6/20/09: Weather calling for 80% chance of showers. I'll let you in on a little secret. It was a 100% chance of showers. Needless to say, it was dull and cloudy this fine Saturday morning, with my first thought being, "I got up a 5:45 AM for this??". Well, then again, we didnt have much choice in the matter. This trip had been brought about by a purchase on e-bay. After talking with the guy for a bit, and realizing how location, we decided to just meet up with him at the closet spot to railfan. This being Macungie, PA. Now, before then I had never been to Macungie in the the spring/summer. We've always gone up in either November or February. In those trips, color was hard to come by, other then dull gray, black, and the occasional day of snow causing white to appear. This time however, with the garden in full bloom, it would be a much more interesting trip. So, up at 6, downstairs by 6:20, out the door by 7:30. Now, we had know it was going to rain, yet me nor my father were swift enough to put umbrellas in the car. It hadn't been raining down are way though, so we hoped it would just be cloudy. I-76 to Route 422. Route 422 to Route 100. Route 100 to Macungie, PA. Directions so easy, a caveman could do it.
We had made decent time on the way up, and true to what we had though, it was just cloudy. This held true... until we were coming into the outskirts of town. Light drizzle, we could handle that. Ok, a little bit hard, still doable. By the time we got trackside, it was raining pretty well, and me and dad just looked at each other for a moment. Said nothing, the look said it all. Our guy wasn't to be there for another hour, so we waited inside the car.
I reached down, grabbed my camera bag, and pulled out my scanner. Turned it on and let it sit on the dashboard. Wasn't on 5 minutes, and I hear someone coming my way. Once again, looking down into my camera bag, I checked the contents quickly...
Camera? Check.
Notebook? Check.
Sunglasses? Not required at the moment, but check.
Film? Check.
Sarcasm? No, I just act funny.
Back-up battery? Check.
Watch? Check.
Dashing good looks? *Checks mirror* Eek, well work with what you have.
So, with that all taken care of, I looked up at the crossing at the east end of the area. Light starting to flash, I got out of the car. To my surprise, it was a very late NS trash train rolling though town. Lined up, got my shots, and ducked back in the car. Not too much damage done, only slightly wet after that. Not 10 minutes later, with much harder rain, the signal goes green for another westbound. Again, I wait, see the train as it makes the curve roughly a half a mile away from my location, and jump out. I see the consist. It's a freight??? I'll be soaked after this one. And of course, this thing was a monster, with rain pouring down on me. It felt nice, but that wasn't the issue. I was worried about my camera more then I was worried about myself.
After that, it had continued to rain, even harder then before, which baffled me because I didn't think it could get much worse. Of course, at the worst of it, Bob shows up with our e-bay winnings. Got the cars, gave him some famous dead presidents, deal closed. With that, instead of jumping in and out of the car, we decided it would be better to hang out over at the gazebo. Atleast then I could get photos in relative dryness. So, I opened up the car, got out my bag, and started running over, until I head something behind me. I turned, and to my chagrin, another westbound was about to blast past me. Fumbling for my camera, I grabbed it out with barely enough time to snap off the empty autorack train. I can guess that most of you won't know what I'm saying with this, but that train was probably the best of the day just for the horn. Haven't heard a Leslie that strong in many months. Kinda made me smile against the poor quality of the day.
So, now in the gazebo, and pretty much soaking wet, I waited to see if the rain would let up. It wasn't until about 11:00 AM that the rain finally stopped, the first time. Lucky for me, I was far dryer at that point. Up to this point, we had seen a big 'ol 5 trains, and about an hour and a half talking with fellow railfans. Then, this other guy showed up. I'll describe him as a pleasant PA blue color guy. His english, a tad bit southern sounding, but still atleast discernible compared to other people whom I've talked to on these trips. He said that when ever he shows up, trains run through. So, I talked to him about that, until I heard this sad fact:
"Oh yeah, I saw this train go by really fast a few days ago. It was red, had windows, and there were about three of 'em."
>.>
THE OFFICE CAR TRAIN????? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Didn't need to know I missed that one by a day or two. Ok, well, I missed that. But I still have another 8 hours. Anything can happen. Except my scanner had been giving me fits. I don't know why this occurred to me, but I took the antenna off, blew what appeared to be dust out og both then antenna itself, and the contacts on the scanner. Reattached the everything, and put it back. Not 10 minutes later, I heard way off, "NS 213 clear 33-1W out". Wha...? I couldn't get reception from two miles away, now I'm getting something over 7 miles away? It was just dust! This brought no end of laughter, and needless to say, I was more then willing to join in. So, a block of three went trains through, and then not to far behind that block of trains, a fourth went through. After that, the guy left for the day, pretty much saying, "Well, my job is done."
It also hadn't been just railfans out here that day. With the gardens in bloom, there had also been people in the gazebo that were helping people with the maps that had been made. This was one of eight gardens on a tour around the Allentown area. So, we were getting all kinds of people. Even a few that hung around long enough that we started talking to them about trains. Mostly me, I just like talking with people. At least two had said by the time that they left, that I had interested them in trains.
After a quick lunch, more sitting. We had worked the total trains up to 10, and were hoping for more. The rest of the days action was spread out pretty well, though they still ran fairly close to each other. I don't know why I looked at my scanner before the 35A came through, but I just did. I saw the word "Bearcat" on the front, as that was the model line. I thought, "Didn't I talk about bearcat neighbors with Kristi and Bailey in chatbox once?" I know it was some kind of animal, but that just stuck in my brain at the moment. Well, that is until I saw 35A make the sweeping curve up above me, then it was 100% back to trains. This time though, I went down into the flower garden, and got my shots of the train and flowers at once. I hope they turned out well enough, but with film, I won't know yet. Digital I would have had a couple good once by then, but I'm always afraid of the artsy shots, just because I am using films.
34M issued me my blunder of the day. Focusing on the trailing engine, I neglected the fact that there was a string of 8 Erie Lackawanna hoppers behind that. Now, the Conrail engine was, tops, 15 years old. The EL hoppers? Try 45+. So, after calling myself quite a few choice words in my head, I went back to chatting with the rest of the people out there at that point.
Now, I'll just skip to the end. (Partly because I don't want to bore you with all the details, and partly because my hands will hurt if I do.) I had been talking with a guy from the Conrail Historical Society, and dad had still be talking with the two brothers that had been up there for a good bit of the day with us. My scanner picks up what sounds like an Ethanol train coming at us from the west. I hear the horn as it starts blowing for the crossings a few miles east in Albertus, PA. Hmm, Leslie, automatic value at that. I'm getting a Conrail Dash-8. Yes...and no. Yes, it was a Dash-8, it had a Leslie, and it was an Automatic Value. No, in the fact it wasn't really a Conrail. Conrail owned it, but it was under the ownership of LMS instead. Now onto the horn. Sometimes "The Automatic" is fine, but in this sense it was bad. That engine was the bad. Overblowing was he, especially compared to one that had gone through earlier with a far better horn. So, 68Q now baring down on me, I got ready for my shot. Just then, one guy jumps infront of me to get a good look at the train coming. Now, I knew he wouldn't move, and I only had about 20 seconds left. So, bad knees and all, I ran out a distance to get a clear shot, and it appeared. IN BLUE!! 8461 pounds through Macungie eastbound running hard at Allentown, PA and points north. So, thus closed the day. 16 trains, 5 blue engines, and a roll of film later. At that point it was 7:15 PM, so even with an hour's worth of sunlight left atleast, we decided to call it a day. NS had put on a nice show, seconded only by Mother Nature. I laughed at that for a moment, as I was gathering all my stuff back into the bag before we headed home. The sun angle was gorgeous as we rolled home. I only wish we had got one more before we left.
All in all, a a great day, with good people, and fast trains.
I'd like to thank the following people.
My parents: For making that day possible.
Uniden: For the scanner I used that day.
Ricoh: For the camera I used that day.
Mead: For the notebook I used for my train movements, and odd thoughts that came about as well.
Norfolk Southern Rail Corp.: For just doing a bang up job in general.
Air: For helping me breath.
Fat Freddy's: For the cheese steaks. YOU GUYS ROCK!!
And you: Yes you! Thanks for taking the time to read this. Gives me a reason to write it, eh?
;]
-Cody
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