Last Sunday was the first time in a while that I had the chance to go out and shoot some railroad footage. I went up to Vancouver, Washington to do a bit of railfanning. I ran into a busy signal. In 2 hours, 5 trains past through, one after another.
I also watched 3 crew changes. In my years of railfanning I have seen many crew changes, but not this many in one location in one outing.
I was also able to catch footage of some Canadian National units. This is the second time in 8 years that I have been able to shoot footage of a CN units, so this was a real treat.
I know for the folks in the midwest, CN units are as common as snow in the winter, but up here in the Pacific Northwest they are not a common sight. One other note from the CN train there was also some older motive power in the consist.
Well to wrap things up, lots of grain moved through Vancouver on Sunday in addition to 2 mixed manifest trains. The bulk of the trains were running from Pasco, Washington to Tacoma, Washington. and 1 train was bound for Kalama, Washington.
At anyrate enjoy the footage, and let me know what you think.
Watching just five trains lumber by, in their entirety, over 49 minutes is like watching paint dry.
While there are videos touting that they include the entire train, they are usually entire trains running at speed, not creeping by (and stopping).
I didn’t sit through the entire 49 minutes, but what I did watch leads me to believe that you could have editted it down to five minutes or less.
You can point out high points in the action (such as the three crew changes) using text “subtitles.” The only action you need to show is maybe the cab arriving and the crews actually climbing up/down. Dead time with no action is just that - dead time. Cut it out of the video.
If there’s something unique within the consist you can certainly include it, and use text to explain the significance. You can use text to tell the viewer how many cars there were, whether they were empty/full, etc.
I usually edit the footage, but I decided to run a full length video, just for the heck of it. Figured I would listen to the diesels roar, wheels squeal, couplers slam, and watch the paint dry LOL!!!