Nice work Axeman! Such a treat to see one INSIDE too. I was talking to an engineman-in-training at the Atlanta airport last month as he waited for his flight, and he despises the computer controls in the new generation units. He's a seasoned freight Conductor, so is quite familiar with the time-honored traditional cab layouts with a control stand, but just can't warm to computer screens in a cab.
Did you know that this unit was coming or did fortune just smile on you that day?
I kind of knew it was coming, it was to go on display On Saturday. I was out Friday cloudy and getting ready to rain, testing some camera settings out for cloudy days on dark subjects with a bright cloudy sky. It started to rain so I packed it in. While on the way home I was stopped at a crossing it went by. Forgot the seat belt was on and almost killed myself reaching back inside my van trying to get to my camera, lol.
It was going east to the switch on the east side of town to switch back to the siding / crossing I was stopped at. So I parked the van and waited. While waiting the rain stopped. After they had it parked and tied down I went up to the crew and asked how close we were allowed to get, the answer surprised me when the crew said go on up. Myself and two other photographers at the time had the whole train to ourselves inside and out, with an escort from a crew member of course.
It's not like I never been inside a cab or never had a cab ride before. As a matter of fact I had an opportunity to operate a CNW switch engine for about an hour in a working yard many years back. So I am very comfortable inside a cab, but after being inside a Heritage unit, and a open photo shoot of it. I had to make sure my pants were dry and clean in the inside when I got home.
It really made my day because I had to work Saturday and Sunday and I had written off any possibility getting any photo's of the display.
