RIP Richard Jay Solomon 1939-2025
Monthly Archives: September 2025
Full Moon and Cotton Candy Sky
When I find a winning combination of time and place there’s a certain satisfaction in repeating the exercise and watching my results improve with each new variation.
I’ve made dozens of trips to Columbia, Pa., which is an historically fascinating place with several railroad lines converging upon it.
In daylight, it is visually challenged, and from my experience too often devoid of railroad activity.
In the evening it comes alive.
Finally over the last few weeks, Kris and I have caught trains moving through the Columbia after dark.
A few days ago, I display some successful images of Norfolk Southern on the move.
On Sunday, a full moon made for opportunity. Kris had suggested that we take another turn at Columbia, and we arrived in time to catch H19 running light engine from Lancaster, followed by a 632 loaded coal train.
My view of H19 passing the station was from essentially the same place as where I’d caught the same train a few nights previously. However, I composed my photo to included not just the train and old PRR station, but mural on the wall to the left, plus our car with Kris making a nocturnal video. For me what really adds drama is the moon rising with a cotton candy sky.
Exposed using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom.
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Coal Smoke and Corn Stalks.
Upon on our arrival a wisp of smoke lingered; we’d just missed Strasburg’s evening train departing Leaman Place.
I drove to Cherry Hill Road. The angle of the setting sun perfectly illuminated the track between rows of corn.
Number 90 began to accelerate as it approached the grade crossing, and the train passed me as if it were moving in slow motion. I aimed to catch the power of the engine.
I exposed this series of photos using my Nikon Z7-II.
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Bright Day for a 2-10-0
Sun, fluffy clouds and a blue sky made for nice conditions to roll by Strasburg’s No.90 with the afternoon excursion.
Some scenes are too good to pass up!
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Slow Clear COLA
More than 30 years ago, I photographed a trolley bus in San Francisco completely wrapped with advertising for ‘Crystal Pepsi,’ a then-new dye free soda.
It was the first time I recall seeing a wrapped transit vehicle, and thus the novelty of capturing it on film.
Other than a vague allusion to the title, my above story has almost nothing to do with the photos in this post.
As a follow up from Sunday’s TTL: The second train Kris and I saw at Columbia, Pa., on Friday evening was Norfolk Southern’s H19 turn heading west off the branch from Lancaster. Kris recommened the parking lot by the old Pennsylvania Railroad station on Front Street. The station is now an ice cream stand.
At the COLA interlocking, NS H19 had a red-over-red-over-green aspect, ‘Slow Clear’ to pass through the interlocking and enter the Port Road Branch.
In the lead was NS SD40E 6322.
Unlike the Kodachrome slides of the Muni bus, I made these photos digitally at ISO 25,600 which allowed me a 1/60 of second shutter speed. I processed the NEF RAW files using PureRaw to eliminate the granular effects of pixelization and correct for lens defects.
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Moonlight, COLA Signals, and a Coal Train
Friday night Kris suggested we go out exploring to find more freights on the move.
So with my 3Pod tripod and N7-II at the ready, we drove to the Susquehanna River at Columbia, Pa. On the way we heard the Enola-Lancaster turn key up Norfolk Southern’s River Line desk dispatcher. This train was looking for permission to return west to Enola, but needed to hold east of Columbia for a 596 unit coal train to clear the interlocking at Cola.
We had a few minutes to look for suitable locations, and at the last minute I settled on the westward home-signals at COLA on the Port Road (located off River Road in Columbia, Pa.)
The moon was nearly full.
I quickly set up my tripod and made this sequence of images as the loaded 596 coal train glided eastbound. In the lead was NS GE 4870, and similar to the train we saw last week, this had a two unit mid-train DPU and well over 200 cars.
All files exposed in NEF RAW format and converted to DNG format using PureRaw for import into Lightroom for cosmetic adjustment.
As soon as 596 had cleared COLA we repositioned to catch NS H19 coming off the branch from Lancaster. All of this was very exciting! Stay tuned for more photos . . .
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Great Northern at Killarney
Six years ago, I traveled with the RPSI to Killarney, Co. Kerry behind Great Northern 4-4-0 No. 85.
In the evening the train was stabled in the sidings at Killarney station where I made some photos using my old Lumix LX7.
A beautiful sunset made for a cosmic silhouette. Exposure in these situations is always a challenge. In this case, I exposed for the sky, allowing the train to go dark. Since I used the RAW format, the camera captured plenty of data in the shadow areas that was easily recovered in post processing.
Last night, I re-processed the camera’s RW2 (RAW) file using DxO PureRaw to correct for lens defects and demosiac the file among other improvements. This outputs as a DNG file that I imported into Lightroom for cosmetic adjustment.
Below are two scaled versions of the same image. The top is the output directly from the RW2 without PureRaw or Lightroom changes. The bottom is following conversion and cosmetic adjustment.
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Coal Train at Hatzenport
September 5, 2015.
We were driving around Germany’s Mosel Valley looking for vistas with the railroad.
In a vineyard above the village of Hatzenport, we paused to take in this view. About every two hours a pair of Class 151 electrics would come along leading a loaded coal train.
Our timing was good and I made this view of the heavy train snaking through the village using my FujiFilm XT1.
Below are three variations of the same file.
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Bridge Fantasy Silhouette
On occasion I’ll make some heavy adjustments to photo to create a vision, an interpretation, and perhaps something more than just a straight unfettered image of reality.
Working from an RAF RAW file I exposed of the railway bridge and famous Dom in Köln in September 2016, I made series of alterations to compose a fantasy image.
First step was to convert the image to a DNG file using PureRaw. Next I imported the DNG into Adobe Lightroom and made a series of modifications, including some heavy exposure, color, and contrast adjustment to the sky. I then lowered overall contrast, made broad use of the ‘clarity’ slider, and boosted saturation.
Notice all the pad locks, thousands of the them, attached to the bridge in the final result.
While I made some major changes to color, contrast and exposure, I didn’t add any elements to the photo. This is just one image exposed using a FujiFilm XT1.
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Köln—September 3, 2015.
Three views from the Köln tram subway exposed on my visit ten years ago.
An uneventful passage during a journey through Germany.
Yet, sometimes this U-bahn finds its way into a dream.
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Under and Over: Box Boat and Trams
September 2, 2015—ten years ago—my friends and I crossed the Rhein on foot at Köln, Germany by using the walkway on the massive six-track railway bridge over the river .
From the big bridge, I made this sequence of photos looking up-river featuring an approaching container ship and trams crossing a distance bridge.
Interestingly, 45 years earlier, my father made Kodachrome slides of trams on that distant bridge. At that time both the bridge and the trams were new.
For these photos, I worked with my FujiFilm XT1 fitted with a 18-135mm Fujinon Zoom. I’ve always liked the geometric repetition of shapes in these images.
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New Dress—First photos
Nice light at Amos Herr Park in Landisville.
I wasn’t expecting anything unusual.
I aimed to frame up the eastward Keystone in the gap between the trees.
The train rolled through at speed.
At the back was the elusive 9635 wearing new Phase VII paint!
I made a hastily series of photos as this newly painted relic rolled by!
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