I’m in the process of working on a school project where I need to create a book, and I’ve chosen to do my project on trains (See previous post).
Since it was Spring Break I went through the Amtrak & ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) schedules to find when the trains would be passing through some places I had in my mind that I wanted to photograph them at. The only scheduling glitch I had was one train apparently didn’t run, so I sat in the middle of nowhere with no jacket as the clouds & wind came. But the images I got were worth the 2 1/2 hour wait.
First place I went to was Alviso, which is on the border of the bay. I went out looking for one or two particular images, and ended up with a couple completely different ones.
Next up I headed to Fremont to physically scope out a few areas, but none really stood out to me. So I headed to my next area, Niles Canyon. Due to “No Parking” signs on the side of the road, I had to park about a 1/2 mile from this bridge and hike back to it. This is where I waited for the train that didn’t show.
My waiting was rewarded with the next two images.
I then headed over to Pleasanton for my next spot. I had just parked was looking at images I had shot, and out of nowhere this freight train pulled through.
This was the image I wanted to get in Pleasanton, mostly. All the cars decided to park about 10 feet behind the limit line, so I didn’t quite get the effect that I wanted.
Last but not least was my “goal” image of the day. The image I really wanted to get was a train going over the crossing at Altamont Pass. While waiting I saw the powerlines & really loved the color. The setting sun gave me some beautiful colors for my last couple images of the day.
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