Photo of the Week #003

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RCPE #3430, an SD40-2, heads up a string of empty hoppers and mixed freight as it enters Rapid City from Wall. Copyright James Willmus, 2018.
If I had to pick a modern railroad to model, it would be the Rapid City Pierre and Eastern.  Genessee and Wyoming bought CP rail owned DM&E trackage west of Tracy Minnesota in 2014 as well as much of the equipment.  This Class II railroad is now the backbone of South Dakota's rail system, serving communities from one end of the state to the other and connecting with BNSF, UP, and CP Rail.

All but 6 engines on the line are SD40 models from EMD.  They were, and still are, quite popular with railroads because they can ride on light trackage on their six axles while still delivering impressive horsepower.  Though not used by Class I railroads on unit trains anymore, SD40's still enjoy plenty of use for local frieghts, switching, and running on Class II and III railroads.  This unit is decked out in classic G&W colors, but with one minor modification.  The emblem for the RCPE is a pheasant, the state bird of South Dakota.  It was that or Mt. Rushmore, but the famed rock carving I think is overused when representing South Dakota, the pheasant never gets enough attention.

This photograph was taken on the last day of the 2018 Chicago Northwestern Historical Society conference, held at Rapid City in May.  It was a fun confrence to attend and volunteer for, I recommend anyone who has the time to join a historical society and participate as much as possible.  In four days I learned a lot about the history of the CNW in the area and how it shaped the Black Hills throughout the 20th Century.

Taking a photograph such as this is pretty straight forward.  Just make sure to slightly underexpose the image and then bring the whole image back in post-processing.  This is because the photo was taken while shooting almost directly under the sun, which gave off some unwanted back lighting.  Underexposing the image prevents highlights from being blown out, which can then be preserved when editing the image.  It sounds more complicated than it is, I only spent about 5 minutes editing this photo, most of that was trying to balance the shadows with the highlights.

This image was taken at 180mm, ISO 100, f/8, at 1/400sec shutter speed.  The lens I used for this photo, a 70-300mm f4-5.6G, is okay for this kind of work, but I'm hoping to save money and buy a much nicer telephoto, especially for photographs taken near sunset or sunrise.

Sorry for this being a bit late this week, time got away from me.  Cheers!

--James Willmus