This train has left the station

I am always looking at opportunities to do things I haven’t’ experienced before, and if these include a photographic opportunity, so much better!

With that in mind you can imagine my excitement when I received a circular from the club secretary in May 2012 about a Steam Train Photography trip planned for 8-10 June 2012.  I am not sure whether I asked my wife if she wanted to go or whether I just told her I booked us for the trip.  In any case, I’m sure I was the first person booked and paid.

So came the 8^th of June and I attended a briefing session @ 19:00 at the Hermanstad station, it was freezing.  We had the get together in one of the passenger coaches.  No air-conditioner, no heater, just like in the olden days, and even the door and the windows did not seal as well as one would expect.  In any case, I’m digressing,  but the writing was on the wall, it was going to be a COLD weekend.  PERFECT for steam train photography!

In short the trip was going to start at the Rovos rail sheds in Capital Park @ 5:45 on Saturday morning with some serious photography from just before sunrise where after we would leave for Cullinan around 11:00 from Hermanstad.  There would be various opportunities along the way where we would be dropped off, the train reversed and prepared and then the photographers would wait for the train to come along.   We eventually arrived in Cullinan just after sunset, and after booking into our accommodation it was back to the station for night shots.  Although the evening was cold, it was nothing compared what waited on us for early Sunday morning.  After the evening session we enjoyed dinner with Friends at our accommodation and then had a warm bath and went to bed, well my wife did I first did a bit of photo downloads…….

On Sunday morning we boarded the train well before sunrise as our “sunrise spot” was a few kilometres from Cullinan.  It was FREEZING!  The coldest I had ever experienced.  A family blog like this does not allow me to use superlatives to describe how cold I was.  Back to the photography.  The photo opportunity at sunrise was spectacular though and worth the suffering.  The rest of the morning was spent on opportunities making our way back to Cullinan.  Once we arrived at Cullinan again there was some “train-in-station” opportunities before we went to Harrie’s Pancakes for a milk tart filled pancake for breakfast.  Njammies.  After this we collected our baggage from our accommodation and boarded the train where we left just after noon for Hermanstad.  There were some more opportunities on the way back.  We arrived late afternoon at Hermanstad and after greeting some new friends we were homeward bound.  Diesel propelled Hilux, such a low after all the steam.

Other than the photography the trip itself was amazing with some good conversation on and off the train.  The whole trip was organised and run by volunteers from Friends of the Rail.  Truly amazing people with a passion for their hobby and many interesting stories about steam trains.  A highlight for me was when I was invited by one of the fireman(stoker) to board the locomotive to see how he prepared boerewers in the firebox using the stoking shovel! 

I suppose the only thing more to say is that the image “This train has left the station” was taken on the morning of 9 June 2012 @ 07:08.  On this morning the sunrise was @ 6:50, so the colours produced by the sun was just amazing twenty minutes later when this shot was taken.  The timing of the shot, showing the steam blowing off to the left and the angle at which the sunrays were hitting the billowing smoke from the locomotive were more awesome than this photo shows……..

Camera	Canon EOS 7D
Aperture	f/5.6
Exposure	1/250 s
ISO	ISO-200
Focal Length	70 mm
Lens	EF70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM
Club	Best Photo: July 2012

Regards

Andre Norris (4*)