Author of more than 70 books on railways, photography, and Ireland, Brian lives with his wife, Kris, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Brian holds a BFA in Photographic Illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology. In 2022, he was presented with the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society’s prestigious Fred A.& Jane R. Stindt Photography Award for his lifetime achievements in railroad photography.
It was a blistering hot afternoon when we exited the Steamtown Mall on the elevated footbridge that offers views of the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western shops and yards that are now part of the Steamtown complex at Scranton, Pa.
Below us was a selection of Central Railroad of New Jersey passenger cars, DL&W multiple units, various cabooses and sad looking freight cars, plus a Reading Company RS-3, some F3s masquerading as a set of Lackawanna units, a few old steam locomotives, and a Leslie rotary plow.
As I was making studies of the museum’s antiques, we heard the unmistakable chortling sound of an Alco 244 diesel . . .
Last week, Kris and I stayed at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel in Scranton.
I remember when this architectural masterpiece was but a forlorn ruin.
Today, it is a testimony to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and architect Kenneth Murchison.
I’ve previously written about this station in my book Depots, Stations & Terminals, published by Voyageur Press ten years ago. Below is an excerpt:
Murchison, was a respected New York architect who earned several important commissions for railroad stations in the early twentieth century. Murchison had studied in Paris and made prominent use of the Beaux-Arts style in his railway architecture. Among his significant early projects was Delaware, Lackawanna & Western’s new Hoboken Terminal on the west shore of the Hudson River across from New York City. This elaborate station complex replaced an earlier facility that had succumbed to fire and made prominent use of copper sheathing believed to be left over from the erection of the Statue of Liberty in nearby Upper New York Harbor.
Murchison followed up his success with Hoboken with an impressive five-story station for the DL&W at Scranton, Pennsylvania, constructed in 1908 . . .
. . .The importance of Scranton to Lackawanna, and to the competition from a host of other railroads here, mandated magnificence on the part of DL&W’s new Scranton station. Murchison was the right man for the job. Working in French-Renaissance style characteristic of the Beaux Arts movement, Murchison imparted Continental elegance on this Pennsylvania coal capital. He used massive colonnades on both the street and track sides of the station, and maintained classic symmetry. At the center of the roofline an enormous clock was flanked by stone eagles. The building was faced with Indiana limestone. An unusually deep hanging canopy encircled the structure to protect passengers when arriving and boarding trains, while Bush-style smokeless sheds, originally designed by DL&W chief engineer Lincoln Bush for Hoboken, were installed trackside. In the 1920s an additional story was added.
It was in this 1920s addition that we stayed on our recent visit. Our room was immediately behind the fifth story clock that faces the parking lot. (See below).
Photos exposed in July 2025 using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens.
On our way to Scranton, Kris and I stopped at Tamaqua, Pa., for lunch at the Tamaqua Station Restaurant.
I was pleased to see that the article I wrote for Trains Magazine last year that features the restaurant had been laminated and displayed for visitors to enjoy.
This former Reading Company station has great atmosphere and offers a great menu selection. Kris didn’t have the opportunity to sample the desserts on this visit, so we agreed to return soon.
On our January 2009 visit to Trebusice, Czech Republic, several freights passed, led by classic CD 122 and 123 electric locomotives. In addition, we saw these locomotives coming and going to collect empty and loaded coal trains from nearby yards.
This added a little bit of color to a monochromatic environment.
Photos exposed on Fujichrome using a Canon EOS-3.
The original images were scanned using a Nikon LS5000 slide scanner and the TIF files were processed in Adobe Lightroom to improve color and contrast.
Last week Kris, Seamus and I took a drive to Peach Bottom, Pa. This is among the river towns along the Susquehanna River with photographic opportunites of Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Branch.
We investigated several places with views of the river and I made these photos with my Nikon.
Exploration is part of the fun and part of my process. Perhaps someday we will get lucky and catch a train passing Peach Bottom.
Tracking the Light is on autopilot while Brian & Kris are on holidays.
Long ago I noted that there seems to be an inverse ratio regarding railroads with traffic and those passing bucolic photogenic scenery. With a few notable exceptions, the rule is simple: pretty places require lots of patience or great fortuity; while grim, dire venues often benefit from a concentration of traffic.
Rural Vermont: pretty and pretty quiet. Industrial overbuilt northern Indiana: bustling with trains seemingly on the move at every bend in the line.
It was a cool, gray afternoon in January 2009 when Denis McCabe, Tim Doherty, and I visited Trebusice in western Czech Republic (Czechia). Here we found an intensively utilized multiple track electrified line surrounded by strip mines, yards, and heavy industry.
The place was crawling with trains, and correspondingly bleak.
Fascinating, yet apocalyptic. Photogenic because of its exceptional severity.
I exposed a roll of Fujichrome using a Canon EOS 7D. Monday, I scanned a few of the slides. Did I also expose some Kodak Tri-X? I should have. Gray was the operative color. I’ve included a few images here. More to follow in the coming days.
Tracking the Light is on autopilot while Brian & Kris are on holidays.
We paused at Blackhorse Road to roll by Strasburg Rail Road’s evening train. I’ve made countless photos from Blackhorse and the adjacent Carpenters Cemetery, so I thought I’d try something a little different.
As engine 89 approached the crossing, I took a position in the graveyard. To make my photo, I adjusted the flexible rear display on my Nikon Z7-II, and held the camera at arm’s length over my head to gain some needed elevation.
Although, I was able to frame up my composition, I found it difficult to keep the camera level. Ultimately, I straightened the image in post processing, which also included adjustments to contrast, exposure and saturation.
I can’t complain about the car in the photo; it’s ours!
Tracking the Light is on autopilot while Brian & Kris are on holidays.
Hazy midday summer sun presents difficult lighting for photographing trains on the move.
The overall light quality is flat, yet shadow areas are muddy and indistinct. This especially challenging on the underside of equipment and tree leaves.
The other day at Amos Herr Park in Landisville, Pa., I photographed Amtrak’s eastward Pennsylvanian. Moments before it came into view, a small fuzzy cloud dulled the already dull light.
The simple solution to this problem is to avoid photographing in midday summer light.
In this instance, I am seeking a post-processing solution to mitigate the problem and help produce a better image.
Below is a sequence of images. The first is the scaled, but otherwise unmodfied NEF Raw file. Next is my first attempt at adjusting color, contrast and exposure in an effort to improve the overall appearance of the photo. I wasn’t satisfied with this effort, so for my next attempt I converted the image to black & white and then selectively adjusted contrast and exposure.
In the final image, I manually reintroduced color to the photo, carefully controlling saturdation and luminance for specific parts of the spectrum using the Lightroom slider controls. Although imperfect, this allowed me to control the amount and intensity of color in defined areas of the image. If it looks a bit artificial that’s because it is! This is the product my controlling AI technology to colorize the image using information stored in the original file. It is not organic or natural.
Unmodified NEF RAW file.Adjusted NEF RAW file using slider controls to modify color balance, color temperature, contrast and exposure, with a mask on the sky to make specific adjustments.File converted to monochrome and with significant adjustment to contrast and exposure.This is the product my controlling AI technology to colorize the above monochrome image using information stored in the original file.
On July 13, 2014, I visited Palmer, Massachusetts to try to make photos with trains and the rising full moon.
At the time I was working with my Canon EOS7D and a 100-400mm Canon zoom lens.
With the camera firmly mounted on a tripod, I exposed this photograph near milepost 83. It was a relatively long exposure (2/5ths of a second) using ISO1000 and a 190mm focal length.
This image vexed me. It is nearly there, but the moon is overexposed and the headlight is too bright.
Last night, I imported the Canon CR-2 RAW file into PureRaw for correction and conversion into DNG format. Then I imported the DNG into Lightroom for adjustment.
The processed photo is better than the unconverted image, but it’s still lacking. I wonder if using my modern Nikon Z cameras and PureRaw processing if I could have overcome some of the flaws inherent with this photo?
Canon CR-2 RAW file following correction and conversion and the first round of image adjustement using LightroomLightroom work window reflecting the first round of corrections and original metadata.Canon CR-2 RAW file following correction and conversion and the second round of corrections.Adobe Lightroom workwindow showing the changes to create the PureRaw converted image with second round of corrections
Tracking the Light examines the process of Railroad Photography Daily!
Yesterday evening, Kris, Seamus, and I paused at Leaman Place in Paradise to roll by Amtrak Keystone 649 that was racing toward its Lancaster, Pa., station stop.
The light was perfect. Clear sky with rich low sun.
Often at Leaman Place, I’ve used a telephoto lens. But yesterday, after experimenting with several moderate focal lengths, I settled on a wideangle view made with my 24-70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom. I set the lens to 27mm. My shutter speed was 1/1600. This nicely stopped the train.
I was impressed by the freshly painted Amfleet cars in the consist. These wore Amtrak’s latest Phase VII scheme. Only after I downloaded and examined these photos did I notice that this was a short consist. Keystone trains are typcially five cars, this one was only four.
At 3:43pm on April 13, 2025, I exposed this single Ektachrome 100 color slide of Amtrak’s westward Pennsylvanian passing Underpass Lane in Mexico, Pa.
The camera was fitted with a Nikkor f2.0 35mm lens, which has long been one of my favorite lenses. I don’t use it often, but it rarely lets me down.
I scanned the slide using an LS-5000 Nikon slide scanner powered by VueScan software. Below are two versions of the same scan. The top is the scaled, but un-modified version, the second is following post processing adjustments improve appearance.
One of the challenges with the Word Press platform that presents Tracking the Light is that the photo files get compressed. This tends to minimize the subtle changes I make to files during processing. Unfortunately, I don’t have any control over this effect on the Word Press presentation.
Scan prior to post processing adjustments.Adjusted image improved using Adobe Lightroom to alter shadows, highlights, contrast, saturation and sharpness.
In the mid-1980s, I’d have a Leica rangefinder loaded with Kodachrome and my father’s Rolleiflex Model T with 120-size Verichrome Pan black & white negative film.
In the 1990s, it was multiple Nikons with slide film with various ISO sensitivity.
During the early 2000s, I worked with a Contax G2 rangefinder for wideangle photos and Nikons for telephoto views—all loaded with 100 speed Fujichrome.
Today, I carry Nikon mirrorless digital cameras, and occasionally a Lumix or Fujifilm digital camera, while once in while bringing out one of my 1990s-era Nikon F3s loaded with Ektachrome.
Such was the situation at Horseshoe Curve last October.
Here I’ve made two photos of the same westward Norfolk Southern hopper train. The first photo was exposed on E100 Ektachrome using the F3 with f2.0 35mm lens; the second is a digital photograph made with my Nikon Z7-II.
This comparison is about style, rather than image quality. I make different kinds of photos using different equipment and materials. There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. I have both images and they both work for different reasons.
E100 Ektachrome with a Nikon F3 SLR with Nikkor AF f2.0 35mm lensNikon Z7-II mirror-less digital camera with 24-70mm lens. The image has been slightly cropped.
Last October, Kris, Seamus and I chased a westward Norfolk Southern freight on the former Pennsylvania Railroad Middle Division from Huntingdon to Tyrone, Pa.
Although I exposed a few digital photos, I’ve been waiting for this image for months.
Yes, I still occasionally expose color slides. However, where I once would shoot several rolls a day, these days it took me almost eight months to work through four rolls of Kodak Ektachrome. Finally, I boxed these up and sent them off to AgX Imaging in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan for E6 processing. https://www.agximaging.com
On Monday, my four boxes of slides were returned to me in good order.
Owing to exceptional selectivity, I had a high ratio of success with the processed photos. A few were disappointing (mostly as the result of underexposure), but there are many very satisfying photos in the selection.
I made this image from the station platform at Tyrone of the NS westward train as it reached the apex of the curve. I was working with a vintage Nikon F3 with f2.0 135mm lens loaded with Ektachrome E100. I scanned the slide using a Nikon LS-5000 slide scanner.
Below are two versions of the scan. The first is the unmodified scan, more or less the way it looked right out of the scanner (converted to JPG and scaled for internet presentation). The second is after some nominal post-processing. More slides to follow!
I store all of my digital image files chronologically.
Typically, I make a monthly file for each camera and download all of the images on a regular basis. When time allows, I assign caption information to the file name. At the end of the month I make copies of the file, which I then store on various types of media.
Ultimately, I make a copy of a year’s worth of digital images and store them on a ‘working hard drive’—a drive that I keep connected to my lap top. The other copies simply get stored as back up. I should have at least three copies of every digital file.
Normally, I avoid erasing files. I’ve learned the perils of erasing images. You just NEVER know when a file will be needed, so I don’t throw them away.
Months ago, I was looking through images from July 2018, and discovered to my chagrin that several hundred image files were missing from my ‘working drive.’
Not a problem, I thought, I’ll just copy them off the back up, and went to locate the correct hard drive. I found the drive and opened the July 2018 file, only to discover the files were not there either!
I transferred the incomplete July 2018 file! While I made four copies of the file, all were missing the last couple of days of photos.
What was especially galling, is that many of these images were on a trip that I’d made with Chris Guss in Northern Indiana, which is not a place I frequent very often. We’d had productive day making images of trains along Norfolk Southern’s former New York Central mainline and of the South Shore on the streets of Michigan City.
Among other trains, we caught an Indiana Harbor Belt freight led by a pair of peculiar looking Gensets that I’ve never seen pictured anywhere, except by my own lenses.
After considerable digging around, I was able to locate three of my missing image files from the July file, but the rest had vanished like ether in bright sun. And, worse, I had no record of the Indiana Harbor Belt photos!
I suspected that I’d moved a group of images for naming but then failed to move them back to the main file before making my copies.
For months this ommission vexed me. I hate losing photos.
Saturday, I unpacked a carton of hard drives from our move last year. I began going through them looking for the missing photos. And finally, I located the complete July 2018 Fuji Digital file. This had all of the missing photos! I’ve since copied the missing images to my various storage drives.
There are lessons here: Be very careful when making backups! Always make at least one copy of everything so that you can find it again. Never assume a specific file exists somewhere else; and always avoid erasing backups and original images.
Some years ago I made a list of three popular places I wanted to visit but had managed to miss in all my travels:
Cape Cod, Niagara Falls, and the Grand Canyon.
Having grown up in Massachusetts, the first location may seem incongruous.
The first place I managed to ‘tick’ on my list was Niagara Falls. Previously, I’d visited the city of Niagara Falls, New York where I’d made numerous railroad photos of the yards and bridges over the gorge. However, I never managed a view of the waterall.
My opportunity arose when I traveling with Pat Yough and Chris Guss in February 2010. We had visited Toronto, and on our way to Buffalo, I asked if we could swing by the waterfall, which we did.
I made this image of the frozen falls from the Canadian side using my Lumix LX3.
Interestingly, several years later I paid a visit to Cape Cod with Pat Yough. Since then, I met Kris who has strong Cape Cod connections, and we were engaged on the Cape in 2021 and now pay annual visits there.
Number 600 is the first of Amtrak’s Siemens Mobility-built ACS-64 electrics. This was named to honor Amtrak president David L. Gunn.
I made this high-speed broadside pan of the class leader as it worked the back of a Keystone train at Atglen, Pa..
I’d set my Nikon Z7-II camera in aperture priority mode and designated the aperture setting at f3.5. This allowed the camera to select the correspodining shutter speed based on the camera’s preselected pattern metering. When I release the shutter, the shutter speed was at 1/800 of a second. (ISO was set to 200)
Owing to the speed of the train, these setting allowed for a slight blurring of the background and foreground, while my panning motion kept the locomotive crisp.
Working with the NEF RAW file, I adjusted the highlight and shadow areas in post processing. I’ve posted two versions below, one is slight brighter with lighter highlights than the other, reflecting nominal changes in post processing settings.
Thursday evening, Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I went for an evening drive.
The sun set through a rain shower, then the fireflies illuminated the landscape, and as darkness fell a fireworks display colored the night sky on the eve of American Independance Day.
I made this selection of photos using my Nikon Z-series mirrorless digital camera. Even though there’s only one railroad-themed image in this selection, I feel they meet the criteria for ‘Tracking the Light’.
I thought a cool photo would be nice treat for a hot summer day!
I’m working on an article for Firecrown on winter photography and I’ve been sorting through more than 35 years of snowy images.
On February 22, 1993, I was on-hand at Emigrant Gap, California to photography Southern Pacific’s famed Leslie Rotary snow plows that were being prepared for a run over Donner Pass.
It had been snowing for days and the railroad needed the plows.
I made this image on Fujichrome 100 featuring the whirling blades of massive Rotary plow.
I scanned this image using a Nikon LS-5000 slide scanner and processed the RAW file using Adobe Lightroom.
On a very frosty morning in February 2010, I visited Toronto with photographers Pat Yough and Chris Guss.
We braved the Arctic-chill on the four-track line near Sunnyside, west of Toronto Union Station.
Shortly after sunrise, using my Canon EOS-3 with a telephoto lens, I exposed this Fujichrome slide of an eastward VIA Rail LRC train meeting an outbound GO Transit commuter train.
I scanned this slide the other day using a Nikon LS-5000 slide scanner and processed the Tif file using Adobe Lightroom.
Below is the unprocessed scan and the processed version of the same image, plus the Adobe Lightroom work window to show the changes that I made.
Scaled but otherwise unmodified scan of an original Fujichrome slide.This is the same image as above following a range of adjustments to level, contrast and exposure aimed at improving the appearance of the image and maximize the data in the scan. This was scaled following post processing.Screen shot of the Adobe Lightroom work window showing the slider controls used to adjust the scanned slide.
During the early summer, the evening sun sets north of Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line. The combination of the angle of light and pollution lingering in the western sky makes for some excellent evening glint.
We paused at our usual place at Jefferson Drive in Greenfield, east of downtown Lancaster, Pa., and here I caught Amtrak’s westward Keystone train 653 that was running just a few minutes behind the advertised time.
I made a series of NEF RAW files using my Nikon Z7-II with the 24-70mm lens set at 70mm.
Below is a comparison between post-processed files.
The top reflects the NEF RAW file before Adobe Lightroom adjustment and correction; the next is the same NEF file following Lightroom adjustments to lighten shadows, control contrast, and correct for color; the second to last photo is the same image-file converted into a DNG using PureRaw and then adjusted using Lightroom. The last image is a screenshot of the Lightroom work window of the DNG conversion following processing corrections which shows the position of Lightroom slider controls.
You tell me: can you see the difference in processing?
NEF RAW file prior to adjustment and correction.NEF RAW file following Lightroom adjustment and correction; notice the effect on shadow areas and changes to the sky.NEF RAW file converted into a DNG using PureRaw and then adjusted using LightroomAdobe Lightroom work-window showing the postions of adjustment slider controls reflecting the corrections and changes to the converted DNG file.
Over the last year, Kris and I have made a habit of stopping of at Tamaqua, Pa., on our drives to and from I-81.
There’s almost always something of interest parked at the north end of Reading & Northern’s yard.
On our most recent visit we found a nice selection of vintage EMDs. Although most have been modified in one way or another since leaving the factory at La Grange, Illinois, these largely retain their traditional appearances.
For me, the diesels of the 1960s and 1970s are like Classic Rock hits from the same period; they are old, yet familiar and always a a pleasure to catch up with again from time to time.
I made these images using my Nikon Z7-II.
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This is the third installment about our visit to Elkins Park, Pa.,
After the storm raged, I presented my 45 minute-long slide show on the railways of Philadelphia that featured a variety of photos by my father and myself along with some select images by photographer Andrew Ludasi.
When the show concluded, a vivid double rainbow hung in the eastern sky, so we went out to make photos.
SEPTA finally had its trains rolling so this was a grand opportunity to make railroad photos under the rainbow.
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Brian preparing to begin his presentation, photo by Kris Solomon.Brian and Kris, photo by Pat Yough.SEPTA Silverliner IV at Elkins Park, Pa.
All images were exposed with my Nikon Z7-II with the help of Kris, and our friend Pat Yough who attended the show.
After switching out the yard in Palmer, Massachusetts, New England Central’s crew brought their locomotives to Hospital Road in Monson (a mile south of the CSX diamond) to bring a northward freight into the yard.
It’s been a while since I’ve paid daily attention to New England Central’s train operations, however I’d assume this was 608 from Willimantic (or its equivalent).
Working with my Nikon Z7-II, I exposed these images. The first is a pan of the light engines approaching the Hospital Road crossing. The second was made while the engines pumped the air on the freight cars. The last is of the northward move on the grade crossing with the camera on a tripod. Exposure information for each is in the captions.
Hospital Road isn’t the most visually striking location, but it does lend to interesting photos.
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ISO 4000, 1/25th second, f4.0. NEF RAW file converted into DNG format with DxO Pure Raw, post processing using Adobe Lightroom.ISO 10000, 1/40th second, f4.0. NEF RAW file converted into DNG format with DxO Pure Raw, post processing using Adobe Lightroom.ISO 5000, 1/50th second, f4.0. Camera mounted on a #pod tripod. NEF RAW file converted into DNG format with DxO Pure Raw, post processing using Adobe Lightroom.
Kris and I walked back from Creekside Market & Tap just as the sky was turning an odd color. Big change from less than hour earlier when blue skies with puffy white clouds were the order of the afternoon.
As we approached the station an outward Silverliner V accelerated away from its Elkins Park station stop.
Upon arrival back on the platform the darkness set in. An inbound train glided to a stop as another outbound train pulled away. There was a line in the sky delineating blue from gray.
Then the street lights came on, the wind kicked up and it started to rain cats and dogs. We moved back from the row of benches beneath the station canopy to get more shelter. . .’Hey, was that a small tree that just blew across the tracks?’
The was some automated announcement about trains canceled, then suspended.
Wow, this was some storm! By the time my NRHS slide program was to begin, the weather had calmed down, but it was a while before trains were rolling in-bound again.
Since 2009, I paid more than a dozen visits to the former Pennsylvania Railroad trestles at Safe Harbor, Pa.
I’ve visited in the morning, midday, and evenings. I’ve gone on weekdays and weekends. I’ve climbed the steps to the rail trail at least ten times. I’ve walked the trail across the top of the bridge and scoped locations.
We’ve sat in the parking lot on the dam side of the trestles. Last summer we saw coal empties rolling through Port Deposit and raced ahead to Safe Harbor only to watch the sunset without a train pass.
The other morning I woke at 5:15am. I motivated, hoisted myself out of bed, dressed and drove to the Safe Harbor bridges arriving there at 5:45am. It was already 75 degrees and the humidity as thick as a rain forest.
I climbed the steps to the top of the bridge on the old Enola Low Grade, only to see that the signals were all red for a westward movement. Not a promising sign. Worse, the humidity immediately fogged the front elements of my Nikon.
Condensation on the front element made for a foggy photo.
I walked across the bridge; I gazed down at the Safe Harbor Dam, I read the signs at the west of the bridge that tell of its construction & etc. I walked back. I bird watched. I shared my thoughts in my notebook.
I read the rules of the rail trail, and at 6:30 am I gazed once again at the signals. Still red. So I read the rules again for amusement. Finally, I was about to give up and walk back to the car. The camera lens had finally un-fogged. And . . . wait . . . did the westward signal just clear to green?
It had.
I walked back out on to the bridge and waited. At 6:45, I heard the distant chug of a GE Evolution diesel. Wow!
I gazed down river toward Pequea. At 6:46, I spotted a northward train on the move. Gradually the sound grew louder. I framed up my photos. I made a test shot. At 6:54am the train came into view and I exposed these photos.
Finally! I’d scored a train on the move at Safe Harbor! This was probably Norfolk Southern’s 37A from Edgemoor, Delaware.
When I got back to the car just after 7am it was more than 80 degrees. I was home for tea 15 minutes later. It was all worth it!
Last week, Kris and I visited SEPTA’s Elkins Park station on the former Reading Company line, where I was scheduled to present my program on Philadelphia-area railways to the Philadelphia Chapter National Railway Historical Society later in the evening.
We considered taking the train, but ultimately opted to drive, which proved to be the right decision owing to extreme weather that occurred later in the day.
When we arrived at Elkins Park it was bright and sunny! I made several photos at the station before proceeding to the nearby Creekside Market & Tap to meet our hosts.
While having a beer and roast beef sandwich, Wayne Duffet sent a screen shot from Strasburg Rail Road’s Leaman Place webcam: the weather was closing in on us from the west.
It was amazing how quickly the weather turned. We got back to the station just before the sudden deluge . . . stay tuned!
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After dinner on Friday the 13th, Kris and I stopped down to Palmer, Mass., to see if anything was moving.
In time-honored practice we parked near the signals at CP83. I got out of the car and gave a listen. It was hard to hear over the cacophony of music and voices emanating from the Steaming Tender. I gazed east on the old Boston & Albany and saw that the yard was mostly empty. Then, I walked to New England Central’s former Central Vermont yard on the opposite side of the parking lot. While there, I caught a hint of a long-familiar sound. Freight cars drifting downgrade . . .Eastbound!
Turning on the hoof, I ran back to the signals, and gave it a second listen. . . . . definitely an eastbound on the B&A! I stepped back to frame up the photograph and saw the switch was lined for the controlled siding.
As the CSX freight came into view and took the siding, I could hear another train. Eighty-five cars passed me, and when the last had cleared the signals, I saw New England Central’s freight waiting to cross the diamond southbound.
We had timed our arrival perfectly! Lucky for us, but it helps to be tuned to the sounds of railroading.
Although the paint on the engines was different and the trees had grown, it was for that few minutes like old times in my old haunt.
Photos exposed using a Nikon Z7-II, NEF Raw files converted to DNG format using DxO PureRaw and adjusted for exposure, contrast and color using Lightroom.
In June 1997, my father and I made photographs of Chesapeake & Ohio 4-8-4 No. 614 leading an excursion across the former Erie Railroad Moodna Viaduct at Salisbury Mills, New York.
A few days ago, Kris and I revisited this famous bridge located on the old Erie Graham Line cutoff, now part of the route of NJ Transit/Metro North Port Jervis service commuter trains.
Parking is available at the Schunnemuck Mountain Trail Area off Otter Kill Road. (A nice trail, bummer about the otter).
We arrived just a few minutes before Train 76 from Port Jervis crossed the vast span.
In some instances, I’ve framed a photo poorly, thus resulting in my cropping from the image an element of interest .
In other situations, cropping in post processing can improve a photo by eliminating or minimizing distracting, or otherwise uninteresting elements from the image area.
Consider the two photos below. Both are very similar. These were exposed seconds apart at Palmer, Mass. I’m looking toward the New England Central yard office from the parking lot of the Steaming Tender restaurant.
In the top photo, I inadvertently center the image and cropped the front of the hyrail truck parked near the yard office. In my view this is a ‘bad crop’.
In the bottom photo (below), I’ve made a conscious effort to include the hyrail truck in its entirety, but cropped bland portions of the sky and foreground to help emphasize elements of railroad interest. In my opinion, this crop improved the photo.
On a warm Spring evening, a New England Central job worked the former Central Vermont Railway yard at Palmer, Mass. Facing northward was Buffalo & Pittsburgh 3511—an early example of a GP38-2, now 53 years old.
This classic diesel made for some nice images as it worked the north end of the yard near Palmer’s popular Steaming Tender restaurant.
I recall a day back in the summer of 1981, when I photographed Central Vermont GP9s doing this job. At the time I considered those engines remarkable for their age, having replaced steam nearly a quarter century earlier.
I wonder what this scene may bring in another 44 years?
During my class last week at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Museum Director Patrick Morrison offered to open up some of the locomotives. I asked if we could visit former Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric 4935.
I made these fireman’s side views with my Lumix LX7.
It was pretty neat to explore the steam-era streamlined electric locomotive. While at the museum I bought my dad a GG1 4935 T-shirt which I delivered to him in Massachusetts a couple of days later.
On January 1, 1980, Pop, my brother Sean and I photographed this classic machine together at New Haven, Connecticut.
Kris and I arrived at the famous East Deerfield Yard just as Norfolk Southern/Pan Am Southern’s Chicago-Ayer, Mass., intermodal train was rolling though.
We drove east to Farley, location of some Boston & Maine era General Railway Signal searchlight style signals. Once common on many railroads , the searchlight has been out of favor for more than 30 years and today relatively few remain. These are note worthy because they feature ‘G’ plates (for grade), which changes how the most restictive aspect should be interpreted.
When we arrived, the roar of the eastward train filled the valley.
I quickly set up my 3Pod tripod with Nikon Z7-II and made a series of time exposures as the train passed the signals and road crossing.
Soon the NS intermodal train will be routed over CSX’s former Boston & Albany line via Palmer and Worcester. I wonder how much longer the old signals will last?
On an evening drive through the Quaboag Valley, Kris and I paused in Warren, Massachusetts.
I thought of my first visit here back about 1975, when my dad drove my brother and me to Tucker’s Hardware, then located on Main Street. I pointed out the gap in the building to Kris, indicating where the store had once stood on the main street.
The hardware store also sold model railroad supplies. About 1982, Bob Buck, proprietor, relocated the railroad hobby portion of the business to his boyhood home on Bacon Street (around the corner from the hardware location).
The old Boston & Albany station is located off Main Street, roughly opposite from the foot of Bacon Street.
A blue glow remained in the sky as I exposed photos of the station building, which has been restored. It looks much better now than it had for many years. As I made this 20 second exposure, I thought of all the Conrail trains I’d seen passing this relic of the B&A.
Shortly, I was joined by a member of the local police department, who drove up and engaged me in conversation, primarily concerned about my well-being. I mentioned my long affiliation with Tucker’s Hobbies, but this was before his time, and finding that I wasn’t in distress, wished me goood evening and continued about on his rounds.
Time is weird; it passes by leaving only bits of what was once something else, and me seeing ghosts of the past.
Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens, mounted on 3Pod tripod. ISO 100, 20 seconds at f4.0. NEF converted to DNG using DxO Pure Raw.
Kris and I were sitting on the platform enjoying dinner at Palmer, Massachusetts’ Steaming Tender restaurant when the unmistakable sound of wheels clattering across the CSX-New England Central diamond grabbed our attention.
Amtrak’s 448 wasn’t running, so what was this?
Eastward Amtrak Light engines!
This included a Cabbage painted for Downeaster service and a P42 in the new ‘Phase 7’ scheme—the first that we’ve seen.
