I switched to digital photography in late July 2011 and my early weeks in the digital world were spent seeing what my camera could do.
On Sept. 24, 2011, I spent some time photographing Norfolk Southern trains in Olmsted Falls. My time there extended into the darkness hours so I tried my hand at some sunset images.
NS cooperated by sending an eastbound my way just as the sun was hovering above the trees in the distance. Here was the result.
You could sit trackside for hours on the Toledo District of Norfolk Southern northwest of Oak Harbor and not see a train.
Although an important route to NS, it is not the railroad’s major traffic artery in and out of Toledo. But it is the only route into Toledo used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie, which has a pair of trains each day on the line that interchange traffic with Canadian National.
That the route is important to the Wheeling seems appropriate because it is part of the original W&LE route between Toledo and Wheeling, West Virginia.
It fell into the hands of the Nickel Plate Road when that railroad acquired the W&LE in 1949. Of course the NKP was acquired by the Norfolk & Western which evolved into Norfolk Southern.
For a few days in July, the sun sets right down the Toledo District tracks near Oak Harbor. But you need to know when that is in order to gt it.
Photographer Peter Bowler was a little late this year, but he still came home with a very nice image.
By the time I got to Berea, the light of day had begun to rapidly diminish. I had just over two hours to kill before going to the meeting of the Railroad Enthusiasts and had brought my camera along.
You just never know what you might see that you’ll want to photograph.
The skies had been a mixture of blue and clouds, which would turn out to be an advantage as the last rays of light peaked over the horizon.
Getting the most colorful images during a sunset is a combination of art and science, but one key is to understand that those vivid colors are going to be very short-lived.
Nearly as soon as nature puts on a display of brilliant colors, they are taken away. You better move fast and you better have some luck if you hope to juxtapose a sunset with a moving train.
I caught a little of everything during my time in Berea with the help of a westbound CSX auto rack train.
The lead unit of a westbound CSX auto rack train.
A “fiery” auto rack. The effect is created by sunlight coming through crevices and openings.
Chasing the setting sun toward the Greenwich Subdivision of CSX.
Compare and contrast this image with the one below. The colors of a sunset can vary in the span of a few minutes.
I’ve always had a fondness for sunset photography. I enjoy viewing a good sunset photograph and I enjoy trying my hand at making sunset photographs.
You will find far more sunset images in my collection than sunrise photographs. I’m not one for getting up in the middle of the night to travel to an open area to photograph the sun rise.
But when possible I like to stay out long enough to see it set.
Here are a couple of images I made at Olmsted Falls in September 2011. They are among my earliest works after I went digital.
Digital photography works well with sunset photography because you can make numerous shots and see right away what adjustments you need to make.
In the top photograph, an eastbound Norfolk Southern manifest freight is on Track No. 2. The bottom photograph is the same train, but toward the middle of the consist as I zoomed in on it.
The sun has sunk below the horizon in Bellevue, Ohio. The water tower you see silhouetted against the sky sits near the entrance to the Norfolk Southern yard. Look carefully to the right of the tower and you can make out the outline of the hump tower in the yard.
The air is still, but the sounds of flanges pressing against rails can be heard in the near distance. It may be the end of the day for most people, but in the newly renamed Moorman Yard, the works on goes on all night long as trains continue to roll in and cars need to be switched and sorted.
On the railroad time just goes on. There is always more work to be done whether it be day or night.
I went to Berea on Sunday hoping to fulfill two objectives. I wanted to photograph the CP intermodal trains that began operating late last year on CSX between Buffalo, N.Y., and Chicago, and I wanted to get a sunset shot.
It was mission accomplished for the first objective at 4:44 p.m. as the CP train passes the former Big Four depot.
I achieved my second objective not long after the passage of the CP train. On the way home, I pulled off I-480 onto Tiedeman Road en route to Steak ‘n Shake to get something to take home. I noticed the sky had gotten nice and red so I parked behind the Cracker Barrel restaurant and got the grab shot you see below. Amid the urban clutter are some freight cars parked on a siding on the CSX mainline.
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