To say the least the past couple of weeks have not been my favorite, in my last blog I talked about how my new year was off to a great start and how I expected great weather, well my friends that just has not happened yet. Almost every day this month including my birthday it has rained, only the first week in Jan did we have some snow and very little did we have, before the nice heat wave that came along with this wet weather. Shooting in the rain in the winter months is a challenge in itself, low sun angle coupled with a thick cloud deck only adds to ones lighting sorrows. The only time the light is good is between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 the rest of the time it is too dark and having a lack of trains during suitable daylight hours creates its own problems. Along with this weather my work schedule has not been kind either to my passion and had lead to me being depressed and down. However today I pushed though while working a photo assignment in a town Southwest of Akron named Barberton. While I was out I knew I was going to be less than block from the New Castle Sub and once I got done with the photos I climbed back into the van turned on the scanner only to hear Q015 call Exchange street, so I started my engine and drove over to the little drive thru and set up in the lot (they are railfan friendly) and waited on the Q015.
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| Q-015 with CSX 571 in charge |
While waiting on the 015 I over heard a K473 giving a roll by and heard Q299 call Broad Blvd, could it be I hit the proverbial train lottery? As the 015 blew by me I heard the Q296 at Warwick a total of four trains so far.
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| The K Train with 3187 Leading |
So while the K473 rolled by a bit of the sun filtered out of the clouds and I had gotten my hopes up with the Q299 so close but no cigar today buddy the sun went back in and it began to sprinkle so I thought of calling it a day after the Q296.
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| Last Westbound of the afternoon the Q299 |
Of course after the last Westbound rolls by I get about 20 minutes of sun in perfect position and no trains in sight (go figure) so I still snapped a picture of the epic cloud deck while waiting on the Q296 to show up.
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| Perfect sun and not a train in sight |
While waiting on the Q296 I heard the track inspector call in a bad section of track lowering it to a 10mph speed restriction, the result was the dispatcher calling the Q296 and then while he was talking to them on the road channel he told another train to get ready that would be the M352 and that would be the last one I would stick around for. While the 296 passed by and I was waiting on the 352 a signal maintainer came to do a grade crossing test (check the lights and gates) as the 352 approached he moved across the tracks to check the other one and I saw the opportunity to snag this shot with both of them in the frame.
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| Where Road meets rail a signal maintainers truck gets passed by the M352 |
So while there was another one behind the 352 the Q016 I had gotten hungry and had not planned on being out as long, so I decided to let him go and come on home and conclude my day of watching trains, and of course you know I cannot leave without offering some wisdom so here it is. Sometimes we as humans get impatient and want things right now, like I want sunny days or snow so I can shoot how I like instead of being patient and working with what I have. Today proved a point not only to myself but should serve as an example, there are going to be plenty of days filled with sun and trains it just isn't the season for it yet and we have to remind ourselves of the fact that in order to get what we want we must be willing to wait for it sometimes.
Until next time, Take Care
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