On our way north on Highway 309, we made short detour on West Spruce Street in Tamaqua, Pa.
A pause at the yard office at the north end of the old Reading Company yard, found us a selection of Reading & Northern’s EMD diesels idling in lovely late-afternoon light.
Soft sun was streaming through autumn leaves in a dream-like setting.
I made these photos with my Nikon Z7-II, but I also exposed a couple of Ektachrome slides. I’ll be curious to see those images, since this type of light is difficult to capture effectively on slide film.
We were navigating the streets of Lilly on our way toward Cresson, Pa., when we spotted the headlight of a train on Track 2,
I pulled in near the tracks at SIP 254.3 with just enough time to jump out and grab some cameras to expose photos of what turned out to be westward loaded trash train.
I know some of my readers will be quick to say; ‘that’s a load of garbage.’
In mid-October, Kris and I intercepted the Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society’s excursion on the Nittany & Bald Eagle. This paused at Tyrone, Pennsylvania, where I made photos of Lycoming Valley 2011 (a former Southern Pacific GP35) surrounded by backlit brightly colored leaves of trees along the line.
In an earlier time I might have refrained from making these images because of the chain link fence between me and the tracks. In this instance, I accepted the fence as a feature of the location. The leaves more than made up for it.
A week later we returned to Tyrone. It was late in the day and the sunlight was low and foliage was brilliant. But during that brief visit, not a wheel turned, neither on the Main Line nor the Bald Eagle Branch, so I photographed the tracks with trees.
Using the ASM.transit.com web page, I watched Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian make eastward progress on the Main Line. The sun crept over the hills to the east of where Kris and I were waiting. When the train was 25 minutes east of Johnstown, I said, “We should be seeing a headlight soon.”
My composition was based on the late-season foliage on the far side of the three-track mainline.
I didn’t know that PRR-Tuscan red Pullman Colonial Crafts was tied to the back of the consist, but I was delighted to catch this vision of the earlier era on the roll.
It’s always a pleasant surprise to see something like this without anticipation.
The next move was just trash—literally. Stay tuned!
Amtrak Train 42, the eastward Pennsylvanian, works upgrade at Lilly, Pennsylvania. PRR-Tuscan red Pullman Colonial Crafts at the back of Train 42.
On our first full day visiting Cape Cod, Kris and I paused at the old New Haven Railroad station in West Barnstable.
I’d set up my Nikon Z6 with an FTZ adaptor that allows me to use my older Nikon lenses with the modern mirrorless camera.
One of the more unusual lenses in my arsenal is a 1990s-era f2.0 135mm telephoto with Defocus Image Control. I rarely use the defocus feature, but have found that this lens offers a wonderful visual perspective, especially when used at its widest apertures, which is how I employeed it for this study.
I’m a proponent of selective focus, and this is a great tool for experimenting.
There were no trains on the horizon during our brief visit, so I selectively focused on the historic rolling stock that has been stored at West Barnstable for many years. I’ve previously feature these old railroad cars on Tracking the Light. On each visit the trials of time seem more evident.
About ten years ago I was photographing at Washington, Mass., near the summit of CSX’s Boston Line —the former Boston & Albany—and saw my first ever FedEx trailer rolling west on an intermodal train.
I’m sufficiently antique that I remember sending a package when the company was called ‘Federal Express.’
At the end of October, Kris and I caught an eastward Norfolk Southern intermodal train at Lilly, Pa., that was largely hauling FedEx boxes. We were both impressed—especially by the BNSF stack wells.
I made these images using my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, my brother and I would routinely travel on Amtrak from Springfield or Hartford (with a change at New Haven ) to Rye, New York.
Why Rye?
To the average passenger, Rye was a fairly ordinary suburban station on the former New Haven Railroad electrified mainline. For my brother and I, it was the designated station for my grandparents to collect us for the short drive to their Co-op City apartment in The Bronx.
I didn’t know it at the time, but Rye was also a residence of Roger Lewis, Amtrak’s first president.
Upon alighting from an Amfleet coach on the westbound platform, we met my grandfather who was waiting for us. He understood my desire to rush up to the head-end to make a photo of the train before we headed away.
I made this view of our engineer at the throttle of E60 972 as he was looking back waiting for the signal from the conductor to depart Rye for New York’s Pennsylvania Station.
Exposed on Kodak 5063 (Tri-X) film using a 1930s-vintage Leica 3A rangefinder. Processed in Kodak Microdol-X in my mother’s sink.
October had been pleasantly warm in Pennsylvania, so it was a bit of shock when we arrived at Lilly near the summit of the Alleghenies to find it was a raw 27F! Luckily we’d packed some long sleeves.
Crisp cool air carries the sound well, and long before the headlight came into view, Kris and I could hear this heavy eastward Norfolk Southern freight laboring up the ‘West Slope’.
Years ago, I would have used my telephoto lenses to frame an eastward train beneath the classic PRR signal bridge that once stood at Lilly, but this was removed a few years ago when NS resignaled the line.
Notwithstanding, this is still a neat place to watch a train clawing its way upgrade. This was a monster. In addition to locomotives at the headend, there was a mid-train ‘DPU’ (radio remote control distributed power unit), and a helper at the back.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z cameras. This was the first of several trains we caught that cool morning. Soon the sun was over the ridgeline and we continued a wonderful day of photography!
In the evening, as we were leaving Seafood Sam’s in Sandwich, Massachusetts, a horn blast announced the passage of Mass Coastal’s ‘Energy Train’.
This short freight carries garbage from a loading point near Yarmouth Port to an off-Cape incinerator near Rochester.
We jumped in the car and Kris navigated our way to the old New Haven station in Buzzards Bay near the west end of the massive Cape Cod Canal lift bridge. The ghostly presence of the mighty span loomed beyond in the gloom.
I set up my Z7-II on my mini Gitzo tripod as the headlights of the freight illuminated the girders of the lift span. With my camera set to ISO 6400 and 12,800 for better low-light capture, I made this series of the train passing.
Our visit to Cape Cod focused on the shore, the ocean and elements of natural beauty. This was Seamus-the-Dog’s first visit to the ocean and he loved the sights and scents and atmosphere of this new environment.
This is a selection of images from my Nikon Z mirrorless cameras.
The other day, Kris directed us to Cape Cod Central’s Sandwich (Massachusetts) station where we made a selection of photos.
Here we found some classic old buildings along the line, plus beautiful autumn foliage and rich morning light—that made for some excellent photographic conditions.
Late autumn operations can be be sparse on Cape Cod. No trains were expected during our visit to Sandwich, and as it happened, none passed.
Every morning, we’ve stopped for breakfast and coffee at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow in Orleans, Massachusetts. This is located near the site of the former Old Colony Railroad Station (a component of the New Haven System).
The railroad has been gone for more than half a century. Today little remains of the Old Colony at Orleans except the right of way, a mural, and a few signs.
The Cape Cod Rail Trail represents an adaptive re-use of the track bed.
I try to imagine the sound of a 4-4-0 approaching the town with a short passenger train in tow.
It’s just not there for me. The ghosts of the Old Colony are ephemeral. I need some stronger coffee.
Rail trail looking west toward Buzzards Bay.Rail trail looking railroad east toward Provincetown. This is more or less on the site of the old station.This mural decorates a wall near the Hot Chocolate Sparrow. I’ve featured it previously on Tracking the Light.An old USGS topographical map that dates from before the age of the automobile.
In a gentle curve, under an azure dome and against a backdrop of rusty autumn leaves, an intermodal train races west on Norfolk Southern’s ‘three main track’ —former Pennsylvania Railroad mainline at Cassandra, Pa.
The sun was over my right shoulder at an angle low enough to capture truck detail, but high enough to allow for a full-daylight exposure.
The zoom on my Nikon was set to 46mm, which nearly matches the field of vision of the avarage human eye.
This is nearly a perfect of image of modern freight railroading today. There were no complications caused by wayward clouds, rampaging graffiti artists, or unsightly shadows from random wires.
In October we paid a brief visit to the Everett Railroad at Hollidaysburg, Pa. Here we found the railroad’s 2-6-0 No. 11, under steam having recently returned with an excursion.
It was the first time I’d ever seen this Alco gem in person, let alone under steam. According to Everett’s website, No. 11 served Rhode Island’s Narragansett Pier Railroad for many years before being sold to New York’s Bath & Hammondsport. It is a handsome machine that had drawn a small crowd of admirers.
We were running short on time, so I made a few quick photos, before we headed off to our next destination.
Someday, we will need to give the Everett a more extensive study.
My birthday has been a great opportunity to get great photos.
This year, I was up early and drove to Gap, Pa., where I hoped to find peak foliage. My enthusiasm was high, but the sun was still below the horizon.
Amtrak Keystone 605 was due, and I needed to get a bit creative. So I set my Nikon’s Z7-II’s ISO to 4000 in order to use a fast enough shutter speed to stop the train rolling by a bright red-orange tree in the early morning light.
Back in my Kodachrome days I would have settled for a blur of the train and tree.
On this October birthday morning, I used a shutter speed of 1/800th of a second, which stopped the action nicely. The tree and train made for some nice colors.
In the quiet bucolic setting of the Railroad Overlook at Cassandra, Pa., anticipation is part of the joy of witnessing the passage of freights over the former Pennsylvania Railroad ‘Broad Way’.
The aural sensation of an approaching eastward freight on its ascent of Alleghenies begins with a distant roar. Kris tells me that I often don’t hear what she says, “…but you can hear a freight train five miles away!” I had a hearing test this summer and the doctor informed me that I have the hearing of a twenty year old.
“There’s GE’s in the lead, but it sounds like there might be EMD helpers too.”
After a little while a headlight appeared at the west end of the long tangent looking toward Portage. Oddly the sound initially fades when the train comes into view, only to return in a swell as it grows closer. This train is a monster and it was down to a crawl.
The other photographers standing on the bridge were engrossed in conversation and seemed oblivious. So I said, “There’s an eastbound close.”
“How close?”
I pointed.
“Oh!” And with that positions were taken.
Working with two cameras, I made this sequence of photos, paying special attention to catch the helpers working at the back.
As my late friend Bob Buck would say, “It was a good show!” And it was.
In Conrail days, I made many memorable visits to the West Slope of Alleghenies. The former PRR mainline was always alive with freight.
It had been almost three years since our last visit to this hallowed ground. Last Saturday we made an overdue pilgrimage.
We arrived at the Railroad Overlook at Cassandra, Pa. just before 1pm. There were a fair few photographers already in position, plus an extended Mennonite family enjoying a PRR-themed picnic.
It was quiet for the first half hour.
Light clouds crossed the sky, and a set of light helpers went West toward Cresson. I made photos to capture the aura of the place. And then a distant roar, just barely audible above the rustle of leaves.
This season has seen some glorious sunny weather and brilliant foliage.
I’ve been aiming to make the most of it!
Last week, I exposed these views of Amtrak Keystone 643 at Hoover Road west of Gap, Pa., The flaming red sumac leaves in the foreground are key part of my compositions.
Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm set at 32mm, 1/1000th of a sec, f4.0 100 ISO.Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm set at 39mm, 1/800th of a sec, f4.0 100 ISO.
The former Pennsylvania Bald Eagle Branch diverges from the Main Line at Tyrone, Pa.
Our quest was to intercept an excursion operated by the Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society in conjunction with the Nittany & Bald Eagle—one of several short lines part of the North Shore group.
Last year, Kris and I had caught the Bellefonte’s restored Budd RDC on the move. I anticipated this year’s trip to also operate with the RDC.
Following the directions to Washington Avenue (kindly provided by a fellow photographer on the Amtrak platform at Tyrone) we turned the corner and were surprised to see an EMD diesel in Erie Lackawanna style paint ambling down the street.
The excursion from Bellefonte included the aforementioned RDC, but this was hauled by North Shore 2012 along with three other passenger cars. At the back was Lycoming Valley 2011 (LV is another of the North Shore group shortlines) wearing a retro Reading Company scheme.
Although we had done a lot of driving, and made a few significant detours (including a failed mission to intercept Amtrak 42 at Newton Hamilton, Pa.), in the end we arrived at Washington Avenue just in time to catch this rare move.
My previous photography at this location was with photographer Mike Gardner in March 2001, when we caught a Norfolk Southern coal train bound Strawberry Ridge coming up the street.
Photos exposed with my Nikon Z-series cameras.
We turned on to Washington Street in Tyrone, Pa., to see North Shore Railroad 2012, a former Penn Central GP38, coming down the street. A scene to inspire model railroad builders.I was hoping to see the Bellefonte’s RDC but was expecting it to run on its own. Have I crossed paths with this former Southern Pacific GP35 before? Now it is dressed like a Reading Company locomotive. Purists be damned! This is a back lit view with a long telephoto, but with it I captured the scene, the unusual track arrangement, and the rare excursion.
Between Huntingdon and Tyrone, Pa., the old Pennsylvania Railroad Middle Division follows a path carved by the Little Juniata River.
By contrast, we took a more direct route by driving west via Routes 22 and 453. This allowed us to get well ahead of the westward Norfolk Southern freight that we rolled by at Huntingdon.
On arrival at Tyrone, an eastward NS intermodal was approaching, Kris photographed this from the window of the car with her Fuji X-T4.
With time to spare, I set up for a dynamic view of the westward train, exposed from a postion on the Amtrak platform using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom.
I’ve included two versions of the photo that exhibit varying degrees of post processing to make the most of the image.
I’m on the fence on this photo. I also exposed a color slide using my F3 with an f2.0 135mm telephoto. I’ll be curious to see how this came out.
Uncrossed version with only moderate post processing changes. Exposed at 70mm f4 1/1000 sec.This version exhibits a variety of changes to the original file, including the selective cropping to eliminate the sky and make the most of autumn foliage. Both photos were processed from the same Nikon NEF RAW file. I think I like the top (uncropped) version better.
Getting to Tyrone was on the day’s agenda, and here we had a more elusive quarry to capture. The NS trains were just a bonus.
After departing the East Broad Top we drove north to Mount Union and followed the old Pennsylvania Railroad Middle Division west to Huntingdon.
In the 1980s and 1990s, I often visited Huntingdon, Pa., where my old pal TSH had family.
We had a few minutes, so we drove around town. I remarked on how little the town had changed in thirty years.
As we approached the grade crossing by the Amtrak station, the crossing lights flashed and the gates came down. We pulled into the small Amtrak lot just in time to make some grab shots of the passing Norfolk Southern freight. I also photographed the old PRR station that sits well back from the present day mainline. reflecting a line relocation from more than a century ago.
Although, my photo of the westward freight is non-standard, I like this type of photo because it captures greater environment which includes the crossing signals and the colored trees in the distance.
After the train cleared the crossing we headed west toward Tyrone, where we aimed to catch the freight again.
The East Broad Top excursion we had photographed (see yesterday’s post) wandered up to Colgate Grove and was turned on the wye.
In the interval, we went for pizza, which we consumed trackside. Soon smoke on the horizon and a distant whistle announced the returning train.
I took up a lineside position and focused both my film and digital cameras in anticipation of the locomotive coming into view.
It was exciting to see old number 16 up close and under steam. I had seen this locomotive back in the 1990s. In those days it resided in the gloom of the roundhouse at Rockhill Furnace where it had been for decades.
Now this old Baldwin narrow gauge 2-8-2 has steam in its belly again and was performing as the star of the show. No.16 looks and sounds great!
I made these photos with my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom lens.
I thought some vaguely themed photos were appropriate for today.
Back in October 2009, I bought myself a present of a Lumix LX3. This was my first digital camera. On October 25th, I gave myself the day off and put the ‘wee Lumix’ through its paces. This view is at East Brookfield, Massachusetts, about a year before the old Boston & Albany station was destroyed by fire.Back in ’58, my dad made this photo of a Rock Island BL2 at Blue Island, Illinois.This photo by Mike Gardner is dated October 25, 2015! There I am at East Deerfield Yard poised and ready to document the action. This shows the old ‘Railfan Bridge’, since removed.In 2010, I photographed this Class 58 Prussian 2-10-0 working freight in Germany. (Using my ‘wee Lumix’).A British Class 58 diesel (wearing the Mainline livery) leads a short freight at Didcot Parkway. Exposed on Fujichrome in June 2001.
Last week I was at the right place in the right moment to roll by Train 42—the eastward Pennsylvanian—that was carrying Amtrak’s inspection vehicles at the back.
Car 10002, the Corridor Clipper, is a track inspection car, while car 10005, a former Metroliner multiple unit, used to perform catenary measurement.
Gap is a great place to photograph equipment on the move. The curves require a permanent speed restriction and also allow for multiple angles as the train passes.
Bright sun and a hint of autumn color was an added bonus.
In October 1964, my father photographed Reading Company T-1 No. 2100 crossing a field at a rural gradecrossing near Molino, Pennsylvania. This was on one of his many chases of Reading’s Iron Horse Rambles.
Sixty years later—plus or minus a few of days—I brought Kris and Seamus-the-dog to this very same crossing.
“Pop made a photo here.”
We parked our Honda and walked Seamus, while waiting for the returning Reading & Northern Fall Foliage Excursion to pass with the F7s leading.
I was thinking that this location really hadn’t changed much, although the railroad has. Reading Company was melded into Conrail in 1976, and then 23 years later Conrail was divided between Norfolk Southern and CSX. In the meantime, Andy Muller carved out his Reading & Northern empire from lines cast away by Conrail during its retrenchment years.
Before the train came into view, we found an enormous praying mantis sitting on the front tire of the Honda. My first attempt to shoo the wee critter into safety failed when it scurried around the backside of the tire.
Then we heard the horn of the approaching excursion. We made our photos. However rather than jump into the car for spirited chase, I needed to persuade the mantis to relocate. Ultimately, I coaxed it to cling on to my pen. Kris found this amusing and made a few photos. I found a nice spot in the grass for the big bug and we were on our way again.
Exposed using a FujiFilm X-T4.
Yesterday, I sent Pop a preview of today’s post. He has hundreds of Reading photos.
It has been almost a year since we added a 50-140mm Fujinon telephoto zoom to our arsenal of lenses for the Fuji X-T4.
I often like to play with . . . I mean experiment with . . . different types of equipment. So a few days ago I took the X-T4 out to make a few photos of Straburg Rail Road’s outbound midday train. Usually it is in Kris’ capable hands. I exposed these views at Blackhorse Road using the 50-140mm lens.
I’ve always liked the color palatte and sharpness offered by the FujiFilm digital cameras, and these photos exemplify the warm saturated tones offered by the X-T4.
Strasburg 89 near Blackhorse Road; exposed in RAF (RAW) format using a FujiFilm X-T4 with 50-140mm lens. Processed in Lightroom.Strasburg 89 near Blackhorse Road; exposed in RAF (RAW) format using a FujiFilm X-T4 with 50-140mm lens. Processed in Lightroom and cropped slightly from the original file.
We arrived at Reading & Nothern’s East Mahanoy Junction a good five minutes before the Fall Foliage Excursion returning from Jim Thorpe was due to pass.
This is a neat place on the former Reading Company to make photos. In the last couple of years, I’ve made images here from a variety of different angles.
For these views, I was standing on Slate Road from a position that offers a bit of elevation.
As the train came into view, I used my Nikon Z7-II with a 70-200mm zoom to frame up of the leading locomotives in the shadowed curve on approach to the junction, then made a series of wideangle photos from the same vantage point of the train in back lit autumn sun using my Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
On my August 1984 trip to Montreal, I carried two Leica 3A rangefinders.
One was loaded with Kodachrome. The other with Kodak Tri-X.
The problem was that on the B&W camera, I was using a pre-war (1930s vintage) Leitz Elmar with uncoated elements. While sharp, this tended to produce low-contrast images that exhibited a variety of artifacts.
Complicating matters, the I had bulk-loaded Tri-X into cassetts that I’d used again and again. In this instance, the cassette suffered from some minor light leaks and scratched so of the negatives.
The shutter on the old Leica wasn’t the best. While it did ok at a 1/200th, and 1/100th (no 1/250th or 1/125th as on more modern cameras), most of the other shutter speeds were a bit random.
And if all that wasn’t enough, I did a pretty poor job of processing the film! I don’t recall exactly what I did, but from the looks of the negatives, I was using nearly exhausted developer. To compensate for the weak solution, I upped the temperature and the time. The results were very low contrast with comparatively high-grain.
Back in the day, I’d deemed the negatives too challenging to print, so I put them in a glassine envelope largely unprinted.
Despite all that, I’d managed to make some interesting compositions, if not great photographs. The other day I scanned the whole roll.
The photo displayed here iswest of Montreal at Sainte Anne-de-Bellevue along the parallel Canadian National and Canadian Pacific double lines.
I had taken a suburban train from Windsor Station. And made this view of an eastward VIA Rail LRC train with MLW diesel coming out of the afternoon sun.
Unmodified scan of 35mm Kodak Tri-X negative exposed using uncoated Leitz 50mm Elmar with a Leica 3A rangefinder processed in some sort of low-grade soup that barely qualified as developer. Slightly improved version of the above photo. This was modified in digital post processing to increase contrast, remove spots and adjust exposure.
The following year, as my second camera, I brought with me to Montreal my father’s vintage 1960 Rolleiflex Model T, which used 120 size film and had an excellent Zeiss Tessar lens (coated!). Loaded with Plus-X, this produced vastly superior results.
Live and learn.
Tracking the Light Explores Photography Every Day!
Years ago I photographed Norfolk Southern’s executive F-units leading the company office car train on various occasions.
Last Saturday, Kris and I intercepted these famous streamliners working Reading & Northern’s Fall Foliage Excursion on its return run from Jim Thorpe to North Reading.
It was a gorgeous clear afternoon and the autumn leaves were beginning to pop. We investigated a variety of places to make photos and ultimately settled on Tippets Road near Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania.
I wanted to make the most of the autumn color, while featuring the F’s classic ‘bull-dog’ nose and car body style construction.
I made these photos while working with both of my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras. Kris made photos with her FujiFilm X-T4 mirrorless camera. Seamus-the-Dog took it all in from the back seat of the car.
Once the train passed we zipped off after it to make more images in the late afternoon light!
I found it interesting that on the previous weekend we found fellow photographers at every bend to make photos of steam locomotive 2102, but on this day when photographing the F’s on exactly the same route, we only saw only other person making photos between Tippets Road and North Reading. This was especially remarkable considering the beautiful autumnal conditions!
Last Saturday was warm and clear. We had a late start, but decided to make another drive into coal country to photograph Reading & Northern Autumn Foliage Excursions.
Since we had a little time, we explored a few different locations. Kris liked the view from a grade crossing between East Mahanoy Junction and Haucks (compass north of Tamaqua, Pa.) at milepost 105. This was once a very railroad intense part of Pennsylvania. Today several lines still converge on this area.
We didn’t have long to wait and Reading & Northern’s return trip to Pottsville passed us with three vintage Budd RDCs!
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
Soon we were searching for another location to catch R&N’s F7s with the train from Jim Thorpe bound for Reading Outer Station. Stay tuned . . .
A beautiful autumn sunset made for a perfect situation to photograph Lehigh Valley number 40 which resides at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
In the 1950s, my father rode this car from Jim Thorpe to Hazelton and made several photos of it in revenue service.
Years later, we traveled together on RDCs on former New Haven lines in New England.
One of the former New Haven RDCs later came to New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic Railroad, where I had the opportunity to be qualified as a ‘motorman’, and on several occasions operated the car in revenue service.
In 2022, Kris and I took Conway Scenic Railroad number 23, ‘Millie’, on a spin to Conway, NH., and back for our pre-wedding special with many of our friends and family on board.
Every so often someone tells me that they don’t like Budd RDCs. I dismiss them as daft.
In April 1984, the Monson Jr-Sr High School Band had a musical exchange with a school band in Cohasset, Massachusetts.
The day of the joint concert, the 3rd Trombone took a bus to South Braintree, changed for the Red Line, paid a visit to South Station, photographed some former New Haven Railroad RDC’s, took a spin on the Orange Line to Sullivan Square, and eventually arrived back at the concert to play his note.
Unforntunately, karma caught the 3rd trombone, who did a subpar job of processing the Kodak Tri-X exposed on the big adventure.
These days, catching four vintage RDC’s in commuter service would be a major coup.
