Meet at Pine Lodge

There are really only two ways to photograph operating trains that you are not riding on. In the first instance you pick a good spot and wait for a train to come. In the alternative and clearly more fun method, you chase the train in your trusty railfanning vehicle and meet it at a number of predetermined spots that you know will provide images with interesting backgrounds and good light on the nose and sides of the lead engine(s). That considered, when one engages in a train chase, there are a few things that cannot be foreseen during said chase that greatly effect the results of the photographic efforts of the participants, one of which is the presence of an extra train in the wrong place at the wrong time and as here, on the wrong track. In this instance I had been on a scouting trip on a dirt road further up the hill near Stein's Hill when I heard the BNSF (in the distance) heading down the hill. Having already hit my favorite spots up the hill, I boogied on down the freshly rutted dirt road paralleling I-15 and got on Highway 138 for the dash across Cajon Creek to a little spot I know near Pine Lodge. Then as I pull in off the highway all fat and happy, ready to a get a good shot of the big Orange one coming down the grade, I hear the rumble of a Yellow one as it blasts from under the bridge to my right. Now I am stuck with some great afternoon light and an extra train on the wrong track. Too bad these were not reversed, but that is life and I thought this one came out rather interesting.