Monthly Archives: November 2025

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Kris’s Christmas Village

Kris has a long tradition of creating a table-top Christmas village for the holidays. This season we set up her annual village in our dining room.

I was in charge of locating the tracks for the HO-scale train and tree-placement among other things.

After it was all done, Kris asked me to take a few photos.

As with many of my projects, one thing led to another, and several hours later I’d produced an album of images.

All images were exposed on a solid tripod, with time exposures up to 30 seconds. In addition to lighting from the buildings, trees and other scale sources, I used a hand-held LED flashlight to provide supplemental lighting and contrast contol effects.

To enhance the magical effect of the season, I made some heavy handed post processing adjustments with some of the photos.

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Acela and The Eagle

We traveled on the Orient Point—New London ferry. From the top deck, I watched the progress of Amtrak Acela Express 2166 enroute to Boston on my iPhone using the asm.transit.docs app. As well approached New London harbor, I said to Kris, “We ought to be seeing the Acela pass any minute now.”

The Coast Guard’s Eagle sailing ship was docked near the tracks, not far from the Shaws Cove draw bridge. It was dusk, with a rosy glow in the sky.

As we glided along the water, I framed up a view, anticipating the train, watching the scene evolve in my viewfinder.

“There!” Amtrak came into the frame, rolling silently along, and I exposed a series of photos.

The train is small in the scene and the file required a bit of post processing adjustment, but the overall image is satisfying. In more than 40 years of making photos around New London, this was the first time I’d ever viewed the city from this angle. I cropped the final image for presentation here.

I made two variations by altering contrast, exposure and color saturation.

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Quiet Night at Port Clinton

I made these night photos in the gloom of an autumn evening at Reading & Northern’s Port Clinton, Pa. yard.

The railroad’s fleet of vintage EMD diesels always make appealing subjects for me.

I’ve been mastering the art of existing light railroad night shots since the early 1980s. My early night photos were largely exposed with a Leica III loaded with Kodak Tri-X and mounted on my dad’s lightweight Linhof tripod. These days, I prefer my Nikon Zs, often mounted on a 3Pod tripod. In both instances, the tripod has been equipped with a ball head.

The digital Nikon’s allow for much greater shadow detail than I could have ever expected with Tri-X. Yet, in both instances the images require a degree of processing to obtain a satisfactory result.

Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom set to 70mm; f4.5, 3 seconds, ISO 100. NEF RAW file Processed using Adobe Lightroom.
Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Nikkor zoom set to 70mm; f6.3, 2.5 seconds, ISO 100. NEF RAW file Processed using Adobe Lightroom.
Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Nikkor zoom set to 24mm; f6.3, 15 seconds, ISO 100. NEF RAW file Processed using Adobe Lightroom.
Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Nikkor zoom set to 34mm; f6.3, 8 seconds, ISO 100. NEF RAW file Processed using Adobe Lightroom.

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Alcos on Ektachrome

It seems appropriate to photograph vintage Alco diesels on Kodak Ektachrome.

Last summer on our visit to Scranton, Pa., we found a Delaware -Lackawanna local freight working the former DL&W yard adjacent to the Steamtown complex.

A former Lehigh Valley Alco C-420 and a former Delaware & Hudson RS-3 made for a photogenic pair.

My Nikon F3 was fitted with an f2.0 35mm lens and loaded with E100.

Interestingly, in the foreground of one of the photos is Maine Central 2-8-2 No. 519, the sister engine to 501, which is displayed at North Conway, N.H.

It was just about four months from the time of exposure until I received these slides back from the processing lab.

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Conestoga River Crossing; Amtrak 42 and 43

In between errands, I had a few minutes to spare. It was a little before two and Amtrak’s Pennsylvanians were due. So I repaid a visit to the Conestoga River bridge in Lancaster, Pa., and scored both east and westward trains just a few minutes apart.

I had just enough time to relocate between trains. The nice thing about the P42 hauled consists is the tell-tale chug of their GE FDL prime movers that gives a few seconds notice before the train rolls into view.

My intent was to make use of the reflection of the bridge and train in the river.

Both images were made using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom.

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Ektachrome Save at Sandwich!

Using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens, my intention was to expose a trailing view of Cape Cod Central’s outbound midday passenger excursion as it passed the Sandwich, Mass., station.

As the train rolled by, I framed up my photograph, but unexpectedly, my Z6 locked onto an imaginary focus point. The image in my viewfinder was completely out of focus. My rapid repeated efforts to get the camera’s auto focus to work were unsuccessful. In a few instants I would be out of time . . .

So, I reached for my Nikon F3 loaded with Ektachrome E100 and exposed this color slide.

Saved by the slide! Although I was frustrated with the Z6, my stalwart Nikon F3 saved the day.

The film came back last week and I scanned the slide for presentation here.

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Evening Local at High Steel

If you travel from north to south on Greenfield Road in Lancaster, you cross three sets of tracks. The first is Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Secondary near the Greenfield Road exit for Highway 30. The second is a one-lane underpass beneath Amtrak’s electrified Harrisburg Line; the last is an industrial spur that serves High Steel Structures.

We saw a Norfolk Southern local freight with engines positioned on each end of the consist working this spur and paused on Greenfield Road so I could make a few high-ISO photographs with my Z7-II.

These were made using m f4.0 24-70mm zoom hand-held at 6400 ISO.Note the ‘FRED’ telemetry device with flashing red light in the top image.

The Nikon’s NEF RAW files were processed and converted using PureRaw to minimize pixelization and correct for lens defects.

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Ektachrome at Esbenshade Road

Last summer, Kris, Seamus-the-dog and I caught Strasburg Rail Road’s evening train returning from Leaman Place from a vantage point along Esbenshade Road.

I exposed this photograph on Kodak Ektachrome 100 color slide film using a Nikon F3 with f2.0 35mm lens. To make the most of the foreground crops, I made an off-center composition with engine 89 at the center left of the image.

Ektachrome allows for traditional color rendition and contrast that I find distinctive from modern digital images.

This film was processed by AgX Imaging of Sault Saint Marie, Michigan (https://www.agximaging.com) and returned to me last week. I scanned the original photograph using my Nikon LS-5000 slide scanner driven by VueScan 9.8.49 software.

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Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania—Focus on the Details

On Tuesday November 18th, I gave my fifth Railroad Photography 101 class of the 2025 season at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

For the class-room portion, I focused my presentation on digital image processing using Adobe Lightroom. Specifically, I demonstrated using a series of steps how I prepare an image for print-presentation by adjusting highlight, mid-tone and shadow areas using Lightroom’s slider controls.

The second part of the class was an open photography session in the museum’s main hall. Museum Director Patrick Morrison opened some of the locomotives for students. During this part of the program, I answered questions and made detailed photos of the locomotives on display using my Nikon Z6 mirror-less camera.

My next class at the museum is scheduled for Saturday December 13, 2025. This will feature a holiday theme.

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photography

Well Timed Visit to Columbia

The other evening we arrived near the old Pennsylvania Railroad station in Columbia, Pa., just as the signal displayed slow-clear for a westward movement at Cola from the Columbia Secondary onto the Port Road Branch.

Within a minute we could hear a train whistling for crossings up the line.

I set up my tripod and opted to experiment with my Nikon Z7-II fitted with my f2.8 70-200mm lens for action rail night photography. The last time I made photo here I’d worked with my 24-70mm and made a wide angle view with the full moon. This time I’d compose view tightly on the approaching train.

Just as I got the camera set up the level crossing signals started flashing, the gates came down, and the rail glinted from the lights of Norfolk Southern’s H19 local.

I adjusted the ISO on my camera to 25,600 and set the aperture to f2.8.

Once the autofocus had locked on to the lights of the lead engine, I switched the focus to ‘manual’ so the headlights wouldn’t confuse the focus setting; then I made this series of images.

The camera’s NEF RAW files were processed using DxO PureRaw to created DNG files, which I then imported into Lightroom for adjustment.

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NEW BOOK! Amtrak’s History Through its Equipment

Last week, I received my author’s copies of my latest book “Amtrak’s History Through its Equipment,” published by Firecrown Media Inc.

In this illustrated history, I discuss the details of Amtrak’s locomotives and rolling stock. I leafed through my copy last night. It’s refreshing to hold a copy of this work in my hands!

See: https://lnkd.in/eJicb_65

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Long Island Rail Road—Ronkonkoma

Crossing Long Island we paused for a few minutes at the station at Ronkonkoma, New York, where I made a few photos.

A Grand Central-bound train pulled into the platforms.

I rarely visit Long Island and so the LIRR is a novelty. What is a completely ordinary LIRR third-rail electric commuter train made an unusual subject for me.

Images exposed using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Nikkor zoom.

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Sometimes a bit of Pretend Makes it Real

I like to write in layers.

The surface is but the top of that parfait.

When I need to find ground, it helps to pick up a camera.

When I’m lost, I need to travel back to a special place.

On this September Day, I needed to be back long ago.

My links to it were memories of a trip in August 1981; a black EMD end-cab diesel, and a old Brooklyn Eastern District sidetank steam switcher.

I was seeing each of these things for something other than what they are.

My reality wasn’t very good that day, but at least I made some photos.

Too often the differential between how we want things to be and how they really are, results in our disconnection with reality. Sometimes that disconnect leads to delusion; other times it is necessary to get through the day.

In the end, the old little blue engine is unlikely to ever work the Brooklyn dockside again.

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Corn Stubble at Esbenshade Road

The Sunday Strasburg excursion departed Strasburg, Pa., under sunny skies. I could see the rain coming. It wasn’t too far.

Kris and I were showing around our friend Matty B, who was visiting from Massachusetts.

The corn had been cut, and a few Amish girls were walking along the road. They didn’t seem at all phased by the approaching steam locomotive.

Working with my pair of Nikon Z mirrorless cameras, I made this selection of photos.

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Quiet Visit to Safe Harbor

Rain was predicted last Sunday.

I awoke early to find the sun shining.

So I drove the short distance to Safe Harbor with hopes of catching wheels turning on former PRR rails.

I hiked up to the large bridge on the old Low Grade. I walked the trail and inspected the views.

A bird spotter came along and told me stories about eagles and falcons.

I noted dark clouds rolling in from the West.

“Looks like rain.”

Before I reached the car drops were falling.

No trains passed during my visit. Not this time.

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Retro-Painted Genesis

Over the last month, Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian (New York-Philadelphia-Pittsburgh) has regularly sported a GE P42 diesel in heritage paint.

I’ve been fond of catching locomotive 130, which wears the so-deemed “Phase 2” scheme—reminiscent of Amtrak’s F40PH diesels and E60 electrics in the 1970s.

Using a Nikon Z mirror-less camera, I made these photos of Train 43 as it worked westbound along the former Pennsylvania Railroad near Lancaster, Pa..

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12-step Correction Sequence for my Class

My next Railroad Photo-101 Class at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is scheduled for 9am Tuesday, November 18.

See: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/railroad-photography-101-fall-session-two-tickets-1897150832209?aff=oddtdtcreator

I’ve altered my syllabus for this session to include some guidance and philosophy on how to process digital RAW files.

For one of the lessons I’ve included the following 12-Step Correction Sequence using Adobe Lightroom to demonstrate how I interpret a difficult lighting situation and use the histogram to make corrections.

I realize that the Word Press file compression may make it difficult to delineate some of the more subtle changes, but I thought I’d present them here anyway. This sequence shows screen shots of the Lightroom work window including the relative position of the adjustment sliders. I’ve presented each of the steps in order, with only one change between each image. (Note the slider positions at the right of the image).

Watch how the changes alter the exposure histogram at top right. My goal is to make the most of the data caputured by the camera.

Unaltered Nikon NEF RAW image. (No adjustments)
Highlights adjustment.
Overall exposure increase following the highlight adjustment.
Overall contrast reduction.
First Shadow adjustement: Shadows lightened.
Black point adjustment.
Second overall exposure adjustment to place midtones at the center of the histogram (top right).
Clarity adjustment slider to alter contrast and broaden the exposure histogram. This change improved midtone contrast.
Selecting the sky.
Using the sky mask to locally adjust sky highlights.
Final sky adjustment.
Final adjustment; setting the white point by moving the white slider to the left.
Scaled version of the final photo.

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Bredas on the Streets of San Francisco

More Fujichrome retrospective views of Breda-built streetcars in San Francisco.

San Francisco has been a colorful venue for photographing transit vehicles.

Looking back, I still think of these fading antiques as ‘the new cars’. Yet, what was once new is now historic!

Among the commonality of these images was my use of long telephoto lens; some Nikon, others Canon.

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Rain at the Electric City Trolley Museum

As we entered Scranton on I-81 the rain started and Kris suggested we get off the road for a few minutes. So, we headed for the Steamtown complex on the westside of the city center.

I made this view of the Electric City Trolley Museum with glossy rails and an autumnal sky.

The old 1930s-era SEPTA Brill Bullet car has been posed out in front of the museum for years.

Back in the late 1970s/early 1980s, I recall seeing cars like this one in service on the Norristown High Speed Line, but I never traveled on one, which is among my lasting regrets from that era.

Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens set at 70mm.; f10 at 1/50th second, ISO 100.

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Modern Baggage Car and an Automobile

Sunday, I exposed a follow up photo to the Ford Model A image at Blackhorse Road that I posted last week.

In this view, I framed up a passing Amtrak Viewliner baggage car with our Honda CRV Hybrid in the foreground.

For point of comparison, I’ve included the photo of the Model A.

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Red Tree at Black Horse: Variations on a Theme.

Approaching Blackhorse Road, Strasburg Rail Road routinely pauses outbound excursions for a ‘ghost whistling’ routine whereby the echo of the locomotive whistle on the distant hills is made to sound like the whistle from another line (now long gone).

This presents an opportunrity to make photos.

The other day was bright, clear, and unseasonably warm, so I decided to feature the brilliant red tree in the nearby school yard with Strasburg’s excursion. I was working with both my Fuji XT-1 and Nikon Z6. These cameras have different sensors and handle color differently.

While-in both situations-I exposed in RAW and made nominal cosmetic adjustment to the files using Lightroom, this is not intended as a strict comparison between cameras, just an exercise in composition. Below are four similar images from a sequence of more than a dozen images exposed with the two cameras. I’m not sure if I have a favorite. Yet.

FujiFilm XT-1 digital camera with 16-55mm lens.
Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
FujiFilm XT-1 digital camera with 16-55mm lens.
Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.

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Bye Bye Bredas

After a 30 year run, San Francisco Muni’s Breda-built light rail vehicles are nearing the end of the line.

My first encounter with one of these cars was in summer 1995, when I saw a brand new car being transported on a westward Southern Pacific freight near Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

In the mid-2000s, I became familiar with the Bredas during visits to San Francisco. While I’d been partial to the Boeing-Vertol cars, and I generally preferred the classic PCCs, I traveled upon and made hundreds of photos of Muni’s Bredas over the years.

It’s been quite some time since I last visited San Francisco, and with only days or hours left of their expected service it is improbable that I’ll ever see the Breda cars again in their home environment.

Maybe I’ll shave with one in a few months time.

In May 2008, a San Francisco Muni Breda LRV works a T-line service on 3rd street. Exposed on Fujichrome with a Canon EOS-3.

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Incidental Baggage Car

I saw this antique Ford Motor Company automobile (Model A? Not sure, I’m not an authority on antique autos ) parked near Strasburg Rail Road’s crossing of Blackhorse Road.

When the midday train passed, I focused on the auto, allowing the train to serve as background.

Perhaps at some point I should recreate this image by making a photo of our Honda CRV with the Viewliner baggage car on Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian as background—Same concept, different equipment.

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ISO 6400 Action at Dusk

It was a full moon. The sun had just set. I heard a distant whistle at Willow Road on the New Holland Branch. This was Norfolk Southern’s New Holland local returning west. So, with little time to squander I made my way to the familiar grade crossing at Jefferson Drive in Lancaster, Pa.

As the 25-car freight approached the crossing, I made this series of images handheld, while gently panning the lead locomotive. My Nikon Z6 was set to ISO 6400. To minimize noise, I processed the NEF RAW files with DxO PureRaw, then implemented cosmetic refinement in Lightroom.

Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens; ISO 6400, 1/20th sec at f4.0.
Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens; ISO 6400, 1/15th sec at f4.0.
Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens; ISO 6400, 1/40th sec at f4.0.
Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens; ISO 6400, 1/6th sec at f4.0.

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Sunny November Evening at J-Tower

A few moments of low evening sun yesterday made for a classic view of Strasburg Rail Road’s former Pennsylvania Railroad J-Tower.

In addition to this digital photo, I made a single color slide on Velvia 50 using my old F3 with 35mm lens. I’ll be sending that out for processing soon.

Nikon Z6 mirror-less digital camera with 24-70mm lens set to 43mm. ISO 100, f4, 1/320 second. White balance set to daylight.

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Blitz at Christiana on a Cloudy Evening

Amtrak Keystone 656 was due eastbound on its way from Harrisburg.

I set up at the old Pennsylvania Railroad freight house, now maintained by Lancaster Chapter NRHS that includes a trackside deck well-suited for watching trains.

I aimed to include this historic building in my composition.

As the train came into view, I exposed a burst of images, then turned to make a going away view and was pleasantly surprised to see the Phase VII painted former Metroliner cab control car at the back of the train.

The 1960s-era Metroliner cars are some of the last vestiges of the Pennsylvania Railroad still on the role in Pennsylvania.

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Pennsylvanian in Three Quarter Sun

During midday, Amtrak 42 and 43—the eastward and westward Pennsylvanians—pass Lancaster within a few minutes of each other. Unlike the electric Keystone services these trains are diesel-hauled.

Shelley Lane abuts the railroad and makes for classic location to rollby trains.

I made these views with a 24-70mm lens set to its 24mm wide angle wtih a 1/2000th of second shutter speed as train 43 worked west in early afternoon with a classic P42 Genesis diesel leading.

I think, it would have been neat to stand here 60 years earlier to catch a Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 passing at speed with tuscan red passenger cars in tow.

One of these day’s I hope to time a rolling meet here. So far, I’ve come very close.

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Sunburst & 89—Rods Down

Some photos preserve an instant. Such is the case with this photo that I made of Strasburg 89 at Esbenshade Road. By selecting the smallest aperture (f22), I captured the sunburst effect of the setting sun. Careful attention to the drivers enable me to catch them ‘rods down’ as the engine passed my position. The wafting engine exhaust leads the eye from the locomotive to the setting sun. The juxtoposition of components contributed to this successful composition.

Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens at 24mm; f22, 1/100th of second, 100 ISO.
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Big Locomotive at Lititz

If you time it just right, Lititz Springs Park in Lititz, Pa., can be a nice place to catch a train. At other times it’s a nice place to watch the ducks.

We arrived around noon, just as Norfolk Southern’s H23 local was pulling down from a switching move. The track ends less than a quarter mile east of here on the former Reading Company’s Reading & Columbia line.

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Tracking the Light out of the shadows.

This is my first Tracking the Light post since September 11, 2025.

On that day, I learned that my father had passed.

Although, I’ve continued to make photographs, I didn’t have within me the words to post here. I couldn’t write knowing that my dad wouldn’t be reading my words. Since the beginning, he had always read my posts.

I’m hoping more posts will follow.

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