Norcross Night Train
Tonight I paid a visit to Historic Downtown Norcross in order to catch the Amtrak Crescent out of Atlanta.
Glenn, my railroad consultant, found on the Amtrak website that the Crescent (daily service from New Orleans to New York) would be originating from Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday due to the recent wet weather. This was good news, as it meant the train was more likely to leave Brookwood Station at the time indicated on the schedule (8:08pm).
Armed with this knowledge I set off for Norcross after work and burnt time wandering the area and looking for shots. At ten til’ eight I found myself trackside again so I set up the tripod, framed up the shot, did a few practice exposures, and set about waiting.
Glenn called shortly thereafter to inform me that something wasn’t quite right — part of the Crescent wasn’t on the main line and the rest was nowhere to be seen, which was unusual, but perhaps explainable due to the fact that they weren’t running the whole line (fewer passengers). Still, where was the rest of the train? It might have already been on its way.
A few minutes later he called to say that a freight train had just passed through. It should arrive in twenty minutes. By that time it was about 8:30. I relaxed and tried not to appear too nerd-like, sitting next to the railroad tracks with my camera on a tripod and Glenn’s external flash by my side while pedestrians milled about after their dinners.
Just after 9 o’clock I moved the car to park right behind my tripod spot and climbed in to wait. I wasn’t going to just go home after an hour; something had to come down that track! And it was right about that time that something did. I heard the horn in the distance and practically fell all over myself scrambling out of the car, hurriedly trying to reattach the camera to the tripod, ready the flash, check the exposure and collect my thoughts on how I was going to shoot it as the crossing gates were going down.
It came in a hurry: a big diesel hauling dozens of boxcars and tankers. I fumbled with the remote shutter release I borrowed from Chap and started the exposure just as it neared the crossing, firing the flash manually a split second thereafter.
The train roared by, horn blowing several times seemingly in acknowledgment of the flash. I snapped a couple more as the boxcars blurred by, and before I knew it the crossing gates were rising again. I reviewed my three exposures on the camera’s LCD: The wait had paid off. An hour of sitting and enjoying a pleasant evening outdoors, and then a big damn train roars by! It’s hard to type this without sounding ridiculous, but it was pretty dang exciting!
Giddy with the rush of the experience, I called Glenn and reported that the freight train had finally appeared. He wasn’t sure if I’d see the Crescent or not, and I figured I’d gotten enough to make it worth it. I was hungry, and it wasn’t worth waiting until 10:30 for a possible second train. Another night.
I set the camera and flash in the car and was collapsing the tripod when I heard another whistle. My heart skipped a beat and I again scrambled to re-setup everything I’d torn down. I sat and checked the exposure, expecting to see the train in the viewfinder. Nothing. The nearest crossing gate hadn’t even gone down yet, and come to think of it, the horn sounded a bit strange. Low and meek, more of a “You might want to move off the tracks” than the previous “Get the hell out of the way!” As this train crawled into view and along the crossing I repeated the shot I’d made just minutes before, again firing the flash and then waving to the slow-moving engineer as he passed and waved, blinded by my flashbulb.
It was a short train, two engines and two low freight cars, slowly making its way down the tracks and around the curve, gradually out of sight. I packed and headed home to do some photo processing on the sofa.
The results were pretty rewarding; I’ll have to cook up another such excursion in the future. I was keeping O. Winston Link’s work in mind with the external flash, but even a nice vintage Sunpak is no match for the numerous flashes Link used to set up his shots. (In discussing it with Glenn and Chap we suspected this, but I had to try something.)
Perhaps I can actually capture the Crescent with its glowing passenger cars next time.