The sky is the Limit
When you ask railfans what they know about Marquette they know three things, 1. We used to have that "cool" painted 3001 in a PM inspired paint scheme, 2. we have a swing bridge, and 3. the Muskegon River bridge in Newaygo. Well lets skip the first two and go to number 3, the Muskegon River bridge in Newaygo sits at the bottom of two grades that are both over 1% and last for over 3 miles each, it is the definition of up hill both ways. During the PM steam days it was actually a helper district and most freights would require a shove up the hills.
For the MQT the most difficult part of the river valley is for southbound trains working their way to Grand Rapids as 85-90% of all loaded traffic goes south with the rest of the loads being local work or loaded lime that goes north, the helpers died with the steam engines and today the railroad tries to provide enough horsepower to make the southbound hill without doubling but sometimes you just can't avoid it. For the most part all the southbound trips are made in the day which is nice and makes for a nice day of chasing but on this day, traffic got delayed and the normal daytime move became a very very late night scene.
With a heads up that the train would be coming south, I timed my trip home from GR with the southbound departure of the train out of Baldwin. I got to Newaygo about 30 minutes before the train and armed with 6 flashes I quickly set up and rearranged until it looked perfect. The wait wasn't too long and soon I could hear engineer Bill blowing for Dan the Dam man just north of town, with dynamics howling as he eased the train down the hill. With the train 1/2 way on the bridge and an itchy trigger finger I had to tell myself to wait, wait and wait some more until the train was right where I wanted it, Click, pop, and spent. The power was quickly out of view and Bill would soon come out of dynamics and start to dig in for the climb up the hill. It took me a few minutes to look at the results and I am very happy with them. I will have to retry this wish a solid Orange set but for a first time try I'll take it. With this successful shot It gave me a good Idea in what the possibilities now are with my flash equipment and has given me the bug to go out and shoot more.
The sky is the Limit
When you ask railfans what they know about Marquette they know three things, 1. We used to have that "cool" painted 3001 in a PM inspired paint scheme, 2. we have a swing bridge, and 3. the Muskegon River bridge in Newaygo. Well lets skip the first two and go to number 3, the Muskegon River bridge in Newaygo sits at the bottom of two grades that are both over 1% and last for over 3 miles each, it is the definition of up hill both ways. During the PM steam days it was actually a helper district and most freights would require a shove up the hills.
For the MQT the most difficult part of the river valley is for southbound trains working their way to Grand Rapids as 85-90% of all loaded traffic goes south with the rest of the loads being local work or loaded lime that goes north, the helpers died with the steam engines and today the railroad tries to provide enough horsepower to make the southbound hill without doubling but sometimes you just can't avoid it. For the most part all the southbound trips are made in the day which is nice and makes for a nice day of chasing but on this day, traffic got delayed and the normal daytime move became a very very late night scene.
With a heads up that the train would be coming south, I timed my trip home from GR with the southbound departure of the train out of Baldwin. I got to Newaygo about 30 minutes before the train and armed with 6 flashes I quickly set up and rearranged until it looked perfect. The wait wasn't too long and soon I could hear engineer Bill blowing for Dan the Dam man just north of town, with dynamics howling as he eased the train down the hill. With the train 1/2 way on the bridge and an itchy trigger finger I had to tell myself to wait, wait and wait some more until the train was right where I wanted it, Click, pop, and spent. The power was quickly out of view and Bill would soon come out of dynamics and start to dig in for the climb up the hill. It took me a few minutes to look at the results and I am very happy with them. I will have to retry this wish a solid Orange set but for a first time try I'll take it. With this successful shot It gave me a good Idea in what the possibilities now are with my flash equipment and has given me the bug to go out and shoot more.