Hey Everybody, Boy, did you guys ever hit the nail on the head for me. I live in Vicksburg, Mississippi, which isn't exactly known as a railroad hotspot, but KCS puts on a decent show with about 12 trains per day with a liberal mix of KCS, MidSouth, NS and TexMex power with SP, UP and Conrail thrown in from time to time for good measure. My job responsibilities and limited time off prevent me from taking long railfan trips, so I have to make the best of the local activity.
Vicksburg sits on the steep bluffs on the east bank of the Mississippi River. There are three railroad tunnels, a huge Mississippi River Bridge, and a 3.5% grade complete with some serious curves that offer some interesting possibilities in Vicksburg. To the west in Louisiana, it's flat for over 65 miles, with few curves or other significant interesting features to stir the imagination. The IC and UP are reasonably close by (about 50 miles) and although they offer some variety to operations, the scenery doesn't improve. I've had to struggle to make interesting railroad photographs in this environment, but others have had some success. Bob Johnston's photo of Amtrak's northbound City of New Orleans at Beauregard, Mississippi in the February, 1998 TRAINS (Pgs.52-53) is a good example of what I'm talking about. When I saw Bob's photo I recognized the location immediately. Beauregard is about a mile north of Wesson, my hometown. Pull out your atlas and you'll find Wesson about 45 miles south of Jackson on the IC's New Orleans mainline. Beauregard should be just north of Wesson. Beauregard is a really neat place, and one of my all-time favorite locations for photographing IC trains. The track makes a wide sweeping curve, with few trees or other obstacles to impair your view or photographs. The railroad is basically level with the surrounding terrain south of the road crossing where Bob made his photo, but it enters a shallow cut just north of the road crossing. About 200 yards north of the crossing, there's just enough elevation to be even with the cab on most units. There are two old stores in the background that really make the background interesting. I can't tell you how many times I've photographed #58 as it passed through Beauregard at about 7pm each evening. I've got slides with E-Units, SDP40F's and P30CH's leading #58 on double track. This spot is great in the summer, because there is just enough light to take a decent late afternoon shot of the northbound. Although I like Bob's photo immensely, I wish he had backed up about 300 yards to the parking lot of the Methodist Church, walked across the road and shot the entire train with a wide angle lens as it swept around the curve through the shallow cut. I think the entire scene makes a great photo. (Come to think of it, maybe I need to go back and shoot it myself with today's Amtrak trains.) Somewhere in the bowels of the TRAINS files, there's one of my black and white prints of ICG Train GS-2 with a GP-10, SD28, U30B, U33C lashup in that curve on a late summer afternoon in 1977. It's probably the rarest engine combination I ever saw on the ICG. A good photograph, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, regardless of where and how you take it. I wish I could drive for an hour or two to locations like Abo Canyon, Cajon, Tehachapi, etc., but I can't. I have to settle for the local stuff and stretch my imagination to the breaking point. Sometimes you have to play with the hand you're dealt. Best Regards, Danny Johnson -> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs
