While we wait for them to slip into something less comfortable (and while I dream up the rest of the story) I would like to share with everybody the great time I had on Tuesday, March 2, 2010.
It's well-established I'm a big fan of trains and that I photograph many images of them. Well, one such train (which in fact operates over the stretch of trackage which appears in "The Ride Home") was delayed several days as a result of the wicked winter weather the Northeast U.S. had in the last weeks of February 2010. This delay caused the normally nocturnal train to run in daylight (well, overcast mostly cloudy light -- which didn't bother me because that's how I cut my teeth as a burgeoning railfan photog along that very same route. Piece O cake)
But I decided against chasing after this train for a pair of personal reasons, in spite of the fact I would have given almost anything to chase one last train through the scenic Delaware River valley separating New York and Pennsylvania.
Hard cut ahead to mid Tuesday morning when my cell phone jars me awake from sleep. A friend of mine asks if I'm willing to help him on the near impossible task of photographing said train I'd decided not to (hey, he knows where to go to beat the odds!) so we got together, learned the late train's progress and hit the road like underdogs. We had a feather in our cap as one of our friends who lives closer to the action was out photographing this train also, and kept us apprised of it's progress (which was terrible in comparison to the old days) In contrast, I made sure we made better time than the freight train, and not just because it had such a big head start over us.
Dissolve to four in the afternoon, my friend and I are trackside in Hancock, NY, in position for the train's arrival 30 minutes later. It was a train chase to rival one I did with my father and brother 22 years before almost to the day (early by three).
My friend and I were indeed successful in beating the odds and catching this rare event a number of places along the route until the train reached its destination at nightfall, we cut it THAT close. The goal on Tuesday was to catch the train crossing Starrucca Viaduct, and we did, but my slides of Starrucca from that 1988 trip aren't here to be scanned and offered as comparison. Instead I offer the next closest at Gulf Summit, New York:
March 5, 1988
March 2, 2010
You'll notice a number of changes occurred during those 22 years, the obvious one being the closest track has been removed.
Ironically, this is only a side step from our adventure, as the inspiration for the "Disco Arches" lies along this railroad, albeit just a lowly normal appearing Golden one and not the version I depicted.
We'll return to our scheduled blog after this break.
Very cool MO! Thanks for sharing!
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