Wow, I think that is the longest title I have used so far, but it expresses my feelings perfectly. The merger with Canadian Pacific undoubtably is bringing many changes, and only a few know what the future will look like. This year the Canadian Pacific Kansas City or CPKC for short ran two Christmas trains. One ran in Canada and all the way south to Shreveport with a single CP unit while the traditional KCS train with the F-units ran east, south and west out of Shreveport. Not knowing what next year’s Christmas season will look like for CPKC, I knew I could not miss what might be my final opportunity to photograph the KCS train as it looks now.
I planned to catch it in the rural area east of Sulphur Springs on November 6th and then take a few night photos during its four-hour event there. It would have been nice to devote more time, but life has its commitments that cannot be ignored. I decided to drive to Sulphur Springs in the middle of the day on the 5th and spend the night since traffic can be horrendous between my home and there in the morning and evening. I wanted to be in the area early on the 6th even though the train was not supposed to leave Pittsburg until noon or later so I would have time to explore and find the perfect spot. to catch the train.
Friend Nathan Bailey who lives in Sulphur Springs had briefed me that if I tried to catch it east of Winnsboro I might not be able to overtake it again, so I decided to plan on one good location and then leave the rest up to fate. After researching each crossing east of Winnsboro, I finally settled on a spot just east of Como where the scenery and lighting would be prefect. At 1:34 pm it was showtime and the following sequence was committed to my memory card.
Nathan was right, there was no overtaking the train on the rural roads, but I did catch every light green going through Sulphur Springs and was parked and getting out of the car when the train was beginning to pull to its spot for the Christmas event.
See what I mean about change? Three of the normal cars had already been repainted into this maroon scheme, so who knows what things will look like next year?
I had about two hours to kill before the event would begin and I was parked right across the street from the locomotives, so I relaxed and shot from different angles as the light changed and walked up to get a daylight photo of the Christmas decorated cars.
Right at sunset Nathan and I set our cameras on tripods and we tried some time exposures with light painting using my high candlepower flashlight in between cars passing on the street.
Nathan and I found parking places closer to the event at the rear of the train and I kept my camera on the tripod for these time exposures of the decorated cars and the event.
It was now after 6:00 pm, and the only thing left to do that I could think of was a video of the train passing with all its lights on as I had seen on social media. On the downside, I was tired, and the event would not end for another two hours; and I still had a 100-mile drive home in possibly heavy traffic. The downside won and I packed up to start the drive home. I made it in around three hours and went through the drive in at In-N-Out Burger close to home. Looking back the trip was a complete success in my opinion. Now to wait and see what the train looks like in 2024!
