Cabdriver Railfan
- Thread starter cabdriver
- Start date
great shots cabdriver!
we are going to be down there in SA for the train show on saturday, if all works out. where is the best place to railfan from, like that train yard in these pictures? hopefully somewhere on the north side where we will be. thanks.
we are going to be down there in SA for the train show on saturday, if all works out. where is the best place to railfan from, like that train yard in these pictures? hopefully somewhere on the north side where we will be. thanks.
cabdriver said:
Great shots Cabdriver!! What program are you using to re-size the image? I know there are some freebies out there (if you don't have Photoshop) that will allow you to re-size.
Val
Cabdriver, allow me to give you a little Photoshop tutorial. Zooming into a picture simply changes the view on your screen. What you really want to do is "crop" the image. Start with your largest file, I'm assuming you reduced the size of the pic to post it here. Depending on what version of P-shop you're using you should be able to hit "c" and get the crop tool. Drag a marquee around the area you want to crop - don't worry, it has handles you can use to adjust the borders. Once you have the area selected that you want, hit the "return" key (or maybe that's enter on a PC) and voila! cropped image. Be sure to save it with a new name so you don't over-write your original file.
Val
Val
Spitfire,
Thanks so much. I am trying your method (I think).
Here is what I have done -- Used Photoshop to zoom into the image, then croped it, then saved it, then downsized it. I'll post here and hopefully it will come out looking like the zoomed image. Keep your fingers crossed.
Thanks so much. I am trying your method (I think).
Here is what I have done -- Used Photoshop to zoom into the image, then croped it, then saved it, then downsized it. I'll post here and hopefully it will come out looking like the zoomed image. Keep your fingers crossed. Attachments
Wah HOOOOOO!! Cropped and zoomed image! Sure can see more detail! :thumb: :thumb: Thanks Spitfire for your advice -- worked like a charm. By the way, here is a view of the switch ( a different one than the guy was throwing) -- never been this close to one.
And here is the UP yard office where all of this was taking place. Sorry for the stupid question, but is this how all yard switching works? I always thought that they would back the cars up into position, unhook, then move forward, switch tracks, back the cars up into position, unhook them, etc, etc. I am amazed to see the engines gaining some limited momentum, then literally pushing the cars off the locos onto the tracks free-wheeling. I'm not sure how they unhooked them -- maybe they unhooked them before they started backing up then stopped the engine all of a sudden which would send the cars rolling on. I'd be curious what others have seen around their yards.
Anyway, here is the UP yard office.
I am amazed to see the engines gaining some limited momentum, then literally pushing the cars off the locos onto the tracks free-wheeling. I'm not sure how they unhooked them -- maybe they unhooked them before they started backing up then stopped the engine all of a sudden which would send the cars rolling on. I'd be curious what others have seen around their yards. Anyway, here is the UP yard office.
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Hello Cabdriver, what you saw them do we call "kicking" If the yard is flat or not on a grade you kick the cars to get them to roll down the lead or ladder track into the rail you want them. Here in Sparks Nevada our yard is on a 1% grade so when we switch on the top end, all we have to do is uncouple the cars. To do that we bunch the slack so the uncoupling lever can open the knuckle which is enough movement to get the cars rolling. We don't let them roll too far and the track they are going into must have cars in it already with hand brakes applied to them. When I switched in Stockton, we could switch a 100 car train in about 90 minutes, if we had a lot of single cars to let go.
Cheers,
Greg
Cheers,
Greg
Greg, thanks so much for the post. :thumb: That sounds exactly like what they were doing -- kicking the cars off the end. This yard area is very flat, but it amazed me how much speed the cars had going off the end of the locomotive. They moved down the rail with quite a bit of energy, rolled quickly, then slowed and stopped, amazingly in just about the place you would have expected them to stop. Lots of other cars parked on the rails -- I was really wondering if they would keep going and hit. Given your remark about the hand brake applied to the parked cars, it must happen quite often. What an amazing spectacle!
This yard area is very flat, but it amazed me how much speed the cars had going off the end of the locomotive. They moved down the rail with quite a bit of energy, rolled quickly, then slowed and stopped, amazingly in just about the place you would have expected them to stop. Lots of other cars parked on the rails -- I was really wondering if they would keep going and hit. Given your remark about the hand brake applied to the parked cars, it must happen quite often. What an amazing spectacle!
Went out this beautiful morning to see what I could see -- wow, what a lot of traffic on the rail. I shot a few pictures that I thought I would post up here for all to enjoy. I know I certainly did.
Here's a shot of BNSF heading out of the yard and then a close-up as it went by.
what a lot of traffic on the rail. I shot a few pictures that I thought I would post up here for all to enjoy. I know I certainly did. Here's a shot of BNSF heading out of the yard and then a close-up as it went by.
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