Autumn atmosphere

I love Autumn. I’m not sure if it’s because I was born in May, or, maybe because of the soft light. The weather is also a bit cooler and calmer, nice for evenings outside by the fire- it's also the return of mainline steam for the year!

It also means we start getting some foggy mornings, beautiful autumn leaves, and allows farmers to burn off the stubble left after their harvest, ready to till and plant for the next crop.

May 13 was the date for the first of Steamrail's Eureka Express trips to Ballarat for the year, and while I've previously photographed it out in the countryside around Bacchus Marsh, I thought I'd check out some different spots.

It was a nice foggy morning, so for the outbound journey, I headed to Footscray with a couple of ideas in mind.

Some recent building demolitions have opened up a few possibilities, and with the fog softening the sun, shooting into the light wasn't going to be an issue.

I found a block that had been cleared into a makeshift carpark which gave me a partial view to the Maribyrnong river bridges, Heavenly Queen Temple and flyover for the Regional Rail Link lines to cross the Werribees.

A little more height would have been nice, and there was a conveniently placed jersey barrier- those orange plastic ones you see alongside roadworks over against the fence.

Climbing up on it, it gave me just the bit more height I was after to clear some overhead wires.

There was a few practice shots of Vlocities heading out of town before the special was due, and eventually R711 could be heard working through South Kensington, with a beautiful plume of condensing exhaust trailing behind.

A shot with the old arched girder framing the loco, and another as it crested the flyover, and that was the mornings outing over.

Crossing the Maribyrnong river in full flight

Passing over the Werribee lines on the climb to Footscray

The fog burnt off to a beautiful day, so after doing some 'adulting' - groceries, shopping, all the fun stuff, I headed out to Batesford to try a different angle on the Moorabool Viaduct.

I'd recently taken a photo from this location of a pair of B classes on a grain which was published in Railway Digest, so thought I'd try it again with steam, hoping for a decent silhouette of the R.

Heading out past Werribee, there was a fairly large plume of smoke rising in the distance, which eventually revealed itself to be a controlled burn in a paddock between the freeway and railway near Lara.

Low flames flickering in the smoke was drawing plenty of attention from people on the road paralleling the freeway, so I locked that in as a possible shot on the way back.

Out at Batesford, there was a bit of drifting smoke from the fire in the background, the sun was getting low, not far enough around for light on the bridge, but quite nice anyway.

A golden afternoon sees R711 and the Eureka Express crossing the Moorabool viaduct at Batesford

The train was around 10 minutes late, which helped with the lowering sun, so I managed a shot I'm reasonably happy with, before heading back to Lara to see what I could scope out.

The fire was almost entirely burnt out, just a few small smouldering patches left, with smoke hanging low to the ground. Like the fire, the sun was also about done for the day, so it was going to be a juggle to see if I could get some flame, the sun and the train lined up clear of the shallow cutting it runs through near the Elders Loop.

A bit of walking along the fence line got me to a reasonable spot, all that was needed was the train - and quickly!

About five minutes later than what I'd hoped for, it made its appearance underneath the Ring road bridge, looking, and sounding great with the backlit glow of the sunset, and drifting smoke in the foreground.

I took several shots, panning with the train, hoping to get at least one decent image out them, then headed for home to see what I'd caught for the day.

Smouldering stubble, and a smoky sunset frame the Eureka Express near Lara.

I'm pretty happy with the results from both ends of the day, so I'll add them to the list of reasons to love Autumn!

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