During our October visit to Dublin, I made this trailing panned photo of LUAS Citadis tram 5040 crossing the famed O’Connell Bridge.
I was working with my Lumix LX7 set at ISO 80, shutter speed 1/100th of a second, and f6.3. The key was maintaining a steady pan motion as the tail-end of the tram passed me.
O’Connell bridge is noteworthy for being wider than it is long.
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In August 2006, Denis McCabe and I made an epic tour of Poland by road. Over the course of about two weeks we drove across the country in a rented Opel Astra.
On the evening of 22 August, we photographed this PKP (Polish Railways) SU45 diesel accelerating away from the station at Zwierzyn.
I made this view on Fujichrome with a Nikon F3 with 180mm f2.8 lens.
The glint of the evening sun illuminated the train and the sunflowers in the foreground.
This was among hundreds of my Polish slides that had been stored in Ireland.
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Among the thousands of slides that I recently retrieved from storage in Ireland, was this image that I’d exposed on Fujichrome in Bavaria, Germany on January 20, 2008.
Denis McCabe and I were on a week-long photographic exploration of southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
This location on a Deutsche Bahn (DB) single track line at Bad Grönenbach featured traditional German mechanical signaling.
This slide was in a box labled ‘Bavaria, Extras’. (My code to indicate that I’d already culled the preferred images and filed them elsewhere.)
Last night, I scanned the slide using a Nikon LS-5000 Super CoolScan slide scanner powered by VueScan 9.7.08 software.
I selected ‘Ektachrome’ with a ‘White Balance’ color profile and scanned as a TIF at 4000 dpi. Then I imported the scan to Adobe Lightroom and made several JPG variation. The first is scaled without correction. The others display various minor adjustments aimed at improving the image.
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In mid-October, I made a brief stop at Irish Rail’s Drumcondra station on Dublin’s North Side to photograph locomotive 074 leading a laden materials train toward the North Wall.
The sun and clouds cooperated nicely, and I made these digital photos using my Nikon Z6.
This was a fortuitous catch for me as I only had a few minutes to invest before moving on to my next objective. There were times in years past that I may have invested hours to catch an obscure railroad movement, so it was satisfying for me to see this relatively elusive train without much of a wait.
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I’m speaking about my Nikkor f2.5 105mm and the famous trestle, and not about a radio station and a monster.
After returning from Ireland, I made a trip to inspect the former Maine Central Mountain Division to check out photo locations for the 470 Club Trip.
Here, I’d hiked into the Frankenstein bridge to see when the sun dipped behind the ridge shadowing the tracks. Owing to the high ridge line the bridge will shadow very quickly on a late fall afternoon.
The eastward Mountaineer was just minutes away when I arrived.
I fitted my old AI Nikkor 105mm to my Nikon Z6 digital camera. This is a magic combination for railroad photography which produced exceptionally sharp photos.
Yesterday, I posted a modified version of this image to Conway Scenic Railroad’s Facebook page and assigned it as the cover photo. It will also be used in late season advertising for the Mountaineer.
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It’s been more than 23 years since my first visit to Athenry, County Galway.
On that day, my objective was to see an Irish Rail cement train (traffic long gone), and visit the signal cabin (which was then an active block post and interlocking. I was there the day it closed in May 2003.)
Last month, on our way back from Maam Cross, Kris and I were delivered by road to Irish Rail’s Athenry station. It was wet and windy. We had a half hour to wait for the evening Galway-Dublin train to arrive.
During the interval, an Irish Rail 2800-series railcar on its way from Galway to Limerick arrived to make its station stop before changing directions to head down the Western Rail Corridor.
I made this selection of action photos using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera set at high ISO (between 8000 and 12000).
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Friday, the musical duo Eastwood Station visited North Conway where they performed live for Conway Scenic Railroad’s guests, made live appearances on the radio, and recorded scenes for video featuring a song about Maine Central steam locomotive 505.
505 was famously destroyed in a boiler explosion 95 years ago.
I arranged for Eastwood Station to record on locomotive 501, a surviving sister to the ill-fated 505, which presently resides inside the North Conway Roundhouse.
A glint of sun illuminated the cab for a few minutes making this photo possible.
Exposed digitally using a Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera fitted with a 24-70mm Z-series zoom.
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Kris and I agree that the highlight of our Irish visit was the adventure to Maam Cross.
This heritage railway in progress captures the spirit of rural Irish Railways.
What makes this railway special is its attention to detail, comradery of the participants, and its setting in remote windswept landscape that embodies the West of Ireland.
These are just a few photos from our wonderful visit two weeks ago.
See: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2022/10/28/adventure-to-maam-cross/
https://www.connemararailway.ie https://www.facebook.com/connemararailwayman/
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Must all great rail photos be bathed in sunlight?
I’ve asked this question before. While it is nice to have bright sun, often I find the best photos are in the shadows where light and dark contrast to produce a moody image that tugs at something deeper.
Last week after arranging the photo runbys at the famed Willey Brook Bridge, I walked to the headend of the train while the passengers were reboarding. Here the 470 Club’s freshly painted F7A diesels were deep in shadow with the mass of Mount Willard looming above them.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens and adjusted highlight and shadow areas in post processing.
For me these were among of the best photos of the day. They capture the rugged scenery of Crawford Notch from perspectives rarely pictured.
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Two weeks ago, Kris and I made a trip to Maam Cross, Co. Galway.
Taking Irish Rail from Dublin to Galway was the first leg of our journey.
My friends working on the Midland Great Western restoration project at Maam Cross, invited and encouraged us to make this bold trip.
From Galway we caught a bus that traveled across the Connemara to the windswept crossroads at Maam Cross, where we set out on foot to reach one of Ireland’s most interesting preserved railways.
There we were greeted by the lads working to transform a portion of the old Clifden Branch into Ireland’s most scenic railway excursion.
Shortly after arrived we were greeted by wind, rain, hail, sun and a brilliant rainbow.
We visited the new signal cabin, were given a private train ride, and were able to inspect the progress on this ambitious new preserved railway.
I made these photos with my Lumix LX7 and Nikon Z6.
https://www.connemararailway.ie https://www.facebook.com/connemararailwayman/
More to come soon!
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One of the photographic highlights of last Saturday’s 470 Club trip was the stop at the famous Willey Brook Bridge in Crawford Notch.
To accommodate the train’s passengers, I helped organize two photo runbys at this iconic location.
Since several passengers asked to photograph from the ‘sunnyside’ of the bridge, I walked them across the tracks and called the train into position for the second runby.
I made this selection using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens, and also exposed several color slides using a Nikon F3 film camera.
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Kris and I arrived at Irish Rail’s Ceannt Station in Galway shortly before the rain.
And boy did it rain!
After a walk around the town (taking time to purchase an umbrella) we returned to the station to shelter from sudden and rather violent shower.
I made these three photos with my Lumix LX7.
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The first official photo stop on 470 Club’s Autumn 2022 trip (operated by Conway Scenic Railroad on Saturday October 22, 2022) was a photo runby on the Conway Branch at Hussey’s Field in Conway, NH. [I was responsible for the train schedule and assisting with organizing the photo stops.]
I chose this location for the first photo stop because it offered ample space for all the train’s passengers to spread out; provided good lighting for an eastward (northward) morning train; and was largely free from shadows, and distracting background elements.
This was the only photo stop on the former Boston & Maine Conway Branch. The other arranged photo locations were all on the former Maine Central Mountain Division
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
More photos from the 470 Club trip to follow in the coming days.
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Dublin’s Pearse Station, formerly known as Westland Row, is credited as the world’s oldest city railway station in continuous use.
This has served as a passenger station since 1834 when it opened as the Dublin terminus for the Dublin & Kingstown Railway.
The balloon style train shed was built many years later.
While traveling around Dublin earlier this month, I arrived at Pearse with an aim of photographing the trainshed following extensive works to repair it. The last time I’d visited Pearse was back in November 2019, nearly three years ago.
I made several photos of passing DART suburban electric trains under the shed using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera.
Then, I spotted an old friend and we caught up over a few pints at a nearby pub, as you do.
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Saturday, October 22, 2022, Conway Scenic Railroad operated the annual 470 Club autumn charter.
This year the train was assigned the club’s pair of former Boston & Maine F7A diesels Nos. 4266 and 4268, which are painted in the classic General Motors designed maroon and harvest gold livery.
I was asked to draft the trip schedule and assist with arranging photo stops for the train on its journey.
I made this group of photos of the F’s and the special train at North Conway using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens
During the course of the day, the special ran to Conway over the former Boston & Maine Conway Branch, and then west over Crawford Notch to Fabyan, New Hampshire on the former Maine Central.
The weather was outstanding with ‘wall to wall’ sunshine from dawn to dusk.
More photos to follow over the coming days.
Honestly, it sounds like the sort of place where you’d find a witch!
In truth, its the convergence of Dublin’s LUAS, Irish Rail’s suburban service, and the the Royal Canal.
I’d traveled on the LUAS Green Line extension from the Dublin City Centre to the end of the line. Soft afternoon sun with fluffy clouds allowed for myriad angles of the trams and the railway.
I had a tight connection of less than ten miutes from the time I stepped off the tram until the train for Pearse Station arrived.
During this interval, I used my Nikon Z6 to make a few photos. There’s nothing like a footbridge to provide needed elevation.
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Kris and I traveled from Belfast to Dublin a week ago Wednesday (12 October 2022).
This was our third of three Enterprise journeys on our Irish travels.
Since 2022 marks the Enterprise‘s 75th year, I though it was appropriate to include some of celebratory signage at Belfast Lanyon Place and Dublin Connolly Station.
Photos exposed using my Lumix LX7.
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In 2018, Translink introduced a new bus service using stylized articulated buses called Gliders.
The short version is that the Gliders are buses that look and sound like trams (complete with LUAS Citadis like ‘bong bong’ warning signals), but operate on the road.
While Kris and I were walking around Belfast last week, I made of number of photos of the stylish Gliders on the move through the city streets.
I have to admit, that while I’ve photographed the Gliders, I still haven’t traveled on one.
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Kris and I walked around the corner from the Europa Hotel in Belfast to make these views looking down from Durham Street on to the NI Railways platforms at Great Victoria Street Station.
This shows the station in transition. The new Belfast Transportation Hub is under construction in the background. See:
https://www.translink.co.uk/Better%20Connected/Belfast%20Transport%20Hub
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Last week Kris and I visited Titanic Belfast. This museum tells the story of Belfast, its role in ship building, and the most famous ship built there—the ill-fated Titanic.
The musuem is housed in an unusual-shaped purpose-built building.
I made a variety of photos of the building and its stories.
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A week ago, Kris and I traveled from Belfast Great Victoria Street to the Titanic Quarter Station in order to visit the Belfast Titanic museum, located on the waterfront near the the famous Harland & Wolff cranes.
I made these digital photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens. I also made a few Ektachrome colour slides with a Nikon F3.
During our month-long visit to Ireland, I’ve been exposing both digital and film photos as part of the record of our honeymoon, and as a continuation of the photography of Ireland and its railways that I began back in 1998.
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Last week Kris and I made three journeys on the joint Irish Rail-NIR Enterprise service that connects Dublin and Belfast.
The first was from Dublin Connolly to Drogheda. The second from Drogheda to Belfast Lanyon Place, and the third was our return from Belfast to Dublin.
These six photos were made during our northbound journeys.
This year the Enterprise marked its 75th year of service.
I made my first trip on the Enterprise back in February 1998.
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On my list for photographs for this trip to Ireland was the famous Boyne Viaduct at Drogheda.
Last Saturday evening, Kris and I walked to the river from the Scholars Townhouse Hotel, and were delighted when a set of Irish Rail class 29000 railcars rolled southward over the bridge.
It was in the ‘blue hour’ just after sunset. To stop the action, I set the ISO on my Nikon Z6 to 8,000. This allowed for a shutter speed of 1/160th of a second at f4.
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Last weekend, Kris and I traveled from Cork to Drogheda via Dublin on Irish Rail.
The first leg of our journey was on an Irish Rail InterCity Railcar from Kent Station to Dublin Heuston.
I made most of these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Z-series zoom lens.
For better internet presentation, I made adjustments to shadow and highlight detail, while refining color balance, color temperature and overall contrast.
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Last week we paid an evening visit to Kent Station, Cork, to witness the departure of Irish Rail’s Mark IV to Dublin.
The lighting was mixed. My white balance on my Nikon Z6 was set to ‘auto’ which provided a good starting point. I didn’t want the balance to appear too neutral and negate the mood of evening.
I made a variety of small adjustments to the Nikon’s NEF RAW files in Adobe Lightroom to preserve the character of the light, while retaining highlight and shadow detail in what was a very constrasty situation.
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Last week, Kris and I traveled from Cork Kent Station on Irish Rail’s 2600-series railcars to Cobh—the town formerly called ‘Queenstown’—a place well-known for its role in Transatlantic transportation.
Among other things, Queenstown was the last port of call for the ill-fated Titanic, which sunk 110 years ago.
The old railway station building now houses the Cobh Heritage Centre.
I made my views with my Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera. Kris made the photo of me at Cobh station with her Fujifilm XT4.
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Kris and I stopped over at Glounthaune on the way from Kent Station, Cork to Cobh.
This is a familiar station to me, and over the years I’ve exposed many photos here.
I made this selection during our 15 minutes between trains using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens. The tide was out and we spotted a pelican among the other seabirds near the station platforms.
At Cobh, we found a photo on the wall that shows how Glounthaune looked in the 1960s when it was called Cobh Junction.
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The other evening, we paid a visit to the abandoned Chetwynd Viaduct that spans the Cork-Bandon road in County Cork, Ireland.
This was a spur of the moment visit. I was not carrying my tripod. However, through the magic of modern digital photography, I was able to make a few images of this unusal bridge.
These were made using my Nikon Z6 handheld with f4.0 24-70mm lens with ISO set to 51,200. The results are a bit grainy (pixelated), but amazing considering the scant amount of available light.
For another view of the Chetwynd Viaduct, see my post from 2015:
http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2015/06/14/railroad-publishing-fiction-three-stories-from-the-trenches/
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Thanks to our friends in Cork, the other evening Kris and I made a few photos of Irish Rail’s Cobh Branch near Cork’s Kent Station.
It had rained (and rather hard at that) before the clouds cleared for some intense evening sun. These were great conditions for photos.
Irish Rail’s 2600-series diesel railcars have been working the Cork-Cobh run since my first visit in 1998, but now these are on borrowed time.
I made these digital photos using my Nikon Z6. I’m curious to see how my Kodak Ektachrome 100 slides will turn out.
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Our visit to Cork, included a tour of Kent Station, conducted over the course of serveral days.
Over the years, I’ve often featured this Victorian-era gem on Tracking the Light. It is unusual for its sharply curved train shed.
I was impressed by the frequency of passenger trains serving the station. There is a steady procession of trains to and through the station with regular departures for Dublin, Cobh, Mallow, Middleton, and Tralee.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
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Kris and I took a spin out to Mallow, Co. Cork. Upon arrival we had a chat with some friends and I made a few photos in the twillight glow of evening.
Back in 2005, I spent several evenings at Mallow documenting Irish Rail’s movement of sugar beet.
For these photos, I worked with my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Z-series zoom lens, white balance set to ‘auto’.
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On Monday, 3 October 2022, Kris and I traveled on Irish Rail’s 1200 Dublin Heuston to Cork (Kent) train.
It was a typically dull day with showers and occasional sun across the Midlands.
We had First Class tickets and traveled in Coach A of a five-piece ICR (InterCity Railcar).
At Cork we were given a warm and very special welcome by Irish Rail.
I made these photos of the trip using my Nikon Z6.
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Sunday evening Kris and I took a spin to Howth and back on Irish Rail’s DART from Connolly Station.
I made my first trip to Howth on the DART back in March 1998. On that visit I made photos with a Nikon F3T loaded with Fujichrome Velvia.
For Sunday’s visit, I worked with my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom, while Kris made photos with her Fuji XT4.
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The other day while we were waiting for the DART to Howth Junction, I made this sequence of digital photos of Irish Rail’s DART electric trains passing Connolly Station.
All were exposed in RAW (NEF format) using my Nikon Z6 and adjusted using Adobe Lightroom.
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Yesterday, I made this photo of an Irish Rail ICR (InterCity railcar) paused at Platform 4 at Dublin Connolly Station.
It was a comparatively quiet Sunday afternoon and dull outside, but the soft lighting made for a perfect time to portray the modern diesel railcar in the Victorian-era railway station.
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The other night Kris and I went for a spin to The Point Depot and back on Dublin’s LUAS Red Line.
As it happened the tram we traveled upon was one of the Sky television advertising trams that I featured in yesterday’s post.
Photos exposed using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera.
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