Blatant trespassing, nearly getting hit by a dump truck and almost falling on my face are the stakes we take to get a glimpse of the steel industry in all it's gritty (one might argue a bit too gritty, perfect to me though!) glory.

We're standing on the "private" bridge to get into Indiana Harbor Works West - formerly LTV, now ArcelorMittal. We're in the WAY blue hour, It's fairly cold out, very foggy and a light snow is starting to fall. But what exactly's in front of us? One of the several Blast Furnaces upper left, several rolling and coating mills left into center, coke facilities to the rightish and loads and loads of slag in front of us. Of course, I had to incorporate rails into it, so looking center right will reveal one of Arcelor's plant switchers (complete with slug), and well over a hundred coke hoppers behind. Remember the SCIH coke train from last weekend? All of it starts right there. Just goes to show (once more) that industry still continues to pop around me, regardless of the common opinion.

This view is risky - but thanks to the help of friends, I was able to run over and grab this real quick. Security certainly saw me shooting though, time to bail!

Tags:   steel industry grit gritty moody bluehour trains mill plant steelmill dark visceral ambient

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B09 and their two SD40s scream their guts out, trying their best to drag 60 loaded coil sleds for New Carlisle up Otis Hill. Those who follow my uploads will know that, ever since I first started shooting this train four months ago, I've talked about wanting to shoot them at Otis. Finally made it! The photo speaks for itself as to how amazing this runby was. The way life moves rarely leads to me smiling anymore, but I will say that I felt like a complete dork with an ear to ear smile as these guys blew by.

All taken in under another soundless, oppressive and lonely winter sunset, which somehow, as illogical as it may sound, is the best part of it all for me.

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These days, CSS's AF5 from Burnham can often head east out of the namesake yard around 1830, once a majority of rush hour passenger trains have cleared. After seeing the train begin to drag out of the yard, the decision was made to head to Parrish, the railroad location at a strange mile long segment wedged between Hammond, East Chicago, and Gary. Here they are, about to drop down one of the many hills on the west end of the railroad - this one being the flyover where the Indiana Harbor Belt and Kennedy Avenue run north-south below. The normal power for this run (and AF4 in the morning) are the railroad's two SD38-2s, 805 and 804, which I've shot far too many times.

Obviously no one likes backlighting - and I'm sure those of us that would bother with this train are few and far between. So, with the sun still well above the horizon (and the center of this frame) I cranked as low as I could - and am rather satisfied with the result.

With forecast highs only into the 60s these last few days, my "autumnal" Lightroom workflow has resurfaced - this look only works this time of year!

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A couple weeks back, I noticed an influx of shots of the Indiana Railroad here on Flickr, and they really had me eying the railroad seriously for the first time. Most of what runs on this railroad isn't easy to find information on by any means, but their two flagship SAHW and HWSA manifests have been covered widely enough that you can find them with relative ease. But that was about it, as far as me looking for weekend movements were concerned.

A close friend of mine and I made the 2 1/2 hour drive down to Indianapolis, my state's capitol, on Sunday morning, to celebrate his new job, the coming of warmer days, and to scope out the INRD for both of our first time. We waited around the first public vantage point to get the Senate Avenue-based SAHW leaving the yard. As expected, they left right at 1430, and the properly-lit chase was on. But if you know me well enough, properly-lit subject matter and my camera hardly ever make contact. Chasing the train south of Morgantown and into the state forests revealed to me that this railroad was much much much more scenic than I originally anticipated - certainly blowing any other railroad I've ever shot out of the water! What I also noticed though, was that many more shots (at least from the perspective of my chase route) existed for northbound moves as opposed to southbounds, like the one I was chasing. So, I decided to chase the train to Tulip Trestle and wait for the northbound, backlit HWSA to appear.

And the chase thru (my personal) preferred hazy blown out light was on.

Here is HWSA, the northbound Hiawatha-Senate Avenue Yard manifest, heading east thru what is technically unincorporated Monroe County, Indiana. Lake Lemon can be seen to the right of the frame, while the lush in-bloom greenery of Vaughn Hollow is seen at left.

This railroad is amazing, and I will certainly be back very very soon. If there's enough interest, I'll probably post a few more shots, though they are generic, well-lit scenes that others have shot. This was by far my favorite of the day though!

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On Wednesday, April 1st, CSX finished redoing the diamond at Calumet that was ripped up in the derailment a little over a month ago (flic.kr/p/2izrvyT). Passing the junction earlier in the day, I figured some things would change as far as CSX trains were routed. That said, it wasn't terribly surprising to see a Q138 (and random (but awesome for mood!) darkly dressed cityfolk) round the bend at Whiting on the NS Chicago Line. It's extremely rare for a move like this to happen - as evidenced by the train crew disregarding the since-December quiet zone in place through the city.

I saw no one out for these reroutes, unlike a month or so ago when everyone knew about the derailment and everyone was looking. Ha, more shots, peace and quiet for me then! It seems that the normal way to do these reroutes are sending 59th Street trains via Norfolk Southern to hop back on home rails near Pine Jct, while Bedford Park trains take the Harbor Belt to hop back on at Willow Creek junction in Portage.

Oh yeah, Harbor reroutes of stacks. Keep an eye out for that...

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