Re: Valley RR Steam Day and Night NNG

Hi Warren,

Nice shots. That 40 is a pretty locomotive. Hoping to see the 97 again some day. I know she's a favorite of the crews.

A couple of technical questions WRT the shot at Chester Station:

[*] How many strobes did you use in that shot? I'm thinking 3....am I close?
[*] Are your radio triggers using TTL or do you manually set flash power? I am told that the TTL triggers are more finicky than the non-TTL ones.

IMHO, the Valley Railroad has what is probably the most prolific Christmas Train operation in the entire country. As you noted, there are 11 departures on each of the weekend days, including 6 Santa Specials and 5 night-time North Pole Express, which is the premium train ride. I believe that 4 night-time North Pole Express Trains are also running Tues-Fri. Monday is their make-up day in the event of weather issues. Two trainsets, two steam engines.....the operation in Essex is a really well-oiled machine. The number I heard for advance ticket sales was more like 80,000. I heard that from several sources. Last year, it was something like 64,000. The Valley carries more riders between Thanksgiving and Christmas than a lot of operations carry in an entire year.

/Kevin Madore