Last night the snow fell on North Conway.
I was walking from the roundhouse home.
All quiet—eerily silent, except for the distant thunder of a plow.
My Lumix LX7 was at the ready.
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Yesterday, when I read about the Magnitude 5.4 earthquake that shook Croatia, I thought back to the pleasant few days I spent on my first trip to the Croatian capital Zagreb in August 2003.
During that trip, I exposed this Fujichrome slide of a tram in Whirlpool a advertising livery near the Zagreb main railway station.
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New York’s Canisteo Valley was among my favorite places to photograph in the late 1980s. The lure of the Erie Railroad and the old Union Switch & Signal Style S signals had captivated my interest.
On the morning of July 19, 1988, my old pal TSH and I were on one of our annual summer rail-photo adventures. We had started before dawn, and picked up a westward Conrail OIBU rolling though the Canisteo toward Hornell, New York.
Trains moved right along on the former Erie Railroad mainline and racing ahead of it in a Dodge Dart, I parked and leaped out of the car at a preselected location at milepost 320 (measured from Jersey City) and began to set up my photograph.
I was working with equipment I borrowed from my father. The Leica M2 loaded with PKM (Kodachrome 25 professional) was mine, but the 200mm Telyt mounted with a bellows on a Leica Visoflex viewfinder and positioned on a antique Linhof tripod were his.
In our hasty chase, I’d cut my set up time too fine. It was lashing rain and I was struggling to set up and level the tripod, while trying to focus the camera using the Rube Goldburg Visoflex arrangement. My exposure was about f4 1/8 of a second.
Conrail’s BUOI came into view before I had time to refine my composition: this imperfect photo was the result. I recall the frustration of fighting with the equipment as the roar of the train intensified and the rain obscured my vision.
Let’s just say, that at the time I wasn’t impressed with my image. I’d cropped too much of the foreground and the whole image is off level. So for 30 years, it sat in the Kodak yellow cardboard slide box that it had been returned to me from lab in.
Last year, I scanned it. Ironically, this damp-day silhouette closely captures the spirit of Conrail’s Canisteo Valley that had captivated my photographic interest. The reflection of the headlight on the glossy codelines is the finesse that I didn’t manage to capture in most of brighter-day photography.
I’m glad I didn’t throw the slide away.
This morning I cropped and leveled the image in an effort to correct for my failings in 1988. I’m not sure I improved it any.
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I liked the old Boeing-Vertol LRVs. (Light Rail Vehicles).
The shape of the cars lent well to photography.
The San Francisco cars reminded me a the old orange creamsicle frozen treats.
Back in December 1990, I made this view of a Boeing car leaving the Geneva Street car house for a run on the M-Ocean line. I was working with my old Nikkor f4.0 200mm lens on my F3T loaded with Kodachrome 25.
I made great use of that lens, but sold it in 1996 when I bought my 80-200mm zoom. In retrospect, I made better photos with the fixed 200mm.
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My father and I traveled from Brussels to Amsterdam by train on May 26, 1996. Shortly after arriving at Amsterdam Centraal, I exposed this color slide of a tram paused in front of the station.
On the front of the tramcar is a bit of graffiti which annoyed me at the time. This bit of marker seemed to spoil the scene.
Later in the day, we traveled by tram to the end one of the lines, just to see what was there. It was like Legoland.
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In August 2008, I made this photo on Fujichrome Sensia using a Tokina 400mm lens fitted on my Nikon N90S.
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I made this view at the CTA’s Clark-Lake Station on the rarely photographed Chicago subway.
The Loop is often pictured, but not the lines underground.
My brother and I had spent the day exploring Chicago and it was nice to get out of the cold.
I used an FLW color-correction filter to compensate for the green cast produced by the artificial lighting underground.
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Two years ago today I attended the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Cork city.
There is no parade today.
Exposed using my FujiFilm XT1.
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During Conway Scenic Railroad’s Snow Train season last month, I took this photo from engine 573 as it approached milepost 64 along the Saco River.
We were plowing snow ahead of the scheduled train. The sun was rising behind the engine and it made for an interesting juxtaposition.
Exposed digitally with my Lumix LX7.
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My preferred camera-lens combination in 1997 was a Nikon N90s with Nikkor 80-200 zoom lens.
This versatile set up gave me great flexibility. At the time I was still exposing both Fujichrome and Kodachrome slide film, but was leaning more and more toward Fujichrome.
Ironically, in retrospect I found that camera flexibility doesn’t necessarily produce the best photos. I think this is because the zoom lens allowed me to quickly adjust the focal length and perspective, I didn’t spend the time to properly scrutinize the scene for the best possible image. This not a fault with the equipment, but in how I was using it.
This photo of JR trains crossing an overpass in Tokyo reminds me when I felt the N90S, 80-200mm lens and Fujichrome Provia gave me limitless photographic potential. Maybe it still does?
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On a trip to Poland in August 2006, I made a few photos of the four-wheel trams at Bytom.
At the time these were some of the last traditional four-wheel trams in regular revenue service and represented a carry-over from an earlier era.
For me, it was an opportunity to photograph one of Europe’s most obscure transit lines. Thanks to Michael Walsh of the Irish Railway Record Society for recommending this location.
I made this view using a Nikon F3 loaded with Fujichrome Sensia II (100 ISO).
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Standing on the Oberwesel city walls last September, I made this digital photograph of a Vlexx diesel-railcar gliding along the Rhein.
A cloud obscured the sun so I made some adjustments in Lightroom to temper the effect of the changing light.
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April 25, 1997. Osaka, Japan. Nikon F3T with 28mm Nikkor Lens. Kodachrome 25 Slide film.
This is among the Kodachrome slides from my 1997 trip to Japan that I scanned last week. A light EF65 electric rolling through the Osaka main station on a clear morning with a Kodachrome sky.
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There’s more than one Swift River. In fact, in Massachusetts, I know of at least two. The river discussed here is the Swift River in New Hampshire that passes through Albany and Conway.
My railroad photography has been light since the end of Conway Scenic Railroad’s Snow Trains on February 29, so I thought I put up something a little different.
Last weekend, fellow photographer Kris Sabbatino offered to show me some interesting photo locations in the Conway area and we drove to the Swift River Bridge at Albany.
I made these views using my FujiFilm XT1 with 12mm Zeiss Touit. In addition, I exposed a few frames of black & white film, which at the rate I’m moving on processing might not get processed until the leaves are on the trees.
The style of bridge intrigued me. While I’m familiar with the Howe Truss, this was something different. Later I looked it up on-line, and it was described as a ‘Paddleford type with added arches’.
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On April 24, 1997, my father and I paid a brief visit to Okayama, Japan, arriving and departing the same day by Shinkansen.
Okayama had a compact two-prong streetcar system with colorfully painted street cars (it seemed that each car was in a different livery).
I made these photos with my Nikon N90S.
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For more than 25 years, New England Central’s gold and navy GP38s have worked the former Central Vermont line. These have been a common site around the railroad’s Palmer, Massachusetts hub.
I thought of that bitterly cold February 1995 morning when I made my first New England Central photos as I exposed these views last week under decidedly more pleasant conditions.
I wonder what another 25 years will bring to New England Central at Palmer?
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On a frosty morning I felt it would be nice to look at a warm evening.
From New Hampshire’s Mount Washington Valley I’m posting this view of Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner at San Clemente Pier on Calilfornia’s Surf Line.
I exposed this view in November 2018 using my FujiFilm XT1.
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It was on a misty May 2009 morning that I exposed this Fujichrome slide of a tram in the village of Bad Schandau in Germany’s Elbe River Valley.
This was just a few months before I purchased my first digital camera and when I still exposing lots of color slide film.
Yesterday I scanned this slide using an Epson V750 scanner and then processed the file using Lightroom.
Below are two Lightroom Jpgs. The top is uncorrected, the bottom reflects digital tidying up for internet presentation.
Specifically, I adjusted the gamma for better contrast by putting the darkest regions at the toe of the curve (far left) and moving the highlights to the top of the curve (far right) while increasing contrast in the middle range. I reduced the amount of magenta and increased the yellow for better color balance, and applied a small degree of digital sharpening for edge effect. (This doesn’t actually make the photo sharper, but it looks sharper on screen). Lastly, I made a nominal correction for level by slightly rotating the image (which crops it).
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In March 1999, I made a day trip to Paris from Brussels on the Thalys.
Among my visions for the day was to duplicate views of Metro Line 6 with the Eiffel Tower similar to those that my father made back in 1960.
Working with my Nikon N90S, I exposed this wideangle view from above the banks of the Seine.
While the sun was out, dark clouds would soon pelt hail across the Parisian landscape.
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On January 13, 2015, Jack May and I explored NJ Transit’s Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system to make photographs.
I made this view on Fujichrome Provia100F using my Canon EOS 3 with a 40mm pancake lens—a winning combination for contemporary Transit photos with historical format continuity. (A fancy way of saying, I exposed photos of streetcars on film back in the day, and I still do!).
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Working from a ground level angle, I exposed this view of a tram paused at the Basel, Switzerland main station (seen behind the tram platforms).
Basel, like all of Switzerland, benefits from world-class public transportation including heavy rail and light rail networks. I first visited Basel in 1999.
This photo was exposed during a brief visit on April 21, 2016. Although I made several digital photos, I exposed this frame on Fuji Provia 100F slide film using my Canon EOS-3 with 40mm pancake lens.
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Tight view of a 201 class EMD diesel.
On March 3, 2015, I made this view of 201-class 8209 in an interim paint scheme leading a down Irish Rail IWT Liner at Stacumni Bridge near Hazel Hatch in suburban Dublin.
I was working with my recently acquired FujiFilm XT1 and getting used to the peculiarities of this excellent image making tool.
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I made these views from the head-end of Conway Scenic Railroad’s 1630 Snow Train during the final days of operation last week.
I’d drafted the Snow Train timetable during early planning for the trains and I was keen for them to operate in a timely manner.
All trains were run as ‘extras’ under Conway Scenic Railroad’s tradition rulebook using timetable and train order rules.
Extra trains must display white flags by day and white lights by night.
The trains proved very popular with Conway Scenic’s guests and ridership exceeded expectations!
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Traveling to Wrocław Poland from Prague in May 2000 was an adventure, but it seemed like an easy puzzle to solve when compared to trying to locate the Polish letter ‘ł’ (which should appear as a letter ‘L’ but with a slash mid-way through its flank) on my Apple.
The good news is that computers have the ability to provide a variety of obscure characters.
The bad news is that finding these characters hidden in the maze of Apple’s darker recesses requires opaque-puzzle finding skills and supreme patience! (Not my forté!)
I gave up, but Pop was able to pry from the darkness the key to producing a ‘ł’ on the MAC.
Hooray!
Now, I wonder, can you see the ‘ł’ on your device du jour?
Oh yeah, and while visiting Wrocław, I spent some time photographing the trams there.
Cool city, well worth a visit.
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I made this view of the San Jose Light Rail and Cal-Train at Mountain View, California on a warm evening in 2009 using a Canon EOS 3 loaded with Fujichrome.
I’m just a shadow in my own image.
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Yesterday forecasts of snow were dashed when rain fell instead.
Last week the story was a different one, and as previously reported on Tracking the Light, Conway Scenic Railroad sent a plow extra west to Attitash.
I made this view using my Lumix LX7, while recording the action using the railroad’s video camera.
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Conway Scenic Railroad 1751 leads the evening Snow Train over the Post Office crossing at North Conway last week.
Conway Scenic is operating Snow Trains between the North Conway Station and Attitash through February 29th.
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Exchange Place—1982.
As a teenager living in rural Monson, Massachusetts, I thought Jersey City was a fascinating urban wonderland.
It was gritty, dirty, decayed and very urban with lots of history.
A virtual playground!
I made this photo at Exchange Place station on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson former Pennsylvania Railroad controlled Hudson & Manhattan rapid transit route between New York City and New Jersey terminals.
As a photograph it isn’t my finest, but I feel I captured my sense of wonder about PATH.
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Last week the lights were lit on Gertrude Emma—Conway Scenic Railroad’s 1898-built Pullman open-end observation car—when I made this early morning view at the North Conway station.
Exposed using a Lumix LX7 mounted on a Bogen tripod.
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On a visit to Germany in 1998, I traveled by interurban tram from Heidelberg to Mannheim where I made this photo on Fujichrome Sensia 100 using a Nikon F3 with 135mm lens.
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In February 2010, I visited Toronto, Ontario with photographers Pat Yough and Chris Guss.
It was extra cold, but we made some stunning photos in the clear frosty light.
These view of TTC CLRVs (Canadian Light Rail Vehicles) were exposed using a Canon EOS-3 and Fujichrome slide film.
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Working with an Nikon N90s loaded with Fujichrome, I made this view of a Peterwitt streetcar on the streets of Milan back in February 2000.
I like the doctored sign at upper right.
A little humor in a photo can go a long way!
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Thursday, February 20, 2020, for the second time in about a week, Conway Scenic dispatched its vintage Russell Snow plow to clear the line to Attitash.
I arrived at the North Conway station at 0545 and was prepared for a chase of the plow westbound. Complicating my efforts was that I had a TV interview with White Mountain TV16 scheduled at 0845.
I cut it a bit fine, but arrived at the studio in ample time to chat with host Rob Clark on air. I don’t think too many viewers copped-on that I’d been freezing in the field making photos only minutes before stepping on set. (I’d changed hats in the interval).
In searching for rail-transit photos, I came across this photo I made of a trolley bus in Chernivtsi, Ukraine back in July 2007.
Not rail transit, but still a neat photo.
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On Tuesday February 18, 2020 it snowed most of the day at North Conway, New Hampshire.
Through out the day the Conway Scenic Railroad was operating its new Snow Trains between its famous North Conway station and Attitash in Bartett.
I made these views of the Snow Train set led by former Maine Central GP7 573 paused between runs at the North Conway B&M station.
Both were exposed using a Lumix LX7.
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On my list of 100 transit cities is Utrecht in the Netherlands.
On May 22, 1996, I exposed this pan photo of a tram on the move in Utrecht using a Nikormat FTN with 105mm f1.8 fixed prime telephoto and FujiChrome Provia 100 slide film.
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