2015 Year in Review [Highlights] Part 1

 

This is how my 2015 started and I couldn't have been more thrilled. I didn't make it out to shoot anything until January 16th when there were a bunch of posts about CNW 8646 sitting in Enola Yard waiting for assignment. I was shooting locally and with the following day free (amazingly), I took for Harrisburg to wait and see what happened. I got to the yard by 2:30PM and a few reports came in that it would be going north on NS 31T to Montreal, Quebec. I waited it out by shooting some movements on the Pittsburgh Line until they finished doubling their train at 9:30PM. The first spot I could catch them was at Sunbury, PA on the Buffalo Line.

I spent a few days during the rest of January and February shooting the local Conrail action, the Lehigh Line, and even a day at Strasburg but the next highlight came at the end of February. My brother and I were able to coordinate a day to go out somewhere and the weather decided to cooperate as well. We decided the "where?" would be the Winchester & Western to catch the railroad's ex-NS SD9M. We had done a few trips while the WW was using BDRV 9581 a few years ago but had yet to see WW 954. After checking in at the office, we first chased the train down to Dividing Creek.

That was good enough for us so we drove east towards Millville, where we were told WW 954 would be working. We were not in town long before they finished working the yard and headed south to Durand Glass Manufacturing.

Another significant snow storm hit the area on March 5th so I went to the Northeast Corridor where I knew I was guaranteed to get something. It was a decent afternoon but on my way home after sunset, I decided that the wait for Conrail local SA33 to Dayton wouldn't be too bad and the snow was tapering off so I stopped off in Helmetta to attempt my first night shot of the Helme Snuff Mill undergoing restoration into a loft apartment complex.

More snow would fall on March 20th, so my brother and I chose to head up to the NYSW where the most snow was predicted to accumulate. An earlier departure than normal was a blessing as it allowed a longer daylight chase which is rare during the winter. Our first shot was Oakland, NJ after missing anything closer to Little Ferry.

 

The winner of the chase for me was SU99 passing Baird's Farm at Warwick, NY just before dark.

 

More days off and sunny days meant a lot of shooting at the end of March and I was out and about again on the 23rd to shoot the Ringling Brothers circus train heading west on the NS Lehigh Line. It was another day I was planning on staying local until someone posted a heads up about they train departing later than originally expected. I went the back way to I-78 through Neshanic Station so I barely made it into Bethlehem, PA before they did. But I did. I decided to include the following shot of the train getting back on the move passing the Reading signals because they are currently in the process of being replaced. An unsuccessful chase west led me to spend the rest of the day shooting some of the other Reading signals between Alburtis and Fleetwood.

 

Thanks to another advanced heads up, I was up early on the morning of March 26th to catch the NS OCS heading east on the Pittsburgh Line. I made it as far west as Horningford, my favorite spot on the line, before hearing NS 956 calling signals. I chased back to Harrisburg where the clouds kept me from going any further.

My brother had the day free on April 4th and clear skies gave us a chance to explore the signals along the NS Reading Line. It was also our first time shooting the Allentown & Auburn.

A recent trend for me the past few years has been a trip sometime in April down south for the beginning of spring color. In 2015, that trip was to the NS Christiansburg and Pocahontas Districts. The goal of the trip and weather of the trip can be summed up in one shot. CPLs, N&W heritage and rain.

I consider them two separate trips in my 2015 folder but the end of my trip included the April 18-19 charter on the Potomac Eagle put on by Chase Gunnoe Photography. I'm not old enough to remember too much about the Chessie Sytem but it has always been my favorite paint scheme so I could not pass up the opportunity to spend an entire day shooting a Chessie GP9 or B&O F7 for that matter.

The next trip would not be until May 8th with which I will start Part 2.

"No resolutions this year, just goals."

"No resolutions this year, just goals." - Joe Hinson

A fellow photographer friend of mine posted this on Facebook on New Years Eve and it immediately struck a chord with me.

While 2015 was a relatively productive year photography wise, it was the year I spent the least amount of time shooting since 2006, what I consider the beginning of my "good photography" (when I started driving/upgraded my camera to a DSLR). The end of the year was especially slow after getting a promotion at work that kept me from having any free time in daylight from November until now. The main reason, I suspect though, is that 2015 was the first full year I spent living at home since 2010. It wasn't a new or exciting place to explore like I had been used to for 4 years. There was no motivation to shoot the same ol', same ol'. Obviously, that was a terrible way of looking at it because I missed out on a lot. I will still be at home in 2016 but with a much different mindset: capture what I haven't done locally before it disappears and recapture some things that might have changed within the last 5 years. That brings us to the title of this post before doing a little review of 2015. 2016 will be the year to have goals and reach them or at least try as hard as possible to get to as many as I can in 365 days.