Monthly Archives: October 2024

photography

Wicked Roar at Hovey Hill Road

In September 1984, I took a long walk.

I started in Palmer, Massachusetts and followed the old Boston & Albany west all the way to North Wilbraham.

Although, I remember the walk. Some of the details are lost to time.

Approaching the Hovey Hill Road overpass in Monson, Mass., I heard a wicked throbbing roar coming from the west.

Today, I know exactly what I was hearing. Back then I only knew a train was close. I scrambled from trackside up to the bridge. Just in time to make these photos.

An eastward Conrail freight passed by on Track 2 led by three former Erie Lackawanna SD45-2s and and an SD40-2 spliced between them. Wow. What I’d do to experience that again today!

So what was I hearing? EMD’s SD45-2, like its pre Dash-2 antecedant , the SD45, was powered by a 20-cylinder version of its 645 diesel. This engine produces a characteristic low-frequency sound; when two or more of the type work in tandem, the synchronizing effect of the exhaust from the valves creates a low throbbing sound that carries for many miles. This is especially noticeable when the engines are working in the middle throttle positions. Twenty years later I made a project of preserving that exact sound, but that’s a story for some other time.

Kodak 35mm Tri-X, exposed with a Leica 3A fitted with a Canon 1.8 50mm lens. Film processed in D-76.
Kodak 35mm Tri-X, exposed with a Leica 3A fitted with a Canon 1.8 50mm lens. Film processed in D-76.

This Conrail freight was one of several I saw that bright day, 40 years ago. Interestingly, I never did anything with these images until now. Pity I didn’t have a good tape recorder.

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photography

SD50s on the Boston & Albany

June 1984, I had just graduated high-school, and was aiming to visit Tucker’s Hobbies in Warren, Massachusetts on a Friday evening.

I must have chased this eastward Conrail freight from Palmer, staying ahead of it on Route 67.

Standing immediately west of the old Boston & Albany station, I was poised with my Leica 3A fitted with a screw-mount Canon f1 .8 50mm. I arrived moments before the roar of the engines announced the approaching train.

Three new Conrail SD50s! That was a good catch. These locomotives, although common across the Conrail network, were not often seen in sets of three, and only occasionally operated on the B&A.

At least one of these units survives to the present day as a Norfolk Southern SD40E.

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Time and the Diamond

In the summer of 1984, I played with a variety of lenses. I’d dropped my stalwart 50mm Leitz Sumitar , and so tended to prefer either an f1.8 Canon 50mm or my dad’s prized 21mm Leitz Super Angulon.

In August of that year, I was poised at the Palmer Diamond (where Conrail’s Boston Line crossed the Central Vermont Railway in Palmer, Massachusetts) to photograph a westward set of light engines running ‘cab hop’ toward West Springfield Yard.

The sun was partially obscured by a cloud, but the air was crisp.

I made this photo with my Leica 3A rangefinder fitted with the Super Angulon. Among the advantages of this lens was the external viewfinder which allowed for a larger and more precise means of composing photos than the tiny in-camera viewfinder that was designed strictly for a 50mm.

Palmer has changed greatly since 1984. For point of comparison, I’ve included a view of the diamond that I exposed in September 2023.

Conrail single-tracked the Boston Line in July 1986, and the trees have come up obscuring the view that I was once afforded there.

Please activate the time machine and set it to August 1984!

Looking west at Palmer, Mass. New Conrail C30-7As roll west on the old Boston & Albany. August 1984.
Looking west at Palmer, Mass., September 9, 2023.

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