Golden Light

There is golden light and then there is golden light. The golden hour is a term used by photographers to describe an hour before sunset.

Sunlight during that time tends to be warm and give objects a golden glow.

Even light in the last two to three hours of the day can be warm, particularly during the winter months when there is a low sun angle.

To take advantage of golden light at its best, you have to move fast because that light doesn’t last long. If you enjoy photographing trains you have to be lucky that one will come along during that small window of opportunity.

On this particular day that type of luck was not with us. We couldn’t get a westbound when we really needed it.

But we didn’t do too bad, either. That light looks nice on those aluminum signal standards and the train working in the yard in Ashtabula.

The vantage point is from the grade crossing of North Bend Road on the west side of Ashtabula.

One More for the Road

The daylight is sliding away fast. It’s funny how quickly the sun seems to sink. All day it’s been hanging up there in the sky and then just like that it’s gone.

You’ve been out all day chasing trains and anything else that caught your eye, but now it is time to head for home.

But you cant’ help but keep your eye on the tracks and your ear to your scanner as you drive along hoping to get just one more — one for the road. Maybe you’ll get lucky.

Fellow Akron Railroad Club member Peter Bowler and I were driving toward home on U.S. Route 20. Daylight was going fast.

But I had heard a train crew talking to the dispatcher about bulletin orders and the like and maybe, we could catch a westbound at the far west end of the yard along the Erie West Subdivision.

We turned down North Bend Road and much to our delight the light for a westbound was absolutely prime. We parked at a closed business and walked along the snowy road to the grade crossing.

We thought we had seen a headlight of a westbound when we had driven over the crossing, but it wasn’t what we thought it was. The train I had heard talking with the dispatch was in the yard and working.

An eastbound train was stopped on main track No. 2 for whatever reason. The eastbound signal for Track 1 displayed an approach aspect that soon went to clear. So much for getting a westbound.

To the west the sun was still hovering over the horizon, but not for long. As it set the sky turned to a brilliant orange and gold.

We spotted a headlight in the distance and it seemed to take an agonizingly long time to reach us. We were hoping to get a glint shot, but that was now out of the question.

We stayed with it and captured either the Q008 or Q010 rushing by, kicking up a little snow in its wake. It was a good way to end the day.

Despite Massive Snow NJT Still Ran On Time

A severe snow storm hit New Jersey on Thursday. Since I live within walking distance of the old Erie/Erie Lackawanna Bergen County Line I wandered down to the station at the height of the storm to see the action. All the trains I saw (except for one) were on time to the minute. Our station is seeing its 88th winter, still doing its job sheltering passengers from the weather. The trains keep rolling on the old Erie, moving passengers just like they have for over a century.

Photographs by Jack Norris

Snow in the Valley

The sunlight through the trees casts an interesting shadow pattern on the undisturbed snow as the northbound afternoon CVSR Scenic train approaches Brecksville.

There’s snow and then there’s deep snow. No sooner had I set out from the parking lot in Brecksville toward the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad tracks when I found myself ankle deep in it.

It wasn’t that long of a walk so I trudged ahead with the objective of photographing the northbound Scenic train crossing Chippewa Creek.

The snow was even deeper on the other side of the creek. I fell once when my mind was going in one direction but my body in another.

But it was worth it because the snow had not been spoiled by human footprints or other activity. It was as pure a scene as I could expect to find in Northeast Ohio and with little imagination reminiscent of being in an isolated spot in the woods of Minnesota, Michigan or Canada.

Another photographer also hiked through the snow, but he chose to photograph from the creek whereas I wanted to be able to get coming and going shots.

It was getting to be late afternoon and the sun was low enough that much of the track was in shadows. Yet the sun streaming through the trees created an interesting effect of shadows across the rails.

The bridge over Chippewa Creek was in open sunlight, which is probably why that other guy chose to go down to the water level. He would get a nicely lighted side view.

During the winter the Scenic doesn’t stop at Brecksville station, so I had to guess as to when it would arrive there. The only scheduled stop between Akron and Rockside Road in Independence is Peninsula.

I was happy to see a spot of yellow when the Scenic came into view. That meant that the black LTEX 1420 would not be on the lead. Try photographing that locomotive in shadows.

Instead, the 1822, an RS18u that had been built in May 1958 for Canadian Pacific, was on the point. The trailing unit was No. 800, the FPA-4 built in March 1959 for Canadian National, and painted in a Baltimore & Ohio livery.

I can only hope that this motive power consist combination will continue to run a little longer.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

Seeing the 1822 on the point was a most welcome sight.

The 1822 passes a snow-covered hillside just before crossing Chippewa Creek. The horn is sounding and the bell ringing for the crossing at Brecksville station.

Crossing Chippewa Creek on a sunny day that made it feel warm.

The Ohio Route 82 bridge looms in the background as the 800 brings up the rear of the northbound Scenic at Brecksville.

The Scenic rounds a curve at Brecksville, thus enabling a side view of the entire train. Not the deep ruts cut by the train as it rolled through the snow.

 

 

Looking Good in the Snow Despite February blues

CSX train Q010 plows through a snow squall at Berea.

Yeah, I know many of you are sick of winter, particularly the cold. I could do without the latter. But it doesn’t look like it is going away just yet.

Last Saturday I was able to get out for a while in the afternoon before going to a railroad club banquet that night.

The outing began with a chase of a Norfolk Southern heritage locomotive leading a crude oil train. I posted earlier this week my images of the Central of New Jersey leading that train through Vermilion.

After that, we drove back to Berea. Here is a selection of some of the images that illustrate trains and railroad operations in winter.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

The Q008 was not far behind the Q010.

What’s a little snow storm? Norfolk Southern eastbound intermodal train 20E pushes through the snowfall in Berea.

The NS 14N has eight locomotives up front.

A man and his young son wave at the L091 as it rumbles past with an approach signal at the west end of the interlocking. The L091 would meet an eastbound crude oil train at CP 13.

The headlights of the lead BNSF locomotive illuminate the rails ahead as an eastbound crude oil train approaches.

Standing on a pile of snow provided a slightly different perspective than you usually get in Berea.