Dear Visitor,
Today: now Yesterday, I got to see the Union Pacific Railroad’s Big Boy No. 4014 steam engine, as it rumbled its way through manhattan along its westward journey, which it is taking as a part of a commemoration of the 150th anniversary year of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States. I only managed to get a few photos of the train as it passed my location by the railroad tracks, which lay along the way to the transfer station.
The Big Boy was an hour behind schedule, and the chilly wind cut through my sweater. Thankfully, I met several interesting people while waiting for the train, whose conversation helped take my mind off of the chill. One of the men I met sings cowboy songs, and has sung in Abilene, KS at the railroad museum. Another man who I met worked for the Union Pacific railroad company along the very stretch of track where we stood in anticipation.
The train did make a brief stop in Manhattan, but it did not stop at our spot along the tracks. I was a little disappointed at first to learn that I went to the wrong place, but after hearing about the logjam at the South Manhattan Avenue railroad crossing, I was glad to be where I was. We were several miles away from the stopping place, but when the train arrived at the crossing, we could hear its horn. About twenty minutes passed, before another string of whistle blasts as the train began moving toward our location.
All the waiting, gave me time to set up my camera, and practice taking the camera off of the tripod, and turning while zooming out the lens on my camera. However, when the time came, and one of the gentlemen I conversed with earlier pointed out the train’s headlamp in the distance, the cold slowed me down. Thankfully, I managed to get five or six shots off as it approached and passed. The four photographs that you see in the Special Feature Gallery were taken in direct succession of one another. Some might call it spray and pray, but due to my camera’s age, buffering limit and the coldness of my hands, the technique I employed was more like click, pray; click, pray; click, pray, etc. Thankfully, all of the prayer payed off, and they turned out sharper than I expected, albeit a little more underexposed than I planned.
Every bit of the experience was wonderful: the wind whipping the grass as the sun peeked through the overcast skies, the conversation with new acquaintances, and being awash in a moment of living history as the train puffed by. The sound from the whistle was tremendous! I know the pictures don’t make noise, but if you want, you can do what I did while editing, and provide your own sound effects. Foley sounds or not, please enjoy the photographs of Big Boy No. 4014.
Happy trails,
Nicholas
P.S. Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, CHOO, CHOO!