Chasing the UP 4014 BigBoy - Pass By

The second time we chased the UP 4014 BigBoy we switched things up. The first time was done pretty spontaneously we flew into the St. Louis area the very late the day before and the next day set out south towards the known route and found a spot, waited and then got lucky that we picked a spot on the correct tracks. We caught up with it 3 other times that day with varying degrees of success and poor photo ops. Some of the challenges were in not knowing the area and getting stuck in long lines of other "Train Spotters".

This time thought the plan was different. We arrived in the Scranton area in the evening 2 days before the BigBoy was scheduled to pass through. That night we spent some time on Google Earth looking at the tracks from Binghamton NY and south to Scranton looking for potential locations and schedule times and saw that our best bet was from Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct and south. The day before the train was to come through we drove to Nicholson and took in the massive bridge and surrounding area and decided that while beautiful it would not work for us.We then proceeded to head back south towards Scranton but this time watching the navigation system in the car and taking every turn that headed towards the tracks to look at where we could possibly get a view with great photo opportunities. After a few hours we had come up with a handful of great places and headed back to the room.

The next day we woke up early and headed out. We expected the BigBoy to come through a little after 10 and did not want to get stuck in any traffic buildup as the time got closer. When we got to what we thought to be the best spot we saw the owner had already blocked off the drive and did not want trespassers, so we headed over to spot number 2. This was a little Norfolk and Southern siding area off the road, when we got there we saw a few other vehicles with people waiting. Within a few minutes a large truck owned by Norfolk and Southern pulled in, drove around and then said the only ask was that we stay 25 feet from the tracks and left.

Over the next couple of hours we saw many others pull in, some joined the wait with us but others walked down the tracks to a tunnel between us and the Tunkhanna bridge to get film of the BigBoy coming out of the tunnel. We stayed put, figuring we liked what we had.

We met and chatted with many people that morning, had a blast while waiting in the middle of nowhere. We got some great photos and video when the BigBoy passed by at about 10:30.

What a great morning! A little planning, a little leg work and we got some great photos and video.