Happy Halloween from Lancaster Country!
The Strasburg Rail Road really gets into the spirit of the season.
We caught old 89 making smoke in spectral light last week at Cherry Hill Road in Ronks, Pa.
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This is not about a bird.
The former Pennsylvania Bald Eagle Branch diverges from the Main Line at Tyrone, Pa.
Our quest was to intercept an excursion operated by the Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society in conjunction with the Nittany & Bald Eagle—one of several short lines part of the North Shore group.
Last year, Kris and I had caught the Bellefonte’s restored Budd RDC on the move. I anticipated this year’s trip to also operate with the RDC.
Following the directions to Washington Avenue (kindly provided by a fellow photographer on the Amtrak platform at Tyrone) we turned the corner and were surprised to see an EMD diesel in Erie Lackawanna style paint ambling down the street.
The excursion from Bellefonte included the aforementioned RDC, but this was hauled by North Shore 2012 along with three other passenger cars. At the back was Lycoming Valley 2011 (LV is another of the North Shore group shortlines) wearing a retro Reading Company scheme.
Although we had done a lot of driving, and made a few significant detours (including a failed mission to intercept Amtrak 42 at Newton Hamilton, Pa.), in the end we arrived at Washington Avenue just in time to catch this rare move.
My previous photography at this location was with photographer Mike Gardner in March 2001, when we caught a Norfolk Southern coal train bound Strawberry Ridge coming up the street.
Photos exposed with my Nikon Z-series cameras.
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Between Huntingdon and Tyrone, Pa., the old Pennsylvania Railroad Middle Division follows a path carved by the Little Juniata River.
By contrast, we took a more direct route by driving west via Routes 22 and 453. This allowed us to get well ahead of the westward Norfolk Southern freight that we rolled by at Huntingdon.
On arrival at Tyrone, an eastward NS intermodal was approaching, Kris photographed this from the window of the car with her Fuji X-T4.
With time to spare, I set up for a dynamic view of the westward train, exposed from a postion on the Amtrak platform using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom.
I’ve included two versions of the photo that exhibit varying degrees of post processing to make the most of the image.
I’m on the fence on this photo. I also exposed a color slide using my F3 with an f2.0 135mm telephoto. I’ll be curious to see how this came out.
Getting to Tyrone was on the day’s agenda, and here we had a more elusive quarry to capture. The NS trains were just a bonus.
Stay tuned . . .
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After departing the East Broad Top we drove north to Mount Union and followed the old Pennsylvania Railroad Middle Division west to Huntingdon.
In the 1980s and 1990s, I often visited Huntingdon, Pa., where my old pal TSH had family.
We had a few minutes, so we drove around town. I remarked on how little the town had changed in thirty years.
As we approached the grade crossing by the Amtrak station, the crossing lights flashed and the gates came down. We pulled into the small Amtrak lot just in time to make some grab shots of the passing Norfolk Southern freight. I also photographed the old PRR station that sits well back from the present day mainline. reflecting a line relocation from more than a century ago.
Although, my photo of the westward freight is non-standard, I like this type of photo because it captures greater environment which includes the crossing signals and the colored trees in the distance.
After the train cleared the crossing we headed west toward Tyrone, where we aimed to catch the freight again.
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The East Broad Top excursion we had photographed (see yesterday’s post) wandered up to Colgate Grove and was turned on the wye.
In the interval, we went for pizza, which we consumed trackside. Soon smoke on the horizon and a distant whistle announced the returning train.
I took up a lineside position and focused both my film and digital cameras in anticipation of the locomotive coming into view.
It was exciting to see old number 16 up close and under steam. I had seen this locomotive back in the 1990s. In those days it resided in the gloom of the roundhouse at Rockhill Furnace where it had been for decades.
Now this old Baldwin narrow gauge 2-8-2 has steam in its belly again and was performing as the star of the show. No.16 looks and sounds great!
I made these photos with my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom lens.
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Last Saturday, we visited the fabled East Broad Top in passing.
This was one stop in our quick pass through central Pennsylvania.
We waited along highway 522 for the northward EBT passenger train
In the 15 years since, I last made photographs along the line (, EBT has undergone tranformations.
This was my first opportunity to catch recently restored EBT Mikado No. 16 under steam.
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I thought some vaguely themed photos were appropriate for today.
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Last week I was at the right place in the right moment to roll by Train 42—the eastward Pennsylvanian—that was carrying Amtrak’s inspection vehicles at the back.
Car 10002, the Corridor Clipper, is a track inspection car, while car 10005, a former Metroliner multiple unit, used to perform catenary measurement.
Gap is a great place to photograph equipment on the move. The curves require a permanent speed restriction and also allow for multiple angles as the train passes.
Bright sun and a hint of autumn color was an added bonus.
I got a friendly wave from the tail car.
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In October 1964, my father photographed Reading Company T-1 No. 2100 crossing a field at a rural gradecrossing near Molino, Pennsylvania. This was on one of his many chases of Reading’s Iron Horse Rambles.
Sixty years later—plus or minus a few of days—I brought Kris and Seamus-the-dog to this very same crossing.
“Pop made a photo here.”
We parked our Honda and walked Seamus, while waiting for the returning Reading & Northern Fall Foliage Excursion to pass with the F7s leading.
I was thinking that this location really hadn’t changed much, although the railroad has. Reading Company was melded into Conrail in 1976, and then 23 years later Conrail was divided between Norfolk Southern and CSX. In the meantime, Andy Muller carved out his Reading & Northern empire from lines cast away by Conrail during its retrenchment years.
Before the train came into view, we found an enormous praying mantis sitting on the front tire of the Honda. My first attempt to shoo the wee critter into safety failed when it scurried around the backside of the tire.
Then we heard the horn of the approaching excursion. We made our photos. However rather than jump into the car for spirited chase, I needed to persuade the mantis to relocate. Ultimately, I coaxed it to cling on to my pen. Kris found this amusing and made a few photos. I found a nice spot in the grass for the big bug and we were on our way again.
Yesterday, I sent Pop a preview of today’s post. He has hundreds of Reading photos.
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It has been almost a year since we added a 50-140mm Fujinon telephoto zoom to our arsenal of lenses for the Fuji X-T4.
I often like to play with . . . I mean experiment with . . . different types of equipment. So a few days ago I took the X-T4 out to make a few photos of Straburg Rail Road’s outbound midday train. Usually it is in Kris’ capable hands. I exposed these views at Blackhorse Road using the 50-140mm lens.
I’ve always liked the color palatte and sharpness offered by the FujiFilm digital cameras, and these photos exemplify the warm saturated tones offered by the X-T4.
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We arrived at Reading & Nothern’s East Mahanoy Junction a good five minutes before the Fall Foliage Excursion returning from Jim Thorpe was due to pass.
This is a neat place on the former Reading Company to make photos. In the last couple of years, I’ve made images here from a variety of different angles.
For these views, I was standing on Slate Road from a position that offers a bit of elevation.
As the train came into view, I used my Nikon Z7-II with a 70-200mm zoom to frame up of the leading locomotives in the shadowed curve on approach to the junction, then made a series of wideangle photos from the same vantage point of the train in back lit autumn sun using my Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
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Sometimes I just got it wrong.
On my August 1984 trip to Montreal, I carried two Leica 3A rangefinders.
One was loaded with Kodachrome. The other with Kodak Tri-X.
The problem was that on the B&W camera, I was using a pre-war (1930s vintage) Leitz Elmar with uncoated elements. While sharp, this tended to produce low-contrast images that exhibited a variety of artifacts.
Complicating matters, the I had bulk-loaded Tri-X into cassetts that I’d used again and again. In this instance, the cassette suffered from some minor light leaks and scratched so of the negatives.
The shutter on the old Leica wasn’t the best. While it did ok at a 1/200th, and 1/100th (no 1/250th or 1/125th as on more modern cameras), most of the other shutter speeds were a bit random.
And if all that wasn’t enough, I did a pretty poor job of processing the film! I don’t recall exactly what I did, but from the looks of the negatives, I was using nearly exhausted developer. To compensate for the weak solution, I upped the temperature and the time. The results were very low contrast with comparatively high-grain.
Back in the day, I’d deemed the negatives too challenging to print, so I put them in a glassine envelope largely unprinted.
Despite all that, I’d managed to make some interesting compositions, if not great photographs. The other day I scanned the whole roll.
The photo displayed here iswest of Montreal at Sainte Anne-de-Bellevue along the parallel Canadian National and Canadian Pacific double lines.
I had taken a suburban train from Windsor Station. And made this view of an eastward VIA Rail LRC train with MLW diesel coming out of the afternoon sun.
The following year, as my second camera, I brought with me to Montreal my father’s vintage 1960 Rolleiflex Model T, which used 120 size film and had an excellent Zeiss Tessar lens (coated!). Loaded with Plus-X, this produced vastly superior results.
Live and learn.
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Years ago I photographed Norfolk Southern’s executive F-units leading the company office car train on various occasions.
Last Saturday, Kris and I intercepted these famous streamliners working Reading & Northern’s Fall Foliage Excursion on its return run from Jim Thorpe to North Reading.
It was a gorgeous clear afternoon and the autumn leaves were beginning to pop. We investigated a variety of places to make photos and ultimately settled on Tippets Road near Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania.
I wanted to make the most of the autumn color, while featuring the F’s classic ‘bull-dog’ nose and car body style construction.
I made these photos while working with both of my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras. Kris made photos with her FujiFilm X-T4 mirrorless camera. Seamus-the-Dog took it all in from the back seat of the car.
Once the train passed we zipped off after it to make more images in the late afternoon light!
I found it interesting that on the previous weekend we found fellow photographers at every bend to make photos of steam locomotive 2102, but on this day when photographing the F’s on exactly the same route, we only saw only other person making photos between Tippets Road and North Reading. This was especially remarkable considering the beautiful autumnal conditions!
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Last Saturday was warm and clear. We had a late start, but decided to make another drive into coal country to photograph Reading & Northern Autumn Foliage Excursions.
Since we had a little time, we explored a few different locations. Kris liked the view from a grade crossing between East Mahanoy Junction and Haucks (compass north of Tamaqua, Pa.) at milepost 105. This was once a very railroad intense part of Pennsylvania. Today several lines still converge on this area.
We didn’t have long to wait and Reading & Northern’s return trip to Pottsville passed us with three vintage Budd RDCs!
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
Soon we were searching for another location to catch R&N’s F7s with the train from Jim Thorpe bound for Reading Outer Station. Stay tuned . . .
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A beautiful autumn sunset made for a perfect situation to photograph Lehigh Valley number 40 which resides at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
In the 1950s, my father rode this car from Jim Thorpe to Hazelton and made several photos of it in revenue service.
Years later, we traveled together on RDCs on former New Haven lines in New England.
One of the former New Haven RDCs later came to New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic Railroad, where I had the opportunity to be qualified as a ‘motorman’, and on several occasions operated the car in revenue service.
In 2022, Kris and I took Conway Scenic Railroad number 23, ‘Millie’, on a spin to Conway, NH., and back for our pre-wedding special with many of our friends and family on board.
Every so often someone tells me that they don’t like Budd RDCs. I dismiss them as daft.
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In April 1984, the Monson Jr-Sr High School Band had a musical exchange with a school band in Cohasset, Massachusetts.
The day of the joint concert, the 3rd Trombone took a bus to South Braintree, changed for the Red Line, paid a visit to South Station, photographed some former New Haven Railroad RDC’s, took a spin on the Orange Line to Sullivan Square, and eventually arrived back at the concert to play his note.
Unforntunately, karma caught the 3rd trombone, who did a subpar job of processing the Kodak Tri-X exposed on the big adventure.
These days, catching four vintage RDC’s in commuter service would be a major coup.
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On our October 5th trip, we were driving back toward Jim Thorpe following the former Central Railroad of Jersey line that now serves as a link between two key portions of the Reading & Northern empire.
As we approached R&N’s new station at Nesquehoning, Pa., where earlier in the day we had photographed steam locomotive 2102 on its eastward journey, we spotted the headlights of a westward train.
It was R&N’s RDC trip returning to Pottsville (via Port Clinton).
I turned the car around, parked, and Kris and I jumped out to make photos. (And Seamus rolled the train by from inside the car).
Pictures taken, we raced after the two-car pocket streamliner, catching it again a few minutes later at Panther Creek.
I’m a big fan of the Budd RDC, so this was a bonus! It was an unexpected delight that added to our wonderful day following trains in coal country.
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I’m always trying to come up with catchy titles for my individual Tracking the Light Posts to entice you to read them.
I could have titled this; ‘2102, again.’ Or ‘Yet Another Photo of old Reading Company Rails,’ or perhaps, ‘OH YEAH, THIS was worth the wait!’
In retrospect, perhaps that last one was better . . .oh well, there’s always tomorrow’s post.
On the afternoon of October 5th, Kris and I were poised at Zehners, near South Tamaqua, Pa., waiting to catch Reading & Northern’s 2102 leading the return leg of the day’s Fall Foliage Excursion that had run between Reading Outer Station and Jim Thorpe.
Low sun made for dramatic lighting, and it really was worth the wait! Sometimes it pays to stick with it, even when you’ve been out all day making photos.
I made this series of photos using my Nikon Z mirrorless cameras.
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There’s no junction at Lancaster Junction anymore.
Reading Company’s Reading & Columbia route split at Lancaster Junction. One line continued toward Landisville where it crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad on the way to Columbia. The other line, curved to the left and went into Lancaster, Pa.
Today, the railroad is operated by Norfolk Southern, and only the branch to Lancaster remains. The route beyond Lancaster Junction is now a trail.
I’ve made a couple of visits to this spot in recent weeks. I wished I’d seen this location in it heyday, but I’m happy there’s still some trackage here. Maybe someday, I’ll catch an NS local freight on its way to or from Lititz.
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In the mid-1980s, I made numerous trips to photograph Conrail’s Boston Line—the former Boston & Albany—at Stateline Tunnel. This short, curved, twin bore tunnel is located a few miles west of the Massachusetts-New York Stateline in Canaan, New York.
On the morning of Aug 24, 1984, my pal TSH and I spent several hours at the tunnel waiting for trains. Four decades earlier, my friend Bob Buck had photographed at this same location, and I was familiar with his photos of B&A’s Lima Berkshires, New York Central Mohawks, and new Alco FA diesels at the tunnel.
I made this view of Amtrak Train 448—Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited—approaching the west portal on the eastward track using my pre-war Leica 3A 35mm camera loaded with Kodak Tri-X.
This was an early favorite photo of mine and for years I had a mounted print of it on my wall.
The negative had been missing for decades, but resurfaced the other day while I was going through boxes in our new house.
I scanned the original 35mm negative using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner and processed the image using Adobe Lightroom.
More than 40 years have passed since I exposed this image. It just doesn’t seem so long! Today, Bob Buck would have been 95! Happy Birthday Bob!
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With the sun over our left shoulder, we set up in Nequehoning near the new Reading & Northern station to roll by class T-1 4-8-4 2102 on its run to Jim Thorpe.
This is an amazing machine. Seeing it on the move never gets old.
I made this sequence of photos using my Nikon Z-series cameras.
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Sunday evening, we waited out the sunset at Esbenshade Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.
Strasburg Rail Road had scheduled a seasonally themed late-departure. I figured this would be an ideal opportunity to make some sunset views of the train.
The orange globe of the sun was nearly at the horizon by the time old 89 worked up the grade toward Paradise Lane.
To make the most of the sky, I exposed this sequence manually rather than relying on the in-camera meter to intrepret what I was tying to preserve digitally. Key to my exposure was the desire to capture the defining shape of the sun and not merely as a fuzzy blob.
I needed to make a variety of changes to the RAW files in post processing, and I think the final results speak of success.
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Near South Tamaqua, Pa., at Atlas (also called Reynolds), Kris and I rolled by last weekend’s Fall Foliage Excursion operated by Reading & Northern.
This is a popular place to picture R&N’s excursions. I opted for a broadside view to capture the engine in action as well as the cars behind it.
So much of the focus on R&N’s excursions is about locomotive 2102, I thought it is important to make images of the cars. Since last autumn, several have been freshly painted and the railroad offers an interesting variety of passenger cars.
Photos were exposed using my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras.
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On Saturday (October 5, 2024) Reading & Northern 2102 made a stunning display of steam and smoke as it started out of Port Clinton on the next leg of its journey toward Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
Kris and I stood along with other photographers looking across the old canal basin toward the bridges over the Schuylkill River.
This place has been a cross roads of transportation for the better part of two centuries.
More than 60 years ago, my father made photos of Reading T-1s on Iron Horse Rambles at Port Clinton.
As the gigantic steam locomotive accelerated away from its station stop and eased its train across the Schuylkill, the bark of its exhaust resounded and echoed across the narrow valley.
I made a series of photos using three cameras. One of my old Nikon F3s was loaded with Kodak Ektachrome, while I made telephoto views with my Nikon Z7-II, and wide angles with my Z6. The film is still in the F3.
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Saturday was a beautiful clear October morning. I walked up to the station at Port Clinton, Pennsylvania to photograph the arrival of locomotive 2102 from North Reading on its journey to Jim Thorpe.
I felt like a wee plastic man on a really big HO-scale railroad.
Back lit lighting made for dramatic images, but then required a bit of contrast control and selective lightening for final presentation.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom lens.
After the train arrived to pick up passengers, I walked back to the grade crossing near the village of Port Clinton to photograph the thundering departure of this magnificent machine. Stay tuned!
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Yesterday (October 5, 2024), Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I drove up to Port Clinton, Pennsylvania to spend a day photographing former Reading Company class T-1 4-8-4 2102 on the Reading Northern.
Waiting for the magnificent iron horse to make its appearance, I was delighted to catch a pair of Reading & Northern former Reading Company Budd RDCs (rail diesel cars) making a run from Pottsville to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
I’m a big fan of the class Budd RDC, so this was a nice bonus for me.
I exposed these digital images using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens. I help compensate for the rich polarize morning sunshine, I’ve made a variety of nominal adjustments to contrast and exposure using Adobe Lightroom.
I also exposed a few 35mm color slides with a Nikon F3. Those remain in the camera, and it might be a while before I have them processed.
(And yes, we achived our objective and spent most of the day making dynamic photos of the 4-8-4 at work).
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Yesterday, I met up with Tracking the Light reader and photographer Andrew Ludasi at Strasburg. We drove to Carpenters to catch the 3pm returning with engine 89.
It was dull afternoon, but the sound of the locomotive in the pastoral setting was rewarding. After the train passed, we discussed cameras, film and photographic technique.
I mentioned that I always liked black & white, and in years past often used black & white film even when I’d had the opportunity to expose color. I suggested that occasionally, I’d convert digital color photos to black & white, and this might be a good idea for today’s photos.
Last night during the processing of my images, I desaturated one of the photos and cropped it to make for a more dramatic composition.
In this image, I didn’t make for a full black & white conversion as I left a hint of color and gave the image a sepia-tint for effect.
Is this better than the full color versions? Today, I can have the best of color and black & white. Take your pick as to which versions you prefer.
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I have a few notes from December 16, 1984. Not as many as I wish I’d taken.
I’d started the morning in Springfield, Massachusetts where I met my friends and we continued north to Greenfield. It was pretty dark when we caught this eastward freight, passing the old Greenfield station site. The Connecticut River Main Line is in the foreground.
It was lightly snowing/sleeting. Pretty bleak conditions for photography.
This was early in the Guilford era, at a time when it was common to find Maine Central and Delaware & Hudson locomotives working Boston & Maine trains. In this instance, Maine Central GP38 262 was leading a former D&H General Electric U23B that had been transferred to Maine Central. At the back of the train was a Delaware & Hudson caboose.
Decades later, while working at Conway Scenic in North Conway, NH. I became familiar with Maine Central GP38s 252 and 255, so I find it fascinating to review these photos that I made 40 years ago of sister locomotive 262.
These are thin negatives exposed on Kodak Tri-X using my Leica 3A with a Canon f1.8 50mm lens. Back then, my understanding of black & white processing was pretty basic, and I used a straight mix of Kodak D76 for the standard time. Live and learn.
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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.
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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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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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!
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