Hugging Chicago’s lakefront, the original Illinois Central Railroad mainline was built in 1856 and electrified in 1926. Today, it is one of Metra’s busiest stretches of commuter railroad, with hundreds of daily trains carrying thousands of commuters into the Loop at Millennium Station. South of Roosevelt Road, there are also a few freight trains along the line, six tracks wide at this point. Sunday night, we were lucky enough to find one of those freight trains approaching the 35th St. overpass, under the ever-present Willis Tower, its headlight illuminating the wide right of way of the Mainline of Mid-America. Read the rest of this entry »
Slowly creeping out of a cloud of swirling snow, an oncoming train rolls down the BNSF’s triple track mainline in Riverside, IL with freight from the west coast. Read the rest of this entry »
For some reason, this photo looks very menacing to me. I think it’s the icicles hanging from the rock cut on the right that appear to be the teeth of some giant monster. In reality, it’s nothing more than Norfolk Southern train X4T struggling upgrade through one of the giant cuts on the “Rathole” near Tateville, KY, lighting up everything in it’s path.
Click it if you dare.
It’s no secret that I like shooting at night. Which makes my decision to leave my tripod at home on a recent road trip all the more puzzling. Anyway, when we were on our way back towards Chicago and ran across a Toledo, Peoria & Western freight train sitting in Kentland, IN while the crew was having dinner across the tracks, I knew I had to make something up. This was one of those days when the air temperature and all day sun had warmed the ground and the snow enough to make a slight bit of moisture in the air after sunset. I did have my cable release in my camera bag, so I laid my 30D w/ 10-22 lens down on a snow-less portion of the adjacent track. Surely with the lens opened up to 10mm, I’d manage to get something in the frame? With the camera steadied on a railroad tie and sitting next to spike to add something to the wide angle exposure, I set off the cable release, and made a few exposures. Here’s what I came up with:
Part of the reason I wanted to shoot this train so badly was that it was one of those nights where the all-day sun had warmed the ground enough to melt a little bit of snow and provide some night time moisture in the air. With the train headlight on dim, it wasn’t bright enough to ruin an exposure, but bright enough to still cut through the moisture and produce a nice beam. I ended up liking this angle, I may have to try this a little more often, tripod or no tripod.
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