My Favorite Spot

I had a chance to get up to my hometown today to shoot the Lancaster and Chester Railroad. The sun was not my friend today. Or maybe the railroad's timing was not my friend as they were heading east in the afternoon where had they been heading the other direction, it would have been much more aesthetically pleasing. So as the train worked it's way toward Lancaster, I began running down the list of spots where I might stand a chance to get a good shot of it.

There is one spot I always want to shot at, but it's a bit tricky. The lighting isn't optimal, I don't believe, most of the times a train might pass there, but it's a wonderful spot on a grade and a steep curve. But there's another obstacle. The shot is on the access road to a small industry, Bowers Fibers, and they shut the fence when they are closed. So in the past I have tried to time the train so I'm not on property too long testing the "ask forgiveness instead of permission" theory.

So I almost did not go down today and then when I did, it looked like the spot had grown up with weeds and bushes. It occurred to me that it had been a long time since I shot there, but I got my shot and was pretty happy with it all things being equal --





I'm typically not one to load both a color and B&W version of the same shot to my site, but I could not decide about this one. I believe I like the B&W one better, but I was pleased enough with them to share both with you.

Later, I remembered the exact date I shot my last train there. I am a numbers guy, so remembering a date is pretty easy for me, but this one was horribly unforgettable for most of us -- September 11, 2011. Without going into a detailed story, I was a student at York Tech at the time and we still had class. At lunch, I went to the mall to watch the events play out on TV. These were the first images I had seen. I had listened to the radio on my way into school that morning, but the coverage on radio could not do justice to the scenes on TV.

So I left the mall and began heading for home in Great Falls, some thirty miles away. I remember being numb, wondering how I was even driving, wondering how the other folks on the road were remembering to use turn signals and stop at red lights. It felt like there should be mass chaos in the streets. At some point, I got off I-77 at Exit 65. I would usually take Hwy. 9 to Hwy. 99 to go home. I must have caught a train on the L&C or maybe I went down to Grace to see if one was there because next thing I recall I was at Bowers Fibers shooting a train in this spot. I remember waving at the conductor and almost shrugging to say, "I'm not sure what I'm doing shooting trains today." And he waved and almost shrugged too as if to say, "I'm not sure what we're doing still working today."

That's how I remembered it anyway lmost thirteen years to the day, when I finally went back to the same spot to shoot a train.

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