Monthly Archives: July 2020

photography, Tips and Technique

400mm on the Hill

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At Conway Scenic Railroad, we call the stretch of line on the Conway Branch running up to our yard at North Conway, ‘the Hill’. This uses a prolonged man-made fill to lift the railroad to its necessary elevation to serve the town. It is the steepest grade on the railroad.

Yesterday, July 30, 2020, I opted to work with my Canon EOS 7D with 100-400 lens to catch former Maine Central 252 on its northward run with the second Conway Valley train. This engine will soon be reassigned.

Canon RAW file scaled from internet.

I hadn’t used this camera in almost a year. When I went to download the files to my laptop, I realized—to my disgust—that I’d left all the cables and card readers specific to the 7D, elsewhere!

The Canon 7D uses the larger ‘CF Card’ (compact flash card) rather than the now standard smaller size ‘SD Card’. I went to Staples hoping to buy another card reader. But when I asked if the carried a ‘CF Card reader’ all I got was a blank stare and ‘A what?’ After five minutes of explaining and describing the device I concluded I was wasting my time and theirs.

While I’ve ordered a card reader from B&H Photo in New York, that won’t arrive until next week. In the meantime Kris Sabbatino came to my rescue. Among her collection of card readers and accessories, she found an old USB2 ‘All-in-1 Card Reader’ and this did the trick!

Hooray!

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Tips and Technique

Walong, California July 30, 2016.

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On this day four years ago, I re-visited the former Southern Pacific crossing the Tehachapi mountains.

At Walong, popularly described as the ‘Tehachapi Loop’—where in the 1870s SP’s chief engineer William Hood applied this spiral arrangement to gain elevation while maintaining a steady gradient—I photographed this BNSF eastward intermodal train. (train direction is by timetable, not the compass.)

Working with my FujiFilm XT1 fitted with an 18-135mm Fujinon zoom, I made this photograph with the lens set to 21.6mm in order to take in most of the helical track arrangement. Exposure was f8 at 1/500 of a second at 200 ISO.

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photography, Tips and Technique

Crawford by Starlight—night photo technique

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The other evening, Kris Sabbatino and I stopped at the old Maine Central station at Crawford, New Hampshire shortly after moonrise to make night photos of the station.

I mounted my Lumix LX7 on a heavy Bogan tripod and set the ISO to 200. Working in manual mode, I set the camera to between 40 and 80 seconds and tripped the shutter manually (without using the self timer).

Working with the RAW files in Lightroom, I made slight adjustments to highlights and shadows.

Catching the stars in the night sky has always been a favorite effect of mine. I first tried this back in 1977 in my back yard in Monson, Massachusetts.

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photography, Tips and Technique

Monochrome on the Redstone Branch.

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On July 3, 2020, Conway Scenic sent engine 216 out on the Redstone Branch to collect a Boston & Maine boxcar I’d been using for advertising.

I documented the move with digital photos, as previously presented, and also on film.

For these images, I worked with a Nikon F3 with f2.5 Nikkor 105mm lens and Fomapan Classic 100 black & white film. I first sampled Fomapan on a trip to the Czech Republic in 2016.

Operating 216 was Adam, a Conway Scenic engineer trainee.

I processed the film using customized split-development that begins with a very dilute solution of HC110 with PhotoFlo as a presoak followed by primary development with Ilford ID11. After processing, I scanned the negatives using an Epson V600 flatbed scanner then imported the scans into Lightroom for final adjustment and scaling for presentation.

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photography, Tips and Technique

Botched 1996 Olympic Pan

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On September 10, 1996, I was driving east from Denver to Council Bluffs. Near Kearney, Nebraska, I was following the Union Pacific main line on a secondary road, where I made this panned photo of a westward UP freight train led by SD40-2 1996 specially painted for the 1996 Olympic games.

Working with my Nikon F2 fitted with a 200mm lens and loaded with Kodachrome 200, I panned the unusually painted locomotive to capture the sense of motion.

I’ve always found this photograph unfortunate because: 1) the doors were open on the side of the engine thus spoiling my view of the special paint livery. 2) the distant hill makes for a visually disruptive intersection near the front of the engine just over the top of the short hood.

In retrospect, I’m happy to have the photo, I just wish my execution had been better.

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Working on the Railroad: 216 with a work train.

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My Dad’s 1946 Lionel train set featured a Pennsylvania Railroad S2 Steam turbine and a collection of work cars including: a crane, work caboose, dump car, etc.

As I kid, I routinely operated work trains using this O-gauge equipment.

There’s a subtle charm to work trains. These are an integral part of the railroad, yet often go unnoticed and undocumented.

Last week Conway Scenic Railroad operated a work train to perform maintenance on the Conway Branch.

I made these photos of the train as it was prepared in our North Conway, New Hampshire yards. All were exposed using my Lumix LX7 digital camera.

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July 24, 2015: WAITING AT A Grade Crossing at Niskaniitty—Two PHOTOS.

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On the afternoon of July 24, 2015, my Finnish friends, Markku, Petri, Pietu and I waited at this rural grade crossing east of Kontiomaki, Finland for a diesel powered long distance local freight.

It was warm and quiet. For me it had an edge of the world quality.

Finally after a while we could hear the diesel approaching.

This was a VR  Class Dr16 leading symbol freight T4077 from Joensuu in south eastern Finland.

I exposed these photos using my FujiFilm XT1 digital camera. I had been playing with the camera’s presets, and made an image of the grade crossing using a monochrome setting. Although I was exposing some Fuji Provia 100F, I didn’t use any black & white film at this location.

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photography, Tips and Technique

Unexpected Surprise.

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The other day I was scanning some vintage Guilford photos from my 1980s and 1990s file.

This photo came up in the rotation.

Photographer Mike Gardner and I had spent a productive May 1997 day photographing Guilford trains on former Boston & Maine lines.

Toward the end of the day, we caught EDLA (East Deerfield to Lawrence, Massachusetts) working eastbound upgrade near Farley, Massachusetts (east of Millers Falls).

I was working with my N90S fitted with an 80-200 Nikon zoom.

I remember the day well! But when I scanned the slide, I had an unexpected surprise.

Initially, when I saw the lead locomotive, I thought it was Guilford’s 352, a GP40 that has often worked out of East Deerfield Yard. It was only on second inspection that I notice what this engine’s true identity . . .

It was 252! Former Maine Central 252. In other words, Conway Scenic’s locomotive which I see everyday and have hundreds of photos working in New Hampshire.

Wow, that’s kind of cool, to suddenly find a vintage photo I made of this now familiar GP38, back when it was a common freight hauler and not a darling of the tourist trade.

June 27, 2020 at North Conway.

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Five Years Ago-July 22.

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On this day in 2015, I was visiting my friend Markku Pulkkinen in Oulu, Finland.

Oulu is far north, and in July it never gets completely dark.

Working with my then new FujiFilm XT-1, I made these evening photos late in the day near the VR locomotive sheds at the north end of Oulu’s expansive yards.

Finland is one of my favorite places to photograph, and I hope to return someday when travel returns to normal.

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Canadian National at Savanna.

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Scaled but unadjusted scan; no corrections to color, level, contrast etc.

Toward the end of an April 1995 trip along the Mississippi with Tom and Mike Danneman, we set up along the old Burlington near the famous Mississippi Palisades State Park in Savanna, Illinois.

The streamlined Twin Cities Zephyr was all but a memory.

However at that time Canadian National was exercising rights over Burlington Northern and routing 4-5 freights a day via this Mississippi River east-bank route to reach Chicago.

The light was fading when a nearly new CN DASH-9 approached us leading an eastward freight.

I exposed this Kodachrome 25 slide using my Nikon F3T fitted with a Nikkor f4 200mm lens. This photo has appeared in print several times over the years.

For presentation here and extract the maximum amount of information from the slide, I made a multi-pass scan using a Nikon Super Coolscan5000 digital scanner driven with VueScan software.

I selected ‘fine mode’ and made three samples to refine the scan and then imported the 119.8MB file into Lightroom for refinement, color correction, scaling and final presentation.

Adjusted scan.

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North Conway Station after March Snow

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Last March on my way to work I exposed a series of black & white photos of North Conway, New Hampshire. Fresh snow blanketed the ground, with a clear blue sky above.

Such a contrast with July . . .

I made this photo using Kodak Tri-X exposed with a Nikon F3 with 105mm Nikkor Lens.

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Gorham Monochrome

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Back on April 3, 2020, I exposed a handful of photographs on Kodak Tri-X (ISO 400) at the old Grand Trunk Railway station in Gorham, New Hampshire.

This was on a photo adventure in the White Mountains with Kris Sabbatino.

Last month I processed the film using specially tailored split development by first soaking the film in a very dilute HC110 solution, then using a more active solution of ID11. After stop, and dual fixing baths, I washed the film, rinsed in permawash, and washed for a full ten minutes before toning the still wet negatives in a selenium solution for 7 minutes. After rewashing, and drying, I cut the negatives and stored them in archival polypropylene sleeves.

Yesterday, I scanned them using an Epson V600 flatbed scanner powered by Epson software.

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Empty Oil at Tapa

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On a trip to Estonia in July 2002, I’d organized a cab ride on a freight from Tallinn to Tapa, where I spent the evening.

The following morning, I exposed this view near the station with my Nikon N90S and 135mm f2.0 lens of an empty oil train led by a 2M62 diesel heading toward the Russian frontier.

This was a very busy junction with a lot of freight, mostly oil trains, passing through.

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Class Lamp Up Close—Maine Central 252

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Yesterday I took a spin on the train to Conway. I made this view with my Lumix LX7 as I boarded the locomotive on the return trip.

Former Maine Central GP38 252 has been working Conway Scenic’s Valley Trains between North Conway and Conway, and to Bartlett for the last couple of weeks.

Historically classification lamps were used as part of the system of timetable and train order rules, where lights of different colors were part of a hierarchy that defined the superiority of trains.

Conway scenic still uses these rules, with extra trains flying white flags by day and displaying white lamps by night.

At the moment all of our trains are operated under timetable and train order rules as ‘extras’.

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photography, Tips and Technique

Corry, PA at Sunrise.

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In October 2009, I photographed Western New York & Pennsylvania’s westbound HNME (Hornell to Meadville) freight crossing the diamond at Corry, Pennsylvania.

Historically this was where the Erie Railroad mainline crossed Pennsylvania Railroad’s route to Erie, Pennsylvania.

Working with a Canon EOS3 with f2.8 200mm prime telephoto, I exposed this photo on Fujichrome Velvia100F.

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Storm Light at North Conway

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Yesterday evening a series of thunderstorms swept over the White Mountains making for a show of lightening and dramatic clouds.

Near the end of daylight, I made this photograph of the North Conway, New Hampshire yard. I was with Kris Sabbatino on the way to collect my car.

I was working with my Lumix LX7. This is a JPG file scaled without manipulation from the in-camera jpg. In other words I made no changes to exposure, contrast, color balance, focus or sharpness.

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photography, Tips and Technique

Charlemont in the Snow!

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Guilford GP40 353 was leading an eastward at Charlemont, Massachusetts in this December 2000 photograph.

I exposed this image on Fujichrome using a Nikon with 180mm Nikkor prime telephoto.

Diffused winter sun made for soft colors.

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Snow on the Tracks, Lincoln, Maine.

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In the heat of Summer, I thought it would be a cool to look at a wintery scene.

I made this view looking timetable east on Guilford’s Maine Central at Lincoln, Maine on a trip with photographer George S. Pitarys in January 1997.

For this image, I was working with a Nikon F2 fitted with a Nikon 80-200mm AF zoom lens, and loaded with Fuji Provia 100F.

My photography spans nearly 50 years, more than 30 nations, hundreds of cities and thousands of towns, while focusing on rails, transport, nature, urbanity, and friends (among other subjects).

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Maine Central 252 on the Valley.

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During the last week, Maine Central GP38 252 has been working Conway Scenic Railroad’s Valley trains that run daily from North Conway railroad east to Conway and North Conway railroad west to Bartlett.

While 252 is more than capable of working these trains, it is typically been assigned to the run to Crawford Notch.

I took the opportunity to make photos of 252 working the 1910-1920s-era heavy steel cars that comprise our Valley train set.

These photos were made using a FujiFilm XT1 with 18-135mm lens.

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Guilford Tv96 at Worcester.

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On May 16, 1997, photographer Mike Gardner and I were in Worcester, Massachusetts, where we caught Guilford Rail System’s TV96, a short-lived intermodal service that GRS forwarded from Conrail.

Working with my Nikon F3T and 80-200mm zoom lens, I made this view standing in the Amtrak parking lot below Interstate-290.

After making this photo we chased the train up to the Wachusett Reservoir.

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July THunderstorm at North Conway, NH.

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Yesterday evening (July 8, 2020), Tom Carver said to me, ‘get some shots in this cool light’.

It was sunny when I left the North Conway, NH station and cloudy by the time I’d walked the length of the platform. A thunderstorm was rapidly descending.

Working with my FujiFilm XT1 fitted with 18-135mm lens, I made these images of the approaching storm.

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photography, Rail transit marathon

Poznan Four WHeeler

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I’ve always found railway maintenance equipment interesting: often functional antiques, no longer suitable for revenue work get cascaded into maintenance duties.

As a kid, I was fascinated by the Boston’s bright orange Type 3 streetcars that had been converted into snow plows. For me these were the relics of an earlier era.

So, I was delighted when on a visit to Poznan, Poland in 2000, I found a vintage four-wheel tram in maintenance service,. I made a few photos using my Nikon F3 loaded with Fujichrome Sensia II (100 ISO).

This fortuitous encounter was the only time I caught a four-wheel tram in Poznan.

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View from the South Tower

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The other day, positioned in the South Tower of the North Conway, New Hampshire Station, I caught former Maine Central GP38 252 leading Conway Scenic Railroad’s Valley train on its return run from Conway.

Although backlit, the contrast nicely separates the train from its setting.

Soon this scene will change: the old Fire Station to the left of the railroad is going to be demolished and a new, larger station will be built to replace it.

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photography, Tips and Technique

Irish Rail 204 and Mark3s

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11 April, 2009 was a bright day in Ireland.

Irish Rail was in its final months of working 201-class diesels with hauled sets of Mark 3 carriages on regularly scheduled intercity trains.

Using a Canon EOS 3 loaded with Fujichrome Sensia II (100 ISO), I exposed this image of Irish Rail 204 racing down road near Sallins, County Kildare.

Scenes like this, once so common, were soon to be just a memory.

Word to the wise: Look around you. What changes may soon alter the everyday? Make your photos before it’s too late.

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photography, Rail transit marathon

Leipzig tram and Hbf.

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An afternoon rain in June 2001 had made for a bright gloss at the Leipzig, Germany Hauptbahnhof.

Working with my N90S, I’d exposed this Fujichrome view of a tram in front of the impressive façade of what was once Europe’s largest railway station.

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Extra on the Redstone Branch—Six Photos.

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Yesterday, July 3, 2020, Conway Scenic Railroad operated an Extra out the Redstone Branch as a training exercise.

This gave engineer trainee Adam some throttle-time working with freight cars, and two trainmen experience switching and flagging.

I used the opportunity to make photos of our crews at work.

This was the first time I’d seen GP35 216 out on the branch.

The Redstone Branch is the route of the former Maine Central Mountain Division east of Mountain Junction in North Conway, NH running toward the border with Maine. Portions of the line along the North-South Road in North Conway were relocated when this bypass highway was built a few years ago. It is some of the finest track on the railroad.

I adjusted camera RAW files exported from my FujiFIlm XT-1 into Lightroom for final adjustment for presentation here. This included minor changes to contrast, localized exposure, saturation and color balance.

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Work Train Views

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Last week, spending the full day with a Conway Scenic Railroad Work Extra enabled me to make many hundreds of photos.

I published a few in my earlier post Work Extra at Frankenstein (see: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2020/06/27/work-extra-at-frankenstein-four-photos-and-a-big-rock/).

Having finally made the time to review and process the full day’s take, I’ve found some more choice images for presentation here.

All of these images were exposed using my FujiFilm XT1 digital camera

Redstone Branch.
Sawyers River.

Frankenstein
Below mp80.
Sawyers River.
Sawyers River.

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Foggy Morning at Wellingtonbridge.

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On the morning of 23 November 2004, I exposed this photo of a pair of Irish Rail bo-bos (class 141/181 General Motors diesels) shunting sugar beet wagons at Wellingtonbridge, Co. Wexford, Ireland.

This was a typical scene made a bit mystical by a thick layer of fog.

To accentuate the effect of the fog and compress the elements in the scene, I worked with a 180mm Nikkor prime telephoto lens fitted to a Nikon F3 camera.

My film choice of the day was Fujichrome Sensia II (ISO 100).

I scanned this slide yesterday using a Nikon Super Coolscan5000 digital scanner and processed the hi-res scan with Lightroom to scale the image for internet presentation and make minor adjustments in the color balance and contrast.

All is quiet at Wellingtonbridge today.

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