September 2013
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More Adventures with Ireland’s Bord na Mona—September 2013.
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Shannonbridge and More! Last week, Mark Healy and I made a foray into Irish bog lands searching for narrow gauge peat trains operated by Bord na Móna (Peat Board). We’d been watching the weather closely and tried to time…
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Deutsche Bahn Freight near Dordrecht Zuid, Netherlands, September 2013
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Red Electric in Soft Sun Light. Thunderstorms had blown through earlier in the afternoon. Then the sun beamed. All the while Netherlandse Spoorwagen’s double-track north-south mainline south of Dordrecht was saturated with an unceasing parade of trains. (See my…
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Thalys High Speed Train, The Netherlands, September 2013
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Presenting a Modern Railway Vision. I exposed this image of a Thalys at speed crossing a arched bridge over Hollands Diep minutes before the fading orange ball of the sun melted into North Sea coastal fog. Thalys is an…
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Netherlandse Spoorwagen Koploper near Dordrecht Zuid, September 2013
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A Distinctively Dutch Train. Earlier this month (September 2013), I traveled with an Irish railway photographer to the Netherlands. We spent a few sunny hours at a pedestrian/bicycle crossing near Dordrecht Zuid on a busy north-south line. This was one…
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Tioga Central, October 7, 2007.
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Alcos on the old Fallbrook Route. In October 2007, I was working on my Railroad’s of Pennsylvania book, when Pat Yough and I made a very productive chase of Tioga Central’s excursion train, which operated, from Wellsboro Junction, Pennsylvania compass…
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Locomotive Geometry: Susquehanna Alco RS-1
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Binghamton, New York, December 1986. It was a cold and snowy day when I drove from Rochester to Binghamton, New York in December 1986. I photographed several trains along the former Erie Southern Tier route. In the afternoon, I…
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Pilgrimage to the Quebec Cartier Railway, July 1997.
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Getting there was Half the Adventure. By 1997, the Quebec Cartier Railway was among the last places in North America where sets of six-motor Alco-designed diesels worked in heavy daily freight service. This is a remote and isolated line in…
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Pioneer Valley Railroad at Westfield, Massachusetts, October 1984.
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Alco S-2 106. I exposed this view of Pioneer Valley Railroad’s Alco S-2 switcher with my old Leica 3A on black & white film on October 12, 1984. On the same day, I’d arranged with the railroad to ride this…
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Quiet Day at Palmer Yard, 1979.
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Kid with a Camera. In spring 1979, my dad and I visited Central Vermont’s Palmer, Massachusetts yard. At the time Palmer activity tended to be nocturnal. A lone RS-11 for The Rocket (Palmer-St Albans, Vermont piggyback) was the only locomotive…
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Delaware Lackawanna Freight Near Scranton, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1997
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Lucky Photograph on the old Lackawanna Mainline. Mike Gardner and I were poking around Scranton on October 14, 1997. Although the foliage was nearing its autumnal peak, the sky was dull, so we were mostly exploring locations. We drove into…
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Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia, Cape Jack, July 24, 1997
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A Fleeting Glimpse of a Maritime Alco Diesel Oasis. I featured this image of westward Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia (say it five times fast) freight in my big book Locomotive, published by MBI in 2001. The concept…
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Canadian Pacific at Lyndonville, Vermont, October 8, 1992.
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Classic New England Railroading. In October 1992, Tom Carver advised me to photograph Canadian Pacific’s Lyndonville Subdivision in Northern Vermont. At the time, traffic was down to two or three trains per week. Yet, these always operated with Montreal…
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Amtrak 207 at New Haven, Connecticut, June 26, 2012
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Fortuitous Encounter with the Highest Numbered P42. On June 26, 2012, I was changing trains at New Haven, Connecticut while on my way to Philadelphia. I’d come in on the Springfield-New Haven shuttle. This was a push-pull set consisting of…
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Pan Am with Statue at North Bennington, Vermont, July 27, 2010.
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A Bit of Art by the Tracks. I was at North Bennington, Vermont to photograph Pan Am Railways’ (formerly Guilford Rail System) RJ-1 local freight that was performing freight interchange with Vermont Railway System. This route had been dormant…
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Rhein River Valley Part 3
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Views from the East Side of the Rhein—September 2013. For me the Right Bank (east side) of the Rhein has always been more challenging and more intriguing. This side has more freight, but the vistas are more difficult to access….
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Rhein River Valley Part 2
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The Left Bank at Oberwesel—September 2013. Oberwesel is south of Boppard and also on an elbow-bend in the river. It’s spectacularly set along the river and against steeply rising hills while featuring castles and a medieval city wall. The…
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Rhein River Valley Part 1
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The Left Bank at Boppard and Vicinity—September 2013. Germany’s Rhein offers one of the World’s great railway experiences. Here busy double track railways occupy both sides of the river, largely in sight of one another. This narrow picturesque valley…
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German Coal Railway—Part 2
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RWE Power: Coal trains, power plants and wires. Continuing to explore RWE Power’s coal network brought us to the company’s Nord-Sud-Bahn. Although much of the line is sequestered by trees or inaccessible, we found some recommended locations toward the north-end…
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German Coal Railway—Part 1
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RWE Power’s Intensive Rail Network—September 2013. German coal railway? 60 million tones annually? An article in May 2013 Today’s Railways Europe peaked my curiosity. Taking advantage of cheap fares on Ryan Air from Dublin to Maastricht, then into a Hertz…
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Conrail SD80MACs Near Middlefield, Massachusetts.
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Twenty Cylinder Monsters Roar West on July 19, 1997. Between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, I made many trips to the old Boston & Albany ‘West End.’ I often focused on the east slope of Washington Hill, where the combination of…
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Electro-Motive Switcher in Holyoke, Massachusetts August 1987.
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Capturing an Engine in its Environment. Enthusiasm counts for a lot. I had just recently purchased a second-hand Leica M2 with 50mm Summicron, and I was seeing photos everywhere I looked. I often poked around Holyoke, where the mix of…
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VIA Rail, Montreal, Quebec, October 24, 2004
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A Clear Autumnal Canadian Morning. Autumn is my favorite time to make photographs. Crisp days, rich low sunlight, and bright rusty foliage make for a great combination of conditions. In Late October 2004, Tim Doherty and I spent several days…
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Southern Pacific 4449 at Worden, Oregon, April 1991.
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My First Glimpse of the Daylight. Southern Pacific’s streamlined Daylight was one of the great classic American trains. It was so popular that a recreation of the train was assembled in the 1980s using traditional equipment, including one of the last surviving…
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Monon Semaphores, Romney, Indiana, June 24, 2004
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Old General Railway Signal Semaphores In Corn Country. CSX’s former Monon was among the last bastions of semaphores in automatic block territory in the United States. I made this image on the morning of June 24, 2004. While the line…
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Steam to Kilkenny, August 25, 2013—Part 4
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Irish Rail Vignettes: Trains From the Train. Traveling by special train allows unusual perspectives of otherwise ordinary operations. It allows for images of technological contrasts and angles not normally possible. The RPSI’s vintage Cravens are ideal rolling platforms from which to…
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Steam to Kilkenny, August 25, 2013—Part 3
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Up Close with Locomotive 461. Excursions are a great opportunity to make detailed photos of railway equipment. In addition to the traditional angles, I like to get close and focus on characteristic elements of locomotives and railway cars. Locomotive 461…
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Steam to Kilkenny, August 25, 2013—Part 2
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Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s “The Marble City.” I was impressed by the efficiency of the trip. Irish Rail employees and RPSI volunteers cooperated to bring the trip off and ensure everyone on board had a safe and enjoyable…
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Steam to Kilkenny, August 25, 2013
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Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s “The Marble City.” On Sunday, August 25, 2013 locomotive 461 hauled a well-patronized Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s excursion from Dublin’s Connolly Station to Kilkenny via Cherryville Junction. As is often the case this time of year…