Train ran over my camera!

[bclaypole]

Click image for an animated GIF of all the shots

PS: Cameras well, that's me on the bridge.

[agroni]

cool experiment and really risky...
with how many fps did you capture this???

[bclaypole]

The Canon 1D mk II N will/did shoot 8.5 fps. I've had lots of people ask how close was it? So here is the last shot beneath the engine before the remote release lost line of site.
Took me 2 years to work up the nerve to try the shot. I kicked away some snow to get a desirable angle and placed it there - did not tie it down. Once the loco ran over it, I ran to see if it was still there, then released the shutter again to capture some of the cars. There were 2 locomotives and approximately 100 cars.

[nitroimage]

Hey Brad, your shot is pretty awesome! But, I thought the train cops really disliked anybody (or any device) on or around the tracks or did you have permission for the shot? Just wondering.

[99nbmtransam]

That is a great and ballsy shot i must say. I don't know if I could do that.

[bclaypole]

Hey Brad, your shot is pretty awesome! But, I thought the train cops really disliked anybody (or any device) on or around the tracks or did you have permission for the shot? Just wondering.

No, you would not get permission to be anywhere near the tracks, let alone on them. I had over a mile of unobstructed line of site and had watched the train leave a classification yard some 40 miles away, so I had some idea of when it would be there. That being said, it was 1/2 hour later than I thought, having dropped off some cars at a customers. Anytime is train time.
Hopefully in a couple weeks there will be a couple hundred pounds of snow drifts on the tracks that I can shoot from a safe distance. They don't put up any resistance to a train, so I think my 2 lbs camera would have been a "fly on the windshield".

[bclaypole]

More than a couple of weeks later, I finally found a serious drift! Engineer did not throttle up for this either, coasted right through.

There's an animated gif if you click on the shot too.