Friday, November 26, 2010

New vids in 1080 HD

Here are my first videos with the new Sony Handycam. First is a small chase of CN 406 from McCully to Torryburn.


Second is a NBSR westbound that left Saint John on Nov 22nd with 2612 in the lead. Unfortunately this is one of those night shots that don't always turn out so good.

Sony HD Camcorder

So with the recent exchange of my Canon SX30 I decided to try a camcorder. So I chose a Sony Handycam CX110. It shoots in 1080 HD. I haven't used it a whole lot yet but there definitely is no lense flare problem with this camera.

Well time for some updates....

Well Since my last post some things have changed. After purchasing the new Canon camera I quickly found something I didn't like about it. When I was shooting video of trains with the camera zoomed I would get some really bad lense flares from the headlights of the engines.
Like in this video..
Here are some others I shot with the Canon SX30

So after trying to figure out how to fix the flares with filters etc, I decided to take the SX30 back. The camera took some really great photos but I did purchase camera for the capability of recording video too. So I chose to purchase a camcorder instead..


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

A new toy..

Santa came to me early this year! I just purchased a new camera. The Canon SX30IS. This is the latest model out in the series of cameras like my old one, the SX3IS. With this upgrade I'm jumping from 6 to 14 mega pixels and I'll now be shooting video in 720p HD. I can't wait to catch some trains!!


Sunday, November 7, 2010

Got chips?

I heard a train crew on my radio this evening say that Irving is building some sort of an off-loading facility for wood chips. I'm guessing it would be near the Pulp & Paper Mill at the falls. Has anyone else heard about this? I'll look into it some more and post anything I hear.


Well another video to add to that month...

This weekend has been a wet one in Saint John. I'm guessing it has caused some changes in schedules for trains. Late Saturday afternoon I got a heads up about a westbound train leaving early Sunday morning from SJ for McAdam. This is quite rare as normally there is no train on Sunday. But hey I'll take it. So I arrived at Carle Ave at 6:30am just to make sure I wouldn't miss it. And I sure didn't...
I never heard any crew talking till 7:30 which was great cause Matt (Saintjohnrailfan) was on his way intown to see it too. Engines 2319 & 9801 came to the west end of the Dever Rd Yard to turn on the wye before coupling up. After they did and got their brake test complete, we headed for the Acamac Backland Rd. At about 8:45am they rolled through with 49 cars.
Next we headed to Staples to catch the container transfer. We weren't there very long when we heard the crew say they were at the Bunsmaster switch and wanted to hook on to the containers. So we hit the road again to go get a location for a shot. We went to Bentley Crossing. This is a new street of townhouses that over look the Mill Street grade and the harbour. The view was awesome and the units worked hard climbing the hill with 43 cars. But the two units, 3702 & 9803 couldn't handle the weight and stalled on the hill. This was great cause it was raining and we wanted to get a new shot. So we went to the Bentley St. crossing to catch it again. As we waited for a helper crew to catch up to the transfer, I noticed I lost the shot of the transfer climbing the hill. My camera has been randomly shutting off and it decided to do it while I was recording the climb causing me to loose it. Shortly after the transfer rolls through the crossing with CN 7060 pushing from the rear.
Now we were gonna call it a day cause we were wet from the rain. I heard another train getting ready to leave SJ. It was a work train led by 9802. I caught them at the Acamac Backland Rd too.
I've put all the vids into one so it's a little bit over 10 minutes. Enjoy!!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

One month, 10 vids..

Well its' been a month since my last post on here.. I know I'm slack! Anyhoo.. I have put 10 new videos on YouTube since my last post. And there is just to much to says for all of them, so I'll just show you the vids.
Enjoy!