# 425, reading and northern pacific 2/15/16 & 2/16/26

monday was bone chilling cold, so cold at the start of the charter it actually felt like your skin was being slapped, then it warmed all the way up into the 20's, then it snowed, then it snowed more, then it warmed up overnight right through freezing rain and on into rain, then it cleared. so a little of everything weather wise, but some good photos were had, first up an early, and i mean early 5:45 am start converted to black and white. this was a lerro productions charter, also in attendance was our very own master of the trains mike summers


later in the day, probably right around the time my toes went numb for awhile, and i am a bowhunter, so yes i do know how to dress and have good gear.

and there was a tunnel shot, and not from inside

and i think steam trains convert well to black & white, it's really starting to snow at this point

and there was a night session at the jim thorpe pa station, and it was during a heavy snowfall

and i like how this one came out

 

Great stuff Gary! Not sure I could weather the cold like you and Michael did.

 

Nice work Gary! Maybe I'll have some of mine ready to post in a couple of weeks.

 

Proper layers, hand warmers and heated coaches help a lot. The cold wasn't that bad. It was the heavy rain on Tuesday that was the difficult part. Every time Pete radioed that the photo line was ready, the drizzle changed to torrential downpour. A couple of people lost lenses that day.

 

All that cold, and then rain? That sucks! You have said the temps you would put up with on some of your charters and classes, way colder than I would EVER do.

 

It warmed up the 2nd day to the mid 30's and again the heated coaches were very helpful.

For RR Photo Charters in the winter, the colder the better because it makes for really nice plumes.

 

Here's the first one of mine. Hopefully I'll get to the rest in a couple of weeks:

 

to go with what mike said, the absolute best weather imho, for a winter steam charter is mid twenties, say 25, bright blue sky, and little to no wind, that is steam heaven, the single digit stuff gets painful, and even more difficult for the older charter participants, and that's by far the majority, both because they have the available time, money, and it's really an older persons hobby. it gets harder for them to move on and off the coaches quicker, the risks of falls really goes up, frostbite risk becomes more of a consideration. but anything above 20 degrees isn't so bad especially if there is no wind right into your face/upper body. and heated coaches warm you right up. my recent trip out west was in one way a logistical/packing nightmare, i had to really account for 2 separate climates. i ended up taking and paying airline surcharges for my large suitcase, not something i often have to do for only a 4 day trip. when i was at garden of the gods, i would have been comfortable in shorts and t shirt. the train charters, started out multiple layers, of high quality modern polar weight base layers with modern synthetic layers on top of that, and pretty much by 9:00 am the outer parka was off, and shedding a layer just about hourly until the afternoon down to just the base layer on top, but let me tell you, in the high desert, you start putting all those layers back on as that clock heads towards sunset, the temps drop like a rocket after 4pm

 

Missed that one Michael, awesome vintage looking shot!!

 

Thanks John!