Monthly Archives: May 2019

photography, Tips and Technique

Dark Sky Over Donner Pass—150th Anniversary of America’s 1st Transcon.

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Multiple pass scan adjusted.
Unadjusted scan with inky shadows.


In the early 1990s, Southern Pacific’s Donner Pass was the domain of EMD Tunnel Motors—distinctive six-motor locomotives specifically configured for the route to better accommodate the difficulties operating in tunnels and snow-sheds at high altitudes.

So finding matched sets of modern General Electric four-motor diesels (such as those pictured here) leading freights proved to be highly unusual in the greater scheme of daily operations.

I made this photo in June 1992 at Yuba Pass. Although it has appeared in several places, including Pacific Rail News, I thought it was timely to present it on Tracking the Light. Friday, May 10, 2019 will be the 150th anniversary of the completion of America’s ‘First Transcontinental Railroad’ of which the original Donner Pass crossing was a key component.

This image was exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Nikon F3T with 35mm PC lens. To compensate for the inky shadows, I made a multi-pass scan using a Nikon Super Coolscan5000 and then imported the hi-res TIF file into Lightroom for adjustment. What you see here are both the unaltered scan and the adjusted versions, both scaled as Jpgs for internet presentation.

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Hybrids, Gare Luxembourg—Four Photos on 8 April 2019

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I’ll risk condemnation from the purists.

A reader wondered about exterior views of Gare Luxembourg.

While I have some views of the station, I’ll admit I was distracted by the hybrid bus charging station in front of Gare Luxembourg. I’d never seen anything like this charging station before.

The light was flat when I made these Lumix LX7 photos a month ago on my brief visit to Luxembourg City.

The charging pantograph is fixed to the gantry, not the hybrid bus. Each bus pulls below the gantry to receive its charge.

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New England Central Spring at Vernon, Vermont!

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Yesterday, May 6, 2019, my old friends Paul Goewey, John Peters and I made a foray to Brattleboro to intercept New England Central’s 611 on its southward run to Palmer. We didn’t have to wait very long!

At Vernon, we paused to make photographs. I’ve always been partial to the view with the farm and the unusually tall tree.

The morning sun was lightly dappled by clouds making for some slight diffused light. Working with a Lumix LX7 and FujiFilm XT1, I made a series of photographs as the freight roared passed. Soon we continued our pursuit, aiming to make more photos in the lush Spring greenery and low morning sun

Lumix LX7
FujiFilm XT1.
FujiFilm XT1.

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Irish Rail 085 at Enfield, December 2003.

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The distant roar of a class 071 GM diesel announced the approach of Irish Rail’s up Sligo passenger (train) at Enfield Cabin.

Working with a Rollei model T twin-lens reflex, I made this black & white photograph of Irish Rail 085 leading Mark 2 carriages in December 2003.

At the time, there was nothing remarkable about an 071 working the Dublin-Sligo passenger trains, yet this was soon to change.

I had made one my first photos of an Irish Rail 071 diesel at Enfield more than five years earlier.

Exposed on 120 size Fuji Neopan 400 and processed in Agfa Rodinal Special (R09) followed by selenium toning.

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photography, Tips and Technique

Kodachrome on Kodachrome: Donner Pass, February 1990.

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In continuing the celebration of the 150 anniversary of completion of America’s First Transcontinental, I present this view of a ‘Kodachrome’ painted Southern Pacific ‘Tunnel Motor’ on Donner Pass.

In the mid-1980s, Southern Pacific and Santa Fe anticipated merger and so painted their respective locomotives in a bright yellow and red merger livery, similar to those colors once used on the familiar Kodak Kodachrome film boxes.

A few locomotives were lettered for the proposed new railroad, SPSF. Executives felt certain the merger would be approved.

The Interstate Commerce Commission wasn’t impressed and refused the merger, twice, so ‘SPSF’ came to mean ‘shouldn’t paint so fast.’

I made this view of an eastward SP train at milepost 140 near Colfax, California on the ascent of Donner Pass on February 9, 1990, using a Leica M2 and, yes, Kodachrome film!

It was one of the last trains I photographed with an SP locomotive in the lead with full-lighting package (headlight, oscillating headlight, red oscillating light and class lights) and dressed in the Kodachrome scheme.  By 1990, both of these features were on the wane.

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is SP_8286_eb_mp140_near_Colfax_Calif_Feb2_1990_Kodachrome_livery_KM©BrianSolomon_592858-3.jpg
Colfax, California on the ascent of Donner Pass on February 9, 1990

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Southern Pacific’s Donner Pass Crossing—Newcastle.

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In the spirit of the first Transcontinental 150thanniversary celebrations, I’m posting these views that I made at Newcastle, California on an exploratory trip over Southern Pacific’s Donner Pass in November 1989.

I was perched atop the tunnel, railroad-east of where the line crosses Interstate-80 on its ascent from Roseville Yard to Donner Summit. The roar of EMD 645 diesels made for a great sound show as the train disappeared into the tunnel below me.

Although not my most memorable photos on Donner, these were among the very first that I made. Thousands more followed over the years.


Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Leica M2 with Leitz 135mm lens.

Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Leica M2 with Leitz 135mm lens.


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Northern Loco on the Beet!

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Gotta love the square format!

It was raining in Dublin, but clear and bright in Wellingtonbridge, County Wexford on 13 December 2003 when we visited to observe Irish Rail’s sugar beet operations.

Working with a Rollei Model T that I’d bought in San Francisco a few weeks earlier, I exposed a sequence of 120-size black & white photos on Kodak Tri-X of NI Railways 112 (on long-term loan to Irish Rail) that was shunting four-wheel sugar beet wagons for loading.

To obtain greater shadow detail and superior overall tonality, I rate the film at ISO 200 (one stop slower than the advertised 400 ISO) and processed it in a dilute bath of Ilfotec HC high-contrast developer.

For presentation here, I scanned the negatives last week using an Epson V750 flatbed scanner and then scaled/sized the TIFs for internet viewing.

You could make wall-size prints from the original negatives.

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Cross-lit Crossing the Connecticut.

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In late April, after an interlude to photograph Amtrak 56, the northward Vermonter, Mike Gardner and I resumed our photo chase of New England Central’s northbound 611 (Brattleboro, VT to Palmer, Massachusetts and return), that would soon follow Amtrak’s train on it way north toward Brattleboro.

We arrived at the west end of the old Central Vermont Railway bridge over the Connecticut River (near the junction with Pan Am’s Boston & Maine at East Northfield) shortly before the freight crossed it.

Mike assumed a position at the classic location on the south side of the bridge, while I improvised with a view on the north side.

Why photograph from the ‘dark side’?

In this instance, I feel that the north side of the bridge offers a superior view of the setting, while cross lighting the train adds a sense of drama.

FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm telephoto.


Lumix LX7 photo.


Lumix LX7 photo.

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Irish Rail at Carlow—21 DEC 2003,

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A visit to Irish Rail’s Carlow station on the shortest day of 2003, yielded some classic black & white photos, including these two views. The Cravens were working a scheduled service from Waterford to Dublin.

Working with a recently acquired Rollei Model T (the third such cameras I’d used over a 30 year span), I exposed a single roll of 120-size Fuji Neopan 400. The Rollei made a large square negative, which I really liked.

At the time my choice process for this film was using Agfa Rodinal Special (R09) at a ratio of 1 to 31 parts with water for about 3 mins 45 seconds. In this case I selenium toned the negatives for improved highlight detail.

Final presentation here included scanning using an Epson V750 flatbed scanner and some minor adjustments to contrast and cropping with Lightroom.

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Portrait-View: Boeing Silhouette on the Streets of San Francisco.

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If this image seems familiar, it is because it’s been published on several occasions, first in Passenger Train Journal issue 210 in the mid-1990s.

It is among my favorite view of the San Francisco Muni light rail.

Working with my old Nikon F3T and a 200mm f4 lens, I made this photo of an in-bound L-Taraval car (worked by a 1970s-era Boeing-Vertol LRV) as it crested Ulloa Street on its way down toward West Portal in early December 1990.

The remarkable consideration is that this is a Kodachrome 25 slide. My shutter speed was about 1/60thof a second. When I lived in San Francisco, I had an un-cropped hand-printed Type R print of this scene pinned to my wall.

The maze of wires just makes this photo!

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Gare Luxembourg—Six Views of an Impressive Railway Station.

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Gare Luxembourg is Luxembourg’s primary passenger railway hub. This impressive station hosts trains from Belgium, France and Germany as well as those from Luxeumbourg’s own railway, known by the initials CFL .

CFL is the abbreviation for the state railway undertaking; 

Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois.

CFL has textbook perfect track; and from my brief experience its trains were clean and operated to time.

Gare Luxembourg is a wonderful example of classic Golden Age railway station architecture that has been tastefully modernized in the latest European styles.

Luxembourg is among the countries featured in my book; Brian Solomon’s Railway Guide to Europe. See Kalmbach Hobby Store:

https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/01304

I made these recent views using my Lumix LX7.

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Millers Falls High Bridge—Revisited.

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The early 20thcentury pin-connected deck truss over the Millers River at its namesake Millers Falls, Massachusetts is one of my favorite places to picture New England Central freights.

On our chase of New England Central last week (Thursday April 25, 2019) photographer Mike Gardner and I arrived at Millers Falls several minutes ahead of 611 on its return run to Bellows Falls, Vermont from Palmer, Massachusetts.

We set up on the sidewalk of the Route 63 highway bridge over the river. For these views I opted for a more southerly position on the road bridge in order to feature budding trees that indicates the arrival of Spring in the Millers valley.

Working with my Lumix LX7, I exposed several digital views as the train’s leading locomotives eased over the antique spans. To me, the SD45/SD40 style locomotives  seem out of proportion with the steam era bridge, which of course is half the attraction, long may it last!

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Gilbertville: Mass-Central, the old Mills, and the Boston & Albany Station.

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It was a scene made for black & white; Monochrome in the Ware River Valley.

Last week, I exposed these views on HP5 using a Nikon F3 with 105mm Nikkor prime telephoto (not a zoom) at Gilbertville, Massachusetts.

I processed the film with two stage development to my custom tailored process and scanned the negatives using an Epson V750 flatbed scanner.

Psssst! Don’t be too disappointed, but I also made a few digital photos in color!

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June 2019 TRAINS and Precision Scheduled Railroading.

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See page 12 of the June 2019 TRAINS Magazine for my monthly column, where in this issue I investigate perceptions of Precision Scheduled Railroading. Read it! You might be surprised.

June 2019 Trains Magazine; main cover photo by Doug Koontz.


I illustrated my column using a photo I made in January of a tail-end DPU (radio controlled remote locomotive) working an empty coal train on Canadian Pacific’s former Milwaukee Road mainline at Duplainville, Wisconsin. I exposed this with my FujiFilm XT1 digital camera.

I also podcast twice a month on Trains: see Sound Cloud for a complete listing of episodes:

Photo by Colm O’Callaghan

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Tara goes Thump in the Gloom of Night!

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It was dry evening a few weeks back, when photographer Jay Monaghan and I ventured down to Dublin’s North Wall yards seeking the laden Tara Mines train.

First we caught it arriving from East Road, then we legged it down to Alexandra Road to make photos of it arriving at Dublin Port.

This one of the only places in Ireland where tracks share space with a road, making it a distinctive place to picture trains.

I’m fond of this atmospheric trailing view exposed in black & white using Nikon F3 with an old-school Nikkor non-AI f1.4 50mm lens.

My film choice was Superpan 200, processed using multistage development.

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