Steam in the Snow

mSummers

mSummers

Member
I was in Wilmington, DE last Saturday for another Lerro Productions Charter. ; There was about 12" of heavy wet snow on the ground at the Wilmington & Western Railroad. ; The WWRR was chartered in 1867 to move goods between the mills that lined the Red Clay Creek and the Port of Wilmington. ; The Baltimore & Pennsylvania, a subsidiary of the B&O purchased the line in the 1880's and continued to operate it for decades to come. ; Between 1930 and the 1950's, passenger service had been discontinued and the line had been shortened twice. ; In the 1960's the Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc. was formed and started renting the railroad on the weekends to run tourist trains. ; The HRCV eventually bought the line from the Chessie System in 1982 and has operated as the Wilmington & Western ever since. ;

Somehow, the wooden trestle bridges had survived, having never been replaced with modern steel. ; All that would change in September 1999 when Hurricane Floyd destroyed 2 bridges and damaged 11. ; After repairing the damage, Tropical Storm Henri finished what Floyd started, destroying 6 of the historic bridges. ; They have since replaced all of the destroyed bridges with modern steel ones that should withstand a hurricane's wrath.[nb]http://www.wwrr.com/about/history.asp[/nb]

Our locomotive for the day was 4-4-0 "American" #98. ; We got off to a little bit of a late start. ; #98 has a relatively low tractive effort and they quickly found out that the densely packed snow in the station area combined with the weight of two heavy Pullman cars was too much for the 101 year old locomotive after it got stuck twice pulling into the station. ; After the diesel arrived to help, we headed out on the line to take pictures.

Bridge 8A, shot from the top of the Wooddale Rock Cut:



#98 heads out of the Rock Cut and over Bridge 8B:



Bridge 10A:



Bridge 10A, shot from the ice over the shallowest part of the creek[nb]No I wasn't dumb enough to walk out on it first. ; But I wasn't going to miss the opportunity after someone else declared it was "safe"[/nb]:



Bridge 10C[nb]There isn't a 10B anymore. ; When it washed out, they elected to fill it in rather than replace it[/nb]:



Rock Cut North (Railroad West) of Bridge 10C:



That's it for the daytime shots... ; I'll try to post the night shots tomorrow.
 
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so let's see a show of hands, we have howie leading birdmania, i think we now need michael to run trainmania, you have it going on for train shots, these are excellent, i think even o winston would be pleased
 
"gary" said:
so let's see a show of hands, we have howie leading birdmania, i think we now need michael to run trainmania, you have it going on for train shots, these are excellent, i think even o winston would be pleased
Click to expand...

I would be up for that one as well!!
 
If Michael shows us some of his train magic, I'm in for Trainmania! Er, unless it's in winter, those pics look COLD
 
I wouldn't care what time of year it is or how cold it was, I would gladly spend some time outside with Michael getting shots like this. ; Great job Michael! I LOVE them.
 
Man your train shots are just sick good. ; Couldn't have been done better by the master photographers of that era...they look at once timeless and ageless yet captured in a dimensionality and color only modern technology could do.
 
Thanks guys! ;

I forgot one more daytime shot. ; We did a quick portrait session in the yard early in the morning. ; Here's an actor pretending to oil the engine:



As I mentioned earlier, the original plan was to do a shot or two out on the line, but it was decided that it was just too dangerous for us to be slipping and sliding in the dark, so we ended up staying at the station which gave us time to do some portrait work. ; Pete Lerro is a wizard with lighting and has spent a great deal of time studying the lighting styles of the great steam era photographers, especially O. Winston Link's style and is probably the best in the country at re-creating that style. ;

The Fireman:



The Engineer:



It was pointed out that the fireman's glasses weren't period correct, so he was nice and removed them for a few pictures:



What do you do when one of the participants shows up with his antique large format camera, wooden tripod and dual head flash complete with actual flash bulbs? ; Work him into the shot of course!



Then you try to get a picture of him taking a picture of the crew. ; And occasionally you get really lucky:

 
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"gary" said:
so let's see a show of hands, we have howie leading birdmania, i think we now need michael to run trainmania,
Click to expand...

Thanks Gary, but I don't think I'm qualified to lead a train event. ; I still have a lot to learn myself. ; But, if anyone would like to attend a railroad photo charter that I'm going to, I would be happy to share what little knowledge I have. ; Other than the event in Durango later this month that's sold out, I will be attending 2 or 3 charters this spring. ; Unfortunately, the Railfan Weekend at Cass, WV is the only one that I can talk about since it is the only one that has been officially announced. ; There is one other charter that I know of that is going to occur in May and another that might occur in April. ; I can't discuss those since the charter operator likes to email the details to his patrons before announcing them publicly. ; If you want to know more, let me know and I will be happy to give you an his email address so you can ask to be added to his email list. ; The problem is that all three charters are located West or South West of my home, so that would be quite a hike for most of you. ; I also heard some rumblings of a charter North-East of me in the fall, but it is only a rumor at this point. ;

If anyone's interested in attending Railfan Weekend, I will say that it is a great railfan event, but it is not geared specifically to photography. ; There is a large number of people who attend so it can be difficult to get a good spot on the photo line if you don't know where to go ahead of time. ; Also, the number of photo locations is limited because it takes so much time to get that many people on and off of the train. ; However, I was surprised at the number of good photos I got when I attended it last year for the first time. ; Here's the thread with my photos from last year: ; http://www.themagicinpixels.com/forum/non_disney_photos/cass_railfan_weekend_2010_6433.0.html

The benefit to attending Railfan Weekend is that if you're into history, they also offer tours of the town and the Cass Museum are open. ; Plus, they have plenty of opportunities to get food. ; Another good thing is that they do hold night photo sessions which are set up by photographers who know their stuff, so the lighting is good. ;
 
WOW Michael, these are all amazing! What great work! The portraits are just amazing!
 
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