Trains in the Rain

In my last blog, I mentioned how my day job has become my night job. Aside from the switch in shifts, I also am working more weekends, too. But working more weekends means I get more days off during the week. And as a photographer who likes to shoot trains, this isn't a bad thing as some of the smaller and more interesting rail lines tend to work mostly Monday through Friday. So imagine my disappointment when I looked at weather.com and noted that all of my off days this week would be rainy and cold. In the past, this might lead me to stay home and keep my camera in my bag. But not today. Trains run in all kinds of weather and I might as well go out and shoot them in the rain.

Admittedly, you can shoot trains from a dry and warm car in some cases such as this one. I was actually hoping for more rain as I saw the train creep up to the highway thinking it may add interest to the shot.



An industrial setting with the rain clearly hitting the highway added interest to this one for me. It was the first series of shots of the afternoon and by far my favorite. So I left East Chester in hopes of catching the other train running on the L&C and did not have to go far. I caught it in Richburg, SC then turned around and followed it back to East Chester where I went for a side view to show the high short hood of the second engine.



They stopped to meet the other train at the wye and I set up for a shot that would include both trains. But it was raining and in my haste to get the shot, I forgot to dry the lens.



Both crews had to work in tandem to clear the main line so the second train could pass. Here, two crew members have to ride the front of the train as they move the cars off the track.



The second man is now on the ground. As the train stops, he will cut the engines apart so the crews can work on separate trains again.



Then the crews split their trains up again. Two units are on the other end of the train on the far track and are clearing the switch to allow the train in the siding to come out. That train will then take the cars to the east end of the wye and leave them there.



The crew will then run light to downtown Chester to meet a Norfolk Southern grain train.





The L&C crew then coupled onto the train that the NS crew had just left.



And I called it a day.

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