Hey Now! and the Big Boy
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
July 11th was a wicked hot day, with high humidity and temperature. The Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ locomotive was scheduled to be rolling through Pittsburgh. Wasn’t exactly a secret, and thousands of people lined the Norfolk Southern tracks to get a look.
I headed over to one of my favorite perch’s and got busy. A few Norfolk Southern trains were transiting though in the run up to the Big Boy. While waiting, a crowd showed up.
Hey Now! Norfolk Southern #4251 rolled through.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! Norfolk Southern #7651 was next up through the pass.
There were a few dozen people on the pedestrian bridge with me, over the tracks here. They showed up with chairs and food and bottles of wine.
I had a bottle of water and my camera bag with me, and some gum, and ended up standing around up there for close to four hours.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You knew when Big Boy was on its way, and not just because of the tracker that the Union Pacific people were running on their website. A trio of Cops showed up and shooed all the lookie loos off of the ballast below in advance of the passing.
Part of the reason that I chose this particular elevated spot involved planning on ground level Police activity, as a factor.
Also: I’ve been mentioning the ‘Newtown Pentacle Time Warp’ all summer, wherein I’ve somehow managed to maintain at least a month of ‘lead time’ on these posts, and that’s the causative ‘why’ behind you seeing shots from early July in early September.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Big Boy finally arrived, spewing smoke and steam as it went.
To be honest, it all felt kind of anticlimactic, but… good clean fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My focus was actually on ‘focus.’
Shooting photos through a chain link fence has a high failure rate. As mentioned, I use this spot all the time for rail shots, so am thereby fairly well practiced at getting my shot through that fencing here.
Hey Now?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A long line of ‘heritage’ locomotives with patriotic paint jobs were attached to Big Boy, as well as a couple of modern diesel powered engines.
My understanding of the nature of this ‘heritage’ steam engine event is that whereas the head of the snake was – indeed – producing steam and smoke, it was actually a diesel engine further back in the chain which was providing motive power to the assemblage.
Back next week with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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