1998 and 2018
As it happens, Irish Rail 223 was one of the first Irish locomotives I put on film.
Additional views of 223 were exposed digitally in recent weeks.
Comparatively little rolling stock in service back in 1998 remain active on Irish Rail today.
Who could have guessed that I’d be making photos of Irish Rail 223 more than 20 years after I caught it at Tralee on that cloudy Febraury morning!
Sometimes the medium fits the image in more ways than one.
Earlier this month, John Gruber and I visited the Illinois Railway Museum at East Union.
Among the photos I exposed that afternoon, was this digital black & white of a recreated vintage passenger train simmering at the East Union station.
Not real black & white exposed on film, but a camera created black & white JPG.
The scene emulates a classic view of a steam locomotive and heavy weight cars at a country station, the sort of scene that was once prevalent across North America.
The photo carries the spirit of a vintage photograph, yet it was exposed using modern techniques to distill the essence of the elements of scene now long gone.
It is just a view of a museum, but it lets us step back, maybe to a happier, simpler time.
These days, leading locomotives don’t necessarily reflect the operator or even the originator of long distance freights. In fact this is a Canadian National train, working the old Wisconsin Central line.
Musical legend and an electric guitar inventor, Les Paul was from Waukesha, and here a thoroughfare has been named for him. Its elevated crossing of CN made for nice vistas in both directions.
Although it was partly cloudy, momentarily brilliant morning sun made for nice illumination.
Exposed using my FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm lens.
On Sunday’s an Irish Rail class 071 works Belmond’s luxury cruise train, the 10-car Grand Hibernian, on its run from Dublin Connolly to Waterford.
Although slightly back lit, I found the famed ‘Gullet’ offers a good place to catch this train at work.
This cutting dates from the 1840s and features three tracks.
In this instance, Irish Rail 082 was accelerating down the middle road with the posh-looking train. (‘Down’ refers to traveling away from Dublin, and doesn’t reflect the gradient, which in this situation is actually rising).
Working with both my FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm telephoto and Lumix LX7, I made two sets of digital photos.
The locomotive sound was impressive as on this particular Sunday a couple weeks back the roads in the area were shut for a foot race and there was very little ambient noise compared with a typical day in Dublin. Perhaps, I should have made a recording!
I was running a few final errands before heading to the airport.
CSX had been working on making CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts compliant with positive train control requirements, which has coincided with commissioning new signal hardware.
By the time I return, the old signals will likely have been retired and the new system up and working.
Crossing the South Main Street bridge in Palmer, I spotted a New England Central local working the diamond, and a CSX intermodal train (Q022) waiting to the west.
This gave me enough time to set up and made a few final photos of the transitional arrangement at CP83 in Palmer.
Changeable lighting made for patches of direction sun under a partial blanket of cloud. I tried to use these sunny spots to my best advantage since the train was moving slowly through the interlocking.
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Parallel lines. On the left is Canadian National’s Wisconsin Central line from Fond du Lac to Chicago; on right is Wisconsin & Southern’s former Milwaukee Road line running from Horicon to Milwaukee.
On this day, Chris Guss and I were aiming to catch Wisconsin & Southern’s T-4 freight on its way to Janesville. This train joins CN’s route at Slinger, just a little ways north from our location in the curve at Ackerville.
My goal was to show the parallel routes, while featuring the freight accelerating through the curve, to demonstrate the power of the locomotives.
Complicating my composition were the rows of trees. When I place the train in the distance, the tops of the locomotives are below the tree-line, and the thus less dramatic. When I let the locomotives get closer, they obscure the freight cars and most of the interesting effects of the parallel curves.
If I move lower, the angle would be more dramatic, but the second set of tracks would be nearly lost altogether. Longer focal length lens? Similar quandary, this minimizes the second set of tracks and features the trees more prominently.
Such are the challenges of perfecting railroad photo composition. Often there’s no one ideal solution.
In the mid-1930s, Milwaukee Road introduced its high-speed streamlined Hiawatha on its Chicago-Milwaukee-Twin Cities route where elegant purpose-built shrouded 4-4-2 and 4-6-4 Alco steam locomotives whisked trains along in excess of 110mph.
Today, Amtrak’s Hiawathas have Siemens Chargers on the Milwaukee end, and former F40PH Control-Cab/baggage cars, known as ‘Cabbages’ on the Chicago-end.
While Amtrak provides an excellent corridor service, today top speed is just 79mph.
I can’t help but think that as a nation we’ve lost the plot on this one.
We went from elegant, fast steam streamliners to this?
Just moments ago, I changed trains at Portadown, Northern Ireland.
I’m writing this from the NIR service from Portadown to Bangor.
I uploaded Lumix files to my MacBook, and adjusted them using Lightroom on the train. Then scaled and uploaded to WordPress via NIR’s wifi.
Or at least that’s the theory.
I’m on my way from Dublin toward Belfast on the cross-border Enterprise.
Working with my Lumix LX7, I made these photos and I’m posting them via the Enterprise Wi Fi using my Apple MacBook.
The light weight Lumix LX7 with its easy to use controls and flexible zoom lens makes it an ideal travelogue device. Yet, it’s more than just a snapshot camera.
It makes simultaneous RAW and Jpg files while allowing adjustment of exposure via shutter speed and aperture controls. Plus it has a variety of pre-sets and automatic modes.
Reading the signals is part of the challenge and joy of my railroad photography.
Three weeks back, Chris Guss and I were following a southward Canadian National freight on the Wisconsin Central line.
North of Slinger, we made photos from a wooden plank bridge near the north approach signal for Slinger, Wisconsin.
This displayed ‘green over red’, in other words a clear aspect.
I made these views with my Fujifilm XT1. After exposing the view of the signal, I changed lenses, and used a 27mm pancake lens for the action photo of the passing train.
Heavy rain had given the ground a lacquer-like gloss.
Chris Guss and I had arrived at Sturtevant, Wisconsin to roll by an Amtrak train. (Featured the other day in: FIRST ENCOUNTER: AMTRAK CHARGER.
While waiting for the northward train. I made a series of photographs of Amtrak’s relatively new Sturtevant station. I’ve always liked the effect of a twilight sky, when the blue light of evening nearly matches the intensity of electric lighting.
Here, I worked with my Zeiss 12mm Touit lens. This is flat-field lens, so keeping the lens level, minimizes perspective distortion.
I was without my small tripod, and I used the camera handheld at a low angle. To make use of the reflections of the station in the parking lot.
I set the ISO to 2000. Here are two post-processing variations of the Camera RAW file that feature different contrast curves.
Two views almost 24 years apart.
Both feature southward trains on the former Soo Line, Wisconsin Central route ascending Byron Hill on their way south from Fond du Lac, exposed in the morning from the overhead bridge near the top of the grade.
In the interval between the images, the line was improved to two-main track and Wisconsin Central Limited became part of the Canadian National system.
The locomotives are very different too.
Many Irish Rail locomotives have nicknames. Engine 222 is ‘The Bishop’ or ‘Bishop Tutu’, which is an allusion to its number.
Over the last 20 years, I’ve caught this locomotive at many places across the Irish network.
See: DAILY POST: Timber and General Motors, June 10, 2006
I was curious to experience one of these new locomotives.
The Siemens-built Charger is powered by a Cummins diesel and has a European appearance.
Among their Amtrak assignments is the Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha corridor.
I waited on the platform at the new Sturtevant, Wisconsin station. The eerie blue glow of the locomotive’s LED headlights could be seen reflecting off the rails long before the train arrived at the station.
Working with my FujiFilm XT1 fitted with a Zeiss 12mm Touit, I set the ISO to 6400 and panned the train arriving at 1/30thof a second at f2.8.
To better balance the color and keep contrast under control, I modified the camera RAW file in Lightroom to produce this internet suitable JPG.
Gosh, I remember when 6798 was NEW and blue. This is among Conrail-era SD60Ms still at work on Norfolk Southern.
To make for a more dramatic locomotive action photo, I’ve taken a low angle medium-telephoto view.
Notice how the angle features the wheels on rails, allowing you to see below the locomotive.
Engine exhaust blurs the wires beyond, demonstrating the engines are working.
By focusing on the locomotives; I’ve cropped most of the following freight, more than a mile of it in tow.
Norfolk Southern’s Water Level Route is among the busiest freight routes in the East.
It features a continual parade of trains; long freights led by common modern diesels.
Here a cookie-cutter General Electric Evolution-series works east with a double stack train, ducking under the South Shore line at CP485 near Burns Harbor, Indiana.
Isn’t this freight the modern day equivalent of a New York Central freight led by F7s; or a generation earlier by a common Central H-10 Mikado?
But does it matter that I exposed this image? Where does it fit in the BIG picture?
I was pleased when I made this view. Chris Guss and I had enough time to set up, but didn’t wait long. I recalled a photo made more than 20 years ago in this same territory; Mike Danneman and I spent a snowy February morning photographing Conrail. Those photos are looking better all the time.
The common deserves to be recorded.
Sorry, this is not a pretty picture.
Here we have a potpourri of necessary clutter; a patched well-traveled road, various electrical poles and lines, the cooling tower for a power station, a signal-relay cabinet, a stray street light, and of course an Amtrak P42 Genesis diesel of the much-maligned industrial design.
Not pretty; but portrays a four-quadrant grade crossing gate protecting the highway an Amtrak train from Chicago crosses.
But this is Northern Indiana, not Tehachapi.
The reference is a pronunciation of the Chesapeake & Indiana’s reporting marks; CKIN.
Chris Guss and I had hoped to catch this curious short line railroad on the move.
No such luck. But we did make some photographs of their General Motors-built locomotives near their interchange with CSX at Wellsboro. Some of these wear Southern Railway style paint.
Southern’s been gone since the 1980s so it’s a flashback to see these colors again.
If only I’d been more awake! I’d just traveled overnight on Amtrak 449 (Lake Shore Limited) from Worcester, Massachusetts.
Photos exposed on a overcast July morning using a FujiFilm XT1; files adjusted digitally for contrast and exposure to maximize highlight and shadow detail.
Last week I stepped on to Main Street in Monson, just as a single New England Central GP38 was working upgrade through town.
‘It’s a bit late for 608.’ I thought. (608 is the weekday turn freight from Willimantic to Palmer, often featured on Tracking the Light).
It wasn’t 608, as I quickly noticed. Rather, it was NECR 3850 leading a Federal Railroad Administration inspection train, including FRA’s ‘Gage Restraint Measurement Vehicle’.
I had other plans. But had my FujiFilm XT1 with me.
Plans were postponed, as I jumped in my vehicle and immediately headed south on Route 32 to intercept this unusual train.
I caught it twice; once at the Bob Buck inspired South Monson Rt 32 crossing, and then at Bob’s favorite, Smith’s Bridge at Stafford Hollow Road.
In my youth this bridge offered an open view of the line; in Bob’s steam-era photo there were fields both sides of the track. Today, there’s only a narrow space between the trees. Lucky for me, the angle of the sun was perfect.
Score one for being at the right place at the right time (and having my cameras).
Mainline applications for Gen Set diesels are comparatively rare.
A gen set is a computer-optimized multiple-engine diesel electric designed for very low emissions, and typically used for switching.
In July, Chris Guss and I chased this eastward IHB freight.
Although it was a dull afternoon, the locomotive’s brilliant orange paint made for a dramatic subject.
Working with a short telephoto, I aimed to emphasize the unusual shape of the Gen Set locomotive, panning it slightly to offset the cluttered industrial background.
Here’s four views of Irish Rail 221; two film, two digital; two orange, two green & silver; two with passenger, two with freight; one in snow, three without; but all showing this machine on the move.
This is part of my on-going series depicting Ireland’s class 201 diesel electrics to mark my 20 years photographing in Ireland. Photographic details in the captions.
Question: do head-on telephoto views portray the shape of the 201-class effectively?
I made this view at the end of July of a Norfolk Southern westward freight passing the old New York Central station at La Porte, Indiana.
Notice the effect of perspective; classic tracks to the horizon.
I remember when Worcester Union Station was a ruin.
It was restored to its former glory during the late 1990s, and today is the terminal for MBTA services to Boston over the the old Boston & Worcester (later Boston & Albany/New York Central route).
I wrote about this station in relation to the building it replaced in my book Depots, Stations & Terminals.
The old Worcester (Massachusetts) Union Station was a solid Romanesque structure designed by architects Ware & Van Brunt. It was demolished to make way for Samuel Huckel’s new Worcester Union completed in 1911.
I exposed these views in July using my Lumix LX7.
Last week, Chris Guss and I revisited the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend street trackage at Michigan City, Indiana.
This classic vestige of interurban railroading always makes for interesting photos.
My father, Richard J. Solomon first visited the South Shore at Michigan City back in 1958.
My first trip over the line was 26 years later.
I exposed this sequence of an afternoon eastward electric train using my FujiFilm XT1 with prime 90mm telephoto. I was playing with the focus.
Back in April 1991, I made this view of Southern Pacific’s ‘Cal-P’ mainline at Pinole as the sun set over San Francisco Bay.
Working with my Leica M2 with 50mm Summicron, I exposed Kodak Tri-X, which I later processed in Agfa Rodinal.
Yesterday, August 7, 2018, my friend Jim Shaughnessy passed away.
Jim’s photography and writing are some of the best known in American railroad circles; over the years he has been a strong influence on my own work.
He and I often discussed three interests we had in common: Ireland, railways and photography.
Jim had been visiting Ireland since the 1960s. In 2005, Jim visited me in Dublin and I gave him a walking tour.
He will be missed; his photography and writing lives on.
—Brian Solomon
Saturday evening I used my FujiFilm X-T1 with 12mm Zeiss Touit to photograph CSX’s westward Q437 (Framingham, Massachusetts to Selkirk, New York) at Palmer, Massachusetts passing the new signals at CP83.
They’ve yet to be activated and the new signals are in place alongside the Conrail-era signals installed in 1986.
It was dusk and the light was fading fast. I pushed the camera ISO to 2500, and exposed this action shot at 1/250th of a second at f2.8.
With photographer Mike Gardner behind the wheel, we were in hot pursuit of Pan Am’s EDRJ (East Deerfield to Rotterdam Junction).
Rolling along with the train at the Vermont-New York state line west of Pownal, Vermont, I made this pacing view.
There’s wasn’t time for niceties such as carefully calculating exposure. I set the camera shutter speed dial to ‘A’ and exposed a burst of images in RAW.
After the fact I adjusted shadows and highlights in Lightroom to make for a better balanced photograph.
Rices at Charlemont, Massachusetts used to be an interlocking, where the Boston & Maine’s line went from double to single track.
Back in the 1980s, I’d catch meets here between eastward and westward freights.
Much has changed.
Not only was the interlocking decommissioned and later removed, but almost all evidence of it, including the old signal bridge are now gone. Trees and brush have grown up between the railroad and the river, and trees along the road are taller than ever.
This now makes for a pretty challenging setting.
At some point I’ll present ‘then and now’ views, but these photos demonstrate telephoto and wide angle photos of the same train from the same vantage point.
There was nice afternoon light on Pan Am’s EDRJ (East Deerfield to Rotterdam Junction) so I settled on my traditional location, which still gets a bit of sun late in the day.
Yesterday, August 3, 2018, I was invited by Trains Magazine’s Steve Sweeney to co-host the weekly recorded News Wire video program.
This was a thrill and an honor.
You can watch the video at: http://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/videos/2018/08/trains-news-wire-video-for-aug-3–a
Thanks to Steve and Kalmbach’s Diane for the broadcast!
The sky opened up as the East Deerfield hump set was crossing the Connecticut River bridge at the east end of Pan Am Railway’s East Deerfield Yard.
I thought the effects of the cascading rain added atmosphere to the scene.
Far and Near, which do you prefer?
Both views were exposed on a soft morning at Hospital Road in Monson, Massachusetts of New England Central freight 608 on its northward run to Palmer.
Working with a 90mm fixed telephoto lens, I made a distant view that better shows the train in the curve, followed by a tight view focused on the locomotives.
Other features include the distant signal to the Palmer diamond and milepost 64 (measured from New London, Connecticut).
Here’s something different. I had my FujiFilm X-T1 set up to record monochrome with a digitally applied red filter to alter the tonality. Working with a Zeiss 12mm lens, I made this view at Arlington, Massachusetts of two MBTA buses passing on Massachusetts Avenue.
How does this black & white compare with film?
It is a lot easier, but is it better?
