I have train watched during the day quite often, and was wondering if anybody has train watched at night?
Thanks,
Dustin
Regularly, since the majority of the traffic in my area is after dark.
I go to Polo, IL and many trains trains come at night so I stay up till 11 PM and go to bed and get up at 5 AM to watch more trains.
This doesn’t happen every day,only 3 or 4 times times a month.Otherwise I would only get 6 hours of sleep.When I go back home to Freeport after doing this for a week all I want to do is sleep.
In my area if you want to see Amtrak, you’ll watch trains at night.
Some summer evenings between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. I like to go trackside with an ice cream sundae and watch the trains on the BNSF main to/from Chicago. This can be a very peaceful time of the day and my wife and I really enjoy it when we are able to get away.
I have train watched at night between 7 and 10 pm once in fostoria, ohio right by the amtrak station. it is much neater to see things at night because all the signals are lit up so you can actually see them, and you can get some good photos.
Watching trains–and signals–at night can be a magical experience. The headlights shining on the rails around the next curve, the calmness between trains, a fresh, cool breeze…once you’ve experienced it, you’ll never forget it!
I agree it is pretty peaceful watching trains at night my girlfriend and i have did it a few times.
A lot of people like to trainwatch in deshler overnight.Matt and I have stayed there until 11.the litte guy was getting sleepy.But last weekened we heard reports of trains lined up from everywhere waiting to go through.
stay safe
Joe
In addition to what’s been said above, photo opportunities around dusk can be really neat. There’s a point when the skylight and man made lighting are close to equal, and the result is a very well balanced exposure. Example:
This was taken in Cheyenne a few months back. It’s obviously a tripod shot (which is a necessity, unless you use fast ISO’s and fast lenses). One of the features I like about this shot is that it shows two possibilities for dusk exposures. Still locomotives are rendered sharply, under the soft warm hues of man-made lighting, and moving trains are rendered as streaks (like the auto train in the background of this shot).
Best of luck to you in your nocturnal adventures!
SS…Could you comment on lens opening and exposure time…digital or film, etc…That is a beauiful shot…!
I may have passed through on one of those tracks 50 plus years ago on the way to Wa. and Asia and our train did stop briefly in Cheyenne and I had a chance to get out on a platform of the car and the aroma in the air was of new mowed hay…and I still can remember that wondrful fresh smell…It too was at night.
I’ve been train watching for years…and yet one of the finest memories I have is watching the PRR’s “Kentuckian” slide past our hayfield in Southern Indiana at 4 a.m. on its way to Louisville., I used to get up just to watch it and it was nearly always right on time.
Used to do most of my watching at night when I was in IL. Could see the headlights for miles. Station platform was lit, and it was in a village, so you could see more than what the lights of the train itself revealed.
A shot like SS’s would either have to be film or a high end digital. I’m sure I could duplicate it with my Pentax K1000, but doubt I could do it justice with my Sony Mavica.
I used to take late-night walks along the Milwaukee Road ROW through Marion/Cedar Rapids, back when it was a busy railroad in the mid-70’s. Great memories.
Modelcar,
Thanks for the kind words. The shot was with a Canon D60 Digital SLR. I had the 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 on at the time (though I wished I had used the 16-35mm). I was shooting around f5.6 or f6.3 at 24mm at ISO 100 at around 1/4 sec. to 1/2 sec. bracketing the exposure +/- 1 stop in 1/3rd stop increments.
I seem to have trashed the EXIF on the web sized JPG. I’ll see if I can dig out the original file tonight and look up the image info for the shot I used.
Thanks again for the compliment!
Chris