Evening Glint in Run 8

An hour and twenty minutes late is right on time for me. The Westbound Cardinal heads downgrade at Hilldale in the late evening.

Another eastbound crawls under the classic C&O cantilever at Hilldale. A 300 second exposure @ f8.0, ISO 100.

Westbound at track speed.

Eastbound Cardinal, in the expert hands of Engineer Hensley.

Looking down the barrel of 6188' long Big Bend Tunnel.

My wife always questions my desire to climb out of bed at 4am to chase trains. Coming home with scenes like this helps my cause. Climbing the grade to Big Bend Tunnel. 90 second exposure @ f5.6... (more)

The last rays of the day.

A morning in which everything came together. Sunlight, waning fog, and a train with perfect timing. Q302 gets the green to go after following a slow moving coal train.

An increasing rare catch, talking that classic GE 'chug' as she climbs the grade to Big Bend Tunnel. If you take a peek in the engineers window, you'll notice one benefit to having a control stan... (more)

Never take an opportunity to put film on a C&O cantilever signal for granted. Westbound mty hoppers coast downgrade from the west portal of Big Bend Tunnel. This signal protects the western end of... (more)

The loudest place to watch a train in Southern West Virginia! 70 feet below, a pair of Big Macs are down on their knees dragging 150 loads up to the tunnel portal. Mother Nature brought the fog, ... (more)

Q303 makes a late evening appearance downgrade through Hilldale in the sweet evening light. Notice that the engineer's trying to figure out why there's an idiot standing on a pile of dirt beside ... (more)

One of my favorite locomotives gets the call to lead Q302 this morning.

The only Q series trains that roam this portion of the old C&O are present and accounted for this morning. Q302 yields while Q303 goes from the main to one west of Big Bend Tunnel.