Yesterday was a tradition Bob LaMay and I have had for the past few years – attending the Mystic Valley Railway Society’s 2009 calendar judging luncheon in Boston. The Society solicits entries from members through the year (entries must be taken in New England, and can be from any time, shot on either 35mm slides or digital), then in January puts on a luncheon where members can attend, view all the entries submitted, then vote on their favorites. After that, the leadership tallies the votes, then makes the final judgments on what gets into the calendar, making sure that all the seasons are covered. So as we usually do, we headed north to Boston. We had plans for that evening also, so we weren’t sure if we’d get any railfanning in before we had to head out.
Since entries were light this year, the judging luncheon wrapped up earlier that previous years (hint to all you New England photographers out there – join MVRS and submit your stuff – it only costs $6 a year to join, and if you get in the calendar, they pay cash!), so Bob & I headed out to find some trains. We ended up on the south end of the Neponset River bridge in Quincy for a while.
Within about a half hour, we ended up catching four MBTA Red Line subways and two MBTA commuter runs from the bridge.
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And a couple other shots. One of the third rail warning sign, with the tracks in the background
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And the Boston skyline across the harbor
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Satisfied with what we got, we headed back to the car, and to the Mass Pike for the trip to our next spot. But we’d end up with a little detour en route.
Once we got onto the Mass Pike, and began heading westbound through Boston, I noticed an MBTA commuter train in the distance where the tracks run alongside the Pike to the north. As we got closer to the train, we noticed it was slowing down for a station stop. The proverbial light went off above Bob’s head, and he suggested we pull over in the short breakdown lane just past the station, and he’ll start driving alongside the train so I can lean out doing a pacing shot. Not one to argue with the master, I grabbed my camera, and decided the 15mm fisheye lens would be perfect for this angle.
A moment later, the train began towards us, and Bob started driving alongside. We paced the train for a good half mile before being forced out of the breakdown lane and into traffic where we had to pull ahead of the train. But I’m pretty happy with what I came away with. If I could have done anything differently, I would have slowed down the shutter speed a touch to get more blur in the surroundings.
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As we pulled away from the train, the camera went back into the bag and we headed into the sunset…quite literally. But we weren’t calling it a day yet – we had one more slide show to attend. At least this time the slides would all be outstanding.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
