I had specifically arranged my holiday vacation to coincide with DINA 2005; I wanted to do something
different than my successful day spent in Southern Indiana last year, and what better way to accomplish
that than returning to my old stomping grounds on CSXT’s Selkirk Subdivision in Upstate New York?

The weather forecast leading up to DINA was volatile; in the 24 hours prior to Wednesday morning, the
weather prognosticators were proclaiming it would be everything from mostly cloudy to mostly sunny.
Unsurprisingly, mostly-clear skies at dawn became overcast before 8:00 AM.  But I stuck around,
remembering that perfectly clear skies aren’t a prerequisite for making good photos; in addition, I
wanted to see how the mess on the railroad would play out.  For you see, Mr. Murphy had returned from
his Christmas vacation, and began to spread his peculiar brand of holiday spirit by wreaking havoc
throughout the Capital District’s railroad operations.

On the Hudson Sub, no fewer than three grade crossings west of Schenectady were malfunctioning,
westbound Amtrak trains had to be talked by CP-160, and the Scotia dragger was selecting which Amtrak
trains it would inspect – forcing those for which it declared “detector not working” to run at 30mph
until the next station stop.

Over on the Selkirk Sub, things were merely marginally better.  Two westbound hotshots had departed
Selkirk Yard before dawn, and the Voorheesville defect detector announced the first while I was still
a couple miles from my intended photo spot.  Sure enough, I arrived just too late to set up for a photo.
Knowing the second train was quickly approaching, I experimented with composition and exposure
combinations to make the best photo I could.  Having lost my cable release in Virginia in October, I
carefully touched the shutter to expose a 30-second photo capturing Q16327 streaking westward across
Frenchs Hollow while water flowed over the Watervliet Reservoir dam into the valley of the Normans Kill.
[IMG_5473; rotate left approx 0.5°; there’s some cloud detail in the sky that I can’t quite bring out]
[Note to the editor:  “Normans Kill” and the spelling of “Frenchs Hollow” are correct according to local
convention for Dutch-named streams and this prominent geographic feature.]

These two departures had cleared room for Q38026 to pull into the Receiving Yard, but close-following
Q62027 was held outside of Voorheesville while waiting for space to open up.  After a while, CSXT 277
led Q16528 out of Selkirk, meeting the 113-car Q620 at Guilderland Center [IMG_5508; rotate right approx
0.75° (the bridge deck is on a grade, but the piers are vertical)].  With a track opened up, Q620 was
cleared down to FB, only to catch a knuckle while strung out across Game Farm Road, thus tying up Track 2.

At this point, Q11827 was entering the picture – it was somewhere out by Amsterdam – but a fleet of
westbounds was set to depart Selkirk, so with Track 2 blocked the NC Dispatcher was forced to hold Q11
 west of South Schenectady for a true parade:  Q15728, Q11328, L11128, Q16928, Q29327 and Q11928.  So
long did Q118 wait that the Flying Squad got Q620 put back together and on the move, and the NC told Q118
to pull ‘em on down to the yard.

No sooner had Q118 cleared the South Schenectady detector than Q293 hailed the highball at CP-VO; I
thought to myself, “If only I was set up at Old State Road, I’d have a meet shot... But oh well.”  I heard
Q293 blowing for Cobblestone Road a couple miles to the east, but I ignored it while I began to set up my
shot of Q118.  As the westbound rack train entered the block and lit the ABS signals, to my surprise, the
chug of GEs was suddenly evident to the west.  Could I actually capture meet under the best – albeit still
meek – sunlight of the morning?

A meet indeed!  I quickly recomposed of my shot, checked the light meter to ensure the ever-shifting light
patterns matched what I had set up only a minute before, hoped for a whole lot of luck, and voila:  Q118
with a trio of GEVOs descended Fullers Flyover as Q293 charged westward.  (In a curious stroke of luck, the
second unit on Q293 was MRL SD45 #354!)  [IMG_5545; rotate right approx 0.85°]

Although things looked like they’d finally start to unclog, the NC Dispatcher quickly got slammed with more
failures:  Amtrak #63 called to report he was in emergency near Scotia, B760 was stopped west of South
Schenectady after the detector failed to function, and the signal at CP-FB dropped to red in front of Q118.

Just another fine morning on the railroad…