January 2016
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Massachusetts Model Mania: The BIG SHOW, West Springfield—Wide Angle Views.
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You can’t take it all in! Four big buildings full of models, photos, artifacts, old timetables, books, and of course lots of friends! The show is on today too! I made hundreds of images. This selection was exposed with my…
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Rare Mileage! The Pan Am Railways Genie Grants Wishes!
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A short segment of the Pan Am Railway’s Boston & Maine Greenville Branch extends northward from Ayer, Massachusetts. While photographing around Ayer the other day, Bob Arnold, Paul Goewey and I had been discussing the branch, where it crosses Ayer’s…
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January 30, 2016 Big Railroad Hobby Show: Preview photo.
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On Saturday January 30, 2016, I exposed hundreds of photos while trying to capture the atmosphere and personalities of Amherst Railway Society’s Big Railroad Hobby Show at the Big E in West Springfield, Massachusetts. This is just a preview photo. Stay…
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The Lovely Trees; Norfolk Southern/Pan Am Southern Intermodal Train at Shirley.
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If I captioned this post, ‘23K passes Shirley’, would you have looked any way? The other day when Paul Goewey, Bob Arnold and I were photographing trains at Shirley, Massachusetts, I exposed these views of the daily westward intermodal train…
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Boston & Albany West End-Conrail in the Berkshires.
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Sunday, September 22, 1985. This photo was product of one of dozens of trips I made to the old Boston & Albany west end in the mid-1980s. The west end is the railroad west of Springfield over the Berkshires of…
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Tracking the Light EXTRA: Big Railroad Hobby Show at the BIG E in West Springfield this weekend Jan 30-31, 2016.
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The annual Big Railroad Hobby Show takes place this weekend. I’ll be there on Saturday making models look like full size trains, and visiting with friends. These views are from the 2011 show. Hard to believe that was FIVE years…
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Amtrak Montrealer Hours Late—An Example of a Captioned Photograph.
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Here’s an old print. I exposed this years ago. It shows an Amtrak train in the snow someplace. If I had to guess, I say it was made somewhere in New England in the mid-1980s/early 1990s based on the…
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General Electric Tier 4 works east on the old Boston & Maine.
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These modern locomotives have been on the move in New England for a few months now, but they managed to elude me. Or my camera anyway. (I saw one in Worcester some weeks ago.). The Tier 4 are the most…
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Captions Past and Present: Solving the Great Mysteries Before they Happen!
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I work with photographs almost every day. Often, I’m faced with drafting captions for historic images and too often I find historic prints without adequate information. Back in the day some conscientious photographer made the effort to preserve a scene….
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NECR Tunnel Motor at State Line.
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The other day down in the valley I heard the roar of a train ascending the old New London Northern grade to State Line. EMD diesels working hard. “Hmm. That’s odd. Daylight move on the New England Central?” In recent…
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Art Deco Delight; Cincinnati Union Terminal
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In August 2011, I exposed this vertical (portrait oriented) interior view of the famous Cincinnati Union Terminal. The station is an architectural masterpiece designed by architects Fellheimer & Wagner. I was visiting for the annual Summerail event (due to be…
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Conrail in 1984 or Fixing the Dark Side—Thin Negatives Improved!
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Back in March 1984, I wandered down to Palmer with my dad’s Rolleiflex Model T loaded with Tri-X. It was a miserable day; typical early of early Spring wet, clammy and dark. Yet, Conrail was running trains. A westward midday…
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SEPTA on Summer Evening: Silverliner on the old PRR Main Line.
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Tracking the Light EXTRA post: As a contrast to this morning’s frosty portrait view of a tightly cropped SEPTA Silverliner reflecting the snow on its inbound journey over former Pennsylvania Railroad rails, I thought I offer this summer evening’s view….
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Two Years Ago: Portrait of SEPTA in the Snow at Overbrook, Pennsylvania.
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Please note, if you are viewing this post on Google Plus, Tumbler, Facebook or other sites, you’ll need to view Tracking the Light at: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/ for the correct (unmodified, compressed or cropped) perspective on this image. It was exactly two years ago; on this…
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MBTA’s Mattapan-Ashmont PCCs in the Digital Era.
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As a follow-up to Wednesday’s Tracking the Light post featuring vintage Ektachrome slides of Boston’s MBTA Mattapan-Ashmont PCCs from the late 1970s, I thought I’d present some of the images of this classic transit operation that I’ve made in…
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Tracking the Light Looks Back: Five Years Ago, Amtrak’s Vermonter at Palmer.
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Brian Solomon’s Tracking the Light posts daily! I was searching through my Panasonic Lumix LX3 files from five years ago and I found this frosty low-sun photograph of Amtrak’s Vermonter departing CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts for Springfield. Rich winter sun offers a…
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Photographic incongruities: Saturn of Okayama—General Motors ad on a Streetcar?
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Brian Solomon’s Tracking the Light Posts EVERY DAY! Here we have General Motors ad on a Streetcar. You have Toyotas in America, so why not a GM car in Japan? Just to make things interesting, I made this photo on…
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PCCs on MBTA’s Mattapan-Ashmont Trolley—Looking Back.
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Recently, the TRAINS Newswire published a story on MBTA’s Mattapan-Ashmont Trolley line warning of the possible demise of the historic PCC cars and possibly of the trolley line itself. (The ‘bus’ word was uttered!) So, the word is out, if Mattapan-Ashmont…
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Metro-North, South Norwalk, Connecticut—September 7, 1989.
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Looking back at seven slides. Sometimes a review of ‘out-takes’ will reveal a few gems. This is a lesson in how the passage of time can make the commonplace more interesting. On the morning of September 7, 1989, I spent several…
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Sun and Clouds and a Turbo Train Near Rochester, New York.
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Last week, I wrote about violating one of the cardinal rules of good railroad photography, that is aiming directly into the sun. In question were some views along the Ware River Railroad, er . . . sorry, rather the Mass-Central,…
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Tracking the Light EXTRA: West Warren—Conrail C30-7A from a different angle.
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I just scanned this old negative a few minutes ago. (If you’re not viewing this on Tracking the Light, you’ll need to click the link to get the full effect of the image.) Back in late 1996, friend Doug Moore…
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Locomotive Geometry: Up Close with a Guilford Rail System SD26 .
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I made this detailed telephoto view of Guilford Rail System’s former Santa Fe SD26 621 at East Deerfield yard. The SD26 was a peculiar looking locomotive that featured a classic arched roof cab, slanted nose, with a humpbacked hood section…
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A 30-year Old Gem; Amtrak Pan, New Cars on the Move.
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One of the advantages of making a panned photograph is the ability to instantly transform a dull scene into a dynamic photograph. I made this photograph of an eastward Amtrak train under wire on the old New Haven Railroad near New…
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On this Day, January 15, 1953, Pennsylvania Railroad’s Federal Express Crashed at Washington Union Station.
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In the lead was GG1 electric number 4876. After the spectacular January 15, 1953 Washington Union Station wreck, Pennsylvania Railroad rebuilt GG1 4876, which required substantial reconstruction resulting in an nearly new machine. In the late 1970s and early 1980s,…
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Tracking the Light EXTRA: Conrail 27 Years Ago this Very Day!
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A few minutes ago I scanned this Kodachrome slide. When I went to caption the file, I thought, “Jan 14th 1989. Wow, that’s exactly 27 years ago.” So, there you go. I’d been photographing Conrail symbol freight BUOI-4X (extra section…
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New Haven at New Haven, Connecticut; Gauging the Passage of Time.
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Stop for a moment and gauge the passage of time and your relative perception of it. I made this photograph about 1980. I’d been fascinated by the New Haven Railroad, and what I saw here I viewed then as a…
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Conrail Camel at East Brookfield; Fixing a Dark Slide.
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(If you are not viewing Tracking the Light, please click on the post to see the variations from Dark to Light.) Kodachrome was a great film but it had its failings. It’s spectral sensitivity tended to render blue too dark…
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SEPTA Chrome Glint—Sunset in Philadelphia.
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Staying with the theme of low-sun glint and color slide film. The other day I scanned this photo I exposed back in October 2006. My brother Sean and I had been exploring SEPTA’s Route 15. At the end of the…
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Classic Chrome: Amtrak train 88 catches the Glint at Green’s Farms, November 8, 2015.
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I love a great sunset glint opportunity. Last autumn, I revisited this spot at Green’s Farms, Connecticut with Pat Yough and George W. Kowanski. While I exposed a number of views digitally, for this image I used my Canon EOS…
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Ten Alternative Views: Mass Central—Going South, South Barre to Palmer
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Sometimes small operational anomalies on a railroad will combine to benefit the photographer by opening up different angles or opportunities. Last Wednesday, delays on Mass-Central’s northward run (owing in part to congestion at Palmer Yard that resulted in a later than usual departure)…
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Capturing the Spirit of Ware River Valley; Nine More Mass-Central Contextual Views.
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While on the roll with Mass-Central, I thought I’d present some more of my latest views. Made over the last week or so, these portray the railroad and its environs in the Ware River Valley. In my photography and writing, I…
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Railroad Photography: Breaking the Rules: Aiming into the Sun!
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Someone once said, ‘never photograph by aiming directly into the midday sun’. And, this advice has been melded into the cardinal rules of good railway photography. The other day, while photographing along Mass-Central’s former Boston & Albany Ware River…
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Thursday Extra Post: Follow up view!
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In relation to this morning’s post; Mass-Central on Ware Hill; Boston & Albany’s Ware River Branch in a Modern Context, I’ve received several comments (and email) suggesting that a view in between the two I originally presented might be a superior alternative….
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Mass-Central on Ware Hill; Boston & Albany’s Ware River Branch in a Modern Context.
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Winter is an excellent time to photograph Mass-Central former Boston & Albany Ware River Branch. The lack of foliage and a dearth of heavy underbrush opens up angles for photography obscured during the warmer months. My challenge is to find…
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First Railway Photo(s) for 2016; SEPTA PCC on Parkside Avenue.
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Philadelphia Fortuity: Before January 2, 2016, I’d never seen a SEPTA PCC making the loop from 40th onto Parkside Avenue, then on to the normal number 15 route along Girard Avenue. My motto is always have a camera at the…
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Irish Rail by the rules at Hazelhatch, September 2015.
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Sometimes I try to play by the rules. It was rare glorious sunny day back in September 2015. Irish Rail had a full complement of trains on the move. Catching clean 071 class diesel 077 with the second IWT Liner was…