Nevada Northern Railway Winter Steam Spectacular--Sunday Morning

This is part 4 in a 5 part series about the Nevada Northern Railway Winter Steam Spectacular Photo Shoot. Check out Day 1, Day 2, and Enginehouse posts.

 I got so enthralled with exploring the Enginehouse that when I heard the train whistle blew, I thought I had missed the train! I was trying to figure out how to catch up to it at the next stop when I saw little groups of photographers and sighed in relief. I still had time. In fact, they were positioning the freight train with the passenger car attached to the back. The conductor was keeping an eye out as the train backed up.

NNRY Executive Director Mark Bassett was on the caboose.

While the previous morning had been a shoot with the passenger cars, this morning was going to be with the freight cars.

 The Engineer was checking things out from his perch.

We ended up with a little time to take some closeups of the steamy engine in the yard.

Then we boarded. I chose to go in the caboose this time.

We headed northeast from the yard, on the line towards McGill. Then we stopped at Steptoe Creek for some photos.

The embankment was a little steep.

 The sun cooperated, and we had some great shots. The creek is dry right now, but there was a culvert so we could get photos from both sides.

Again, I love getting people in my photos!

 Where is the train going? Not to worry, it will back up and cruise along the rails again!

 I was ready to try the other side. The backlighting made for some interesting effects.

It was a lot of fun trying out different camera settings.

On this day I brought my older camera body with a wide angle lens so that I wouldn't have to change lenses so often. That was helpful.


Where's the passenger car? They had detached it to make our photos look more realistic!


I found some nice Basin Wildrye, a tall grass that can grow to six feet tall. I'm working on a project to restore this native grass, so I thought it would be fun to include it in one of my train photos!


Then we moved further down the line to a nice curve.

I didn't get any photos there I really loved. But then we moved on and the sun came out again.

I call this one "The Engine 40 Glamour Shot." It's like I'm looking up at the model with the wind blowing her hair.

I never knew what might catch my eye during the photoshoot! Here it was symmetry and colors.

Brakeman Gordon came off the engine to be at the switching station.

It was fun trying to get photos from every possible angle.

Then I had an opportunity that would be the highlight of the weekend...stay tuned to read and see all about it!