That’s New England Central job 611. (A turn that runs from Brattleboro, Vermont to Palmer, Massachusetts).
All I want to know is what Emily Dickenson might say about all this? Hmmm?
Tracking the Light posts original content on a daily basis!
At 10:54 am this morning (Sunday August 23, 2015) Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Marble City (Dublin Connolly to Kilkenny) led by engine number 4 made an impressive display working up the Gullet from Islandbridge Junction in Dublin.
Shortly before the arrival of the special, an Irish Rail ICR eased up to the bridge of signals. While this wasn’t what I anticipated, it makes for an interesting contrast in equipment.
Déjà vu? I think so.
Kudo’s to the RPSI and Irish Rail for running the train. I hope everyone on board has an enjoyable trip!
See: http://steamtrainsireland.com for details on up coming steam trips.
With a few of the distant exposures, I found the camera struggled to pick an accurate focus point. However, by using the ‘continuous high’ setting I was able to make up for the problem by making a lot of photos in short bursts as the camera focused in-and-out. Steam can often fool autofocus (especially on dull days) and its important to be ready this degree of uncertainty when making photographs.
Tracking the Light posts new material every day!
While I’m on the road in late July 2015, I thought it would be nice to look back to August 1993. I made this view on the Santa Fe of an eastward GP60M at Port Chicago, California.
Tracking the Light posts daily.
Here is a sequence of three views made in rapid succession of Amtrak 99 on CSXT’s former Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac route at Neabsco, Virginia.
Making this photograph was a joint effort: I was traveling with Vic and Becky Stone and Pat Yough. Vic suggest the location, Pat drove the hired car, and I consulted the Amtrak schedules.
Over the past three years in Tracking the Light, I’ve posted thousands of images. Yet, an underlying purpose of this site is the discussion of the process of making the photos.
It would be easy enough to simply display wonderful calendar quality images, but I’m hoping to enlighten the reader with some of the background behind the photo.
Occasionally a photograph comes easily; by sheer dumb luck an opportunity will present itself that makes for a stunning photograph. However, most of the time making interesting railway images requires research, patience and skill with the camera.
I’ll continue to do my best with providing hints to the research, tips on how to more effectively use a camera, and bits of background behind the photographs. You are on your own when it comes to patience!
Tracking the Light normally posts original content on a daily basis!
Here’s one deep from the archive: I was traveling with my father and brother and we’d come to South Amboy to watch the engine change where E8s were replaced by venerable GG1 electrics on New York & Long Branch passenger trains (North Jersey Coast Line) running from Bay Head Junction to Pennsylvania Station, New York.
We got lost on the way down and ended up in a post-apocalyptic waterfront at Perth Amboy.
Finally, we were trackside at the South Amboy Station.
Here’s a slightly improved variation: It should have a bit more ‘snap’ (contrast in shadows).
Tracking the Light posts everyday!
A few days ago, I stood with Colm O’Callaghan and Ciarán Cooney at the foot bridge near Cherry Orchard west of Dublin.
The most elusive of all Irish Rail trains was on the move. To the uninitiated, the spoil train might seem a fool’s prize, but to the regular hunter and the connoisseur of the obscure, catching the spoil train is about as good as it gets.
As we waited the weather deteriorated. By the time the train came into view we had just about the worst possible lighting: heavy cloud directly overhead but bright bland sky in the distance and no way of minimizing the horizon. In other words, the lighting was too flat on the subject, but way too contrasty (and bright) in the distance.
With black and white film, I’d have over-exposed my negative by ½ to 1 full stop and then carefully processed it by under-developing by about 30 percent. (Shortening up my time). Then I’d selenium tone the negative, and when printing plan on some intensive dodging and burning. In the end, I have a series of dodgy looking prints that I’d probably never show to anyone, except under duress.
Instead, I exposed this image digitally using my Panasonix LX7. Gauging exposure with histogram, I ignored the advice of the camera meter, and did my best to avoid clipping the highlights, while avoiding total under-exposure.
Then, using Adobe Lightroom I experimented by trying replicate the scene using digital manipulation. Each of the following photos represent various attempts of making something out what would ordinarily go into the bin (trash).
The first photo is the un-manipulated RAW, the others show various degrees of adjustment.
Which of these do you like the most?
TRACKING THE LIGHT POSTS DAILY!
At 9:50 am, Irish Rail 074 led the weed spraying train out of the old Guinness sidings at Heuston and headed down the Cork line.
Clear skies made for nice weather. Not everyday is as nice. Tomorrow Tracking the Light examines what to do with photos made in dismal conditions . . .
Stay tuned!
Tracking the Light posts EVERY DAY!
Yesterday I posted a few photos of the Helsinki-Moscow sleeper Leo Tolstoi, which reminded me of some photos I made on a visit to Tallinn, Estonia back in 2002.
At the time, second-hand General Electric C30-7As and C36-7s were being delivered from the USA to supplant Soviet Era M62 diesels.
I thought the old Soviet machines were pretty cool.
Exposed on Fujichrome slide film using a Contax G2 rangefinder.
Tracking the Light posts new material daily!
This train is a bridge between east and west, connecting the Finnish and Russian capitals.
It was a dreary evening at Helsinki Central when Markku Pulkkinen and I exposed photos of this unusual passenger train.
The car behind the Finnish Sr1 electric locomotive is an auto-carrier for Russian automobiles (presumably the expensive imported kind with darkened windows).
Exposed using my Lumix LX7 digital camera.
Tracking the Light posts daily!
Prelude: on Friday, August 14, 2015, General Motors-built 201-class 8208 worked the Dublin to Ballina IWT liner. I’d photographed that move on the quad-track near Cherry Orchard.
I was interested in this recently painted locomotive, which, of-course, is styled for the Dublin-Belfast express passenger service, and not freight.
Day of action: On Saturday, I saw reports of 8208 working the up-IWT liner. This was an otherwise dull afternoon. I crossed the War Memorial Park on foot. No Vikings with their long boats today.
I found my spot, and was poised at the Con Colbert Road bridge over the three track-line in a cutting (known colloquially as ‘the Gullet’). Moments before the liner appeared, the sun briefly emerged from the clouds. Lucky me! And so this Saturday-freight eased up to the ‘Bridge of Signals’ giving me plenty of time to expose photographs.
First, I made a few strategically composed color slides with my Canon EOS 3 with 100mm lens, then exposed some digital photos with my Lumix LX7
Not bad for few minutes away from the computer on a weekend afternoon.
Tracking the Light posts Daily!
On August 10, 2015, David Hegarty and I visited Drogheda, where Irish Rail’s Navan Branch meets the Northern Line.
It was our second visit in two days.
In recent years, I’d been dismissive of the Northern Line as being bland. But, I’ve seen the error of my ways.
In just a couple hours we were treated to a steady parade of trains, and this offered just about the best variety of equipment as anyone can expect to see in modern day Ireland.
The highlight of the day was the arrival of the weed-spraying train, which needed to run around, and the propel back to access the branch.
Our vantage point was the lightly travel road bridge south of the railway station. During our visit there were more dogs across the bridge than cars.
Drogheda is nicely oriented for sun-lit photography through out most of the day. This is the location of a railcar depot (maintenance facility), so in addition to mainline moves, there was considerable activity at the depot, which include the washing of trains.
As with many busy places, the action seemed to come in waves.
Tracking the Light posts new material every day!
The Swedish State Railways (Staten Järnväger, SJ) class Rc4, built by Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolag (ASEA), was the inspiration for Amtrak’s AEM-7 (assembled by EMD).
An advancement of the Rc4 is the Rc6 which was the pattern emulated in the ALP-44 used by NJ Transit.
In July, I made a study of SJ’s Rc6 electrics at Luleå, Sweden. These well maintained machines are a contrast to Amtrak’s surviving AEM-7s that are tired and battle-worn after three-decades of hard service racing up and down the Northeast Corridor.
Some months ago, an Amtrak engineer confided to me, “I understand why you like these electrics, but I hate them. They’re worn out. The suspension is shot. The cabs are drafty.”
Amtrak 915 has been preserved at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. A few continue to work the Northeast Corridor. Most will end up as scrap. In the meantime, their Swedish cousins work electric lines across the country.
Tracking the Light posts every day!
This northern town is a port city on the Gulf of Bothnia where iron ore from mines north of the Arctic Circle is trans-loaded to ships. There’s a traditional passenger station that serves sleeping car trains that originate here for Stockholm and points south; a coach yard and sidings.
Markku Pulkkinen, Matti Mäntyvaara, Asko Räsänen and I arrived in early afternoon. We had lunch in the station restaurant and observed the action.
The combination of low-level platforms, ground-level switching activities to make up trains, and conventional locomotive hauled consists made for some proper old-school railroading! And that’s just the way we like it. Only the Kiruna-Narvik service appeared to be provided by a modern wedge-shaped electric multiple unit.
The low northern sun provided some great light for photographs, and I made the most of our visit working with my FujiFilm X-T1 and Lumix LX7 to make digital photos.
I was bemused when a young British girl complained to her father when he went to make a photo of the Rc6 electric on a sleeping car train, ‘Daddy, don’t do that! Why do you make a photo of the train?’ Surely this child needs to be sent to camp for re-education! I blame the internet and/or television.
Tracking the Light posts daily!
Tracking the Light posts daily!
In late July 2015, I traveled with Markku Pulkkinen, Matti Mäntyvaara and Asko Räsänen from Oulu, Finland to Luleå, Sweden. Among the goals of the trip was to visit the Norrbottens Järnvägsmuseum (Bothnia Railway Museum).
This has a great collection of preserved steam and electric locomotives, plus freight cars, passenger equipments and related displays. I made dozens of images of the historic equipment using my Lumix LX7.
I found it especially interesting to study the vintage electric locomotives up close. My favorites were the Dm3s, which I recall working iron ore trains to Narvik on my 2002 visit. I bought a Dm3 t-shirt at the museum’s gift shop.
Tracking the light has something new everyday!
See: http://www.nbjvm.se for more on the museum.
Here’s a great concept that blends the conviviality of a pub with the rolling urban vistas provided by a streetcar.
Helsinki has a virtual maze of narrow-gauge tram tracks and the pub tram makes hourly circular tours. The car itself is one of the last non-articulated trams in regular service in the city and is painted a distinctive red.
On an earlier visit to Helsinki in 2002, I photographed the car, but was unable to ride because it had been booked for a charter. In July 2015, Markku Pulkkinen and I took a spin on this unusual railway vehicle. I think it is the only city tram that I’ve ever seen with a loo.
The pub tram is great way to see Helsinki. Every city should have one!
Tracking the Light posts new photos daily!
I kept the cameras busy yesterday. I’ve altered the way I process my files. Rather than work from camera-shaped Jpgs, instead I’ve presented camera RAW files. With a few I applied a bit of contrast/exposure adjustment, but the others have just been scaled for internet presentation.
I exposed more than 500 images and haven’t, as of yet, had adequate time to digest this photographically intense experience.
Do you have any favorites among these photos?
Tracking the Light posts new material daily!
See: http://steamtrainsireland.com
Today, Sunday 9 August 2015, the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland in cooperation with Irish Rail operated a steam special from Dublin’s Connolly Station to Drogheda and Dundalk with locomotive number 4.
This was my first opportunity to photograph this classic locomotive in more than four years. Special thanks to everyone at the RPSI and Irish Rail who made today’s trips a success.
Stay tuned for more photos tomorrow!
Tracking the Light posts new material daily!
For more information on the RPSI see: http://steamtrainsireland.com
For more than a half century, Dv12 diesel hydraulics have worked Finland’s 1,524mm gauge lines. (Purists will note that in their first decade this type was classified as Sv12).
During my recent visit to Finland I was delighted to find many of these old diesels still on the move. Some have been painted in the new white with green livery, but others were struggling on in their traditional paint, albeit with a green splotch painted across the front.
The Dv12 is to Finland, what the GP9 was to America, and the 141/181 Class General Motors diesels are to Ireland.
These are just a few detailed views made of these classic locomotives.
Tracking the Light posts Daily!
Saturday, 8 August 2015: I made these photos a few minutes ago of locomotive 8209 in the new Enterprise livery working Irish Rail’s 1100 Mark 4 from Dublin Heuston to Cork.
It was nice to catch this brightly painted engine in the sunlight.
Tracking the Light posts new material every day!
If you are viewing this on Facebook or another 3rd party source, you’ll really need to click the link to get the full effect.
Yesterday on Tracking the Light, I mentioned how on the morning of 31 July 2015, Markku Pulkkinen, Sakari K. Salo, and Juhani Katajisto provided me a tour of the new Helsinki Airport line by car.
Mr. Salo selected this location as being one of the best places to try to get a plane and train in the same photo.
While this didn’t line up the way we’d hoped, the location did allow me to make a variety of dramatic photos. My challenge was in capturing a high-contrast scene digitally.
The sky was dressed with some impressive clouds. So how to best work with such a scene?
I opted to gauge my exposure to retain detail in the sky, while allowing for underexposure of the train. I intentionally included the array of electrical wires to show the advantages and disadvantages of various digital treatments.
With the following four images, the first is the un-manipulated camera ‘RAW’ file. The next three show various types of post-processing adjustment using Adobe Lightroom.
Back in the old days, I’d routinely make adjustments to contrast and exposure when I printed my black & white negatives. Often, I’d expose and process the film in anticipation of manipulation in the darkroom. (I’d also make prints from color slides using Cibachrome and Type R materials, but that’s a story for another day).
In effect, my digital manipulation of the RAW file is a modern interpretation of this traditional processing technique. I’ve not added anything to the original file, I’ve simply altered contrast, exposure, and color saturation using controls offered by the program.
Tracking the Light posts new material daily!
Please share the link to Tracking the Light.
http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/
In July, Helsinki’s new circular Airport service began, including operations on stretches of newly built track.
Firstly, I’ll admit complete failure on my part to experience the train on my arrival at Helsinki Airport. I was aware of the new service, and looking forward to riding it. However, I couldn’t find the train. I was told that I needed to take a bus to the station. So I bought a two-zone ticket, and when a bus arrived with the destination board reading ‘Helsinki Railway Station’ (or something like that), I got on.
I was halfway to Helsinki before I realized my mistake! Before I knew it, I’d been deposited at the Helsinki Central Station in the city center. This was a bitter defeat.
On the plus side the bus turned out to be considerably faster than the train.
A little more than a week later, I finally had opportunities to experience the new service. This is operated with Stadler Flirt electric multiple units.
I made my first pass over the route on 30 July, 2015, and on the morning of 31 July 2015, Markku Pulkkinen, Sakari K. Salo, and Juhani Katajisto provided me a tour of the line by car.
Tomorrow, I’ll explore some necessary digital manipulation of an airport train photograph to demonstrate my experiments with Adobe Lightroom as a tool for making a photograph more effective.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
Please share Tracking the Light!
These are state of the art Finnish trams that feature modern low-floors with advanced technologies and yet feature classic styling.
Transtech calls them Artics (that’s right.) I think they look pretty cool.
For more information see: http://www.hel.fi/static/hkl/artic.pdf
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
Please share Tracking the Light!
On the evening of July 6, 2015, I arrived in Palmer in time to find Mass-Central’s daily freight getting ready to head up the Ware River Line.
I relocated to a favorite location on the branch along Route 181 to make this image of the Mass-Central freight on the branch.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
Please share Tracking the Light!
On July 23, 2015, I traveled with Petri and Pietu Tuovinen, Markku Pulkkinen to central-eastern Finland to visit battle sites, trenches and monuments at the Raate Road near Suomussalmi.
Between November 1939 and March 1940, the Finns fought the Winter War to repel invading Soviet forces.
I exposed these images using my FujiFilm X-T1.
Tracking the Light posts daily.
Every so often a train stops in a photogenic location, which provides ample opportunity to make a variety of images.
Such was the case the other day, when Petri and Pietu Tuovinen, Markku Pulkkinen were providing me tour of greater Kontiomäki.
This pair of Finnish Sr2 electrics had brought a loaded iron ore train west from the Russian-border and were waiting for a path to continue toward Oulu at the junction with the electrified line at the west leg of the Kontiomäki triangle.
While the train was stopped, I used the moment to expose photographs with three cameras. These are a few angles made digitally with my FujiFilm X-T1 mirror-less camera, and my pocket-size Lumix LX-7. The slides remain latent.
Since the lighting was relatively even, my goal was to obtain the most impressive angle that features the contours and colours on the Sr2s. VR is in a transition from the older white and red livery to a new white with bright green scheme.
Tracking the Light posts daily!
In September 2000 a thunderstorm was brewing over Lake Ontario when I exposed this silhouette of an eastward CSX freight descending Byron Hill at South Byron, New York.
Tracking the Light posts Original Content!
Daily updates! Real photographs!
Finland is a great place to make railway photographs. Two of my favorite features of the country are the long days of summer, (in late July the sun remains above the horizon to well after 10 pm), and the overnight sleeping car trains.
Low rich sun light and long unusual-looking consists of sleeping cars and auto-carriers make for many photographic possibilities.
During my visit three night trains served Oulu in each direction daily. These run between Helsinki and northern cities at Kemijärvi, Kolari, and Rovaniemi.
Not every evening is clear and bright. Too often it rains. But last Saturday evening the sky was free of clouds and the air was clear, making for nearly ideal conditions.
These views are of IC 266 (Rovaniemi – Helsinki) led by a pair of Soviet-built Sr1 electrics. At Oulu cars are added to the train using a Dv12 diesel, which provides ample time to make photographs of the train arriving and standing at the station.
My host, Markku Pulkkinen, explained the train’s daily routine, suggested locations for photographs, and provided transportation. I made these images with my FujiFilm X-T1 digital camera. The challenge of working with very low sun is navigating the shadows successfully.
Tracking the Light posts new material daily!
Sometimes history has conclusions that no one anticipates.
Here we have a former Southern Pacific SD40-T2 passing the abutments of the old Hampden Railroad near Three Rivers, in Palmer Massachusetts. You could write a book about this scene!
Brian Solomon is traveling in Finland, but Tracking the Light should continue to post photographs daily!
Petri and Pietu Tuovinen, Markku Pulkkinen and I arrived at the Finnish—Russian border just a minute before a loaded iron ore train crossed with Russian diesels.
I have to admit that 10 days of continuous travel had caught up with me and I’d fallen asleep in the car. “Hey, wake up! The train is over the frontier.”
“What? Where?”
I managed a decent image of the train. But the best was yet to come. An ominous looking sign marked the border area.
We waited for an hour while the Russian diesels were position on an eastward empty train. A thunderstorm rumbled to the south. Finnish custom agents inspect the train. The Russian diesels idled. It began to rain.
Finally, the train began to ease forward. The driver must have liked the attention and once passed the starting signal, he notched up the locomotives. It reminded me of photographing old Alcos!
Tracking the Light posts daily.
Back in olden times overnight sleeping car trains were common. Today, not so much. Yet, I’ve just boarded IC 274 for Helsinki. There was a mob on the platform at Oulu. To quote the old saying, ‘There’s no one riding trains any more, they are too crowded.’
Thankfully, I’m locked away in a berth.
Back in olden times overnight sleeping car trains didn’t have WiFi!
Tracking the Light posts every day!
In railway photography timing is everything. In Finland, some of the mystery of when trains operate has been revealed through the miracle of a public service application for smart phones and mobile devices.
Thanks to the careful attention of my guides. Petri and Pietu Tuovinen, and Markku Pulkinen, we arrived at the timber loading terminal at the end of a lightly used VR branch just in time to catch the arrival of this VR empty timber train.
In the lead were a pair of venerable Dv12 diesel-hydraulic locomotives. These are the GP9s of Finland and have worked all types of traffic.
The overgrown branch line with very light rail is a total contrast with Finland’s mainlines, which feature excellent track and manicured infrastructure.
An old light 2-8-0 is positioned near the end of track as a display. Finland was still operating wood-fired steam in revenue service into the 1970s.
Tracking the Light posts photographs daily!
Brian Solomon is traveling in Finland, but Tracking the Light should continue to post photographs daily!
I felt like a Victorian explorer being led through forests by expert guides. Petri and Pietu Tuovinen, and Markku Pulkinen led me a long a disused track.
“There is a locomotive turntable here.”
Indeed! Masked by trees, hidden from view, and located off the end of a lightly used branch line at Ammansaari, Finland is the old turntable once used to spin light steam locomotives.
Few visitors are afforded the privilege of seeing this relic. It was like finding a Mayan pyramid in the rain forest.
I exposed these photos digitally using my FujiFilm X-T1. For effect, I set the camera to the preset that emulates black & white film with a red filter. For posterity, I also exposed a few color slides.
My old Contax with real black & white film would have served me well here.
Tracking the Light posts photographs daily!
In the early 1980s, I made trips to Boston & Maine’s East Deerfield Yard to catch the waning days of the old GP7s, GP9s, and GP18s.
More than 30 years later, some of those old goats are still on the move, hauling freight and now in heritage paint!
On the morning of July 9, 2015, photographer Mike Gardner and I stopped into East Deerfield and found the Pan Am Railways GP9s getting ready to work east with a ballast train. I made this view of the colorful old locomotives crossing the Connecticut River east of the yard.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
Please share Tracking the Light!
At Oulu, Finland, the sun hangs in the northwestern sky until after 11pm. For a visitor from more southerly regions this late light is fascinating.
My host Markku Pulkkinen showed me this foot bridge over the main railway yard and I made a series of photographs with my FujiFilm XT-1. This image was tricky.
A Swiss-designed class Sr2 electric was preparing to head south with an overnight freight. I found an alignment to capture this train departing against the backdrop of the low sun. My difficulty was in selecting the right exposure.
If it was light enough to capture the details of the locomotive than the sky would have been blasted (over exposed), yet if I exposed to retain color and detail in the sky, than the railway yard and locomotive would have been virtually opaque.
Ultimately, I made several exposures using my camera’s histogram to guide me. I avoided clipping the highlights, while allowing the shadow regions to slip to the lower end of the graph.
After the fact, I used Lightroom (recently installed on my new MacBook) to adjust the highlight and shadow areas to hold detail, while pumping up the saturation a little.
I’ll admit the end result looks a bit surreal. But then again, I found the whole setting surreal from the get go!
I processed the file and made my adjustments while riding on the upper level of a VR train heading toward Kontiomäki.
Tracking the Light post new material daily!
Finland’s gone retro! Here’s a Soviet-built VR class Sr1 electric at Helsinki!
More hints of Finland’s eastern neighbor on upcoming posts!
Tracking the Light Posts New Material Every Day!
