There was a lot of luck that went into making this image of Steam locomotive Frisco 1630 at the Illinois Railway Museum (IRM) during their 70th anniversary weekend in Union, Illinois.

In between the spitting rain on Saturday night, September 16th, 2023, I along with many other photographers were working on photographing the 1630 as it sat at the depot at IRM waiting for its next run. I was working with my D800 on a tripod shooting available light shots at 30 seconds each at f/4 with my Nikon 10-24mm lens, when several things happened.

I started the 30 second exposure and about 20 seconds into the exposure the train started to depart the station, resulting in the streaks you see of the headlight and marker lights on 1630. At the same time, I had a trolly come to a stop, which you see in the circle of smoke and the headlight star in the distance is from the Nebraska Zephyr waiting to enter the station after the Frisco departs. The headlight from the Zephyr illuminated the steam surrounding the scene, providing an effect that would be hard replicate, let along plan! Sometimes, I just get lucky!

According to IRM website: St. Louis – San Francisco Railroad (“Frisco”) 1630 is the museum’s most famous steam engine. A “Russian Decapod,” it was built in 1918 for export to Russia but was embargoed when the Bolshevik Revolution took place. Instead, the newly completed engine was sold to the Frisco, which used it in both freight and passenger service into the 1950s. The Frisco later sold it to Eagle-Picher Mining, where it saw use hauling freight and aggregate trains until the mid-1960s. It arrived at the IRM in 1967.

Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Nikon 10-24 @15mm, f/5.6, 30 Seconds, ISO 100.