Work was easy and uneventful until I got a message from Steve Barry saying that he was in Woodstown as well visiting his mom and more importantly that the switcher was actually sitting in Woodstown as of 4PM the previous afternoon. Sweet! I don't need to waste time going down to Salem if it was still in town. A few hours later, Steve stopped by on his way back home to shoot the breeze for a while giving me a chance to take a break from running between soccer fields. I'd get a call later saying that the switcher was gone and there was nothing on the line to Swedesboro. Bummer. I guess I will have to take that ride to Salem after all.
There were two locations for this tournament which required me driving back and forth twice during the day. I had made one trip already in the morning and the next one was scheduled for the 1:55PM games. I drove the photographer over early just to be safe and started back to help the other at the Marlton Rd. fields. Having some extra time as I don't have to actually do anything until the half around 2:30PM, curiosity got the best of me and I had to check out where the switcher had been setting for future reference. There was a small runaround with a covered hopper on it and also cars on the main...with a marker (flag)! A glance in the rear-view mirror showed the black LTEX switcher hiding next to the trees. (Sorry, Steve. You must have missed it heading south somewhere.) I made a U-turn and started following them south where they were shoving a covered hopper. Not familiar with the area or ops at all, I eventually found them shoving into a siding along Wilson Ave. I took a few shots of them spotting the car and a few of the engine in perfect light as they entered the main before taking off for the Route 45 overpass which yielded a decent view of the siding with a hint of fall color.
I went back to finish working at the fields as they put the engine into the siding. The photographer at the Marlton Rd. fields was finished at 3:30PM so after I had gotten his last card downloaded I needed to head to the middle school, get the other photographer back to his car and I'd be done for the day. As I crossed the tracks, only two blocks from the middle school where the other fields were, I glanced to my right, nothing, glanced to my right, headlight and ditch lights on. I quickly pulled into the parking lot and half sprinted back to the crossing only to see the headlight hadn't moved that far but was blowing for the next crossing. The crossing I was at was in shadow and with no telephoto, I had to find an alternative and quick. I turned around and saw the small bridge over the small creek between the two halves of Memorial Lake in sun. I ran down to the bridge but didn't see a big enough opening on the other side but I did notice the concrete pier was only an inch below the surface of the water which would be fine to stand in with my boots. I swung tree to tree as I walked down the steep concrete wall leading to the water. It wasn't great but I was committed with them blowing for the East Millbrooke Rd. crossing just north of the bridge. I was setup for a landscape shot but had to quickly readjust for a vertical once I saw the engine was much too big to fit under the overhanging branches.
I was hoping that the photographer would be done and that I could just take him to his car so I could at least get one more shot before Salem, but it was not to be. I had already gotten more shots of US Rail moving than I thought I was going to...ever. I was happy.
Sorry about the bad intel. There are very few places between Woodstown and Swedesboro where a train can hide -- I probably passed the light locomotive when it was in the trees.
ReplyDeleteGlad it worked out.