Last Light Railfanning

I enjoy railfanning in all seasons. Fall brings gorgeous foliage. Winter brings clear skies and blowing snow. Spring brings bright green and pools of water for reflecting trains. Summer brings pleasant temperatures… and long days.

In mid August 16, 2020 I took advantage of those long days to get some “last light” railfanning in.

August 15

CN 2625 idling away in Transcona
CN 2625 idling away in Transcona

I was in the Transcona area of Winnipeg late in the day on August 15. The photo above was taken from Ravenhurst Street just east of the CN yard at 8:35 PM.

I love that you can see the downtown from here. You can see the Prairie 360 restaurant atop the building just to the right of the train’s tail. That’s 12 km from where I was standing.

About 20 minutes later, I was down at Navin at the southeast end of Symington Yard to capture the last light.

CN Navin signals
CN Navin signals

August 16

CN 2884 coming out of the sunset
CN 2884 coming out of the sunset

I was out on the CN main line the next evening. At 8 PM I caught CN 2884 East rolling past mile 19 on the Rivers subdivision.

I had my drone up for this and recorded it with the setting sun in the background.

CN 2884 from the air

After waiting around for half an hour for more trains, I started heading home. As I was about to leave the main line for home, I spotted a westbound train. I pulled off to capture them against the glorious purple sunset.

CN 8887 and a glorious sky
CN 8887 and a glorious sky

I’m not sure which photo I like better – the photo above with the shadows boosted so you can see the side of the locomotive, or the one below with the locomotives as silhouettes. What’s your favourite?

Going for the silhouette
Going for the silhouette

I also tried a few shots with a slower shutter speed to blur the train…

Sunrise and sunset – a photographer’s delight.

Just One More Thing

I’m in the middle of reading The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Lackey. I don’t want to give any plot details away, so I can’t really describe this book much. It’s a post-apocalyptic book set in England, featuring the title girl as a student in a very unique school.

What I really like about this book is A) the premise, B) seeing the different viewpoints of the main characters, and C) the girl’s very unique viewpoint.

I had to force myself to put this book down so I could go to bed at a decent hour.

If you like post-apocalyptic type thrillers, give The Girl With All The Gifts a try.

9 thoughts on “Last Light Railfanning”

  1. Hi Steve,

    Both photos are good, but I’ll vote for the picture where you boosted the shadows. In addition to seeing the side of the locomotive, I think that the reflection of light off of the rail creates an additional visual interest in the image

  2. The silhouetted locomotives are nice, but the problem is that the sky has a lot of different colours and gradients, while the locomotives are a block of black which looks off to me. Since the boosted shadows show the details on the engine, the contrast isn’t as jarring and I will go with the shadows one. I don’t massively like the blur image; it’s on the verge of looking like the train’s out of focus.

      • Hi Steve, sorry for the delay, but I needed to think about this and then forgot. I suspect that with a plainer sky/sky with fewer clouds the silhouettes would look better, but I don’t know if it would beat a boosted shadows equivalent.

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