Famous Feather River Route (4K) | Portola to Oroville Stack Train | May, 21, 2021 | DJI Inspire 2 

Well thank you Ken! I greatly appreciate it. 🙂

It will never die!

Thank you! This makes my 3rd trip there to railfan and at this point I remember location well enough to know what locations I can get back to back. It's pretty amazing all the signature locations are spaced apart enough to be able to film them all back to back.

Thanks! That's a great experience for you too!

Thanks Bill I love Williams Loop!

Thank you!

Thanks John!

Thanks! I was excited to be able to add that in too. The loop from the ground is just as good!

Thanks!

Yep you can make it from one to the other back to back just perfectly which really is pretty incredible. Williams Loop is just East of Quincy and Keddie is just West of Quincy.

Thanks! Yeah that does sound cold but great with snow!

Well thanks a lot Dave! Maybe one day down the road. That would be a whole other realm I'm sure but great to know you're interested!

Thank you very much Brad!

Thank you Thomas! It's an incredible area. It's amazing how all these locations are so close to each other relatively speaking.

Thanks! Yep you've got a point. Even if you aren't into trains it's definitely a region to drive through for the scenery alone.

Thank you it is amazing there.

Yes. One of the bests videos 👍

Well thanks a lot Mark I'm humbled you decided to comment! This makes the 3rd time I've visited here and the first with the Inspire 2 which I've been extremely eager to bring here! It is by far the smoothest flying drone I've owned and I was real excited to put it to use here. I guess it worked out good!

Thanks Richard and I'm glad it did! It's a beautiful area.

Thanks a lot!

Thanks a lot Michael! Was so happy to be able to make another trip out there.

Well thanks! Yes even for someone who isn't into trains it's a wonderful drive for the scenery otherwise!

That is one I've been trying to get for a while now but regular schedule trains run over it at night as far as I know. There are times when things get off schedule and run over it in daylight or they run extra trains on the weekend in the daylight but I have to have a pretty decent heads up from someone about it to manage it. To be honest it's about my least favorite drive through the entirety of the Willamette Valley which is what that is so things have to line up really dang perfectly for me to capture that.

@@TheRailfanDan Ah I didn't know that. Well nevertheless, good luck in capturing it one day!

Haha yeah that is an awesome part in the canyon. I am a solo practitioner! Actually had my dad with me during this video but he was only along for the ride. All done on my own.

Thanks so much! Yes this canyon is plagued with landslides ever year and so far this year I believe has been one of the worst.

@@TheRailfanDan Yikes!😮

I disagree about the diesel sound when the footage is from the drone. The fact that it is from the air lends itself more to background music rather than possibly very low-volume engine noise. IMO, the music Dan has chosen is perfect.

Thank you both. The biggest issue with that is the drone doesn't record audio because if it did then you would only hear what would sound like a bees nest from the props. Anyone who wants the sound of the train itself had to set up ground recorders to capture sound and edit it in to the drone video. It then becomes tedious to match the sound to the video and make it sound like what you're watching. I've done that a few times and I've always been very satisfied with the result but it adds a whole lot more time to editing which I really don't have patience for. Editing already takes me longer than I want it to even using music.

@@TheRailfanDan "....the drone doesn't record audio because if it did then you would only hear what would sound like a bees nest".... Ooops! I overlooked that fact when composing my response. :D

@@hcrun That's alright Ken. 🙂

Some I think do. I know quite a few crew members close to home and some take a look at what I post.

Thanks! Using the DJI Osmo Action on the ground. Well I've flown for almost 5 years now and flying the Inspire 2 definitely results in the smoothest videos BY FAR. I've flown it for 1.5 years now. I use PowerDirector to edit. 🙂

@@TheRailfanDan About the DJI Osmo Action. Do I need to buy a microphone to pickup the sound like you do? Does it automatically focus and is it really 4k? Does it record to my phone or a mini sd card? Thanks in advance.

@@TheRailfanDan One last question if you can get to it. Is the camera only good if you are trackside or can you zoom in from far away? Thanks and I look forward to more of your drone videos.

@@Atsf1976 The Osmo Action is capable of recording audio by itself. Yes it's 4K about the cheapest 4K camera on the market. It's infinite focus so no need to do anything there and does record to a micro SD card. There is no kind of zoom capability. It's basically a GoPro but made by DJI.

On average UP runs about 5 to 6 trains in 24 hours and then in the canyon where BNSF runs West from Keddie they'll run anywhere from 3 to 6 trains in 24 hours.

Greetings and thanks a lot! So, some answers for you. Pretty much everything you saw here you can count on as far as locations you can catch the same train over and over. From the first spot seeing this train to the last spot was about 4.5 hours. So a 4.5 hour chase. Driving it as a straight shot is closer to 2 hours. Yes from Keddie Wye to Williams Loop you can make it to see the same train in both locations but you do have to be quick about it. Not really any parking lots near most of these spots just places to pull off of the highway or Williams Loop for example can get right down at the cross point which is a little bit off the highway. Not too many high altitude shots in the canyon from the ground. The only good one that comes to mind is Pulga which is near the West end of the canyon. Hope this helps!

A number of different songs used from Soundstripe.

Thanks