Trains missing? Capture interesting images nearby

No trains, now what?

You've taken time off from work, the clouds have parted, the sun is out, and you're heading out for a full day of chasing and photographing trains. Refreshments are packed in the cooler, the scanner is humming, and your camera is ready for quick retrieval when that first locomotive headlight breaks the horizon at the perfect spot you picked out weeks ago.

Except the scanner is quiet, and that headlight never comes into view. Maybe it's a work window, a derailment, or something weather related farther down the line. Whatever it is, that parade of trains you see almost every day on your way to work is just not happening today.

We have all been there. My best, or worst, example was on a trip with my friend Hal Miller (former Classic Toy Trains editor) chasing trains in Oklahoma. On the third day, we left the hotel early to stake out a surefire spot on the BNSF main line that promised a nonstop parade of trains.

Eight hours later our score was zero. What happened? We found out when a headlight finally broke the horizon from the east. The worker in the maintenance of way speeder explained that this was Wednesday. And Wednesday was track maintenance day with a 12-hour work window. We were not amused. By the smirk on some of the railroaders faces, obviously they were.

We would survive to photograph railroading another day, I thought to myself, but it would not be here. I wound up not taking a single photo that day. Yet in retrospect I should have…

Railroading is more than just trains. It's stations, signals, bridges, cattle guards, and people.

Perhaps some examples.

Another trip found me just east of Yermo, Calif., waiting for a Union Pacific train. You got it. Nothing. But that did not mean there was nothing to photograph. I shot the signal maintainer's shack, the truck, and signal. Exciting no. Not now. But do you remember when you saw a similar photo someone shot 50 years ago, the modern vehicle now ancient, the technology so dated? You found it fascinating. Maybe a future generation railfan will look at this image and have the same thoughts. Maybe not. However, I felt I wanted to preserve the scene.

The same goes for the Oxnard, Calif., passenger station on UP's Coast Line. The line was unusually quiet this day, and I just did not have the desire to photograph the single active yard unit almost totally covered in graffiti.

Originally the building was a 1950s Southern Pacific replacement for a decrepit predecessor. Now it was past, too. A new combination bus/passenger/commuter rail stop replaced it. Still structurally sound, SP kept it, and today, current owner UP uses it as a maintenance crew base.

And when even such relics of the past are not available, there are photographic opportunities elsewhere. Peggy Sue's 50's Diner just down the road from the UP truck in Yermo was too good to pass up.

Finally, don't forget to take brief side trips through many of the small online towns that parallel the right-of-way. There are some real gems hidden there, a proud side of this country that many of us never see, otherwise.

Departing the interstate at Green River, Utah was this delightful watermelon parade float. Apparently, it is part of the town's annual Melon Day parade, a proud salute to this agricultural town's reason for existence.

Someday I'd like to go back there and see the parade in all its glory. In the meantime, I will cherish this slice of the event.

What interesting subjects have you photographed when out looking for trains?