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1134 results for 2007-12; refer to date index:

2007-12-01

December 1st, 2007

After a lazy morning and lunch we headed down to Guelph Junction to see what we could see, getting CP #159, #138, #255, #427, #249/525 combined, #424, and #254.

2007-12-05

December 5th, 2007

I went to Guelph Junction to get CP's Holiday Train, only to find that it was not posing anywhere publically shootable but hiding out on the inaccessible west leg of the wye. After shooting it leaving, I got gas and meandered over to Galt to shoot it posed on the bridge after its show at the station. I had a grand plan: I would take a video of it entering the bridge, swap cameras on the tripod, take long exposures, swap cameras, take a video of it exiting the bridge. Only one flaw in my plan: it did not stop for the antiicipated 5 minutes, but only for around 20 seconds -- just long enough for me to swap tripod mount screws. My desperate, unfocused, failed shots of the tail end of the train as it disappeared have been left to allow you to share in my frustration at that moment.

2007-12-19

December 19th, 2007

We left home around 10 am, almost immediately finding a CP train with an NREX unit at Puslinch on our way by on highway 6. After crossing into the US, we followed the Falls Road railway from Lockport to Brockport, ending up in Rochester.

2007-12-20

December 20th, 2007

We started out from our hotel in Henrieta outside Rochester at the crack of dawn, heading up to Lakeville to see if we could find the LAL working. At that hour there was little sign of life and pretty soon we heard a Rochester Southern train leaving Rochester, so we headed down to Caledonia to get ahead of it, where we waited a fair time for it. It came with 4 units and 70-odd empties around 9:30 after which we headed back to Lakeville. We heard switching as we got closer, and then it abruptly stopped. Hoping for an LAL train to be leaving we headed for a crossing just out of town and sat for a while, eventually going back into town and just missing a switcher... twice. We sat for a while near the yard eventually figuring out the crew had gone for lunch and shot the lone unit parked mostly inaccessibly from a street in town. From there we headed to the Ontario Central in Victor, where we found no signs of life and proceeded eastword to Phelps and north to Newark in the hopes of getting the Ontario Midland. There was little sign of life there either and the tracks looked like we had missed them earlier in the day. We headed a bit east to Lyons to get a late lunch and then a bit further east to Clyde where we waited for CSX to make up for our lackluster shortline performance, but all we got was 2 Amtrak and a UPS train before hearing Finger Lakes arrive at Lyons. We tore back to Lyons hoping to get them there, with the sun coming out for the first time in days as we went, disappearing again as we arrived. We followed the Lyons runner up to Geneva trying to get ahead of the FGLK train we knew was around, beating it to the yard at Geneva in last light. Damn these short days.

2007-12-21

December 21st, 2007

We started out in Oneida and headed straight for Reber Rd outside Rome in the community of Stanwix, New York to watch CSX trains while waiting for the daily run of the Mohawk, Adirondack, and Northern. It came after a couple of hours and we spent a few minutes chasing it in Rome after spending a lot more minutes trying to find it again. After that we returned briefly to Reber Rd., found the tracks dead, and proceeded to Utica. We went to see the NYSW dead line but found it completely obstructed by a long cut of high gons. We went back to the Amtrak station and shot a considerable rush, punctuated by the return of the MWHA with its lone C424 and 5 cars.

2007-12-22

December 22nd, 2007

Matt came down from New Jersey to meet us in Amsterdam. We shot several CSX and Amtrak trains there before heading down to Rotterdam Junction to see if Guilford was around. It wasn't, and we headed south to Delanson on the D&H to see what was happening there. On arrival we found a small Kia high-centred on an uncleared road and proceeded to spend the next few minutes using our winter gear and Matt's tow hook to remove the vehicle. Much to the entertainment of all concerned, Matt's Pt Cruiser saved the day. We then shot DH 931 - a CN run-through train with NS power - and NS 169 meeting before heading off to an unpronounceable town a few miles away to try and track down a mysterious new shortline that appeared at Delanson six days earlier.

2007-12-23

December 23rd, 2007

We started out in Glens Falls, New York with an eye toward getting the Batten Kill railroad in Greenwich, NY on the off-chance they'd be outside the barn. As we got ready to go we realised it was a silly idea and headed straight for Whitehall, NY. On our way we picked up an EOT and tore off to the next grade crossing where we just missed 3 NS units running southbound light power on the D&H. After a brief southward chase we realised we would not get ahead of them and returned on our original track to Whitehall. A few minutes later VRS Rutland DS indicated that the Whitehall job had already left Whitehall back for Rutland so we skipped Whitehall and went straight for Rutland, catching the Whitehall job returning to Rutland with 5 units and 42 loads. After a quick crew change and switch, they took off with 4 units and 37 loads for Bellows Falls and we returned to Whitehall to see what the D&H had to offer. Eventually the northbound Adirondack came, then 931 came -- the same one we shot over a day earlier not 100 miles away in Delanson -- followed shortly by the southbound Adirondack. We got 931 going through the station after meeting the Amtrak and then returned to Rutland taking a few hasty long exposures of AMTK 716 getting ready to head south before calling it a night at a relative's house in town.

2007-12-24

December 24th, 2007

We left my cousin's house in Rutland after a lazy breakfast toward Brattleboro, our destination. We heard GMRC 263 and locomotive 801 that sounded like different trains. We weren't sure until we found 263 with 801 leading fairly far east in Chester, where we waited for them on finding rusty rails. A large cloud bank was rolling in rather suspensefully on this first day of sunlight on our trip. The train took a while to arrive in Chester - we overestimated how far ahead of it we were - and when it did come, it stopped just short of the shot I wanted for the crew to buy lunch in town. After a few minutes delay and some mercy from the clouds, we got our shot and then b-lined it to Brattleboro for our own lunch and seasonal family reunion.

2007-12-27

December 27th, 2007

On the 26th I woke to the sound of a whistle as a train left Brattleboro. This time I woke up at dawn and turned my scanner on, almost immediately hearing NECR 323 and 324 converging on Brattleboro. We headed down to the yard and shot both, then chased 324 the three miles to the first crossing south of town by the detector at Vernon before returning for breakfast. My lunch later was interrupted by the sound of Pan Am WJED entering Brattleboro and so I went down to the yard to watch it and the Vermonter head south.

2007-12-28

December 28th, 2007

I went down to Brattleboro yard to see the morning 323/324 meet again. 323 arrived on queue but 324 was nowhere to be seen and we soon found out the meet would be taking place in Putney. Hours later I heard 324 arrive in town -- with 323's power. I went down to the yard to see it come in and found it with 5 units, including GEXR 3843! Then two local railfans showed up at my perch on Riverside Rd and told me that 324's train had come apart in Putney and they'd be going back for it. I went to the Amtrak station to wait for them to head back north for the second half of their train and was immediately blocked in by passengers for the southbound Amtrak. I waited at the platform whether I liked it or not for the southbound Vermonter and the northbound power move with my old friend Barney leading.

2007-12-29

December 29th, 2007

We left Brattleboro for my parents' place in the Laurentians, stopping only at St. Albans to see CN 323 with 8814-8840, my first of the CN 88xxs. Weather was miserable and rainy all the way up, so we did not stop to see NECR 323/324 meeting in Brattleboro, VRS 307 coming into Burlington, or the three trains queued up at Rouses Point on the D&H. Next time.