Triple Crown Tuesday – Part 1
Here is a photo from about this time last year that i've been meaning to post. I haven't been able to get out and shoot many snowy pictures due to work, so I felt I should post this. It's a little bit sad looking back on this photo as the RoadRailer was one of my favorite trains.
The train almost got away from me this day, but I managed to snag one shot of it. Here is a long story detailing what happened.
While out shooting the IC and waiting for A408 with a deathstar leader to finish work in Champaign, I bounced down to the Lafayette District to shoot some NS. After receiving intel on 255's location, I moseyed around looking for spots between Tolono and Homer while shooting other NS trains. After assessing the time I think the train might arrive, I came to the conclusion that I had time to sit in my car at Tolono and look at Facebook and wait for a line-up over the diamond on ATCS. Being my first time out here, I didn't know how stuff worked such as the ATCS tendencies and how fast trains move.
It's now getting to the time where one thinks the train might be close if it hauled absolute ass, but my gut is saying it'll probably be another hour or so. As these thoughts are going through my head, another foamer pulls up next to me. I'm now thinking things will get interesting soon, but who really knows. As I start driving out of Tolono due to boredom, I hear my scanner call out "---55---" and a bunch of static per usual. I'm thinking there is no way it's here this soon. Sure enough as I get out of town, I see a tiny string of white in the distance coming out of Philo towards me at a decent speed.
After shouting a few choice words in my car, I whipped a U-turn and tried to quickly get out of town. This was difficult with low road speeds, many intersections, ice, crossing over two mainlines, and the usual slow drivers. Sure enough as this is happening, the CN lines 255 across the diamond. Now I have no idea where to shoot this. The roads are crappy and the train has no plans to stop. I got to the crossing at CP Dawn and pondered if I should play if safe and settle for what I thought was a crappy shot or move somewhere possibly better. After about 15 seconds of self deliberation, I risked it and hauled ass east. The train was now in my rearview mirror and picking up speed. Shit! I settled for the shot posted and had minimal time to get set up. If I knew the lay of the land better, I probably would've went for the nice shot just west of Sadorus but the train probably would've beaten me to it. This was the only place I felt I could get to. Regardless, it's a shot of a train that no longer exists. The slight sag, snow, and glimmering grain elevators in Tolono are nice additions.
After revisiting this line for 255 a month later and almost going through a similar situation, I learned that the RoadRailer and other NS trains don't play around here and haul ass.
I don't usually post very long play-by-play captions like this, but I know many of you enjoy reading and relating to these adrenaline-rushing situations.
NS 8030
255
NS Lafayette District
Sadorus, IL
1/20/24
Triple Crown Tuesday – Part 1
Here is a photo from about this time last year that i've been meaning to post. I haven't been able to get out and shoot many snowy pictures due to work, so I felt I should post this. It's a little bit sad looking back on this photo as the RoadRailer was one of my favorite trains.
The train almost got away from me this day, but I managed to snag one shot of it. Here is a long story detailing what happened.
While out shooting the IC and waiting for A408 with a deathstar leader to finish work in Champaign, I bounced down to the Lafayette District to shoot some NS. After receiving intel on 255's location, I moseyed around looking for spots between Tolono and Homer while shooting other NS trains. After assessing the time I think the train might arrive, I came to the conclusion that I had time to sit in my car at Tolono and look at Facebook and wait for a line-up over the diamond on ATCS. Being my first time out here, I didn't know how stuff worked such as the ATCS tendencies and how fast trains move.
It's now getting to the time where one thinks the train might be close if it hauled absolute ass, but my gut is saying it'll probably be another hour or so. As these thoughts are going through my head, another foamer pulls up next to me. I'm now thinking things will get interesting soon, but who really knows. As I start driving out of Tolono due to boredom, I hear my scanner call out "---55---" and a bunch of static per usual. I'm thinking there is no way it's here this soon. Sure enough as I get out of town, I see a tiny string of white in the distance coming out of Philo towards me at a decent speed.
After shouting a few choice words in my car, I whipped a U-turn and tried to quickly get out of town. This was difficult with low road speeds, many intersections, ice, crossing over two mainlines, and the usual slow drivers. Sure enough as this is happening, the CN lines 255 across the diamond. Now I have no idea where to shoot this. The roads are crappy and the train has no plans to stop. I got to the crossing at CP Dawn and pondered if I should play if safe and settle for what I thought was a crappy shot or move somewhere possibly better. After about 15 seconds of self deliberation, I risked it and hauled ass east. The train was now in my rearview mirror and picking up speed. Shit! I settled for the shot posted and had minimal time to get set up. If I knew the lay of the land better, I probably would've went for the nice shot just west of Sadorus but the train probably would've beaten me to it. This was the only place I felt I could get to. Regardless, it's a shot of a train that no longer exists. The slight sag, snow, and glimmering grain elevators in Tolono are nice additions.
After revisiting this line for 255 a month later and almost going through a similar situation, I learned that the RoadRailer and other NS trains don't play around here and haul ass.
I don't usually post very long play-by-play captions like this, but I know many of you enjoy reading and relating to these adrenaline-rushing situations.
NS 8030
255
NS Lafayette District
Sadorus, IL
1/20/24