Winter blahs - in spring

It's starting to brighten up out there.  However, I will have to have a talk with those gophers that predicted an early spring because it's been anything but for the last several weeks.

I managed to turn an ankle while running frozen trail a couple of weeks ago on some ruts and sidelined myself for a week.  I could have run as it doesn't really affect straightline running but I wanted to play it safe, and the less than desireable weather meant I didn't feel too bad about sitting around for a few days.

The trail system is peppered with signs informing users to stay off the trails in muddy conditions as this damages the slopes and really messes up the surface.  I've been running them all winter and conditions have been good but it looks like plenty of people ignored the signs when the temps crawled over freezing and the trail was heavily rutted from walkers and a small handful of cyclists.  After it froze over, which is when I ran it, it's like cobblestones turned on their edge and I managed to misjudge on a downhill, rolled my ankle and hobbled home.  The swelling a couple of days later let me know it needed some rest.

Nonetheless, back at it this weekend and inspected the trails on Sunday.  They seemed fine until I got to some messy muddy sections near Bayview Avenue and had to run off-trail.  While high in the section near Bayview I heard a consist trundling it's way southbound on Bala near the trial crossing at the 5 mile mark.  I had my camcorder with me and was a bit out of position for a clear shot which left me finding a reasonable opening through the trees.  Much to my surprise, being a Sunday, it was VIA train #2, the Canadian, running more than a day late after being held up by snowstorms in Saskachewan.

Related news article:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/via-train-moving-again-after-spring-storm-leads-to-major-delay-in-prairies-1.1207173

Quite the catch as there isn't much activity on south Bala outside of the Canadian and the weekday GO commutes.  I used to see a lot more freight action along this line.  For freight action these days I hang out around the level CP crossing at Wicksteed when time allows:

Happy Spring!

Some notes on the new camcorder - Sony HDR-CX250

Having now played around a bit with the new camcorder (Sony CX250B) I thought I'd write some notes on its use and performance in case anyone is considering purchasing one or its current incarnation.  It previously looked like Sony was reducing options in this segment, but I returned to the .ca website today and see the range is similar although the 250 and 260 versions are no longer offered (the 260 versions shows available on the US website).

The CX250 I have is the same as the more common CX260 versions but without internal memory.  Same G lens, imager, processor, interfaces and so on.  While I'm plenty happy enough with it, the G lens has some obvious chromatic aberration which is particularly pronounced at long zooms.  The winter has made this much more apparent with strong contrasts between bright white snow and just about anything dark in the frame.  It becomes even more apparent when you have dark tree branches against a white cloud background.

The low light performance is pretty good and you can get a lot of detail that's hard to see even with dark adapted eyes.  I'm quite surprised at how good it is especially compared to my older SX63 standard def.  With low lux on (sensor backlighting) you can see stars in the sky and subtle shadings albeit with some definite graininess, but the images are quite usable.  I'm hoping to do some night shooting on some busy lines when it warms up outside and compare it to a couple I did with the older 63.

The optical Steadyshot is much better than the electronic version of the 63.  You can zoom in near max and still get a usable image, although you'll never completely eliminate the shake without a tripod.  Normal wider shots appear rock steady.  The optical Steadyshot also avoids the tendency to chase a moving image.  With the 63 I had to kill Steadyshot when close shooting a train.  If I didn't you could see the background and side areas shift as the camera tried to lock onto the foreground object, which in this case was a moving train and it renders the video unwatchable without feeling seasick.  The optical version doesn't do this since it works to reduce physical lens motion.  I've been keeping it in optical mode only.

Colours are much better.  The 63 always seemed washed out while the 250 is much closer to what you see.  It's not up there though with some of the higher end non-pro models.  To be fair, I've had mainly dull grey conditions to shoot in, with brighter sunnier summer weather it might show better.  The interference with the chromatic aberration cuts into some of the colour accuracy as well since it tints darker areas slightly towards the purple side even when it's not otherwise noticeable.

Autofocus works better than the 63.  I think the higher definition has a lot to do with this.  Manual focus, as with a lot of these models, is wretched.  Much better is spot focus by zooming in preshot and getting it sharp at the critical point, then zooming back.  I prefer to disable auto focus when I can to prevent focus motor noise in quiet settings.  Mind you, passing trains aren't known for quietness so it hasn't been an issue.  It also helps to not have the autofocus jump away at an awkward point.

The white balance is basically indoor, outdoor or auto, with auto just switching between the two.  I leave it on auto and so far so good.  Manually selecting means I might blow it when outside as the screen is hard to see and detect in bright outdoor light.  I have one vid I did (Richmond Hill New Year's Eve GO Train) that would have been great except it was outdoors with incandescent white balance on and everything looked purple.

One peculiarity, I have had to stop/start it a couple of times when it indicated a failure to detect media.  Some searching says this can happen if the camera is jostled a bit (shocked) and simply needs resetting.  It hasn't happened in a while now so maybe I'm just being more careful in transit.  I use a soft case when I run with it held in one hand to keep it from being banged about.  I've also noticed the memory card picks up some scoring on the terminals, which I didn't seem to see happen on the 63, perhaps the connectors are a lot tighter in this model.  Nonetheless, I've decided to use the USB dongle to transfer content instead of removing and reinserting the card.

Battery life is better than in the 63 even though it's the same capacity battery.  A virtue of more efficient circuitry.  I think I could get a good hour and a half or more out of a charge and I've only had to recharge once every couple of weeks despite now having 3 batteries on hand.  HDMI connector works great, I could use a longer cable though, this one is a bit short and stiff when connecting up to the TV.

That G lens tho, it's a shame about the chroma issue because it's otherwise quite sharp and zooms well.  The Zeiss lens on the 63 also had chroma issues so it seems a trait to all of the lower end Sony camcorder lenses.  I have no experience with the higher ends or the SLR lenses to compare.  If I keep the zoom to a reasonable level it's pretty decent.  A lot of the higher end cameras keep the zoom range down anyway to more modest 10x or 12x instead of 33x or 55x.  A sort of a paradox that lower end cameras have longer zooms, I guess because that's what sells.  Nice to have if you want it but I need to discipline myself to avoid the long zoom in the interests of quality.

Audio was really good in the 63, with Dolby digital stereo.  Same on this one and it is selectable in two steps of sensitivity.  You get a good rumble on the low end and the stereo has great separation.  It also has a jack if I want to upgrade but I don't see too much of a reason beyond reducing some of the clicking and clacking as I work the controls and maybe get more low-end thump from a better external.

Bottom line, it works pretty well.  I've been recording in 1080 60i (instead of the max 1080 60p) at max quality.  I haven't seen any diff between 60i and 60p and 60i saves a lot of disk space.  I use windows movie maker to reduce the vids down for upload to youtube in 720 30P to preserve bandwidth since we're on Rogers and they cap limits to 80 gigs before adding a hefty per-gig-surcharge, and that's between 4 of us in the house sharing it.

This will do for a while.  I might start pining for a Panasonic 720 or higher down the road.  We'll see how it images in bright summer weather with high overhead sun.  I did some test vids yesterday in bright morning sunshine and they looked quite smashing without noticable chroma, but that was all wide angle.

I think about how it compares to cameras from the past, big clunky things that sat on your shoulder with crappy resolution, tape media and iffy colour.  These cameras are tiny, much less expensive and blows all of those old units away.

My channel is here if you wish to peruse some of the content.  All of the HD entries are shot on the 250 while the SD entries use the 63.

https://www.youtube.com/user/JimboFR1

101 tankers

Without aid of a scanner, railfanning becomes part luck and part experience.  Over time you get some idea of when certain trains tend to pass and plan accordingly but most of the time it's just winging it and depending on lady luck.

After a few trips to the Summerhill pedestrian bridge crossing CP's North Toronto Subdivision I figured out that a mixed westbound consist, likely originating from the Markham yards, passes under the bridge at about 11:25 on Sunday mornings.  It means a crossing of the high trestle bridges in the Don Valley a few minutes earlier.

An outing two weeks ago had bad timing as I was late making my way through the snow into the valley and caught only the last car and EOT device disappearing over the bridge.  After hanging around a bit I headed up the valley walls only to hear another westbound unit crossing the trestle bridge.  Out of position to vid I got back in time to see a lengthy crude consist which I had not seen while hanging out in Summerhill.

Last Sunday, February 17, with sunny skies and fresh fluffy white stuff down it was back to the trestle bridge and try for the mixed consist.  Sticky snow on ice is pretty good to run on but light cold snow over ice is tough slippery going.  I got to the bridge just a shade to late to catch the power units on a surprise eastbound mixed slowly crossing on the north track.  Within a couple of minutes, with the e/b in motion, a trio of engines appeared westbound on the south track in bright sun and towing two boxcars and 404 axles worth of crude tankers.  Likely headed stateside (train CP 605 perhaps?) with two CP SDs and a DME SD sandwiched between.

This is shortened to save bandwidth but it's 3 locos, 2 boxes and 101 crude tankers. The lead is SD60 CP 6245 followed by SD40-3 DME 6068 and SD40-2 CP 5941.

Edit: It was train 609 as caught in this vid by SD402F:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hls8u9TXZvk

VIA Canadian doesn't quite fit - Google maps

Check this out, it's a location link in Google maps.  Zoom a notch and pan after you open it.

https://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&ll=43.644515,-79.380346&spn=0.002935,0.004823&t=h&z=17

This is Union Station in Toronto.  The train that juts out the east and west ends of the platform appears to be the VIA Canadian, the giveaway being the observation dome on the tapered end car on the east (right) side.  A pair of engines, the first car and part of the second car protrude the west side while the trailing 3 cars and part of the 4th protrude the east side.  Obviously too long for the platform, I guess to board and de-board, either shunt the cars to position in stages or everyone passes through to the platform adjacent cars.

I'd never noticed it before in the maps.  Neat.

Snowy morning at Danforth GO station

Having been sidelined with a cold for the last while, rail vids had to take a back seat.  Oh, I've done plenty of running.  I just can't be standing around in the cold waiting for something to show up.  The closest I've gotten is a couple of visits to the pedestrian bridge over the CP tracks at Summerhill to see if I could get a lucky strike.  The one time I was there and had a chance, I managed to double pump the rec button on the Sony and came up blank as a beauty of a mixed CP consist trundled by.

So with this biggest storm of the last 4 1/2 years upon us, I thought a quick jaunt over the Main Avenue timed for a couple of scheduled passes would be in order and chance to get some footage in nasty conditions.  It's not far away, less than 15 minutes.  I had my trail shoes outfitted with hex screws for traction and my full winter wear on.  Camera in a carry bag, in a plastic bag and all wrapped up nice and tight.

Made it with a minute to spare as the eastbound VIA tandem of 52 and 50 headed for Montreal/Ottawa came peeking through the blizzard like conditions at speed.  6442 was in lead for Montreal bound #52 up front but the unit leading #50 in tow lacked number lighting and I didn't catch what was on the side as it passed.

An Oshawa bound GO train would be next.  It would normally arrive just before the VIA but I'm guessing was a bit late on it's Union Station arrival and took a few more minutes to reach Main Ave.  In the meantime I taped a TTC streetcar climbing the hill on Main on it's way to the station.  No slipping here, the tracks were clear from plenty of traffic.  I think the vehicles with tires fared a bit worse in the city today.  This is tacked onto the end of the clip.  After that, the GO unit finally arrived.  Autofocus took a bit to kick in with the snow flying about, and again I couldn't catch the lead unit number in the poor lighting.

Sunshine promised for tomorrow.  Down into the valley for me, camera in hand, and see what I can come up with.

A warm midwinter weekend

Too nice to hang about this weekend.  It's not often we get temps in the teens in January. Getting them for a full weekend makes you wonder what you did to deserve it.  Shorts on, a couple of t shirts and out the door to catch some Kingston sub action.

Saturday was dropping by nearby Danforth GO station, enjoying the sunshine and catch what I could.  I headed out to try and catch VIA 60 as it passed through Danforth and got there just in time to miss it.  I did get a few seconds of it's rear end disappearing to the east.  Some bits of a couple of scheduled GO units had to suffice.

I did grab a couple more segments at a section on Eastwood Avenue thats pretty close to to rails but hard to get good position.  The southern track is so close to the ROW fencing that eastbound units seem like they're going to roll right over you.  The houses nearby must have their dishes glued down just in case.

I returned to Danforth a little after noon to see what else may come by.  I noticed the signals on the north and centre tracks switched from yellow to red while standing on the bridge.  The north track would be the scheduled westbound GO.  The centre track would be VIA, but I wasn't sure which one.  Later checking it was VIA 643 Kingston/Toronto.  The GO had already passed, the VIA came by 10 minutes later.

On Sunday I headed out to an area just off St. Clair Avenue E and Midland Avenue, a little N/E of Scarborough GO station and see if it offered a decent viewing location.  It rained all night but by morning had moved off to the east leaving just a hazy day behind so no problems taking the new Sony along.

I scoped some sections along a street adjacent to the tracks called National Street.  The hillside leaves the ROW fencing well below the viewing angle, although a bit steep and hard to get a good footing.  Also, lots of trees planted to offer some separation from the tracks for the nearby new housing development making some spots more obscured than others.  At the north end of the street the view of Kingston sub to the north east is nice and unubstructed although the property beyond the roadway is CN owned.  No need to step into the field though, the view simply standing at the end of the street is as good as it gets.

First came VIA train #60 out of the southwest.  The heavy haze carried the unmistakable roar of a locomotive from well down the tracks.  The haze also gave it neat effect of the lights piercing through as the train powered it's way through Scarborough GO station and along the long straightaway until it bends to Brimley.  Lead loco was P42DC VIA 919.  I shot it from the embankment in a slightly flattened area with decent footing an no tree or fencing in the way of the shot.

Next up, I headed to the north end of the street to catch an eastbound GO unit reversing it's way toward Union Station, nothing particularly interesting and I failed to have the Sony on as it appeared around the corner so we'll leave that vid in the archives.

For the last I waited for the eastbound GO which would be a few minutes after the w/bound unit.  Staying in position at the north end of National, I picked up the lead loco as it passes on the southern track and appearing through the trees of the embankment.  As it passed and I switched to the N/E view I noticed the lead loco was not alone, with an older EMD slotted in second place.  The second unit was 558, an F59PH.  A quick lookup in google and youtube shows a few other hits for this locomotive for the past couple of years.  Not sure if it has been in continuous service or temporarily retired but it was a surprising catch nonetheless!

Trails were too messy to run this weekend with the snow melt and the rain.  Kingston sub is never far away for a street run, always manages to deliver and even the occasional surprise can be had.

New Year's Eve in the Don Valley

GO's Richmond Hill train makes it's way northward on an early departure from Union Station to get New Year's Eve revellers home in time to get ready for the evening.

I positioned myself in the trails above Crother's Woods in the Don Valley with a wide view of this section of the Bala sub that runs just north of Pottery Road.  The signals at a pedestrian trail crossing are marked as 4.92 on the crossbucks.  Just really trying out this new camera in twilight conditions (Sony CX250), this being shot at 4:42PM on Dec. 31, 2012.

Happy New Year everyone!