On a c-h-i-l-l-y Spring evening in May 2003,
about 6:15 pm , after dragging the camera bag and tripod
from the car, I set up my camera catch a quick picture of a CSX
freight train chugging through Taylorsville Preserve MetroPark
in Vandalia and Huber Heights, Ohio. CSX keeps this
stretch of tracks in top notch condition as you can see from this
pile of brand new ties, buckets of spikes and a new, but left out in
the weather sledge hammer handle, all remaining from last summer's
track maintenance season.
...And by a "quick
picture" I mean in terms of shutter speed! The flashing "ditch
lights" on the front of the locomotives, if they are flashing
alternately as I've noticed on some engines, will "fool" the
camera's electronic eye so it can't focus.

You'll notice I learned that when
shooting train pictures to put your camera in the "motion" or "sport
shutter mode" so you can catch good train pictures like this one
without blurriness while framing them with the surrounding
environment.

It was a true mixed consist of boxcars
carrying who knows what cargo, gondolas with scrap metal and new
coils of steel...

..and hopper cars of grain and plastic
pellets as well as tank cars holding petroleum products, corn syrups
and chemicals.
The train smoothly came by in less
than a minute, probably cruising along at 25 to 35 miles per hour,
on their way northbound on fully signaled track....

...passing under the famous National
Road (U.S. 40), and turning the track signal for the next
block red behind it.
* * * * *
I hope you liked the pictures.
All these pictures were taken from a safe distance away using a
telephone lens or even regular lens. After processing by my
pals at Kodak onto a CD, the photos were further cropped and zoomed
to what you see above. Remember--always, always, always--practice
safe railfanning--a long lens, good film processing and photo
cropping gets you as good a picture from a distance as getting one
taken too close up to the trains!
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