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Caption: At the time this photo was taken, the ION LRT was a twinkle in the eyes of Regional Chair Ken Sieling, and the Waterloo spur ran right through the parking lot of the Waterloo Town Square mall where unsuspecting pedestrians and vehicles could find themselves too close to an active rail line. GEXR service on the Waterloo spur was four days a week and basically only in daylight when they departed early enough, and only on the longest days of the year, and it was about a 25% chance by my recollection. Funny though, I had to move a shopping cart that was parked on the rails as my light was quickly diminishing and I didn't want any delay.... I wonder how the cart got there? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm... anyone know? This area is now a LRT station and has completely changed.
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Wow
I’m no photography expert, but I really like the lighting in this shot.
As you noted Stephen, the area has indeed changed. I find the railway/light rail interface at this location & northward to be quite interesting. For those interested in such things, the “heavy” rail trains use one of the two tracks that light rail also runs on north of this point. At station platformss north of the location in this shot, the heavy rail trains are switched onto slight diversions because they won’t clear the platforms. The heavy rail trains only run on the southward track (in both directions). Where the heavy rail & ION connect immediately in front of the loco in this photo, a switch complete with movable frog is installed. I recommend that anyone interested in this, purchase a trip on the ION from Waterloo Square to Conestoga Mall & back, & sit where you can see out the front or rear window.
Breakfast and trains. Nice combo. I’ve eaten there. It’s filling.
Steve, you have to put more shopping carts by the tracks to slow them down so you can get ahead to Caroline/Erb Street.
An old 90′s tactic we used to practice.
I like the angle here though. Nicely done.
I was in my Xtrail and standing on the roof for this. Had the perfect parking spot.
Ronald, as for the lighting, the key with rail photography in particular are the ‘shadows’. This is taken at the end of the day, sun is essentially just about to set and this is when, if standing and sun angle is directly behind me, there are no shadows. The light is almost completely horizontal to the ground. As well, the light has a golden hue when it’s just rising and just about to set, often called ‘golden hour’
During this period The train departed just as the sun was setting most of the time, sometimes after, sometimes an hour before giving us time to get some shots before the sun set for good. It was all about timing, as mid day runs which were normally common in the 2000′s had ended by this point. Then once CN took over, the ION was running and it’s a 2300-0500 proposition now which is entirely in darkness
The timing of this job guaranteed nice low light. Great if you can find spots that aren’t fully shadowed in, and made for lots of dramatic effect. I wish I did more – I didn’t take it completely for granted, I went back with gusto in 2018 to capture my last shots before the ION kicked in, but it was a really fickle beast. Often these guys didn’t depart until after darkness….