It's often difficult to decide when to put the cameras away and return to the hotel, especially when the train you've been waiting for is already in sight. We watched this train leave Jingpeng in good time and got into position, only to see it stop at Xiakengzi and wait. Uphills were rarely looped to wait for downhills and this downhill took forever to turn up.
The sun dropped below the horizon and the light gradually faded to almost nothing. Our group had gradually faded as well and most had returned to the bus, leaving only two of us foolish enough to think there was any hope of getting a usable image when the train finally came.
Setting the exposure was easy, use the widest aperture and longest shutter speed you thought you could get away with and hope for the best. The result was disappointing, much too dark, but there was something there and improvements in digital technology have since made it possible to compensate for the underexposure, producing the image you see above. I'm very glad I gave it a try.
QJ 6639 and QJ 6135 worked train 44131, a 14:05 Haoluku - Daban freight, over the curved Simingyi Viaduct 40 minutes after sunset on 13 December 2000.