Tips for Photographing Trains at Night – Jim Pearson

November 25, 2020 Jim Pearson No Comments All things Trains and Photography, Jim Pearson

Shooting trains at night can be troublesome so I here’s a few tips on shooting at night using manual settings. You can also shoot on auto, but you’ll get better results if you use manual as the headlights from a train can “fool” your camera on auto. Also, many folks photograph trains at night using flash, but that’s another ball of wax and involves a lot more work and I won’t be covering that in this article.

First and foremost are two things. Use a tripod and turn off your VR on your camera or lens, otherwise when shooting it can cause blurry images when shooting on a tripod. If your gear doesn’t have it then you don’t need to worry. This applies if you’re using a tripod.

For best results use the fastest lens you have with the fastest shutter speed. if you are hand holding also use the highest ISO you can, but no higher than you must, and when hand holding use the VR if you have it. It’s also a good idea to brace yourself against something to help hold the camera steady when hand holding at night.

Shoot a test exposure based on what the camera tells you. If it’s too dark, increase the exposure, too light, decrease it.

Join other night photography groups on Facebook so you can see what other people are doing and how.

Use the self-timer when possible when shooting at tight. It helps eliminate camera shake from when you press the shutter. Better still, get an electronic cable release.

Learn to manually focus your camera. Auto focus at night can be troublesome.

If your camera has a setting for Locking the mirror up before taking your picture, then use it. When shooting at night, sometimes the slap of the mirror can cause camera shake.

Pop over to YouTube and watch videos on shooting at night. There’s a wealth of them available and free!

Here’s a few good ones.

Here’s some articles on the subject as well:

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/railways-at-night-pictures/index.html

Trains that Passed in the Night: Railroad Photographs of O. Winston Link

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/when-steam-locomotion-ground-to-a-halt/

Night photography of trains and railroads can be very dramatic and enjoyable, but it can take time along with some trial and error till you get used to it, but very rewarding. When trackside at night or anytime always remember to be safe!!

November 2020 Photo Gallery

November 25, 2020 Jim Pearson No Comments Bill Thomas, Photo Section

I lucked out with a friend at Fortner Gas here in Madisonville.  He let me know about the spur upgrade so I could get some shots.  Just a few days after it was completed, I caught the local headed that way with some loaded tankers and got the switching action on camera.  The cab shot in the trackmobile was a surprise bonus for me!  Fortner has become a regional supplier of propane  with this new transloading facility across from the Madisonville Industrial Park off Hwy 41A in Madisonville, Ky.

Notice the little touch of re-engineering on 4302’s  panel door above!  Yes, I got to couple up to the tank car and blow the horn! – Photos by Bill Thomas

2021 Chapter Calendars Available!

November 25, 2020 Jim Pearson No Comments Chapter Calendar

Our 2021 Chapter Calendar is now available for purchase! Click on the link below to purchase a copy directly via online. The front features the third place winners from our yearly chapter contest winners and the interior features the 1st and 2nd place winners for the year. Since we didn’t have a November meeting and won’t have another till hopefully January 2021 it’s best that you order your calendar via online. If you prefer not to order online you may email the chapter at info@westkentuckynrhs.org and request one via our treasurer, Bill Farrell. With COVID, online ordering is the safest and quickest way to get your copy of the calendar.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR CALENDAR TODAY!

Below are images that show what the calendar pictures looks like.

  • Front
  • Back

November 2020 meeting canceled!!

November 11, 2020 Jim Pearson No Comments General Post
Ricky Bivins, Chapter President

Greetings West Kentucky NRHS members!

Due to the governors mandate which is due to an increase in COVID-19 cases and Hopkins County being a “red” county, The City of Madisonville has banned pubic meetings. Therefore Innovation Station is closed. As a result the chapter meeting scheduled for Monday, November 16, 2020 is canceled and our next scheduled meeting will be in January 2021. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we must follow the mandate set by our leaders.

September 2020 Chapter Photo Contest Winners

October 20, 2020 Jim Pearson No Comments Chapter Photo Contest, General Post, Photo Contest Winners
1st Place, September 2020, West Ky Chapter of the NRHS Photo Contest – September 27, 2020 – Champaign IL BNSF6900 ES44C4 – Feast or famine on the IC. After allowing the southbound Amtrak commuter train pass by at points north, southbound oil train, led by BNSF 6900, snakes its way into the north end of Champaign yard. Thanks to the low light, a second southbound train, led by a CN SD70M-2, passes the grain elevators at Leverette and approaches north Champaign right on the heels of the oil train. – Photo by Matt Gentry
2nd Place, September 2020, West Ky Chapter of the NRHS Photo Contest – September 26, 2020: CSX 8315 (SD40-2) leads Q501 around the curve at NE Kelly on the CSX Henderson Subdivision. – Photo by Cooper Smith
3rd Place, September 2020, West Ky Chapter of the NRHS Photo Contest – PAL 4522 heads up the southbound LG train through Caneyville, KY on a nice fall afternoon. – Photo by Cooper Smith
  • Locomotive 5446 north bound on the lead of a mixed freight just south of the Christian county line on the CSX Henderson Subdivision.- Photo by William Farrell
  • Norfolk Southern’s Conrail Heritage Unit is leading the Daily Autorack train #124. But, is in the siding at West Crandall, Indiana holding for 2 eastbounds on a wonderful fall afternoon. September 21, 2020 – Photo by Bill Grady
  • It?s a beautiful mid morning, September 22, in Madisonville, Kentucky, as CSX crews do preliminary work on the Arch Street bridge adjacent to the former L&N depot. The bridge will later receive a new piece of ?snap track? and modified walkways. Photo by Bill Thomas with Canon EOS Digital at 1/1000, f 4.3.
  • September 20, 2020 – A southbound freight train is framed by trees at Mortons Gap KY on the Henderson Subdivision. – Photo by Ricky Bivins
  • CSX locomotive 3006 south bound pulling a mixed freight in Crofton, KY on the Henderson Subdivision. – Photo by William Farrell
  • The Daily Norfolk Southern Train #172 is westbound chasing the last rays of sun on another beautiful fall afternoon. #172 is near Fisherville, KY on NS’s Louisville District. September 30, 2020. Photo by Bill Grady
  • Septtmber 26, 2020 – Ormonde IL AMTK131 P42DC – Seen here at Ormonde, IL, Amtrak’s Southwest Chief train #3 hustles west on an early fall afternoon. Strange consist to note; 3 locomotives and no baggage car. Covid traffic sure has changed the landscape of present day passenger rail as noted by the consist and the fact that this is one of the last daily Southwest Chief’s to run before schedule change go into effect in October. – Photo by Matt Gentry
  • September 24, 2020 CSXT 3182 leads a southbound intermodal through downtown Mortons Gap, Kentucky on the Henderson Subdivision. – Photo by Ricky Bivins

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes!

September 23, 2020 Jim Pearson No Comments General Post

A great show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harback for their 1933 musical Roberta.   The popular song has been performed by numerous performers, but the most famous version was recorded in 1958 by The Platters.  

Smoke in the eyes of engine crews racing across America’s landscape, however, not so wonderful.  The configuration of steam motive power dictated that the smoke stack be up front, ahead of the boiler.  That fierce exhaust is what creates the draft, keeping the firebox ablaze. Also, the fireman watched the stack, as a useful gauge on his proficiency.

Most railroad management was oblivious to the problem, but the Union Pacific and a few others solved the problem, to a degree, with “elephant ears,” as they were nick-named.   The ears extended in front of the smokebox, curved inward along the top, and with fast forward movement, created an updraft.   At slow speeds,  tough luck, you best hope for a good side wind.    The Southern Pacific solved the smoke problem particularly in their many tunnels by buying Cab-forward steam locomotives.

I can remember vividly parked along the Chilkat River in Alaska back in 1958, drinking terrible home brew, watching the Northern Lights, and listening to the Platters then new hit; “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” radio static and all.     (It does get better than that…)

Credits:   Classic Trains – Winter 2010 – Photos top Stan Kistler collection,   bottom Allen W. Madison  and Wikipedia

CSXT 3439 and 275 lead loaded coal train CSX N040 south…

September 23, 2020 Jim Pearson No Comments Jim Pearson, Photo Section

September 17, 2020 – CSXT 3439 and 275 lead loaded coal train CSX N040 south on the Henderson Subdivision as it approaches the John Rivers Rd. crossing at south Casky in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.

Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 100.

Jim will present a program on Railfanning with a Drone at our November 16th, 2020 meeting. Be sure to attend!

Sadly, these days we rarely see a caboose…

August 25, 2020 Jim Pearson No Comments Gary O. Ostlund

Sadly, these days we rarely see a caboose at the end of a train.  Yesterday’s train crew of five or six is now an engineer and conductor, and they ride in comfort up front in their diesel locomotive.    But in days past, the caboose was not only an observation platform, it served as the “Home on the Road” for the crew.

Until laws were passed limiting a workday to 16 hours (more recently reduced to 14 and now 12) the train crew relied on the caboose for food and housing. Trains were dispatched with orders stating essentially:   “get it there – no matter how long it takes”    Train crews cooked and slept aboard.

Trains would also stop where restaurants were close by, and many depots had a beanery.   This cartoon by Joe Easley depicts the conductor instructing the hustling brakeman to “make mine Ham on Rye.”     As you can imagine, train crews weren’t going to go hungry for long, as they knew where the food was good, pies fresh and coffee hot (and a cute waitress thrown in for good measure.) And more than just occasionally a track-side farmer lost a chicken or two.

In Trains Magazine’s special “Railroads and World War II” a story is told that President Roosevelt and Mexican President Manual Avila Camacho and their entourage were travelling in Mexico to Laredo at night. The train stopped out in the middle of nowhere, and as you can imagine the Secret Service went nuts.  The Mexican Trainmaster calmly told them the crew was enjoying their usual late-night snack.  “They can’t do that. There’s a couple of presidents on board.”  At some point the agents were pointed toward a barely visible light. They ended up walking nearly a half mile to a small shack, where they found the crew enjoying sandwiches washed down with tequila.  As presidential secretary Grace Tully later wrote, “Conversation in neither English nor Spanish could prevail upon them to return to the train until they had finished their meal.”

Gary O. Ostlund, gary.ostlund2@gmail.com, Pinehurst  –  USA