NOTROPHY - NoTrain Photography!

Morningstar Road, Trenton in August 2002, now overgrown

Yonder stands a telegraph pole,

Standing stately in the grass.

Its wood all weathered,

Its long arms outstretched

toward me, yon unsuccessful failfan.

Its wires insulated from cold and wet,

Shrouded in sun, mist and the gathering gloam.

Since there's no train in my path,

I snapped it, went home, and had a bath.

NoTrophy* (a short form of NOTRainphotOgraPHY) is a recognized trackside syndrome characterized by train photography completely unfettered by trains. Don't worry, it happens to everyone at some point. If it lasts more than four hours, don't consult your doctor. Just go home and come back tomorrow.

What NoTrophy is:

• taking photos of everything in your trackside surroundings except trains
• a product of a low level of distraction coupled with a high degree of boredom
• successful continued operation of your camera in the complete absence of trains
• experienced during a lull, unexpected event, derailment or simply stinking bad luck

What NoTrophy is not:

• a substitute for train photography
• something you should share online unless you're looking for empathy
• art - though it is artful albeit in a trainless sort of way
• something to be proud of - you got skunked!

I'd like to present some of my best NoTrophy (or if you prefer, my worst railfanning) photos along with some examples of NoTrophy poetry I came up with to describe the bleak and desperate futility of NoTrophy:

There once was a fan of NoTrophy

Whose railfanning was one big catastrophe

after another. Each day,

No trains got in the way

Of his cameras len's, (oops, wrong apostrophe)

No trains at Napanee West

Silence

See no train

On horizon either way

Home for good

Airhorns

Zero trains at Portage, 1985

Why

Am I here

No trains to be seen

Point and shoot

Birds

Rail anchor at Belleville

Ballast is grey

Coal is black,

Shooting NoTrophy

Tomorrow come back!

Lull on CN's Rivers Sub west of Portage, 1984

I brought my camera, look at me,

While trackside, not a train I see.

Does that deter me? No, not I,

What's that, grey ballast that I spy?

A groundhog brown, geese flying by?

Images to my camera card now fly.

When I get home, downcast and sad,

My NoTrophy photos don't look half-bad!

No trains - mouse on a pile of cut up ties, 1979

There once was a railfan most daffy

Who dabbled in no-train photography

Every pastoral scene

Without trains to be seen

Hung in frames on his wall, kinda laughy.

No trains - beautifully bucolic barn, 2015

Sunrise, sunset's siren call,

Winter spring, summer, fall..

Every season gives me reason

To photograph no trains at all.

Notrophy supplies with silent scanner, 2015

Boxes of donuts, cups of coffee all past,

Book all read, magazines don't last.

Scanner's as quiet as a tomb,

Batteries charged, camera card still has room.

A foreman calls for track and time,

My fortunes spiral on a dime.

I snap a bush, a creek, a tree.

Hey, I'm engaging in NoTrophy!

If you know someone who may be experiencing NoTrophy, encourage them to seek help before it's too late. Consult a knowledgeable railfan source, become familiar with train times in your area, and learn when to cut your losses when nothing's rolling. NoTrophy can be eradicated. But it's up to all of us.

American NoTrophy in the Land of the Free and the Home of No Trains Virginia, 2015

Running extra...

Sharp-eyed Trackside Treasure reader Max Palinski found the two "400"s in the last, 400th post. Congratulations and enjoy your prize on its way to you. Honourable mentions to Malcolm Peakman , JP and phoenix'ed!

Check out Steve Boyko's "10 Questions" series on his Confessions of a Train Geek blog, to learn more about some of Canada's foremost railfans. Now there are way more than ten railfans in the list!

CN has now run two eastbound potash unit trains in the past week from Alwinsal SK to Saint John NB. On Saturday, February 27 I caught No 730 at 1630 hours as it ripped through Kingston with CN 2921-2809 on the head-end and DPU 3005 pushing on the tail end of 22,810 tons in 151 cars! All at over 50 mph. Youtube video here ends after 25 seconds when my camera battery dies. You didn't really want to see all 151 cars anyway...