This past Friday, I was leaving my downtown office-by-the-tracks for lunch. I have been watching the tracks for two weeks with my 7-year old son’s disposable camera, waiting for a UP-loco-with-flag or any BNSF engine to pass by (he is building a collection of photos for his album; keep in mind this is CSX/NS territory). While leaving the parking lot, the familiar _ _ . _ sounded, and I looked up in complete surprise while the desired UP loco pounded the crossing. After faultingly fumbling to get the camera out of my coat pocket, I drove hard as I legally could for three miles (two red lights out of two; wouldn’t you know it) before catching the slowed train in the yard north of town, where a crew change was apparently going to be made.
Now three miles is probably nothing for most of you…
but I am curious to hear:
What is the farthest you’ve chased a train for what basically amounted to a delayed grab shot?
I put over 180 miles on the car chasing the train in the shot below. (had less than 10 seconds to get out of the car and snap this shot!) CP Rail power is VERY rare in these parts, and I was fighting a losing battle with the Sun…heading north until I ran into it was the only option.
Well it is almost impossible to determine in mileage how far you chased the train as you are so concentrating on the train you really do not know how far you went. Once in the Mojave desert I would estimate between 10/15 miles I was chasing a WB BNSFer who was going faster then me. I was doing 80MPH & he was pulling away. Then he must have hit a caution lite because he slowed & I was finally able to overtake him. [8D][:o)]
I chased one particular train a UP turbine for about 300 miles across Wyoming and into Ogden before I caught up with it this was before I-80 was completed and traffic was my major holdup as well as driving an 18 wheeler. Never did get the shot but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
Ok here is my story. The farthest I’ve chased a train was 5 miles. I had so much fun. I was with my friend who isn’t too much of a railfan but, because of me he’s slowly becoming one. Anyway, we were at Abrams Yard in Norristown, PA. It’s a NS owned yard. We were geting ready to leave after a days worth of looking at yard operations. Then I’d noticed a mainfest train with two Dash -940CWs on the point sitting on the outboud track., moving at about 15 mph. Then it clicked I said “OH WAIT THIS TRAIN IS GOING TO END UP FARTER DOWN THE LINE!!!” my friend said were?? I said " IN WEST CONCHI" (Conshohocken, PA) only 5 miles from Norristown. So we got into his station wagon and litterly did 91 mph on the road that follows the mainline out of the yard to a point in West Conchohocken. We didn’t blow any red lights though but, we passed people on a double yellow line. I got to the location 7 mins before the train came across the grade Xing. WOW what a rush I had so much fun that day.
Chased an I&M Rail Link train from Sabula, to I Don’t Know Where, IA once. That was a lot of fun, even though the sky was pretty cruddy. By far, my best and worst chase ever was in Montgomery, IL around 2000 or so. The Milwaukee Road 261 was coming thorugh town. I was set-up for a shot along Rt. 34. After the train FLEW by, I jumped in the cruiser, and gave chase. I was up to 100 before I even began to start cathcing up. Decided it wasn’t worth going to jail over.
While I would’ve liked to have shot some more pictures, seeing that big locomotive stretch her legs a bit is something I shall never forget as long as I live.
A few years ago, when I would take trips up to DeKalb Illinois, in Wheaton along route 38, I would look down the streets to see if their was a train. When their was a train, we either beat it to RT38&23, or meet at the exact same time. I have gotten some good shots, I just have to find them.
Hey Chad, I just read your story…bummer you didn’t catch it, but isn’t it fun to run with a train moving that fast? Oh how I wish I could pace a Hiawatha at 110+ (and the Cruiser will do it fairly easily…but I’ll not say too much more about that [;)])
From my house to Tehachapi for one shot…(about a three-hour one-way trip). It involved all that driving and about a mile of hiking and I had about ten minutes to catch my breath. The result was a nice shot of four Santa Fe F45s on a hot 199 train. I turned around and went home.
I also drove to Gaviota, Calif., for one shot of SP 4449 on the bridge there in 1983. Probably the same distance as Tehachapi, but they did an unscheduled photo stop at Gaviota, so I got three different angles with three different lenses (three runbys). Made it all worth it.
A few years ago, I think three other fans and I drove a rented car from Missoula to Helena to Great Falls, Mont., just to find a sunny shot of a train. We chased a grain train behind BN 5100 from Great Falls to Shelby in the only sunny weather anywhere in the Big Sky state that day…that was before Montana had speed limits, so the sustained 100mph running in our Avis rental made the trip seem fast.
Oh, and there was the day about eight years ago when this same group flew to Montana just to see the first of the H-1 GE’s on BNSF. We awoke in Missoula, checked dispatcher’s train sheet before dawn, raced to Austin, Mont., (about 100 miles–it took 45 minutes in a renta) and got BNSF 980…our “first H-1 in-the-flesh” in brilliant morning sun descending Mullan Pass near Austin.
I once was descending into a small airport in a chartered helicopter on company business. Looked down and saw a five-unit consist of Santa Fe F45s at a red signal nearby. Had the pilot abort the approach and we flew low to investigate…a red signal and no crew on the train. Landed, grabbed a still camera, drove to the spot (a short distance from the pad), shot some nice stuff and continued on my way…just as the crew came up in a van to continue the trip west. That was not crazy driving…just fancy footwork.
There are many other, more extreme stories among veteran shooters…
Well, I’ve got a few of 'em… the NS engines on a southbound UP train (www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken/TC1.html) that I chased from Oak Creek to Pleasant Prairie (about 25 miles), CP 2816 (www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken/TC3-CP2816.html) that I chased from the south side of Milwaukee to Duplainville, Oconomowoc, and Portage, and MILW 261 (www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken/TC4-MILW261.html) that I chased from Milwaukee to Pleasant Prairie before I lost it in Illinois. Then there was the Wisconsin & Southern HJ train that I completely missed at North Duplainville, caught at Duplainville as it waited for a crossing CP train, caught again at North Prairie, and caught again west of Eagle, along with a huge motorcycle ride (www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken/TC6-09_HJ25_04.html)!!!
My longest successful train chase (I consider a chase successful if I end up getting to videotape the train) was about a year ago when I was living in southwestern Illinois. I chased a CSX manifest down the Illinois Subdivision from Avistion IL, through Breese, Carlyle, and down a pretty lengthy stretch of U.S. Rte. 50. After the slow going through the towns of Breese and Carlyle, I was eventually able to get up ahead of the train. I found a road to turn down and found myself on the north side of a grade crossing where I videotaped the train. I’m not sure what town this crossing would have been in, but I know it was East of Carlyle and Northwest of Centralia. When it was all said and done, I chased that train for a good 20 to 30 minutes. Enjoyed it thoroughly!
How about longest distance covered following the same train? I once followed a autorack train from Salt Lake City,Ut. to Winnemucca,Nv. A distance of around 300 miles.
Having driven most major highways in the USA and traveling through every state in the contiguous 48 this is not a fair question for most easterners. Also, lets define “chase”. For me, a train chase is stalking a train that at points in the chase photographs are taken.
I chased the SP 7451, the first SD45R out of the Sacramento Locomotive Works program with the Santa Fe/Southern Pacific merger paint between Sparks, NV and Winnemuca, NV - this about 161 miles. this was pretty easy because for much of the way I-80 was a trackside friend of Southern Pacific’s Salt Lake divission.
Back in Jan. '04 i sat in West Chicago catching a few UPs on that cold day. Well, about 11:30a or so i decided to catch on more westbound that just hit the detector and then go home, with no intention to chase. The second unit was UP 3300 “United Way” first time i ever saw it. After about 15 minutes of saying WOW, i drove off to see if i had any chance to see it one more time. Missed it by 10 minutes in DeKalb. Next stop Rochelle. i was getting closer but a tractor pulled in front of me, i thought i lost it now. But luck was on my side, the train stopped east of Rochelle. i made it to the park with 5 minutes to spare.