After nearly a nearly month long hiatus for various reasons (I got sick, my cat got sick, my furnace got sick) I finally had a chance to get out today. I didn’t have big plans (I’m still kind of wobbly and wanted to keep things simple) so my goal was Naperville to catch the inbound Illinois Zephyr plus whatever else happened by. It worked out fairly well despite some cloud issues, so maybe I’m back on track.
I hit the road a little after 9 a.m. under iffy skies. The forecast had called for sun but I’d woken to clouds that were slowly burning off. The mix wasn’t very good at the moment but I was hoping for better as the morning wore on. Not an exciting drive, just the usual Sunday morning traffic, which you’d think would be free and easy, but I’ve learned to steer clear of the church crowd, a lot of them seem to be in a hurry to meet their maker. On the opposite end of the spectrum I passed a Family Video store advertising a special event on the 11th where you can give blood and rent “Twilight”. Wow, get your blood and brains sucked out at the same time, what a deal!
I landed trackside at Naperville to find empty tracks but a couple of greens too, a westbound on M1 and an eastbound on M2. Great since the M2 indication was probably good for a freight. In the mean time I walked the station area; good news, they seemed to be done with platform repairs for the time being, so I had an unobstructed view. Cool. What wasn’t so cool were those pesky clouds; instead of going away they seemed to be increasing! Definitely not what I wanted, I was just going to hope to get lucky with the sun. Got into a conversation with a nice lady here to pick up someone off the I Zephyr, she was curious if I was waiting on something special (she has some railfan relatives) and we discovered that we lived only a few blocks apart in Downers. Our chat was interrupted by the first action of the day, a westbound commuter that arrived under light that could only be classified as wishy-washy:
Not the best of skies
09:40 a.m. – Naperville IL / 4th Ave
METX w/b commuter
METX 117 F40PH-3
I wasn’t planning on doing much with the train, after all it was just a commuter, but I ended up getting three shots; a couple of wedgies and a stand alone of the #117. Not too bad considering the light issues.
As the train arrived a headlight popped up to the west, and even better, the sun broke free of the clouds:
At the west crossovers
Much better sky!
09:43 a.m. – Naperville IL / 4th Ave
BNSF e/b loaded unit coal
BNSF 9169 SD70ACe
BNSF 6309 ES44AC
Must have heard different weather reports
Reflections on a passing train
Since I had really good light I fired off a slide show of shots as the train went by; telephotos of it passing the signal bridge, a wedgie (that turned out to be the best of the bunch), and a going away shot of it passing the crowd waiting on the platform for the Zephyr, one optimistic fellow was wearing short sleeves! I also grabbed some reflection shots using the glass for the staircases down to Washington St. Nice catch!
The arrival time for the Illinois Zephyr came and went, so obviously they were running a bit behind. However I did have a westbound green on M1, a sure sign of a freight since the commuter had just passed. I didn’t have much of a wait:
Empties west
09:51 a.m. – Naperville IL / 4th Ave
BNSF w/b empty unit coal
BNSF 6034 ES44AC
BNSF 9519 SD70MAC
I didn’t get too fancy with this one, just some wedgies of it passing the station, it sure helped that the sun came out just in time for my photos!
The coalie cleared and an eastbound green popped up for the Illinois Zephyr. My big problem was how to shoot it; it would be coming in on M3, tight to the platform and amid all the shadows cast by the station and the walkway shelter. Figuring that my best bet was to get clear of the shadows I moved to the west end of the platform. That got rid of the shadows, but now the clouds were doing their thing. I found an interesting shot involving the staircase shelter down by Washington St, I just needed some sun to brighten things up a bit. Time passed, the clouds didn’t, and a westbound green appeared on M1 in the wake of the coalie. Hopefully that would hold off long enough for conditions to improve. Finally a headlight appeared to the west, and it even looked like I might have a chance at some sun! Great, bring on the action!
Now arriving
Checking the view out the window
10:08 a.m. – Naperville IL / 4th Ave
AMT e/b Illinois Zephyr
AMT 199 P42DC
I got some decent sun as the train passed the far signal bridge, but it faded a bit by time I had a chance at my shelter shot. Still it came out looking nice. Even better it made an encore as the train’s “cabbage car” went by:
At the station
Cabbage patch kid
10:10 a.m. – Naperville IL / 4th Ave
AMT e/b Illinois Zephyr
AMT 90413 “Cabbage car”
I hobbled down the platform as fast as I could (which nowadays isn’t very fast) and grabbed some roster shots of the #90413 just before the train departed.
I didn’t move far for the next train, a westbound vehicle probably fresh off the CSX:
Stacks and racks
10:15 a.m. – Naperville IL / 4th Ave
BNSF w/b vehicle train
BNSF 4461 Dash 9-44CW
CSX 7522 Dash 8-40C
Of course NOW the sun sum out!
Too bad that conventional cabbed Dash 8-40C wasn’t leading! I had great light right until the train appeared and then it rapidly went downhill. I grabbed a single shot, not bad, but not great either, losing my light at the last moment certainly didn’t help!
A yellow appeared on M1 as soon as the vehicle train cleared the block; this certainly looked like a big day for westbounds! Time passed and the signal went to flashing yellow even though I could still see the vehicle train in the distance. An eastbound green appeared, most probably for the commuter due thru at 10:33, so I moved down to the east end of the platform to vary the view a bit. Unfortunately a rather large woman decided that I knew where the train was going to stop and started following me around. I was kind of hoping that she’d figure that since I had a camera that I was trying to keep away from people, but no, she hovered nearby like an orbiting moon. Even when the headlight appeared and I began waving my camera around she didn’t get the point, so I lead her back to the crowd before abruptly reversing course to a patch of sun to catch the action without an eclipse:
Heading for the big city
10:34 a.m. – Naperville IL / 4th Ave
METX e/b commuter
METX 117 F40PH-3
I actually managed to pull off a pretty nice shot despite getting a small tree branch caught in my shoelaces that acted like a hobble!
I wish that I could claim as much success with the next train, but the weather had other ideas. Time passed and I hung around the east end of the platform hoping to catch some nice sunny shots of whatever was set up for the westbound green on M1. No such luck, the clouds thickened and by time a headlight appeared I was operating under full gloom:
Losing the light
10:42 a.m. – Naperville IL / 4th Ave
BNSF w/b empty unit coal
BNSF 5729 AC4400EV
BNSF 8933 SD70MAC
Nice train, but no light! I popped off a couple telephotos hoping to salvage something that way, but the end result was nothing to write home about. Too bad I hadn’t camped out at the west end of the platform; it had sun!
With that I decided to call it quits for the morning; the clouds were definitely taking over. Still it had been a pretty good day with some good captures.
Previous post: 01/06/12 ”Schnabeling”
