Ashland Train Day Weekend 2024, Part II: Train Day

[@danielfoster3642]

Nice video.

[@jackulmen5791]

Good time there, Dave my friend! Looking forward to seeing you again next year! 😊

[@FastFlyingVirginian]

Yes indeed, it was a good time. Less rain, more trains next year.

[@VirginianSpotter]

That’s a great shot with the paparazzi beside me from your left. Although you have very great spots to capture those trains.

[@FastFlyingVirginian]

Now I'm going to have to rewatch your vid and match up angles to figure out where I was. 😁

[@VirginianSpotter]

@@FastFlyingVirginian Alright! 😁

[@ScottMichael82]

So nice of Amtrak to let CSX use their own lines once in a while! LOL

[@FastFlyingVirginian]

Certainly higher Amtrak frequency than the NS Pittsburgh Line. 😁 It's the complete Amtrak gamut - regionals, long distance, and the Auto Train thrown in for good measure. Any under-representation of CSX is largely my fault, as I did miss several freights throughout the day for one reason or another.

[@hlcx2330]

I’ve really enjoyed your channel for years and I’m still glad to see ya uploading! Thank you for the good footage and documentation from your trips! Ever thought about maybe adding voice dialogue into the videos?

[@FastFlyingVirginian]

Thanks for the support! Lately I haven't been as well-traveled and prolific as I'd like to be for various reasons, but I'm optimistic that will be changing soon. I've considered trying narration before, but it's a whole other set of challenges - scripting, having enough B-roll to talk over, getting a clean take of narration recorded in the 'studio', and so on. It's a lot of production overhead to do it well, and I have nothing but admiration for the big name channels that knock the narration ball out of the park, knowing how much work goes into getting it right. Besides the production challenges, I feel like the silent approach fills a niche for those who don't like a lot of chatter. Watching videos from other channels that do narration, I saw a number of comments along the lines of 'great video, but I wish we could hear more of the train'. I knew I must be getting the ambient sound thing right when I noticed some of my videos popping up in ASMR playlists. 😁 That said, I've got plenty of narration inspiration to draw on if I feel like trying my hand at it sometime, train-related or no - Jeremy Clarkson, Anthony Bourdain, Michael Palin (think 'Great Railway Journeys Of The World'), and Mike Bednar (John Pechulis Media) all come to mind. Now that I think about it, many people have told me I have a face for radio.

[@hlcx2330]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@FastFlyingVirginianOh I completely understand the production challenges and I do appreciate the videos without narration.. heck I make all my videos without narration or any editing really. However; You’ve been doing these videos for so long I thought maybe it’d be worth trying it sometime in the future. I wish the Algorithm could push these videos out more. Mike Bednar is a personal favorite of mine also; that real deep voice tells ya he’s seen it all.

[@FastFlyingVirginian]

I had a few years there where I could ride an algorithm wave from around November to June, but nothing like that in a while, unfortunately. I'm not totally opposed to the idea of narration, I just don't want to put something out if I can't get it as close as possible to what I think I'd want a narrated clip of mine to look (and sound) like. Maybe if I gargle some gravel and really get the Bednar impersonation down, I could narrate one of my old vids for April Fool's or something, back when I didn't even have a scanner and only the vaguest notion of train IDs.