The One That Got Away

Talk about bad decisions and bad timing....

I went to the Altoona area for some more shooting. Now based in northern New Jersey, the trip took 5 hours. I made sure I checked the weather several times throughout the day before: Sunny and mid 80's. Sounded good. packed my gear and made sure I had all my important personal items.

Saturday morning - check weather - sunny and mid 80's. Good to go. Hopped in the car and started west toward the railfan mecca of the Eastern US.

Pulled into town around 8:30am. What is that up in the sky, large, fluffy, white and gray? Clouds. Lots of them. Pouring into the heart of the Alleghenies like milk over cereal. Well, I thought is must be a passing disturbance. The weather forecast, after all, said sunny.

Not to be. The clouds hung around all day. On and off, sometimes more numerous than others. I would swear to you though, that the clouds seemed to cast their large dark shadows as soon as a train came into sight. I kid you not. I would be standing in sun for half an hour, hear a train coming up or down the mountain, see a headlight and as the train got closer BAM! cloud shadow.

It took all my willpower to not destroy something, anything, in my possession just to relieve the frustration.

Well, at day's end, the clouds finally broke and the forecast called for all sun on Sunday so I thought I would stick it out til then. In the meantime, I made my way to a favorite spot where the now brilliant setting sun was illuminating a beautiful curve on the steepest part of NS's eastern slope. For a WB train, it would head directly into the sun making an incredible golden light subject. For EB trains heading downgrade towards Altoona, back lighting would really make an amazing shot. By the time the first train, an eastbounder, came downgrade out of Gallitzin the sun had fallen too low to catch a great head on shot. I didn't even have my camera set up for this shot thinking it wouldn't make a very good show. However, I could have trained my camera on the curve to catch the train heading away from me. I should have.

Track one - the eastbound general merchandise slowly inching downgrade out of the Gallitzin off the "Slide". Moments later, coming out of the same sunset, a roadrailer train on track 2. Moments later, struggling upgrade was a unit steel coil train. SD40 in the front in 8th notch with turbos screaming. The noise was deafening, the power in front of me indescribable. I kicked myself over and over as the drama played out in front of me. The trains were all monsters and cleared up in the order they arrived.

This was something not seen every day and, from my perch on a rock ledge, it would have been the catch of the century. I always tell myself "Shoot, shoot, shoot" because you never know what will happen. It doesn't matter whether the shot is perfection or not, whether its the classic coming at you head on shot. Sometimes there's more important things than a perfect, angles, perfect exposure or perfect lighting. Sometimes magic happens right in front of you and you'll get not many chances to see it again. Hopefully, next time I'll remember.

Coming: Part two of the trip...


Michael Hammond
www.282movies.com

NYS&W DVD featured at Blue Ridge NHRS

The "Operations on the NYS&W" DVD will be the featured program at the Blue Ridge NHRS October meeting. This is a follow-up to the showing of "Q-trains on the Susie Q" DVD over the summer. I hear there were great comments about the CSX/Q-trains video and am hoping that the members like the NYS&W DVD as much. A very special thanks to Ed of the Blue Ridge chapter for choosing to show these films.

A trip is planned for the 2-8-2 cameras to go trackside in Rochester, NY to get some shots around that urban area to finish off the CSX-Rochester Sub and get that off the ground. Rochester is the missing link to my look at that line. I am hoping that post-911 concerns have not shut down the Amtrak station so I can get some shots from the platform.

I'm very excited to get this DVD finished, the packaging completed, and the advertising started back up. I have really missed the business while on hiatus and this will be 2-8-2 Production's re-entrance into the world of railroad video production.

Everyone be well.


Michael Hammond
http://www.282movies.com/