Due to the events of the last year, productions are really jumpy about shooting anywhere near trains, so we had to travel to an appropriate location where trains don’t do things like barrel down tracks at 70 mph.
That location is Fillmore, California. It’s 60 miles from my place to the location. One way.
We were shooting at the Fillmore and Western Railway. They have historical and modern (well, modern for the US) trains and since it’s only a semi-active railway (they do scenic tours on the weekends, but it’s not active in the sense that freight or commuter trains come through), it’s a great place to shoot anything train-related and remain relatively safe.
Relatively safe because it’s a rail yard. Uneven ground, rocky footing, pointy things at head height, and chickens.
To be specific, 400 chickens. In a boxcar.
Don’t ask me why, I don’t know.
I do know that they qualified as a hazard because any time one got near them, they’d peck through the mesh cages. If the unlucky target wasn’t in pecking range, they’d spit water.
Do chickens spit? I’m not sure. I just know that one shouldn’t turn one’s back on them, and that’s hard when they’re in a boxcar and one must set a Kino Flo in the back corner. They got me good. One was pecking and another was spitting.
I hate chickens.
I took perverse enjoyment in devouring the fried chicken served at lunch.
Every time the wind picked up, dust would blow into everything. By the end of the day I was completely coated in dust and chicken spit. I’d have spit back, but my mouth was all dry and gritty.
Since we’re coming back tomorrow and the trains will be in different areas, we had to clear all the cable that was crossing the tracks and drive the condors out of the rail yard.
It took us a while to do that, as the tracks were about 10 inches tall. we had to build a wooden bridge so that the lift’s tires could roll across the tracks without tipping over the lift of damaging the tracks.
Turns out, railroad tracks are more delicate than one would imagine, and they have sensors trigger the warning barriers. Those sensors are little pieces of wire attached to the outside of the track – if they’re broken, the bells and lights start, the gates come down and there’s no way to stop it until the sensor is replaced.
We finally managed to do it, thanks to a co-worker who is an off-road driving enthusiast. Apparently, guiding a condor over rail tracks is just like getting a vehicle over a very tricky bit of ground. I’m so grateful he was there or we’d have likely tipped that condor.
After my hour-long drive home during which I guzzled water and berated myself for not bringing a change of clothes, I got home and finally showered.
The water ran off brown, but the chicken peck marks don’t look as bad now.
We’re back tomorrow.
Filed under: california, crack of dawn, distant location, hazardous, long long drives, Work, California, chickens, fillmore, production, rail yard, railroad, television
Totally Unauthorized 