Happy Wednesday to one and all! As we changed our calendars over the past few days, the concept of time has been lost on some of us. Holiday traveling, staying up late, waking up at different hours, it all means we were not always sure what day or time it was. Today, we get back on track with our 'normal' routines. Railroads are among the businesses to structure our time, so here is a good way to get back into our routine.
Last Saturday, a few friends and I took a trip to New Hope, PA to catch 2-8-0 number 40 in action. 
The New Hope station looks as if it was lifted off a train layout or doll house village, and placed next to a real train track. It dates to 1891.
The sad part of the boarding platform is it blocks you from seeing the wheels while the locomotive stands at the station. The good part is that it makes looking into the cab of the engine not so daunting. It seems more welcoming to a degree.
On our chase of the 12:00 train, we caught the steamer just before one road crossing.
And then another. There are several roads crossing this railroad.
Here we are at Lahaska, PA as the train is coming to it's run-around location. More photos in my next post.
I found a nice abandoned elevator at the ghost town of Langdon. I looked things over and set up four small flash and my camera with the 24mm tilt/shift lens. I was lightly dressed and it was getting cold after the sun went down, so I just sat in my car with the radio turned down low. After two hours of seeing nothing, I got to thinking about what time it would be when I got home. I was still four hours out. I had to work the next morning. I gave it another twenty minutes and then reluctantly began putting all my stuff back into my car. I kept an eye down the tracks to the south as usually when I've just finished putting everything away, a train pops out of nowhere.
And, that's what happened this time. I could see a glow way down the line that wasn't there before. I quickly put everything back out--my camera was still where I had set it up. It's the hardest thing to set up & focus so it's the last thing I take down. Flash back out, I did a quick check. Everything was looking great! The train must have had speed restrictions right up to my location as it seemed to crawl for several miles. I had lucked out on that!
Train approached, began quickly accelerating, and I popped the shot. My first photo of 2019 was in the bag.
I was surprised to see it wasn't the coal train but was a grain train. The shot came out fairly well, so I decided to not wait around to see if the coal train showed up and instead headed home. I beat the grain train to Pacific Junction, IA and looked for a spot to try another shot. I did find one but by that time the train was approaching and I was out of time. My philosophy is if I get just ONE decent shot, the entire trip was a success. I'm happy.
