An ALP in the Night.

There are a lot of reasons why I like Miranda going to Monmouth University. 1. Its close! 2. It's a great school with an awesome campus so I love visiting. and, of course, 3. NJT's Long Branch yard/station is a few minutes away. Surprisingly, I had never really done anything more than drive by a couple of times in the dozen or so times I've gone down to MU so I decided to change that last night.

After grabbing a late dinner around 10PM, we went back to the campus where I helped her study for a midterm she had the following day. We stayed outside where it would be quiet. That is except for the nearly constant sounding of horns from the North Jersey Coast Line (NJCL) as trains were shuffled around the yard, which is bracketed by crossings, as they got into position for the morning rush. I finished asking the questions on the study guide and we sat talking for a while longer. 11 turned to 12 and 12 turned to 12:40, so, both being exhausted we decided to say goodnight and get some sleep. I had a half hour drive back home but the thought of the horns was too tempting for me to resist and with NJT putting their new ALP46A locomotives (4629-4664) slowly into service, I wanted to see if any would be sitting in the yard making a trip to the NJCL in the morning worthwhile. I drove into the station parking lot to get a better look...NJT 4611 and cab cars...NJT 4025 was sitting at the station but there was a light right above the engine killing any chance for a shot. As I started rolling to leave, the pedestrian crossing lights started going off as a south bound pulled into the station. They stopped with the engine off the platform so I drove to a neighboring parking lot to find NJT 4638 on the north end. That answered my question about whether a trip in the morning was worthwhile. They started rolling south so I paced them to see if a clear shot would be possible but to no avail. I continued past the yard to Bath Ave. which crosses at grade south of the yard. Much to my surprise NJT 4643 was on the south end of one set with nothing in the way, sweet! Feeling motivated, I parked and set up for a few quick shots.

 

If you look carefully, you will notice a headlight in the distance. That would be NJT 4025 leaving for Bay Head. I started walking back to the car not caring but decided to take advantage of it being 1AM and no cars driving by. I set the tripod up in the middle of the road looking at the crossing, fiddled with the settings, focused and opened the shutter. Eh, let's see what happens. Hm, that's pretty cool. Not a masterpiece by any means but multilevels look pretty cool when streaked. Also note Orion's Belt at the top center of the photo.