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.
I made this image while hiking the line toward Middlefield, Massachusetts from Chester. The freight was descending the grade near where the 1912-line relocation joined the original Western Rail Road alignment (seen to the left of Conrail 6619) at milepost 129 (as measured from Boston’s South Station).
Conrail’s ten General Electric C32-8s were delivered in September 1984 and in their early years largely work out of Selkirk Yard on the old Boston & Albany route.
GE assigned these unique pre-production DASH8 prototypes to Conrail for evaluation in preparation for wide-scale DASH-8 production that began a few years later.
I had countless encounters with the C32-8s on the Boston & Albany during the mid-1980s, but never had the opportunity to travel on one.
Later this year Kalmbach Media will release my new book titled Conrail and its Predecessors.
It was on this day six years ago (January 12, 2014) that I made this close-up view of Pan Am Railways 616 as it worked west at Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 100mm lens set at 400ISO at f3.5 1/400th of a second.
On this day, January 11, 2015 I made this telephoto view of Amtrak AEM-7 944 working the back of New York City bound Keystone train passing Torresdale, Pennsylvania.
At that time, Amtrak’s AEM-7s were on the wane and photographer Pat Yough and I were capturing the relatively brief transition period between the AEM-7s and new Siemens ACS-64 electrics.
Canon EOS-7D fitted with a prime 200mm lens, ISO 200 f5.6 1/1000 sec.
My Irish friends might wonder, since Irish Rail class 201 number 204 in unlikely to have ever reached Enfield, County Meath on the Sligo Line—although the older C-Class diesel with the same number probably did pass that point (before my time).
Amtrak F40PH-2 204 almost certainly passed Enfield, Connecticut on the former New Haven Railroad’s Springfield-New Haven Line, a route now described as the ‘Hartford Line’. While I have various photos in the 1980s of the 200-series F40PH-2s, it is unlikely that I have a photo of 204 at Enfield.
Then there’s an extremely remote possibility that I have a photo in my collection of a Boston & Albany 4-4-0 with that number passing Enfield, Massachusetts on the Athol Branch. I’ll have to review my B&A roster to confirm they actually had a locomotive with that number and if it ever ran up the branch.
So!
How about Guilford Rail System’s high-hood GP35 204 working the Maine Central with MABA at Enfield, Maine?
Regular Tracking the Light readers might understand my connections to this engine.
(It’s a sister locomotive to former Maine Central 216 that now resides at Conway Scenic where I now work.)
On February 5, 1996, I exposed a series of Kodachrome 25 color slides of New England Central 9529 switching at Palmer, Massachusetts.
The railroad later renumbered its engines from the 9500-series to the 3800-series, but in 2020 a few of its now geriatric GP38s still work the line in the 1995-era Conrail-applied New England Central start-up paint.
K25 exposed with a Nikon F3T fitted with an f4 Nikkor 200mm telephoto lens.
25 years in the same blue and yellow scheme. While not a world record, it is still pretty impressive.
On May 11, 2002, I worked with a Rollei Model T loaded with 120-size Fujichrome to make this view of Irish Rail 213 leading a Mark 2 set down road at Cherryville Junction, Co. Kildare (Ireland).
For the social media view I’ve cropped in on the original view, while for Tracking the Light, I’ve published the full un-cropped square.
Unfortunately in the original un-cropped version I centered up the front of the locomotive at the middle of the square. Poor composition!
In decades-old railroad tradition, Conway Scenic’s steam locomotive 7470 is largely painted black. While in winter, the environment around the railroad is largely snow covered (at least we hope it is) .
Why steam in the snow?
Drama!
The cold air contributes to spectacular effects from condensation tinted with smoke from the firebox.
Here are a few of my Lumix LX7 color digital photos from Saturday’s (January 4, 2020) Steam in the Snow excursion sponsored by the Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts on Conway Scenic’s operation over the former Maine Central Mountain Division.
Dave Swirk at the throttle of 7470.
(And yes, maybe I made a few classic black & white images of this trip on film!)
Yesterday, January 4, 2020, Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts Inc., operated its famous Steam in the Snow event at the Conway Scenic Railroad from North Conway to Notchland, New Hampshire.
Locomotive 7470 was the star of the show.
Several photo run bys were organized to allow travelers on the train to make photos and enjoy watching the locomotive in action.
Conway Scenic’s President and General Manager Dave Swirk was at the throttle of the steam locomotive.
As a representative of Conway Scenic, I traveled on the train for part of its journey and documented people enjoying the event.
This view at Notchland, shows Mass Bay RRE’s photo line up during the first of three staged runbys at this location.
Exposed using a FujiFilm XT1 with 18-135mm lens mounted on a Bogen tripod.
I arrived at the old Maine Central station at Crawfords (New Hampshire) in the ‘blue hour’—that last hint of daylight before night.
It was snowing lightly.
The railroad was quiet. No trains are expected for months to come!
The scene was serene.
To make this photo, I had my FujiFilm XT1 with 28mm pancake lens mounted on a Bogen tripod. I set the meter for 2/3s of stop over exposure in ‘A’ mode at the widest aperture. The camera selected the shutter speed at 25 seconds.
Over the course of several minutes, I made several exposures ranging from 20 to 30 seconds each.
Last November, photographer Mike Gardner and I paid a visit to the Mass-Central and caught the northward freight on its journey over the Ware River Branch from Palmer to South Barre.
Among the photos I exposed was this view at Gilbertville, Massachusetts, working with a Nikon F3 loaded with Ilford HP5 film.
Over the years, I exposed countless photographs along this former Boston & Albany branch; on film, digitally; in color and in black & white.
Yesterday, January 1, 2020, I paused at White River Junction, Vermont, a place I first visited to make railroad photographs nearly 35 years ago.
That first visit was a warm sunny summer’s morning. By contrast yesterday’s visit was a wintery, cold and gray afternoon with hints of color in the southern sky.
New England Central local was working with GP40-2 437, a locomotive still wearing Florida East Coast colors.
Nutt Lane, White River Junction, Vermont. January 1, 2020.
Former Boston & Maine bridge over the Connecticut River. Viewed from White River Junction, Vermont. January 1, 2020.
I made these photos using my FujiFilm XT1 with 18-135mm zoom lens.
Here’s a portrait view of Conrail B23-7 2020 that I made back in 1988 east of Chester, Massachusetts. (Not seeing portrait orientation? Click on Tracking the Light!).
Although I previously posted this image on Tracking the Light, I thought it was a cool way to welcome the New Year!
I wonder what happened to this old GE diesel?
The year 2020 will see my new book on Conrail and its predecessors which is expected in the Spring from Kalmbach Media.
Another view from 40 years ago: I’d just returned from Mexico City via JFK. My family and I were driving home from New York City and we stopped at New Haven, Connecticut.
I made several Kodachrome slides with my Leica 3A, including this view of former New Haven Railroad electric multiple units that were stored near the station.
I processed two rolls of Ilford HP5 last week. The final frame appeared as a blank lightly tinted gray rectangle. I nearly cut if off the end of roll when putting the negatives into the sleeve.
It was only when I scanned the photos that I saw the ghostly locomotive fading into its own misty effluence.
Conway Scenic Railroad’s 7470 in December 2019.
This wouldn’t have been the first time I accidently threw away my own work!
Forty years ago I had a fleeting glimpse of Mexico City’s streetcar system.
By the time of my December 1979 visit, all of the traditional streetcar lines in the downtown area were out of service. However, PCC cars remained in service on a pair of peripheral lines on the south-side of the city that connected at the end of a Metro Line.
I regret not having the opportunity to travel on the trolleys, but at least I got to see and photograph them.
This is one of my only color photos of Mexico City streetcars. I’d mounted the slide in glass, which didn’t do the emulsion any favors and resulted in unsightly moiré patterns (rainbow-like interferences). First I scanned the slide through the glass as seen here, then I very carefully removed the film from the glass and rescanned it. See below. This is the same Kodachrome slide after removal from the glass mount. I cleaned the emulsion and rescanned the image. This scan is cleaner, sharper and largely free from the distracting artifacts caused by the glass, yet a few defects and stains remain. I’d go back and make the photo again, but I think the setting has likely changed in the last 40 years!
For me this sunset view of Mexico City street trackage is a symbolic photograph, and yet one that has haunted my imagination for decades. Technically speaking it is a poor photo; under exposed and the last frame on a roll of Kodachrome with the right side effectively cropped by the tape used during processing. I’ve cleaned up the slide a little for better presentation here.
Sometimes those scenes we only glimpse stick in our imagination more than those that we were immersed in. Do you remember that 1960s song recorded by Vashti Bunyan ‘Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind’?
My memories of riding the Metro City Metro with my uncle Mark 40 years ago contrast sharply with these photos that I made during that same visit.
Having grown up traveling on the New York City and Boston subways, I was astounded by the crush-loading in Mexico City.
I recall being swept along a platform holding my uncles hand as tightly as I could as we squeezed into an already sardine capacity train.
In reality, those conditions weren’t conducive for a 13 year-old Gringo to make photographs.
In retrospect, I’m amazed that I got anything at all.
Apologies for the relatively poor condition of these images. My negatives were hand processed without concern for archival concerns and stored in a paper envelope in an attic for the better part of four decades. I scanned them last month.
This isn’t how I remember the Mexico City Metro! I recall dense hurried crowds. Funny how memory works.Although damaged, I like this photo because it shows Mexico City Metro’s rubber-tire propulsion, which is what I was trying to capture during my December 1979 visit.
Yesterday I processed a month’s worth of black & white film; two carefully-exposed rolls of 35mm Ilford HP5.
Among the first images on the first roll were these three photographs at Stafford Springs, Connecticut on November 26, 2019.
I often work with multiple cameras, and previously on Tracking the Light, I posted a digital color view of New England Central 608 working northward at this same location.
My process is a specialized two-stage development formula aimed to maximize detail and tonal range.
Incidentally, Scott Hartley reminded me that Central Vermont/New England Central has referred to this location simply as ‘Stafford,’ a fact that dates back to New London Northern days.
I exposed this photo of Colm on his 46th birthday standing along side a British Class 46 diesel at a Crewe open house. At the time I was working with Contax G2 rangefinder loaded with Fujichrome Sensia II (100 ISO).Colm recently retired after many years working for An Post, the Irish postal service. About ten years ago, I made this view of Colm and his famous green van on the South Circular Road in Dublin.
I scanned some negatives the other day. These were exposed with my Leica 3A on Ilford FP4 and processed in D76.
I’d driven to Chester, Massachusetts where I photographed several eastward Conrail trains on the Boston & Albany line. This was before Conrail single-tracked the route and it was still directional double track with automatic block signals under rule 251.
This view shows an eastward TV (trailvan) freight waiting for a green signal after crossing over from the westward to the eastward main. It had just come down the hill, against the current of traffic, on the westward main to Chester, while a test train led by SD50 6703 had worked east on the eastward main. (Parallel eastward moves).
Conrail’s GE-built C30-7A (6594) and C32-8 (6614) diesels were less than a year old.
The test train (not pictured) was a ballast train with caboose that provide a load for SD50 6703 equipped with flange lubricators which spent several months working back and forth on the B&A route.
So what’s the tragedy?
My negative envelope has minimal information; just the locations and ‘April 1985’. I have my notebook from 1985, but this trip isn’t mentioned. My photo album is also scant on the details from the day. I believe the specific note-page from this day has ‘gone missing’ and so I’ve had to recall the details from memory. This is a problem, since I cannot recall the exact date, and I’m unsure as to specifics such as train symbols.
On cool winter afternoon, three CSX General Electric diesels idle at CP64 in East Brookfield, Massachusetts.
These locomotive had worked an eastward Q264 and are waiting to return with its westward counterpart, working westward across the Boston Line to New York’s Selkirk Yards and beyond.
I exposed these digital images using a Lumix LX7. Working with the camera-RAW files in Lightroom, I lightened the shadow areas improved the contrast and made a slight enhancement to the overall saturation.
Christmas Day 1979, I embarked on a great adventure. At age 13, I flew unaccompanied from JFK in New York City to Mexico City to visit with my uncle Mark.
I exposed this view using a Leica 3A from my window on an Eastern Airlines L-1011 as it taxied for take-off at JFK.
My notes on the negative strip simply read ‘Airport 1979’.
I exposed hundreds of black & white and color photos on this trip, although not all of them remain in my collection. I also made detailed notes, of which only a few pages survive. After takeoff, I wrote:
“There was a really good view of New York City, New Jersey, etc. We flew past Philadelphia but I didn’t see much account of the clouds”
I’ve received my author’s advance copy of the February 2020 Trains Magazine.
This features both my monthly column and my article on railroad locomotive and signal suppliers.
In my column (pages 16-17), I discuss on-going changes in the North American railcar fleet.
These freight car photos represent some of my initial outtakes for my column prior to submission, but show the size differences between modern boxcars and the older standard cars now being phased out.
Box cars at Brattleboro, Vermont. Lumix LX7 photo.Southern Railway 50 foot boxcars at Washington, Massachusetts. FujiFilm XT1 photo.
One photo inspires another. A few days ago my friend Wally Hill posted a view from the back of Conway Scenic Railroad’s Gertrude Emma—1898-built Pullman open observation—featuring steam locomotive 7470 passing former Maine Central 501 on its march toward the North Conway, New Hampshire station from the coal dock.
His photo inspired me to make similar images, and so working with my FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm lens, I stood in Wally’s footprints and made these photographs.
In my younger days, I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the Montreal Locomotive Works M-420s. I viewed them as ugly derivations of my favorite Alco RS-11s and C-420s.
That irrational bias never prevented me from photographing the M-420s at work. Since both Central Vermont and Providence & Worcester operated M-420s, they seemed common enough to me when I was photographing in southern New England in the 1980s.
I found this P&W M-420 getting ready for a day’s work near the diamond crossing at Plainfield, Connecticut in June 1986.
I exposed this view on Kodak black & white 120 size film using my father’s Rollei model T.
My Lumix LX7 is a wonderful picture making machine.
I exposed this view of Conway Scenic Railroad’s North Conway Station by positioning the LX7 atop a tripod and using the 2 second self timer to expose the photo.
This was just after ‘sunset’ and there was still a hint of color in the sky.
Working with my old Contax G2 rangefinder fitted with a Zeiss 16mm Hologon lens, I exposed this photograph along the former New York Central Hudson Division main line at Scarborough, New York.
This was the afternoon/evening of November 11, 2006. I’d met up with fellow photographer Pat Yough for a foray along Metro-North’s lines.
I worked with a Contax G2 from 2001 to 2007 and the camera gave me some stunning results.
In a world of splashy announcements, bold publicity stunts and loud pronouncements, occasionally subtlety, allusion and understatement still have a place.
Also, I’m always curious to learn who’s paying attention and who just looks at the pictures. (Sometimes the long posts with allusive titles offer the most important messages).
Yesterday, as I was standing in the snow to record Boston & Maine F7A 4268 that was brought out of Conway Scenic Railroad’s North Conway roundhouse for a spin on the turntable, my friends Dave and Rhonda Swirk quietly announced that I was taking on a full-time position at the railroad in Marketing and Event planning.
And there’s the surprise twist!
Clear signals for exciting things coming down the line! (Bigger bolder pronouncements later).
On August 5, 1984, my late friend Robert A. Buck gave me an unforgettable tour of the Bangor & Aroostook in central Maine.
Among the stops on our trip was a brief visit to the disused tower at Lagrange. If you look to the right you can see Bob and his famous green van through the weeds.
I exposed this photo on Kodak Plus-X using an old Leica 3A with a Canon f1.8 50mm screw-mount lens. I processed the film in Kodak Microdol-X and stored the negatives for 35 years in an envelope. Last month I scanned the negatives using an Epson V750 scanner.
In January 1994, my father and I paid a visit to Perris, California, where I made some photos of this pair of rebuilt Santa Fe EMD diesels, along with the railroad station before proceeding to the Orange Empire Railway Museum.
Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Nikkormat FTN with Nikon 28mm AF wide-angle lens.
Santa Fe 2725 was a GP30u, which lost the characteristic semi-streamlined cab roof when rebuilt from a GP30 in the early 1980s.
On September 17, 2019, I exposed this photograph of southward DB IC train 1919 rolling along the left bank of the Rhein near Boppard using a Nikon F3 with 50mm lens and loaded with Fuji Provia 100F.
I scanned the slide with an Epson V750 scanner and made final adjustments using Lightroom.
Does anyone remember the spoof newspaper ‘Not the New York Times’?
Anyway, at first glance this nocturnal photo might be mistaken for a mid-1950s view of a New York Central EMD GP with a Bangor & Aroostook boxcar.
Of course there are lots of hints to the contrary. If you look carefully, the GP9 in this view has ditch lights (a feature of the 1990s and later). The paint scheme, while inspired by the ‘New York Central’ lightning stripe, isn’t really like anything actually used by the railroad on a GP9. And, of course this engine has dynamic braking grids (just barely visible at the top of the long hood), , which as everyone knows(to quote a phrase) isn’t representative of New York Central’s GP9s, since none had dynamic brakes.
