Yes, I’m trying to pick a title that will get you to read this post.
I could call it ‘Fast Train on the Bridge’ or ‘Amtrak on the New Haven’, or ‘What? NO! Not Westport, Again!’ Or perhaps the accurate, if opaque, ‘Trailing View over the Saugatuck.’
In late April, I made this trailing view of a Boston-bound Acela Expresstilting train crossing the former New Haven Railroad draw bridge at Westport, Connecticut.
By working from the outbound Metro-North platform in the evening, I cross lit the train for dramatic effect and to better show the infrastructure.
Cross-lighting, is when the main light source (the sun in this case) primarily illuminates only the facing surface of the subject, while the surfaces are bathed in shadow. This presents a more dramatic contrast than three-quarter lighting, which offered relative even illumination across the subject.
Cross-lighting is often most effective for railroad photography when the sun is relatively low in the sky. In this instance the compression effect that results from the long telephoto lens works well with the cross lit train.
Exposed digitally using a FujiFilm X-T1 with 18-135mm lens. To make this photo work, I had to carefully mind the shadows from catenary polls so they didn’t appear to interect the sloping face of the Acela Expresstrain set.
Tracking the Light Posts Daily.
I assume most of it was built years ago, at least we know it lasts. Newer construction is probably lighter. Some European/Asian stuff uses across-the-tracks frameworks (probably makes sense for more than 2 tracks), although not as heavy as the stuff shown in the picture. One recent line (not in US) used single poles in between the tracks with hangers extending to each side, simple approach but if you lose a pole you lose everything. Gantries at the sides may be less at risk in a derailment.
Brian may know if there were any technological reasons for the heavy construction.
The rusting infrastructure! How/why do North American electric railroads have need what seems to be structural bridgework to hold up the overhead wires when European high speed rail uses ordinary line side poles?
Just wonderin’….