A Good and Faithful Friend

Farewell to a good and faithful servant. My Canon S2IS has finally given up the ghost, after nearly 7 years of service and tens of thousands of photos and videos captured.

It was my first (and some would still say *only*) real camera. It traveled with me across the state of Minnesota many times. I had it set on a tripod shooting video the first time I saw a steam locomotive under power. It went to Glacier National Park and I used it to photograph trains in Marias Pass. It's been shoved in duffle bags abused by bag smashers at many different airports. When it survived its first fall from the dashboard near Springfield, MN, I celebrated my good luck.

With the trusty S2 by my side, I learned to navigate the rocky shoals of Railpictures.net. That wasn't always easy or fun, but it was certainly rewarding for a while. I like to think that when I learned to shoot what I wanted rather than what I thought other people wanted, the S2 was at least partly responsible.

I remember the Labor Day that I shot this photo:

It's still one of my own all time favorite train pictures. Here are a couple of more shots with the Canon that bring back good memories.

That last one is one of the first photos I took with my brand new S2. I had no idea the Builder was running late, I just parked at the crossing and waited. Darn near peed myself when Amtrak showed up. (First picture I got on railpics too!)

Technically, I have a better camera now. I might just be buying a still better camera shortly. But no matter what it's doubtful any new gear will give the feeling of excitement and satisfaction I got from that old S2. 

Railfanning (and life, I guess) are funny that way for me. The new is so rewarding. So much to learn, so many new experiences to look forward to. In 2006, the world was my oyster. I didn't know how much I didn't know. Anything seemed possible. 

Now, it's more megapixels, faster autofocus, video, ATCS, trunking scanners. Then, it was the excitement of hearing a train blowing for the crossing a couple of miles away. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Luddite who thinks we should go back to the old ways. I love having ATCS on my phone. But don't be afraid to just go out sometimes, sit along the tracks, and see what might come along. You might not bag as many trains, but the ones you do get will mean a whole lot.

I sat and waited two hours for the train pictured below. I had no idea whether a train was coming or not, but I had hope and a cooperative wife. It was my last afternoon of the trip, and I felt like I needed a Tunnel 4 shot to make things complete. As I sat, I watched the shadows creep toward the track. I hoped harder, and sure enough, finally, the sound of an approaching train echoed down the valley. It was great. 

I got it with my trusty S2. Thanks, old friend. Thanks for the memories. 

VR2K12

It's about the people.

Folks came from far and near. Much food was consumed. For the first time, many (real) train horns were blown. And some not so real ones, provided by yours truly. Videos were watched. Trains sailed by, in both directions this year. Even tank trains, for those who enjoy such things. It was, for the first time, an international event. Attendance records were set. Door prizes were awarded. A group photo was made. In what is becoming a tradition, a few extra dollars were raised for a good cause. Stories were told. Old memories were exchanged.

All that was great, but far and away the best part was the people, young, old, and in between.

Here's one of the oddities of this year's Verndale Rail. Since Mrs. L4T and myself were preparing for an upcoming move, I used the morning to make a couple of trips to the transfer site north of Wadena. I crossed the tracks 4 times that morning, and three of those times, sure enough, I saw a headlight. Each of those three time the locomotive shining the headlight was attached to a crude oil train. I was quick to share my good fortune, resulting in protests that surely that was the day's ration of such trains. Somehow, Mr. Buffet's railroad managed to scare up one more, to the delight of one of the younger fans in attendance.

And, I suppose, to me.

The horn guys were there for the first annual Verndale Horn Honk, which I would rate as a re"sound"ing success. They were good enough to provide hearing protection to all who desired it. By the time they were done that was everyone. That's quite a selection of horns.

Each train that passed by was greeted by a flock of railfans. The crews in the area must look forward to this day just about as much as those who attend. With a foam cushion like that you could land a jet wheels-up in Verndale with no damage.

My favorite photo of the day includes a train but it's a tiny one. Here a group of hardcore modelers assemble one of the day's door prizes. Honestly I haven't seen this much concentration on the task at hand since the year Chris tried to learn his camera's self timer during the group photo.

If you are interested in the fate of that trainset you'll have to check with Bryant.

Chris found it in himself to play with the sign out by the highway. Don't worry, he put it back the way it was after he was done.

And finally, as has become habit, we got one final train as the sun was setting. Except this year everything was twice as good, so instead of one we got two!

And that's my story of VR2K12. I, along with a lot of other people, want to thank Chris Muller for all his hard work. Also, thanks to everyone who attended. Like the first line of the post says, it's the people who make it special.

Chasing with Chris

Saturday morning found Mrs. L4T and I on the road to Bemidji. Her Mom fell down a week or so ago and suffered a slight pelvic fracture, and is doing the rehab stint at the Bemidji hospital. Her recovery is going great, and she hopes to be able to go home this week.

I didn't plan on spending the entire day in the hospital though. After contacting MN Chris plans were made to visit the Bemidji model railroad layout. Around lunchtime we met up in the depot basement where I pestered Chris while he tried to lay some replacement flex track on the club layout. We were swapping tall tales about railfanning when a growing rumble tipped us off to a passing train.

Chris had seen a DEEX empty come into Cass Lake before heading to town and expected a crew would arrive shortly to continue the trip west, but we were still taken a bit by surprise. It's doubtful there has ever been a quicker exodus from the layout room of the club as we both beat feet for the Escape to make chase. Getting out of Bemidji was slow, and the train had a fairly good lead on us, but we passed him somewhere east of Bagley and swung into town for a shot as the empty passed the old GN water tower. Here's my effort:


But Chris had greater plans. There's a place in Minnesota, that I didn't even know existed, called Ebro. Ebro is a unique spot, because it's one place along the Grand Forks sub where the track curves around toward the south and offered the hope of some decent light. Chris "encouraged" me to make the best possible time to our ultimate destination. Matter of fact, I felt a bit like "Ruler on Ice" as he galloped toward the finish line in the Belmont Stakes.

Anyway, it all worked out as we beat the train to a little bridge across some body of water with a minute to spare. The stopping place I picked wasn't conducive to the telephoto lenses we had, but I decided to do what I could with mine. Chris, on the other hand, stuck his head in the back of the Escape, grabbed a short lens, and made the switch so quickly all I saw was a blur. He was standing next to me as the train rolled into view. He must practice changing lenses blindfolded on new moon nights to be that quick!

Anyway, that's a lot of babbling just to introduce the picture, which was actually spoiled by the presence of an inconvenient cloud.


And then it was time to reverse the route and dash back to Bemidji. Having finished one of the mains on the club layout, Chris set up a gorgeous ethanol train with a pair of custom painted DME SD40-2's up front. It was a lovely site making its way around the layout. That Chris is quite the rennisance man-not only an excellent rail photog, but also an artist with the airbrush.

Thanks for the entertaining afternoon, Chris! What better way to pass the time than sandwiching a chase of an ACe-led coal train between a couple of stints at the model railroad club?

London Staples Fog

Over the past couple of years, I've had the opportunity to get together with Ian Holmes for Staples-based railfan outings. Ian already mentioned on the OMR mailing list that the morning dawned a bit foggy. I'll second that.

But I've encountered the fog a number of times while chasing trains in the area, and I was quite confident that the skies would be clearing shortly, with the chance that we might get some great shots of a BNSF eastbound breaking out of a fog bank into sparkling sun. I told Ian as much, predicting that we would see blue skies "any time now". All morning long I predicted that, and guess what? All morning long I was shooting photos like this one.


That train was galloping through the gloom between New York Mills and Bluffton sometime around mid-morning. Even if the skies weren't cooperating, the railroad was, as we encountered a number of eastbound trains that would have been nicely lit had the skies only cleared.

Here's another example of what we were dealing with. This time, we see a coal train approaching the Bluffton curve behind mixed power. I lik the way the tree shows up in this shot.


Actually, we did manage to break out of the fog for a while. With a plan of heading west until we found a train worth chasing, clearer skies finally revealed themselves just west of Perham, where we caught this manifest train behind a motley group of power.


Ian and I agreed that the train above wasn't really worth a chase, and the dispatcher had issued a couple of more warrants, so we knew there were more eastbounds about. Next up was a coal train, this one behind an ACe. We met him at Frazee, and I was mere seconds too late to get to the sunny side of the train.

Anyway, the power on this train led us to conclude that this, indeed, was the eastbound we would chase. The sky was doing funny things as we paced the train toward Wadena. Cloud and fog banks were coming and going, one minute it was in sun, the next you could hardly see it. Strange. We rolled the dice and set up on the Highway 10 overpass, crossing our fingers for some light, and I managed to get this as the train approached. It seemed like the train passed in and out of the sun at least three times as it approached us.


Of course, the trusty Escape was making much better time than the loaded coal train, which happened to be bound for the Columbia station on the Mississippi and so was staying on the Staples Sub. With most of the fog burned off, it seemed like a good time to shoot the power on a number of trains in the Staples yard as we passed through town. Here's the result of that effort.


Lots of coal power in the yard on this Saturday morning.

A fabulous plan of shooting a fleet of eastbounds in the Philbrook and Quicken Road area promptly fell apart as the dispatcher decided to turn Main 2 into a parking lot and run some westbounds. The good part of this was that it gave me a chance to drop Ian in Staples and allow him to get back out there for the delayed trains, while I needed to head for home due to prior family commitments. Ian got the shot I've been anticipating for quite a while. Looks like just as good a spot as I had been hoping for.

It was a great railfanning outing. It's always fun to spend time with Ian. He knows his fog, what with being from Great Britian and all. His comparison of what we saw Saturday with what they see on the island nation drove home what "London Fog" must actually be like. Thanks for the company, Ian. It was great fun as usual and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Trains are Rolling

Mrs. L4T and I are off for some railfanning-as you can see on the attached graphic, we will be dealing with a "target-rich environment" this evening. Hope the weather holds!