I went over to Clarendon Hills this morning; the weather was good (fantastic is a better word), plus what with security ramping up for the NATO conference in Chicago on the 20th this might be my last chance to fan without getting interrogated. People are getting antsy and quite frankly I just do not want to get caught up in a security crackdown.
Driving into town it looked like I was in for a repeat of the previous day where I’d arrived just in time to miss a couple trains. Once again the gates went down in my face, but to my great relief it turned out to be a lowly commuter. Those are a dime a dozen so I didn’t sweat it.
Trackside things looked dead, red signals eastbound and no headlights in sight, so what in the heck were those train noises to the west? Sure enough an eastbound unit coal swept into town leaving me totally baffled; what about the red signals? I double checked and they sure looked red to me, so were they going to stop? Nope!
Surprise visitor
09:01 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
BNSF e/b loaded unit coal
BNSF 5850 ES44AC
BNSF 9399 SD70ACe
I fired off an oncoming series at 200, 120, 70, and 18mm. I sure wish that I’d caught them passing the signals; it would sure help figure out the signal situation. The train switched from M2 to M3 at the Hinsdale crossovers and most probably I missed seeing the diverging green due to the angle.
There was quite a mix of cars on this train:
GGPX General American Marks Co
GOHX General American Marks Co
BWLX Lansing Board of Water and Light
None of them dominated, although the BWLX cars were a definite minority.
I always watch for DPU’s on unit coals and in this case I got lucky, not only did the train have a DPU, but I also had a woman walk up that I thought that I could add for some some human interest:
Helping hand
09:04 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
BNSF e/b unit coal – DPU
BNSF 9365 SD70ACe
Winging it
Great photo opportunity, and totally blew it! There was too much distance between myself, the woman and the DPU, and she ended up amazingly out of focus. The only solution would have been to get closer, but since I was in a crouch, scuttling around to improve my position would probably have sent her off screaming for the police. Oh well, at least I got some good stand alone shots.
I walked over to the grade crossing to get a shot of the crossing signal circuit box and spotted a headlight off to the east; cool, it was nice to see more action headed my way even if the morning light wasn’t being very helpful. I felt that my best bet for a decent exposure involved getting a near broadside, so I switched over to my 12-24mm superwide and hiked down the platform to somewhere I could back off a bit. As it turned out it didn’t help a whole lot:
E6 wannabe
09:18 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
BNSF w/b merchandise
BNSF 1107 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 5054 Dash 9-44CW
Not a bad capture, but not a great one either; lots of areas were shaded black, and the wide angle distortion did its best to stretch the #1107 into an E6 wannabe!
Another headlight had popped up to the east, this time for a westbound commuter. I set up in the mid platform shelter to catch it’s passage:
Snub nosed suburban power
09:30 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
METX e/b commuter
METX 187 F40PHM-2
Much better, probably because the train was on M1 and I had more room to back off.
Huh?
Not much was happening, so I puttered. Grabbed a shot of the base of a pole across the way that was inexplicably marked “TOP”, probably your government at work. I found a book left on a bench by the depot, so I took it inside to give to the agent and ended up being mildly grilled. Turns out that she had just gotten off a conference call about security for the upcoming NATO conference and had been told to report anyone taking pictures! Oh great, already? I figured that something like this was going to happen but didn’t really expect it until next week; guess not! Apparently I passed the test since the police didn’t show up and I’m not writing this from Guantanamo Bay.
Time passed and people began gathering for the next eastbound commuter; I set up by the station to catch its arrival:
Mid-morning to the city
09:57 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
METX e/b commuter
METX 210 F40PHM-2
I got an inbound shot of the cab car passing the station, a neat trick since the station is barely visible. Not too bad a capture except that I’d been hoping that the guy walking on the left would interact with the train in some way, plus the water tower sticking out the top of the cab car was a rookie error on my part. I also went for a grab shot of the passengers loading hoping to catch the headlight of an approaching westbound freight, but caught traffic crossing the tracks to the east instead!
As soon as the commuter cleared I high tailed it east for a spot where I could back up the hillside a bit to catch the westbound:
A break from orange
10:00 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
BNSF w/b empty unit coal
CSX 5476 ES44DC
CSX 7538 Dash 8-40C
Spring is here
I got a pretty good shot mainly because of the vastly improved light. Loved seeing the CSX power, I haven’t seen much of it as of late. The cars were really a mish-mash:
PSTX David J Joseph Co.
CPOX Consumers Energy Co.
JSCX Consumers Energy Co.
WSCX Consumers Energy Co.
Nobody seemed to predominate, this was definitely a mix and match train. I grabbed some shots of the passing cars; telephotos, wide angles; I just like shooting unit trains.
The inbound Illinois Zephyr was due up but I didn’t have a signal for it yet. Bingo, eastbound green on M1, perfect for me since I’d have an excellent angle. They were running a bit late today, normally I see them around the top of the hour today I was in for a wait:
Late running Zephyr
10:17 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
AMT e/b Illinois Zephyr
AMT 126 P42DC
I fired off three shots at varying distances figuring that I’d sort out the best one later.
An eastbound yellow over yellow appeared on M1, very unusual, but then Metra announced that the next inbound would be boarding there. To my great amazement the people waiting on the south platform moved over, most of the time they just stand around absorbed in their cell phones only to have a panic attack at train time. I stuck with the sunny side and directed stragglers:
Waiting on the train
The train is coming! The train is coming!
Eastbound on M1
10:56 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
METX e/b commuter
METX 187 F40PHM-2
Got some shots of last minute passengers making a run for it and of the train pulling in. One guy was a day late and a dollar short, he showed up just as the train arrived and hightailed it for the pedestrian crossing, a big mistake since the train blocked it and he was left standing in the dust.
Time passed and a headlight popped up to the east, I was hoping for a freighter, but a quick check of the commuter proved me wrong. I set up about halfway down to the platform shelter:
Westbound on M1
11:17 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
METX w/b commuter
METX 114 F40PHM-2
I was still waiting for eastbound freight action and was beginning to wonder if anything would show before my parking limit ran out. Good news, an eastbound green appeared on M2 so I moved down by the station and set up with my 28-300mm to catch it rounding the curve out of Westmont. I quickly began to question the wisdom of doing a telephoto this late in the morning, heated air rising from the roadbed was bound to make a hash of things so I switched back to my 18-200mm and headed down the platform where I could get some good tree framing by the platform shelter. A highrail went past on M3 and I got a friendly wave. Moments later the crossing bells started and it was train time!
Good looking threads
11:36 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
BNSF e/b priority merchandise
BNSF 1064 Dash 9-44CW
BNSF 5510 Dash 9-44CW
I fired off a series at 200, 80, and 22mm. Surprisingly the 200mm capture wasn’t all that badly heat struck, but that doesn’t mean that a 300mm wouldn’t have been a disaster. Cool train with a very nice H1 painted motor on the lead with an equally well preserved “Burlington Northern Santa Fe” nose herald. Nice!
This was a big heavy train, so I wasn’t surprised find a DPU trailing the parade:
American graffiti
11:38 a.m. – Clarendon Hills IL / Prospect Ave
BNSF e/b priority merchandise – DPU
BNSF 5152 Dash 9-44CW
Shoving hard
I fired off another mini-movie; coming and going shots, than some telephotos as the DPU passed the signal bridge to the east.
Well that was it for me, there was nothing on the horizon so I packed up and headed for home. Not too bad a morning, I could have used a few more well lit eastbounds, but other than that things had gone just fine.
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