Well Worth a Try

Friends, I went out at night to take train photos, and I enjoyed it.

I had been thinking about photographing trains at night for a while. Initially it was something that I felt like I “should” do, since I used to love doing that. Why not do more of what you like?

The problem was that I didn’t feel like doing it. Sometimes it’s an inertia thing – once you get moving, it’s ok – it’s just that initial push is hard.

I was very mindful of the last time that I tried “forcing the issue” to take photos when I didn’t feel like it. It did not go well.

This time, it was good.

It helped that CN sent lots of trains.

Train One

The first train was rolling west as I approached Wilkes Avenue and the CN Rivers subdivision.

I’m not very fast when I set up for night photography. There’s setting the tripod up, then mounting the camera on it, then setting the lens to manual focus, focusing… lots to do.

For this train, I didn’t have much time. I beat it to Diamond but not by much. I pulled over, shut the car off, and hopped out, camera in hand. I did the camera settings and propped it up on my car’s roof to try to get a steady long exposure photo.

It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad.

Once the head end passed, I had the time to get the tripod out and do it right.

I don’t know why that top left light looks white here. It was definitely red.

I like how the signal lights reflect off the side of the containers.

It was only a few minutes before the eastbound train came rolling through.

Train Two

Not much to say here – the train came through! I liked the colours in the final image.

Train Three

After the second train, I drove a half mile west to the Wescana Road crossing. The mile 15 marker is just east of the crossing.

I waited there for a few minutes before an eastbound train came rolling along.

This image is a composite of two images. The locomotives are the bright streaks and are overlaid on top of an image I took 30 seconds later. I wanted to include some stars in the image and they weren’t visible in the first image, since the locomotive lights were so bright. There’s a little touch of the Milky Way there as well, a happy accident.

Train Four

I was pretty happy with the three trains that I captured. I started driving back toward Winnipeg and noticed a vehicle parked at Diamond, with headlights pointing at the track. I felt that this must be a fellow railfan.

I kept going to the next crossing east. From there I could see the east-facing signals, and they were green. Another train!

I quickly returned to the Diamond area and set up.

You can see the effect of their headlights in the photos above and below – part of the train is well lit.

I made sure to capture the end of the train with its flashing rear-end light making a series of dashes in the long exposure.

I really enjoyed that. I’m glad I got off the couch and went out to take night train photos again.