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four engines up front — a BNSF GE AC4400CW and EMD SD70ACe in orange paint, a red Canadian Pacific GE ES4AC, and a trailing green and tan BNSF EMD SD70MAC, a most unusual mix of power for the Joint Line (plus four helpers, two manned, on the rear). But it stopped again too far from the Greenland crossing for pho- tos for another long wait, this time for the arrival of a new crew as the old crew — in- cluding on the rear helper — had obviously “gone dead” on the 12 hour law. The train then pulled ahead for two more miles where it stopped yet again to wait for rail mainte- nance vehicles up ahead to clear. Even after the vehicles cleared, the train waited (for what I never learned); after about five hours I finally gave up and drove home on the Joint Line, counting six more trains backed up be- hind it, all waiting, waiting, waiting...
Waiting... It’s All Part of the Plan
At times, however, waiting a long time can even be part of the plan for the day. Back in the 1990s I was finishing up work on my book Moffat! Rio Grande-Southern Pacific- Union Pacific West of Denver, Colorado (Fox Publications, 1997). Wanting better cover- age of the “Tunnel District,” that stretch of the Moffat with 27 tunnels in only 13 miles, on a couple of occasions I went into the area around Tunnels 18 back through 14 carry- ing a folding chair, lunch and reading mate- rial with plans to spend the day if necessary, waiting on what might be just one train dur- ing the hours of good light. I had discovered a forest service road that
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allowed me to drive over the top of Tunnel 18 and the long Tunnel 17, then I would hike over or around — but not through — other tunnels to get to a good location. Long story short, I got the planned shot, making the several hours’ long wait and effort of climb-
ing up and down the hillsides worth it. At times we end up waiting in vain, such
as happened to me on one of my early neo- phyte train chasing excursions. Back in 1981, I had read about Ansel Adams’ black & white scenic landscape photography and also been inspired by Richard Loveman’s and Mel Patrick’s landmark black & white photo book Never On Wednesday — the First Decade of the Rio Grande Zephyr, about the RGZ’s six-day-a-week schedule traveling be- tween Denver and Ogden, Utah, with Wednesdays off for maintenance. So on a relatively mild winter’s morning with a blue sky and fluffy white clouds, I had a photo en- visioned that would capture the bright sun- lit nose of the Zephyr contrasted against a dark backdrop of shadows. Arriving at my chosen location well ahead of the time the Zephyr would arrive, I carefully planned my photo and determined what I hoped would be the correct exposure to capture both the highlights and dark shadow details. Then I settled down to wait. But the Zephyr never came. After well over an hour waiting, I fi- nally gave it up. It was only later that I real- ized the “perfect” morning I had chosen for my “great” Rio Grande Zephyr photo was a Wednesday, the one day each week the RGZ never ran. I could recount numerous other train
waiting stories, but we are running out of room. I think it is safe to say we have all ex- perienced similar or different waiting situa- tions, so a question: How is the best way to maximize your time spent trackside? How do you fill the minutes of what often turns into a wait of an hour or more? Bottom line: Since waiting will occur no matter how well we plan a railfan excursion, use your wait- ing time as productively as you can, even if that means just relaxing with a good snack, some reading or a nap!
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10 JULY-OCTOBER 2014 •
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