On August 22, 2010, I’d spent the day photographing trains on Norfolk Southern’s former Erie Railroad mainline in western New York state.

This had been familiar territory for me back in the 1980s, when I was studying photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY.

One of the trains that caught my attention this day was Norfolk Southern 048, a special for the James E. Strates Show that ran with spotless ‘simonized’ former Conrail SD60M 6777.

In this view, I aimed to recreate a photo that I made in 1988 of an eastward Conrail freight at the same location immediately east of milepost 314 in Cameron, NY. I was standing on a vestige of the old westward main track, which was converted to a set-out spur when Conrail single tracked this portion of the railroad back in 1994.

Exposed using my (then new) Canon EOS7D with a prime 24mm Canon lens. Below are two versions; one is made directly from the RAW file without modification; the other involved a series of adjustments aimed at improving highlight and shadow detail and overall color balance.

In reviewing this photo, I’ve decided to add it to my screen savers. It brings back some fond memories of my days photographing the former Erie Railroad. I wonder what this location is like in 2024?

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