Cass Railfan Weekend - 5

Hi, Sunday, the final day of the weekend was to be short.  The train was scheduled to go to Whittaker and return by 2:30 PM.  But first there were some photo opportunities between the station and the shops; including

the famous triple runby.  Hokey but impressive.

As the schedule was shortened and the weather continued cloudy with a threat of rain, we all decided to get the trains one more time at the first grade crossing out of town and then head for home.  Jeremy and Dale stayed at the crossing while Dave and I went down the track to a stream we had spotted on Saturday from the train.

It just so happened that one of the breakmen was riding the rea porch of the train and waved when he saw us.  This was my final frame of the trip, a fitting end.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Cass Railfan Weekend - 4

Hi, On Day 2 our trip, again with a passenger train and a photo freight, went to Bald Knob.

The freight is on the line to Bald Knob with the new line to New Spruce in the background.

Lunch was served at Bald Knob in fog.  The freight came up behind us while we were sitting eating lunch.  As our car was directly in front of the caboose it was easy to get this shot through its back door.

On the way back to Cass we stopped for photos at a wye.  The tail track behind #11 once went to logging spurs.

Back in Cass I walked around town looking for interesting photos.

This is the general store.

The striped pole says it all.

A second night photo session was held when it got dark.

The log train was spotted south of the station.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Cass Railfan Weekend - 3

Hi, The festivities at Cass began on Friday, 5/17 and ran for 2 1/2 days.  I will do a post for each day.  For the most part the weather was cloudy with occasional brief periods of  heavy rain.  Also, there were a few brief periods of weak sun.

Dale, Dave, Jeremy and I stayed in a cabin in the town of Cass.  These cabins, which are former company houses, are owned and rented by the state park.  It was a great place to stay.  Comfortable, convenient and very inexpensive.

After the included breakfast we headed for the tracks.  A log train with a bobber caboose and a log loader was set out for photography.  Seeing it I had high hopes it would be our photo subject for the day.  Although it was not to be as the cars had break issues and the FRA would not allow the equipment on the mountain,

there were some photo runs between the station and the water tank
.

Other equipment was being moved around, including WM #6, and

other photo set ups were provided before we headed up the mountain.

Some adjustments were made to the mechanism of WM #6 before we left Cass.

We had a number of photo stops with both the passenger train we were riding and this photo freight.  New Spruce was typical.

The old, lumber company line was on the near bank of the creek behind the train.

Upon our return we had an opportunity for shots around the locomotive servicing area.

After dark there was a night photo session outside the locomotive shop.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

NKP 765 - May 26, 2013

Hi, We left our motel about 5:45 and drove to Miflintown for our first shot.  The train showed up 7:51 AM.

While the train loaded in Lewistown we ran around it and found this location just south of Mattawana.  Amazingly, only three other people joined us here.

At this point we left the railroad and took a shorter route as we felt it would decrease the train's lead.  Imagine our surprise on finding other railfans waiting for the train when we regained the tracks at Mill Creek.

Our next stop was Tipton where there is an old style former PRR signal bridge.

I decided to try an experiment at our next location, Gallitzin.  Below is the view with a 120 mm lens on a full frame camera as 765 comes past AR Tower.

Here is a cropped version of the same image.  I got the idea from talking to Kevin Burkholder when I attended the NS Heritage Unit presentation at Spencer, NC.  Last year.

The next 2 images show the train leaving Gallitzin for Altoona.

Since we had photographed at Alto the previous day we went to slope this day.

After lunch we decided to check out the cut at Union Furnace.  We had passed it up on Saturday but Bill's nephew, Don, told it was a good shot.  He was correct.

Next we found a slightly different angle at Mapleton.

Inspired by some Climax pans friend Dave Busse did of the Durbin Rocket the week before, I decided to try that when we returned to Newport.

The final images of the trip were obtained as the train was wyed at the west end of the Rockville Bridge.

It was a great trip - great weather, great photo spots, a great train and great traveling companions.  At least a 9.8.  I hope you enjoyed the photos.