Comment on 30 Percent Chance of Rain by classictrains
Thanks Brandon... it was kind of cool... pulled up to a grade crossing and saw these homeowners sitting in lawn chairs by the tracks. Asked if they were waiting for the train... "yes. do you know when it's coming" (well of course i did... I had my scanner and tweets from the train on my cell phone)
"Would it be Ok if we sat in your back yard and waited with you?"
"Sure but no smoking and no drinking."
"No problem. Could I park in your driveway?"
"Sure."
They pulled out 3 more lawn chairs and we spent the next two hours in the shade under their tree and got a shot without any other foamers in sight.
"Would it be Ok if we sat in your back yard and waited with you?"
"Sure but no smoking and no drinking."
"No problem. Could I park in your driveway?"
"Sure."
They pulled out 3 more lawn chairs and we spent the next two hours in the shade under their tree and got a shot without any other foamers in sight.
That's a story you can't beat. To quote one of the other Chicagoland railfans, the trail of foam behind this would've been insane.
Chasing her is insane... *everyone* comes out of the woodwork to see her and to get into your shots. I savored the moment the one time we managed to catch her at a location that everyone else missed. 
It's one of those things where if I had advance notice of her coming through the area, I'd stake out the one spot that nobody could find. Google Earth has yielded me some great spots that I would've otherwise not known about, and most don't realize are there.
We knew she was coming through for a couple of weeks before hand, and even knew which tracks she was coming in on, but we decided to attempt playing hopscotch with her instead of putting all of our eggs in one basket for one great location.