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.
My Lumix LX7 is a great tool for photographing the subway. It has a fast lens (f1.4) while the camera body is light, compact, flexible, and discrete.
For my New York City Subway photography exercise; I set the ISO to 200, the white balance to ‘auto’, set the exposure to dial to ‘A’ (for aperture priority, meaning I manually select the f-stop and the camera selects the appropriate corresponding shutter speed for optimal exposure ) and open the f-stop to near it’s widest setting.
The Lumix LX7 allows me turn off all the sounds and lights, so when I release the shutter nothing beeps or flashes.
I exposed both RAW and Jpeg files simultaneously. While the camera’s automatic exposure was close, I needed made minor adjustments to contrast and white balance in post-processing using Lightroom.
Typically this is necessary to bring the highlights under control while opening up (lightening) the shadow areas to make detail more visible.
Tracking the Light post Original Material, please share with your friends!
On Thursday December 10, 2015, my father and I traveled on Metro-North to Grand Central Terminal.
West Haven, Connecticut is a modern station with long high-level platforms that opened just a few years ago.
Grand Central remains as impressive as always.
Our train was well-patronized and nearly at standing room by the time we departed Stamford.
This is impressive ridership, considering Metro-North operates a half-hourly inbound service from New Haven, with even more frequent rush-hour service from Bridgeport, and additional trains from Stamford. Not to mention Amtrak’s long distance trains to Penn-Station.
As always, there’s always opportunities for photography
I exposed these photos using my Lumix LX7 digital camera.
The sky was clearing when we arrived at West Haven. Check yesterday’s post for views of a train of antique Metropolitan cars.Amtrak ACS-64 618 leads an eastward Regional train at West Haven.My MetroCard that was good on Metro-North, the New York City Subway and PATH.Metro North train 1541 glides to a stop at West Haven. A good few passengers were ready to board.In the bowels of Grand Central.America’s most famous railway terminal!New Haven Line departure boards.
Would you like to learn more about Grand Central? Consider my new book Railway Depots, Stations & Terminalspublished this year by Voyageur Press! I cover GCT and many other great stations. Don’t miss out order a copy today. Available via Amazon and other outlets.
Sometime last summer, I read a press release proclaiming something to effect that Metro-North’s New Haven Line electric service was now completely operated with the new Kawasaki M8 multiple units, and that all of old Metropolitan cars had been withdrawn.
I thought I did.
Recent trips along the old New Haven seemed to have confirmed this transformation.
So, I was quite surprised the other day when a ghost train arrived at Metro-North’s West Haven Station!
This is great contrast: old Metropolitan cars at the new station. Notice that I carefully included the date in the sign. Lumix LX7 photograph.
Real passengers boarded and it whizzed away toward Grand Central.
Fascinating!
My father and I were supposed to have boarded, as we were on our way to New York. ‘Why didn’t you get on?’
‘What? Ride a ghost train?!’ I’ll wait for the M-8.’ (In truth I was so surprised, my primary thought was to take a photo.)
For my next trick, I’m heading out the Boston & Albany west-end to catch some of the A1 Berkshires on the move. I’ll report back.
This latest effort is a window into many lands. I’ve dedicated the book to the members of the Irish Railway Record Society. It features the work of a variety of accomplished travelers.
Cover photo by Scott Lothes.
It is the product of John Beaufoy Publishing.
It is available on Amazon among other popular outlets.
Every so often I like to stir up the muck, open a few eyes, raise a few fists, and perhaps invoke a couple of smiles.
I made this digital photograph using a recently devised camera technique. I created the image ‘in-camera’ using my mirror-less FujiFilm X-T1 with the electronic shutter; I did this without unusual external attachments, filters or complicated post-processing manipulation.
So, how did I do it? And why?
Shocking railroad photograph? Sometimes a technique is so raw, so radical, or so non-conventional, your eyes will grip the results, while your brain tries to add up the dots.
At one time the Boston & Maine was a poster child for the General Railway Signal Company.
These days some of the old GRS searchlight signals remain but they are rapidly disappearing.
Here’s a railroad photography tip: catch the old signals while you can, they are fading fast, and soon they will be gone.
I’ve issued this signal warning before, and I’ll do it again.
Over the last month, I exposed these photos along the old B&M in the vicinity of Ayer, Massachusetts. These railroad photos are intended as more of a record, than as active illustrations of the old signals.
Looking east at Ayer, Massachusetts.In many places B&M searchlights are approach lit, in others they are continuously lit, such as here in Ayer.
B&M was among railroads that used staggered heads for intermediate signals. Notice the use of both the traditional ‘G’ plate and the more recent ‘D’ plate.
The searchlight style of signal was developed more than 90 years ago. It has been out of favor for new installations for more than two decades.High green! (There’s a train coming).Fallen soldiers.
The millennium was coming to a close. I was just back in Ireland after a few months wandering. I arrived by ferry from Holyhead the night before.
The short days of winter offer moments of stunning low sun against what can often be a stark Irish environment.
It was the height of Irish Rail’s annual sugar beet campaign, so Denis McCabe and I headed first for Wexford (Wellingtonbridge to be specific) then worked our way west, finishing the day at Clonmel, County Tipperary.
Although, we come for the sugar beet, a side attraction were a pair of timber trains that were unloading there.
I was working with three cameras. One was a Nikon loaded with Ilford HP5. Ironically, most of those black & white photos have been squirreled away in my files for the last 16 years.
Ilford HP5 is a great film and offers excellent tonality on stark winter’s days.
Here’s a sample of what I did that afternoon at Clonmel. Pretty neat in retrospect, however, what was more significant for me photographically was that this trip inspired a half-decade of intensive photographic adventures to document the sugar beet campaign.
Irish Rail class 071 engine number 076 lead a loaded sugar beet train at Clonmel.The old four-wheel sugar beet wagons were a fascinating subject. They looked positively ancient, even back in 1999!Looking west at Clonmel.At that time only one passenger train a day served the old station in each direction. Someone inside suggested I take the bus!In the sidings off in the distance were two timber trains. One is hiding behind the signal cabin.A pair of venerable GM diesels shunt a timber train at Clonmel. Don’t travel there today and expect this sort of action, you’ll only be disappointed. (Although the cabin remains active).
Railroad photography isn’t necessarily aided by a windswept empty car park, a host lighting poles, catenary masts, fences, not to mention the metal monstrosity posing as a footbridge.
This was the scene at Readville, Massachusetts on Sunday, Morning, December 6, 2015.
An MBTA train heading for Boston was due shortly. Since locomotives operate on the south-end of consists, I set up for a trailing pan photo. I focused on the new engine and allowed the setting to settle into a sea of blur.
An MBTA HSP46 passes Readville, Massachusetts on Sunday December 6, 2015.
This is one means of making the ugliness more interesting.
Exposed at 1/60th of a second using my FujiFilm X-T1 digital camera. Contrast controlled in post processing using Lightroom.
One hundred and thirty five years ago, the railway station was key to many communities commerce and communications. It offered the connection to the world.
My 1880 Official Guide is a window on the past. The Boston, Barre & Gardner Railroad (among the companies later melded into the Boston & Maine network) schedule lists three trains a day in each direction stopping at Holden, Massachusetts.
Trains ran from Worcester to Winchendon stopping at Holden at 8:28 am, 4:15 pm, and 7 pm, and Winchendon to Worcester at 9:06 am, 1:22 pm, and 7 pm.
Obviously based on this schedule, there was a planned meet between northward and southward trains at the station.
In its heyday, back in 1880 Holden was an important station. It served as a telegraph office and as a transfer point for stagecoaches to Rutland (Massachusetts).
Today the old station is but a relic, the vestige of another time. Its train order signal is no longer part of the rules of operation; and the last passenger train passed in 1953. Yet the railroad remains active.
The old Boston & Maine station at Holden is a reminder of earlier times. Exposed with a FujiFilm X-T1 digital camera.
Providence & Worcester’s freights connect with Pan Am Railways/Pan Am Southern at Gardner and this has developed as a route for the movement of new automobiles and ethanol moving via the port of Providence, Rhode Island.
Providence & Worcester’s southward freight symbol GRWO shakes the walls of the old station. Don’t wait here for a 4-4-0 with combine coach on the 4:15 pm train to Winchendon. (It doesn’t run any more).
My book, Railway Depots, Stations & Terminals features a variety of railway stations in New England, across America and around the world. It was published by Voyageur Press this year and is available from Amazon and other outlets.
Here we have two forms of railway transport in an active image.
I’ve always liked photos that show transport on two levels (or more). This photo worked out well. I caught a tram passing below a steeple-cab electric in suburban Prague in early June 2000.
What makes the whole image more interesting is the tram passenger flagging the car to stop. This puts a bit life in the photo.
Incidentally, if you haven’t been there, Prague is one of the great tram cities, and offers endless opportunities for photography.
Exposed on Fujichrome Sensia 100 with a Nikon F3T with 24mm lens. Slide scanned using an Epson Perfection 600, file adjusted for contrast using Lightroom.
Back in the day it wasn’t always easy to obtain a satisfactory exposure. Sometimes we got it wrong.
Such was the case on February 6, 1959, when my father made a very dark slide of a New Haven Railroad EP-3 electric leading a long distance train at 204th street in The Bronx.
Did a cloud block the sun at just the wrong moment? Did he simply use the wrong setting? Who knows. But the other day, I rescued this very dark slide from his ‘doubles file’ long stored out of sight.
By my estimate I’d say it is about 2-3 stops underexposed.
Slide Scanning in three 3.5 parts
I made three scans of this slide, from which I produced four variations of the image.
This is the first scan: I exposed it normally using my Epson V600 with the Epson software set for ‘auto exposure’. The result pretty dark, yet still lighter than the original.For my second scan, I optimized the exposure and manually set the highlights and shadows using a histogram graph. Using Lightroom I exported two variations. This is the first, which is unmodified from the scan.My second variation of the second scan required a bit of work in Lightroom in order to adjust contrast, highlight and shadow detail, while boosting the saturation, clarity and other controls. The result offers better exposure, color and contrast, but it is too grainy.For my third scan I opted for a different approach. I used VueScan and opted for a multiple pass scan (which in effect scans the slide 3 times to obtain the greatest amount data from the slide). I imported this scan into Lightroom and made my corrections for color, contrast (local and global), saturation and etc, but also used the noise suppression feature. Since this results in an over-all softening of the image, afterwards I locally sharpened key areas of the image.
My question: all of this scanning and correction required about 45 minutes of my time. While it was neat to rescue this long forgotten image of an EP3 electric, would my time be better spent making less labor-intensive scans of properly exposed slides from the same period?
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For me this one image of the Bangor & Aroostook really conveys the spirit of a railroad in motion and captures the lay of the land of coastal Maine.
What makes a great railroad photo? It has to be more than just a picture of an interesting train.
Brandon Delaney was driving his Toyota sports car and I was leaning out the window with my Leica as we paced the northward Searsport Turn. I made this image as we passed a grade crossing at Prospect, Maine.
Exposed on August 5, 1986 on Kodachrome color slide film.
The great rolling ribbon of Highway 174 is one of several visual threads that helps tie the photo together and makes for added interest. The electric poles and grade crossing signals are cool elements too.
This isn’t just a railroad photo of a GP9 on the move, but an image showing a train in motion crossing a distinctive landscape.
I exposed this image in suburban Belgrade in August 2003.
The electric multiple unit’s blue tinted windows and blue plastic seating made for an unusual setting.
Cool, it wasn’t. It was nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the train was without air-conditioning.
Exposed on Fujichrome Sensia 100 film using Nikon F3T with 24mm lens; other than scaling for internet presentation, this photo has not been altered for contrast, colour, or exposure.
It was a week before September 11, 2001. I’d taken the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn. During my first couple of days I rode around on the tram exploring the city.
Comfort class on a Tatra. Exposed with my Contax G2 rangefinder on Sensia 100 slide film.
In short 2001 was a very intensive year photographically. A week after ‘9-11’, I’d headed off to Spain in search of General Motors diesels and TALGO trains.
When my Estonian slides came back from the processing labs, I’d quickly picked out key images and the rest were filed away, largely unedited along with a host of other trips from the same year.
For years, I wondered what had happened to the Tallinn tram photos. I recalled riding the trams, but the slides were not mixed in with my other Estonian photos.
Trams by the Baltic sea at the Kopli terminus. Contax G2 rangefinder photo exposed on Sensia 100 slide film.
Complicating matters, I returned to Estonia a year later for an even more extensive trip and many of my photos of railway operations around Tallinn were exposed in 2002.
Last week, I found these images along with the photos I made in Spain, Finland, and Ireland, plus those along New York’s Southern Tier, northern and central Pennsylvania, the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Charlottesville, Virginia and Vermont, all of which were exposed over an 8 week span.
They didn’t paint cars like this in Soviet times! Contax G2 rangefinder photo exposed on Sensia 100 slide film.Near the main railway station. Contax G2 rangefinder photo exposed on Sensia 100 slide film.Contax G2 rangefinder photo exposed on Sensia 100 slide film.
I’m glad I kept notes to sort it all out!
Tracking the Light Takes Many Angles on Photography!
Snow in May? When I awoke I was astounded. But sure enough, on May 7, 1989, there was about six inches of fresh snow on the ground at Scottsville, New York.
I’d immediately mobilize to make use of the unusual weather.
Heavy wet snow with freshly budding trees was a disaster for signal code lines. Branches had brought down lines along both Conrail’s former Water Level and Erie routes.
I learned of a couple of trains working east from Buffalo on the Erie line. First I chased DHT-4, a Delaware & Hudson double stack, then I doubled back west to pick up Conrail’s BUOI led by General Electric C30-7A 6598.
Conrail C30-7A 6598 (built by GE in 1984) leads BUOI (Frontier Yard, Buffalo to Oak Island, New Jersey) eastward on the former Erie Railroad at Swains, New York. If you look at old maps you’ll see evidence of a Pennsylvania Railroad line that ran roughly parallel to the Erie and connected with the old Pittsburgh, Shawmut & Northern not far from this location. This photo was exposed on May 7, 1989 at about 1:20pm.
The train had 103 cars and was moving along at little more than a walking pace.
I exposed this view near Swains, New York using my father’s Leica M3 with a 50mm Summicron. The snow made for some peculiar contrast that was well suited to Kodak Plus X.
My notes from the day read: “Snow! V.Bright” with some light meter readings in footcandles to aid in processing.
Fluffy snow had been falling all morning. Central Vermont’s freight arrived in Palmer and quickly organized to continue south.
I followed the train’s steady progress over State Line Hill, then set up in downtown Stafford Springs, Connecticut where I made these photos on Ilford FP4 black & white negative film using my Leica 3A with 50mm lens.
Central Vermont southward freight at Stafford Springs, Connecticut on February 2, 1985.Trailing view of the same train crossing Route 32 in Stafford Springs.
For me this pair of images does a great job of exemplifying my experience with Central Vermont in the mid-1980s when three, four, five, six, and sometimes seven vintage GP9s would work tonnage freights. The sounds of those old diesels still resonates in my memory.
Would these images have be improved by modern color digital photography? Would they survive for 31 years with virtually no attention from me? For that matter, where will these old negatives or the scans be in another 31 years?
Tracking the Light has Posted more than 1200 Essays on Railway Photography!
It was on the evening of August 5, 1984 that I exposed this photo in the tradition of Richard Steinheimer, Jim Shaughnessy and the legendary Mr. Link.
I’d admit it was a long day, but that never stopped me. Bob Buck and I had set out from Tenants Harbor, Maine in the morning. As per tradition, we’d called into Northern Maine Junction and signed releases with the Bangor & Aroostook.
The railroad was very friendly and advised us of a northward freight heading to Millinocket. This had an F-unit in consist (number 42, just in case you needed to know).
We spent our daylight hours making photos along the way.
Then in the evening we returned to Northern Maine Junction.
My father had lent me a large Metz electronic photo strobe. I was perfecting my night flash technique, where I’d carefully blend existing light with strategically placed strobe bursts.
I was particularly interested in Bangor & Aroostook’s rare BL2 diesels.
This view focuses on engine 54, while the famed American Railfan, engine 557 that had been repainted into its as-built scheme, lurked in the darkness beyond.
A few key pops with the flash sorted that out.
Exposed on Kodak Safety Film 5060 Panatomic X (ASA 32) using a Leica 3A with 50mm lens. Lighting is a mix of sodium vapor lamps and electronic strobe. Film processed in Kodak D76. Negatives scanned with an Epson Perfection V600, and digitally adjusted for contrast and exposure using Lightroom. Slow speed film was ideal for this type of night work because the existing light was less light to blow out the highlight detail during the prolonged exposure. I’d often have to leave my shutter open for several minutes while I walked around setting off flashes.
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As I approached the Tenneyville bridge in Palmer (that’s the Route 32 bridge in modern parlance), I heard two CSX trains talking to each other. It was obvious a meet was in progress between CP79 and CP83 (east and west ends of the signaled dispatcher controlled siding).
When I crossed the bridge, CSX Q293 (westward empty autoracks) was easing along below me. The signals at CP83 had just cleared and the sun had just peaked above the horizon.
In a matter of moments, the engineer on Q293 would begin to accelerate. I needed to act quickly.
With my VW, I can accelerate faster than a long freight train, and I was lucky that the roads were clear of traffic.
I drove to a known photo location near the location of the old Boston & Albany freight house (demolished in 1989). This has the advantage of being open, while providing a long view on the tangent track through Palmer yard toward the rising sun.
I arrived with just enough time to set my FujiFilm X-T1 and expose a series of photos of the train rolling west out of sunrise. Soft morning clouds dampened the harshness of the direct light.
CSX Q293 rolls west against a backdrop of the rising sun at Palmer, Massachusetts on November 18, 2015. The Tenneyville Bridge is visible in the distance. My set up time: about 15 seconds.
Here I’ve included both a long telephoto view, and a wide angle to give you a sense for both the lighting and the location. The wide view required a bit of contrast control and exposure adjustment to make for a satisfactory final image.
The range of contrast of this wide angle view required a bit of post processing. I prefer the telephoto view, but this one gives a good lay of the land. Both were exposed using my FujiFilm X-T1 digital camera. If I had had time, I’d have exposed some color slides.
On July 10, 1993, I spent the day on Donner Pass, focusing my morning efforts in the famous Coldstream Canyon west of Truckee, California where Southern Pacific’s former Central Pacific line winds nearly three miles up the canyon, turns on a tight horseshoe curve at Stanford Flat to continue its ascent on the far side.
The area is rich in history. Yet, it can be a challenging place to capture in photographs.
Having thoroughly explored this area on foot on earlier visits, I’d located this angle at Andover that shows SP’s double track line on two levels. The tracks in the photograph are less than a half mile apart as the crow flies, but about five miles distant on the timetable.
Helpers had gone downgrade a while earlier and met a westward GJWS-Q (Grand Junction to Warm Springs ‘Quality’ manifest, ie a carload train) at Truckee.
In this view the freight is in run-8 (maximum throttle) roaring up the canyon. More than ten minutes would pass before it reached the upper level.
I exposed this photograph on Kodak T-Max 400 black & white film using a Nikon F3 with Nikkor zoom lens fitted with a yellow filter.
Key to the success of the image was shading the front element from the sun with my notebook to minimize flare.
Another subtle element is SP’s twin headlight arrangement on the leading SD40T-2: this had been a trademark of SP’s diesels, but by the mid-1990s very few locomotives still carried both headlights and it was getting relatively rare to find one leading.
SP GJWSQ ascends Cold Stream Canyon on the morning of July 10, 1993.
This is one of my favorite black & white photos that I exposed on Donner Pass, and reminds me of the work of the late Richard Steinheimer who had been photographing in this canyon decades before I made my exploration.
I consulted my notes from that year, and found that I’d photographed extensively on that day! (Hooray for my old notebook!)
At the time I was about a week away from completing my course work at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where I earned a BFA in Photographic Illustration, and I was making good use of the fine Spring weather in Western New York State.
That day I began my photography on the Water Level Route at East Rochester, and worked my way eastward toward Lyons, New York.
Conrail SD50 leads symbol freight PXSE (Pacific Express to Selkirk, New York) eastward on the number 1 track at CP342 near Newark, New York.
I was particularly fascinated by the abandoned truss bridge over the old New York Central west of Newark, New York. This had carried the Newark & Marion, which had served as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. [See: AbandonedRails.com for more about this line. ]
Using my Leica M2 with a 35mm Summicron, I opted for a vertical format. Conrail’s CP342 near Newark, New York on 13 May1989.Another eastward freight with an SD50 in the lead. I wouldn’t complain today about seeing three freights with Conrail blue SD50s! Back then they were pretty common, but still nice to see.
On an earlier trip, I’d photographed this bridge on a dull day using a 4×5 camera.
On May 13th, I worked with my Leica M2 exposing Kodachrome 25 color slides, and featured Conrail trains passing below the bridge.At that time SD50s were standard locomotives on many of the railroad’s carload trains.
Later, I explored other vantage points along the busy Conrail east-west mainline.
Amtrak F40PH 362 leads train 68 along the former New York Central mainline east of Newark, New York. (Incidentally, Newark, New York should not be confused with the larger and better known Newark, New Jersey, that is on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor).
Thanks to Ciarán for encouraging this foray into my slide archive!
On the day, steam locomotive 461 had done the honors for the paying passengers.
After the train arrived back at Connolly, freshly painted Irish Rail 071 (class leader) tied onto the empty carriages to bring them across to Inchicore.
Irish Rail class 071 at Connolly Station with the RPSI empty Cravens on 21 April 2014. Exposed on Fuji Acros 100 film.
I exposed this view at the end of the day using my Nikon F3 with 24mm lens. Using my perfected chemical recipe, I processed the Fuji Acros 100 film in Kodak HC110 then toned the negatives with selenium solution. Finally, I scanned them and made minor adjustments in Lightroom (mostly to remove dust spots).
Why black & white? Why film?
Why not?
I’ve always exposed film, and while digital photography tends to dominate my image making, I still expose the occasional roll of B&W or color slide film.
Rochester & Southern’s yard at Brooks Avenue was just a ten minute drive from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
When I was in college, I had an open arrangement with the railroad to make photographs, and during the late 1980s I often dropped by to exercise my cameras.
In April 1989, I made these photographs of Genesee & Wyoming Alco C-424M 62 on the Brooks Avenue scale track.
The Alco Century’s well-balanced cab design made these among my favorite classic diesels. I’d photographed the C-424Ms on Delaware & Hudson, Genesee & Wyoming, Guilford, and finally on Livonia, Avon & Lakeville’s Bath & Hammondsport line.
Here I’ve worked the yard office into my composition that makes for nice juxtaposition of shapes. Black & White film handles the backlit situation well and retained detail in shadows and highlights.
Compare my telephoto and wide angle views.
Exposed on 35mm Kodak Plus-X using a Leica M2 with an f2.0 35mm Summicron lens. Exposure calculated manually using a Sekonic Studio Deluxe photo cell. Image scanned with a Epson Perfection V600 scanner; contrast altered in post processing using LightroomExposed on 35mm Kodak Plus-X using a Leica M2 with an f4 135mm Elmar lens. Exposure calculated manually using a Sekonic Studio Deluxe photo cell. Image scanned with a Epson Perfection V600 scanner; contrast altered in post processing using Lightroom
Back in my Pentrex Publishing days (in the mid 1990s) I wrote an editorial about the ultimate demise of the searchlight signal.
Even then, this style of hardware was out of favor for new installations, yet thousands of the old signals still remained.
Today they are fast disappearing, and at many installations they are already gone.
Old searchlights west of Ayer, Massachusetts. Once common, this style of signal has been out of favor for decades and are now rapidly being replaced.
Two weeks ago, when traveling with Bob Arnold and Paul Goewey, we opted to photograph an outbound MBTA train passing these General Railway Signal searchlights on the old Boston & Maine west of Ayer, Massachusetts
MBTA train 453AM works west of Ayer with HSP46 2027 in the lead.. How long will this new diesel and these old signals co-exist? Bets anyone? The replacement signals are already in place at Shirley, a mile or so to the west.
I wanted to feature one of the new HSP-46 diesels passing the vintage signals to show the contrast in technology. The window for making this type of photograph is rapidly narrowing, as these searchlight’s replacements are in place and will soon be cut in.
My book Classic Railroad Signals, published by Voyageur Press, details many varieties of older signal hardware and tells the story of American signaling with stunning photographs and detailed historical information. Get your copy today!
My author’s advanced copy of January 2016 TRAINS arrived the other day. This magazine features my ten-page article on how to interpret railroad signals.
This is the first page of the opening spread for my article in January 2016 TRAINS.
This issue features some of my favorite signal photographs.
Cover of January 2016 TRAINS. (photo by Scott Lothes)
It was 2:48pm, when I made this image of Amtrak train 63, the Maple Leaf approaching Ivison Road—named for the Ivison farm at the center of the photograph.
Exposed on Kodak Plus X using a Leica M3 with 50mm Summicron lens, f5.6 1/250th of a second. Exposure calculated with the aid of a Sekonic Studio Deluxe hand-held photo cell.
I’ve allowed the road to occupy the dominant portion of the frame; yet the train remains the subject. At the time, an Amtrak F40PH with Amfleet was just about as ordinary as it got and I wanted to put the train in its environment to make for a more interesting image.
Yesterday, November 20, 2015, I located my notebook from August 1990. I opened it at random, trying to find some information on photographs I made on Donner Pass that year. Instead I found this observation dated August 7th:
I think digital photography is the future of photography in several areas, but to some extent silver photography will always exist.
Today, I processed two rolls of Fuji Across 100 that had been sitting on my desk for more than year.
Among the photographs was this self-portrait I exposed at Connolly Station, Dublin on April 21, 2014.
Exposed using a Nikon F3 with 50mm lens on Fuji Acros 100 black & white film; processed in HC110 (dilution B) for 4 minutes 45 seconds; negatives toned in selenium and scanned using an Epson Perfection V600 flatbed scanner.
A westward van train raced along the Water Level Route, its horn sounding for the North Lake Street Crossing—the blaring Doppler effect announced its passage. For a moment it captured everyone’s attention.
CLICK: I exposed this frame of 35mm black & white film at the decisive moment when the lead GP40-2 was visible on the crossing. A fallen bicycle on the sidewalk, turned heads, and the hint of motion blur of the train tells a story.
Exposed on Kodak Plus-X with a Leica M3 with 50mm Summicron lens; processed in D-76 1:1 (with water), scanned using an Epson Perfection V600 Photo flatbed.
Twenty six years passed before this image saw the light of day (or that from a back-lit computer screen). I’d processed the film at the Rochester Institute of Technology and sleeved the unprinted negatives. Recently, I scanned this roll of Plus-X and found on it this photograph.
We were heading for Ayer. We’d heard some non-descript chatter on the radio about Pan Am’s POED (Portland to East Deerfield). I had the MBTA schedules on my lap. The sun was shining brightly.
Bob Arnold was driving, Paul Goewey was riding shotgun, and I was in the back.
“There’s freight cars moving west!”
“It’s the POED, turn around”.
“The new SD40-2s are in the lead!”
These were the coolest engines in New England as this moment in time, and they’d handily presented themselves in nice light.
Our opportunity was narrow and before long we were saddled with waddler (a slow moving car that impeded our forward progress). However, the freight was only ambling up the grade, and we began to overtake it.
I rolled down my window, set my FujiFilm X-T1 to ‘turbo flutter’ (continuous high) with a 1/60th of a second shutter speed to ensure the effect of movement, and made bursts of images of the shinny blue engines on the move.
Art of the pace: Bob was driving so I leaned from the rear passenger window and exposed a series of images. By selecting a slower shutter speed I was able to convey motion. Here’s a secret: although the pacing action resulted in most of the ground blur, I was also panning back to keep the locomotives sharp and had my camera’s image stabilization ‘on’. This takes practice.Both the locomotives and the car are moving, yet at different speeds, so compensation is necessary or everything will turn into a sea of blur.
Despite the frustrations caused by our less than quick progress, we were soon ahead of the freight. At Shirley, Massachusetts the road and the old Boston & Maine are parallel. Bob asked “where should we stop.”
“Pull in short of the new signal bridge. . . Here, it’s open and clear.”
It was a fire drill as we bailed and assumed photographic stance trackside. POED was bearing down with its diesels roaring. We only a few moments.
I set my camera’s focus position, readjusted my shutter speed (to stop the action), set my zoom to a wide position to allow for more broadside on the engines, and looked to minimize poles, wires and extraneous brush. My shutter setting was still in ‘turbo flutter’.
I waited until the locomotives were close and exposed a prolonged burst of images, while aiming to position the lead locomotive nose at the upper left of the frame for maximum visual impact.
Nice clean locomotives work west on heavily ballasted track at Shirley, Massachusetts on November 18, 2015.I turned for a trailing view looking toward the new signal bridge. Word of advice, get the old searchlights before their gone. (That was our next project).
It is always a delight to stumble upon something relatively unusual and have the foresight and knowledge to make the most of the opportunity.
The old Boston, Barre & Gardner was among the railroads gobbled up by the growing Boston & Maine during the golden years of American railroads. The line primarily extended from Worcester to Gardner and beyond to Peterboro, New Hampshire.
Historically, the route crossed B&M’s Fitchburg line on a set of diamonds in front of the Gardner station. Back in 1880, three passenger trains a day served the 27 miles between Worcester and Gardner.
By the 1950s, one lonely train covered the run, and this made its final journey on March 7, 1953. Check out Robert Willoughby Jones’ book Boston & Maine: Forest, River and Mountain for photos.
These days, the line between Worcester and Gardner is operated by Providence & Worcester, and I’ve featured it on several occasions on Tracking the Light, while a short vestige of the north end of the route extends from a connection with Pan Am Southern in Gardner to a shipper a short distance away.
A vestige of the old Boston, Barre & Gardner makes for a little bit of living history.Pan Am Railway’s F1-1 is a local based out of Fitchburg and works this rarely used section of line as required.
Last week, Bob Arnold, Paul Goewey and I were photographing in Gardner when we noticed the flange ways were clear on this rarely used stub branch. ‘There’s got to be an engine up the line,’ I said, and we went to investigate.
We found our quarry, and waited for the locomotive to return.
A lone GP40 eases its way down the branch passed a furniture store.The locomotive crosses Main Street in Gardner, near the corner of Chestnut.The Furniture Center is among the buildings that feature in old photos of the branch crossing B&M’s Fitchburg Division mainline. This image required a bit of post processing contrast adjustment to retain detail in the deep shadows of the charcoal painted locomotive and the bright highlights of the building beyond.
As I explained to a friend later: this operation might happen every Monday, or only on odd number days following a full moon in months ending in the letter ‘R’, but in more than 30 years of photography in the area, none of us had ever seen it before.
Hooray for fortuity!
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Would you believe that 35 of 38 frames of this roll of 35mm film were exposed of the Köln Haubtbahnhof?
Back in August 1998, I was working with an old Nikon F2 and three lenses, I wandered the platforms of this great station to preserve it on black & white film.
I processed my film at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin and made a few proof prints at the time.
Köln Hbf in August 1998, exposed on Ilford HP5. Looming beyond the station is the famous Dom, Köln’s massive gothic cathedral.Köln Hbf in August 1998, exposed on Ilford HP5.
Köln Hbf in August 1998, exposed on Ilford HP5.
The images presented here were scanned digitally from my original negatives using an Epson Prefection V600 flatbed scanner and adjusted in post processing using Lightroom.
Among my favorite large railway station’s: The Köln Haubtbahnhof.
I’ve visited this great German railway palace on several occasions over the last 20 years and find that it always inspires my photography.
I made these images on a visit in August 1998. All were made on one roll of Ilford HP5 exposed using a Nikon F2.
Exposed on Ilford HP5 using a Nikon F2 with 50mm lens.Exposed on Ilford HP5 using a Nikon F2 with 24mm lens.Exposed on Ilford HP5 using a Nikon F2 with 24mm lens.
RJED—Rotterdam Junction to East Deerfield, a good ol’ fashioned carload freight.
Yesterday (Monday November 16, 2015), I heard the train working at Hoosick Junction and set up at Hoosick Falls. After a bit of a wait, I was rewarded by the roar of diesels.
Pan Am Railways 507 leads symbol freight RJED working east from the CSX interchange at Rotterdam Junction, New York. Seen here on the old B&M at Hoosick Falls, New York, just before noon on November 16, 2015. FujiFilm X-T1 photo.
The 3rd locomotive in consist was one of the former Quebec, North Shore & Labrador SD40-2 in fresh Pan Am Railways blue.
A batch of these handsome locomotives arrived on the property just last week, so I was keen to catch one, even if trailing.
North Pownal, Vermont. FujiFilm X-T1 digital photo.The drama of modern railroading isn’t always front lit. Image adjusted for contrast in post processing using Lightroom.
The Boston & Maine west end is an old stomping ground, and I’m well-versed with locations and the chase route, so I made the most of a clear sunny afternoon. It helps to know where to go, where to park, when to zip ahead, and when to relax.
North Adams, Massachusetts. FujiFilm X-T1 digital photo.
Along the Deerfield River east of Soapstone, Massachusetts. FujiFIlm X-T1 photos.
Fresh Pan blue paint, that’s pretty cool; and a freight with all EMD 645 diesels, sounded great!
The other day, New England Central 611 was struggling. The train had departed Brattleboro, Vermont with a heavy consist. Complicating matters was that the locomotives weren’t cooperating and the rails were damp with lots of freshly fallen leaves.
While this made for a tough morning’s work for the 611 crew, it provided ample opportunities for me to make photographs (and gave good sound show too).
The sun was playing late-autumn hide and seek with the clouds, but at Leverett, Massachusetts I was rewarded by burst of sun.
Many years ago, before my time, there had been a grade crossing a Leverett. Today, Route 63 crosses on a modern concrete overpass fitted with narrow-mesh fences (no use for photography.)
I opted for a location below the bridge (near where the old grade crossing had been) in order to frame up the train in a tree that was still clinging to its rusty leaves.
This was one of burst of exposures I made with my FujiFilm X-T1 Digital camera.
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Sunday, November 8, 2015, I learned that an AEM-7 was working Amtrak train 163 from Boston to Washington DC.
A year ago this event wouldn’t have been noteworthy, but now it is. Amtrak’s AEM-7s are getting rare and engine 939 was the only one I saw working on that day. The last I heard there were just ten left in traffic.
Amtrak 939 leads train 163 on the former New Haven Railroad at Green’s Farms, Connecticut. Exposed using a FujiFilm X-T1 with 18-35mm zoom lens.
My philosophy is that every photo I make of an Amtrak AEM-7 on the move may be the last one.
Nothing lasts forever.
Amtrak 163 races into the evening sun at Green’s Farms, CT.
Last week I’d noted this locomotive at Cedar Hill Yard in New Haven, Connecticut as I was driving south on I-91.
‘What’s that?’ I wondered, having noticed the colorful paint livery, but not having the ability to inspect it.
As fortune would have it, I was able to inspect the locomotive a little while ago.
Yesterday, Tracking the Light follower and fellow photographer, Paul Goewey, alerted me to the fact that GMTX SD60 9000 had been interchanged by Providence & Worcester to New England Central at Willimantic, Connecticut.
Last night I was attending the photographic opening by Roger Ingraham at the Three Graces on Main Street in Stafford Springs, when New England Central freight 608 rolled north through town. Trailing was GMTX 9000.
Palmer, Massachusetts November 14, 2015. FujiFilm X-T1 photo.
This morning, I called into Palmer and made these photos. I expect, the locomotive will continue its northward journey on NECR 611, but that’s just an educated guess.
Palmer, Massachusetts November 14, 2015. FujiFilm X-T1 photo.Palmer, Massachusetts November 14, 2015. FujiFilm X-T1 photo.Palmer, Massachusetts November 14, 2015. FujiFilm X-T1 photo.Palmer, Massachusetts November 14, 2015. Panasonic Lumix LX7 photo.
