SeanFKelly
Bellingham Sunset
Late on a May evening 10 years ago, I was in Bellingham for a Christian student leadership convention as part of my college youth group. The sessions ended early enough most days that I could sneak a bit of time for train photos. With only a vague idea of the lay of the railroad around town, I ventured down to the waterfront and stumbled my way into a nice location near the south switch of the CTC siding with no idea if any trains were on the way. Through nothing but dumb luck, before long I could see loaded centerbeams moving along the bluffs a few miles up the coast north of me.
As the train made its way into town, a young man close to my age came walking past with his girlfriend, and noticed the approaching train as well, and started sternly asked me if it was a coal train. I expressed doubt in that, but this guy wouldn't take no for an answer. He was clearly interested in getting a newsworthy photo of a big-bad coal train - no surprise in Bellingham, a hotbed for anti-coal train sentiment in the Northwest. I paid him no mind, and focused on the approaching train.
At a quarter-to-9, the southbound manifest rounded the point just moments before the sun would touch the horizon to the west, easing into the siding for a meet. The prominent mountain peaks visible on the distant horizon are the Golden Ears at left, and Mt. Robie Reid at right; these mountains lie north of the Fraser River in Canada, in the rugged mountains northeast of Vancouver, BC - nearly 50 miles to north of Bellingham.
As the train crept past, slowing to a stop, the would-be crack news photojournalist asked me *yet again* if it was a coal train, which I once again firmly denied. As the sun dropped below the horizon and the train had come to a stop, a northbound Amtrak Cascades could be seen approaching from the south. At this point this guy decided he needed to crawl *underneath* the waiting manifest to get a photo of the approaching Amtrak from underneath the train. I had packed up my gear and was ready to leave, but before doing so I shouted at the girlfriend that the train her boy toy was crawling around underneath was likely about to move. She started frantically begging him to get out of there. Not 30 seconds after he crawled back out, the manifest started to pull south with a clear block. Mister would-be-photojournalist was 30 seconds away from becoming the news story of the day...
Bellingham Sunset
Late on a May evening 10 years ago, I was in Bellingham for a Christian student leadership convention as part of my college youth group. The sessions ended early enough most days that I could sneak a bit of time for train photos. With only a vague idea of the lay of the railroad around town, I ventured down to the waterfront and stumbled my way into a nice location near the south switch of the CTC siding with no idea if any trains were on the way. Through nothing but dumb luck, before long I could see loaded centerbeams moving along the bluffs a few miles up the coast north of me.
As the train made its way into town, a young man close to my age came walking past with his girlfriend, and noticed the approaching train as well, and started sternly asked me if it was a coal train. I expressed doubt in that, but this guy wouldn't take no for an answer. He was clearly interested in getting a newsworthy photo of a big-bad coal train - no surprise in Bellingham, a hotbed for anti-coal train sentiment in the Northwest. I paid him no mind, and focused on the approaching train.
At a quarter-to-9, the southbound manifest rounded the point just moments before the sun would touch the horizon to the west, easing into the siding for a meet. The prominent mountain peaks visible on the distant horizon are the Golden Ears at left, and Mt. Robie Reid at right; these mountains lie north of the Fraser River in Canada, in the rugged mountains northeast of Vancouver, BC - nearly 50 miles to north of Bellingham.
As the train crept past, slowing to a stop, the would-be crack news photojournalist asked me *yet again* if it was a coal train, which I once again firmly denied. As the sun dropped below the horizon and the train had come to a stop, a northbound Amtrak Cascades could be seen approaching from the south. At this point this guy decided he needed to crawl *underneath* the waiting manifest to get a photo of the approaching Amtrak from underneath the train. I had packed up my gear and was ready to leave, but before doing so I shouted at the girlfriend that the train her boy toy was crawling around underneath was likely about to move. She started frantically begging him to get out of there. Not 30 seconds after he crawled back out, the manifest started to pull south with a clear block. Mister would-be-photojournalist was 30 seconds away from becoming the news story of the day...