Foggy days. Foggy nights.
I took a little walk to a nearby train yard. I’ve been meaning to do that for a while. We’ve had a lot of fog so I wanted to photograph the fog at night. I found two engines with their motors warming up. I was astounded to see a caboose sitting between them. Of course, there is a fence between me and them. I heard them before I could see them.
I did the best that I could.
I made this picture and added some roundish highlights to the image. I really didn’t have to, but you know me. I also had help from some business behind this little group. They had their big lights turned on, which helped me to make perfect silhouettes up against a glowing foggy sky.
The caboose is another story all together. My amazement arose because no railroads use cabooses today. Congress changed a law that required them to be attached to freight trains. Once the law changed most cabooses were headed to the scrapyard or to your favorite park. This is a working caboose. It is not used for its intended purpose, but rather as a place for the train crew to rest on long haul rides.
One more thing about the picture. Notice the quality? It’s much better than many images that I post here. I used my baby Leica. It’s a great camera for pictures like this and for many of the subjects that I photograph. It’s not so good for second lines or Mardi Gras Indians. When I say baby I mean it. It has a fixed zoom lens. It’s range is from 24mm to 75mm. It’s also fast. very fast, since it has a large f stop at f1.7.
About walking. I didn’t take a dog. This was a little photo walk.I learned that if I walk at my normal pace, rather than stopping, and letting the dogs explore, my legs don’t hurt anywhere near as much as they normally do.
And, so it goes.
STORYTELLER 
That is the first thing I noticed was the bokeh lights. I love trains, I did not know that about the caboose. No wonder I don’t see them. Someday I would love to see the big steam engines, I believe they are mostly out west.
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Yes. Sometimes I can’t leave well enough alone. There are no working steam engines if you mean actually pulling trains. If you mean some that have been restored and run from time time, there are a couple. The largest steam engine ever built did a loop around The US late last year. Normally, it is stored in Wyoming.
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That would have been a sight to see, I would live to see the Santa Fe 3751, it does say it has been restored to operating condition. I have watch videos and it looks so impressive. It says it is the oldest surviving 4-8-4 type steam locomotive. So not steam anymore but it is so large and just amazing to me. That is on my someday list.
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It’s being restored again. Steam engines are required to be restored every 15 years. It takes 3-4 years. So, this year or next.
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I will have to keep an eye on that.
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Love the caboose! The silhouettes work very well.
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Thank you. The fog and the backlighting did the trick.
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I really like the dark atmosphere of that one. It may be just the way my weird mind works, but I find that the electric post that looks like a crucifix adds to that atmosphere of gloom.
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Thanks. Ah yes. The power poles and lines. I’ve long given up trying to avoid them in an urban environment so I work them in the picture.
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Such a haunting photograph. Trains always coming into my dreams, but never as strange as this. If it was the beginning of a film, I wonder what soundtrack would be used.
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Thank you. Something by Hans Zimmer. Or, a local musician called Paul Sanchez.
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