Tag Archives: #deluge

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Coal Train in the Rain

Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I had spent a productive afternoon along the old PRR Middle Division. It was bright and sunny when we arrived, but thunderstorms had blown in from the west. What started as a sprinkle had rapidly turned into a raging Monsoon.

Looming out the deluge at Thomsontown, Pa., was this eastward Norfolk Southern loaded unit coal train.

I set the camera shutter to a 1/8000th of second to freeze the rain drops.

The rain had falling so heavily that we were beginning to worry about the highway flooding.

Although we took a slightly circuitous route we ended up following the train east to the famed Rockville Bridge. Stay tuned for more!

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Deluge at Thompsontown

Thunderstorms from the west closed in on us as we drove east toward Thompsontown, Pa., on state highway 333.

It was raining so hard, I could barely see where we were driving. Seamus-the-Dog slept in the back of the car.

“What’s that yellow light?”

“I think it’s a signal . . . no wait . . .it’s a headlight!”

We pulled over near Norfolk Southern control point SIP 143.5 on the Pittsburgh Line at Thompsontown just as a westward intermodal train glided through the deluge unimpeded.

I stopped the car, ran to the back an opened the rear hatch. This provided me a modicum of shelter long enough to photograph the train.

This was some of the hardest rain I’ve ever seen. It was coming down more than 2 inches an hour and the road was beginning to flood.

I set my ISO to 1000, and exposed this sequence with my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens. You can see the individual rain drops in the enlarged images.

Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens set at 200mm. F2.8, 1/500th second, ISO 1000
Greatly enlarged section of the above photo. Notice the rain droplets.

I got completely soaked but did my best to keep the camera from getting total drenched.

It was raining too hard to drive, so we waited in the car for until the rain let up. It wasn’t long before we spied another light in the distance . . . .

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!