames of Astia I needed to dump before the trip home that evening. We headed to west Dalies, where the sun did peek out from time to time (usually when the trains were not around). EB traffic was VERY light, and full sun wouldn't have made much difference. We did shoot two trains in almost sunny conditions, so I am hopeful the shots will look OK. As noon approached, we headed to ABQ to run some errands. John stopped by a camera store, where we checked out the new style Nikon 80-200/2.8 lens. Having used Dave's before, I was not satisfied with the manual focus action, but this lens in the store had a good feel to it, and I think John was impressed. I also had failed to previously realize how much smaller the new design is than the old one I have (original AF version). We then killed some more time at a hobby shop, and I picked up a couple of books that have been out of print for a good while. John took me to the airport mid-afternoon. Although my original flight was to depart at 18:30 (with a corresponding arrival in Omaha of 24:00), I was able to weasel my way onto an earlier flight, and got home at 21:30. I was pleasantly surprised at being able to do this, as both flights were overbooked, and I was flying for free anyway. I did have to cheat a little bit, as I was carrying my camera backpack onboard, but there was no room to store it. Being both clever and devious, I stood the pack upright, just in front of the seat, then positioned my legs on either side of it. To prevent it from being seen, I got out a magazine and opened it up on my lap, and the sport sitting next to me crossed his legs to further obscure the view. No, I'm not proud of this illegal and dangerous little trick, but it DID work, and both myself and my cameras made it home just fine. Overall, I considered the trip to be a big success. You just can't expect to have clear skies for five days in a row this time of year. I thought we beat the odds, getting 3 of 5 days with acceptable weather. The lashups were generally a dog's breakfast, but what can you expect after a merger? If you want solid consists, stay away from the Santa Fe. Come here, where you can see train after train with solid Grinstein MACs or green SD40-2s. If you want variety, color, and scenery, head for the SW. I felt bad that John had to babysit me for 5 days, as I know he was disappointed with our results. Still, I had a great time, shot 5 rolls, probably got some pretty decent shots, and hopefully learned a few new tricks. Not too bad when all I really wanted to do was blow some endangered FF miles and vacation days. Jim Gilley [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.eesoft.com/rr --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects
