Midweek Photos 11/27/2013 Turkey Day Edition

Nice photos, Tim!  How long does the CP Holiday Train typically stay in Scranton?  I'd like to bring my son to see it next year when we visit my family in W-B.

JoeyA, the Holiday Train stays in Scranton only a few hours.  It has a very tight schedule, which makes it start on the 25th or 26th of November.  The US train spends most of its time going through Canada.  The last stop is Weyburn, Saskatchewan on December 19th.  

Spent last week in the islands of the Caribbean to include a great excursion on the St. Kitts railway.  It was a adventure to say the least, with a 3 hour breakdown, all you can drink, a walk thru the sugar cane fields, but you get the idea, we all had fun. Please enjoy the pictures and have a nice thanksgiving, Bruce

Is there a website that has the trains schedule?

 

Thanks!

 

Dave

There sure is, check out the schedule.

 

Hey hey!  The train will be within an hour of me!  (That's nothing out here.)  I might just give it a shot if the weather is nasty enough.     Well, it gets dark at 5 PM now, and the night temps have been flirting with zero.  When it snows, it sticks around for days and days.  All of that adds up to:  TRAIN TIME!   As added inducement my favorite railroad, the Dakota & Iowa (DAIR) has been running every night.  (Honey, don't wait up for me!)    They run a heavy train from Dell Rapids SD to Chatsworth IA, where they meet a train pulling empties up from Sioux City IA.  They then swap trains and head back.  They go south past me about 7 PM and then back n/b past me around 1 AM.  Track speed is somewhere around 25 mph meaning I can get shots from several locations on one run if I'm quick.

 

There are several active grain elevators along the line that offer an interesting background.  Normally I'm not shy about just setting up some flash and taking shots anywhere I want--cows don't care.  Places like grain elevators attract attention however.  In these very small towns the elevator is usually the biggest employer and there's millions of dollars tied up in it.  You don't want to be wandering around them in the middle of the night uninvited.  So, I've been going in during the day and getting permission from the general managers.  All have been quite cooperative, especially when I offer to drop off a nice print!  That's what I like about living out here.  There might not be a lot of trains/action, but the people are generally cooperative to reasonable requests, especially if you are respectful.

 

First shot, a BNSF string of empty grain hoppers heads into Canton, SD on the Canton Sub.  These are very, very common but the  power on point was something I hadn't seen before--CREX CitiRail.  I love the scare stripes on this one.  In the background is the MILW depot and a restored MILW caboose.  And, I have to say the combination of Nikon D7100 and Nikon 17-55mm f2.8 is SHARP!  Be careful to not cut yourself when viewing this photo.    

 

Second shot, the D&I train slowly picks its way past the Central Harvest States complex in Canton.  I needed three of of my biggest flash to light up those puppies!  While the D&I runs past these bins, they are serviced by regular BNSF shuttles.  The engine is a very rare SD-39, being run by engineer Latelle of Dell Rapids SD.

 

Third shot is a D&I train picking up speed as it exits south through the small Farmer's Elevator Coop in Hudson SD.  Tracks run down through the middle of the complex but the D&I doesn't load here.  The massive amounts of corn stored in these huge bins (and unseen bunkers behind) is trucked either to the many local feedlots or to the Poet ethanol plant a mile south.

 

I've been out shooting trains every night the past week, but this is probably enough shots.   The D&I is taking a break until next Monday, so I probably will also.    When they start back up next week, so will I!  I have some more shots I want from those elevators.  Can't let a great opportunity go to waste!    Downside is the train makes the return trip through there about midnight to 1 AM.    Looks like I'll be drinking a lot of coffee next week.

 

 

Kent in SD