Reasons I bought a drone #72: The Upper Narrows
On Wednesday December 29, 2021, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad locomotive 4178 leads the day's edition of train L867 through the Upper Narrows on the north side of Rock Springs, Wisconsin headed for the end of the line at Reedsburg. The railroad and State Highway 136 share space with the meandering Baraboo River in this small stretch of canyon carved out from the distinctive quartzite bluffs of the Baraboo Range. The bridge in this view is one of four Baraboo River bridge crossings that occur in a relatively short distance just on either side around Rock Springs, but this under deck truss bridge is one of the more unique structures.
Robert and Mason on the L467 crew have just finished dropping a cut of grain hoppers at the United Cooperative elevator on the south end of Rock Springs, to be loaded with the fruits of some of Sauk County's fall harvest for transport to distant markets. Now with 8 cars in tow, each loaded with raw materials destined for at least 5 different industries in or around Reedsburg, the train is trundling through the scenic beauty of the Upper Narrows that is still coated with a dusting of fresh white powder from an overnight snow storm.
When I first got a drone a little over three years ago, I certainly had a lot of places I wanted to try using it, and have found countless views and scenes I couldn't have imagined. But definitely one of the scenes I had in mind was something like this, although I couldn't imagine the beauty of the view exactly. Over the last decade and a half or so, I've hiked the bluffs on both sides of the canyon and been able to find a few "land based" overview shots before. Trees have obscured some of the views that photographers of the Chicago and Northwestern used to capture here in publicity photos many years ago. Since I acquired the aerial imaging device, my schedule hadn't lined up with both the weather/lighting conditions and the railroad's schedule (movements through here usually only occur Monday to Friday these days) until this particular day. The morning's glorious sunshine (see my previous Devil's Lake photos) had faded by this point in mid afternoon, but that was okay in that it softened what otherwise would have been sharp shadows and backlighting. And The Narrows did not disappoint - this is one of many frames that was captured as a brief "aerial chase" occurred, easy to do when the train is only going about 10 mph...
Reasons I bought a drone #72: The Upper Narrows
On Wednesday December 29, 2021, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad locomotive 4178 leads the day's edition of train L867 through the Upper Narrows on the north side of Rock Springs, Wisconsin headed for the end of the line at Reedsburg. The railroad and State Highway 136 share space with the meandering Baraboo River in this small stretch of canyon carved out from the distinctive quartzite bluffs of the Baraboo Range. The bridge in this view is one of four Baraboo River bridge crossings that occur in a relatively short distance just on either side around Rock Springs, but this under deck truss bridge is one of the more unique structures.
Robert and Mason on the L467 crew have just finished dropping a cut of grain hoppers at the United Cooperative elevator on the south end of Rock Springs, to be loaded with the fruits of some of Sauk County's fall harvest for transport to distant markets. Now with 8 cars in tow, each loaded with raw materials destined for at least 5 different industries in or around Reedsburg, the train is trundling through the scenic beauty of the Upper Narrows that is still coated with a dusting of fresh white powder from an overnight snow storm.
When I first got a drone a little over three years ago, I certainly had a lot of places I wanted to try using it, and have found countless views and scenes I couldn't have imagined. But definitely one of the scenes I had in mind was something like this, although I couldn't imagine the beauty of the view exactly. Over the last decade and a half or so, I've hiked the bluffs on both sides of the canyon and been able to find a few "land based" overview shots before. Trees have obscured some of the views that photographers of the Chicago and Northwestern used to capture here in publicity photos many years ago. Since I acquired the aerial imaging device, my schedule hadn't lined up with both the weather/lighting conditions and the railroad's schedule (movements through here usually only occur Monday to Friday these days) until this particular day. The morning's glorious sunshine (see my previous Devil's Lake photos) had faded by this point in mid afternoon, but that was okay in that it softened what otherwise would have been sharp shadows and backlighting. And The Narrows did not disappoint - this is one of many frames that was captured as a brief "aerial chase" occurred, easy to do when the train is only going about 10 mph...