May 28, 2019 – Well, after a three day whirlwind trip with fellow railfan Ryan Scott, of IndianaRails, to Tennessee, Virgina, West Virginia and Kentucky we both got back home last night. A big shout out to all the folks that helped us out along the way, especially Daniel Alls, Walter Scriptunas II, Jul Esp, Bryan Burton, Gavin Wilkes and all the others that responded to our posts for questions and help in the different areas we visited! Without your help and input the trip would have been a lot less successful! Got a lot of pictures to work through and many posts yet to come from this 4 day trip!
According to Wikipedia: Shay #11 was built in 1923 and went originally to Hutchinson Lumber Company, Feather Falls, California. This Shay is best known as the Feather River #3 and it’s also a class C shay, #11, weighs 103-tons. It began service at Cass in 1999.
This morning’s image was shot the night of May 26th after a spring storm made its way through the Cass Scenic Railroad area and is of Shay #11 at rest in the yard after a days work at Cass, West Virginia. Shooting at night and in the rain can be challenging, but probably the hardest part is getting out the door!
My kit bag for this type of shooting is a golf umbrella and a large microfiber cloth to dry off the camera and lens with when drops make it past the umbrella! Of course a good sturdy tripod is a must as well. I typically set the camera on manual and adjust for the specific scene, with the camera controls set to a 3 second delay before the shutter is tripped. This raises the mirror and lets things settle before taking the photo. ISO and length of exposure all depend on the lighting, but they’re set manually as well. This particular shots technical details are: Nikon D800, Sigma 24-70 lens @ 26mm, ISO 1000 (full frame cameras are great) f/8 for 30 seconds in RAW.