Tracking West
Something Isn't Right
If you were railfanning on a 100 degree day, you'd probably be completely baffled to see a rotary snow plow trotting down the mainline. Well that was exactly what the case was this day.
When I had heard the Colfax Railroad Days display was going to have UP 1996 and a rotary sent up, I knew I could not skip this. The last time the rotaries saw the mainline was during the 2022/23 winter, one of the craziest in recorded history for the Sierras. The train was supposed to depart in the morning, however, due to some sort of issue and typical railroad fashion, the train wouldn't leave until around noon. This sucked for everyone trying to chase the train, as it would be running in some of the worst light imaginable. Nonetheless, with something like this everyone was determined to make it work.
After getting a side shot of the train in Newcastle, the train was taking Track 1 all the way up to Colfax, so my friend and I decided the best idea was to shoot it with the SP caboose in Auburn. While the lighting was not going to be preferable, again we had to find some way to make it work. I decided I was going to make the shot a bit more interesting by shooting from the cab of my 2008 Ford Ranger, and somehow made the shot work. Little did I know at the time, but by the end of the day my truck would have to get towed home after it spun out and crashed. However, while things could've ended a lot worse and nobody was harmed (except the Ranger), it was still a massive inconvenience and unfortunately the truck did end up with some frame damage.
Something Isn't Right
If you were railfanning on a 100 degree day, you'd probably be completely baffled to see a rotary snow plow trotting down the mainline. Well that was exactly what the case was this day.
When I had heard the Colfax Railroad Days display was going to have UP 1996 and a rotary sent up, I knew I could not skip this. The last time the rotaries saw the mainline was during the 2022/23 winter, one of the craziest in recorded history for the Sierras. The train was supposed to depart in the morning, however, due to some sort of issue and typical railroad fashion, the train wouldn't leave until around noon. This sucked for everyone trying to chase the train, as it would be running in some of the worst light imaginable. Nonetheless, with something like this everyone was determined to make it work.
After getting a side shot of the train in Newcastle, the train was taking Track 1 all the way up to Colfax, so my friend and I decided the best idea was to shoot it with the SP caboose in Auburn. While the lighting was not going to be preferable, again we had to find some way to make it work. I decided I was going to make the shot a bit more interesting by shooting from the cab of my 2008 Ford Ranger, and somehow made the shot work. Little did I know at the time, but by the end of the day my truck would have to get towed home after it spun out and crashed. However, while things could've ended a lot worse and nobody was harmed (except the Ranger), it was still a massive inconvenience and unfortunately the truck did end up with some frame damage.