On this day in 1996, I was driving from Wisconsin to Massachusetts in a U-Haul truck with most of my worldly belongings (including the majority of my photographs).
Would you believe me if I told you that I took a detour to follow the old Erie Railroad main line across New York’s Southern Tier, and when I heard on the scanner that an eastward coal train was through Hornell, I drove the U-Haul into a grave yard on the banks of the Canisteo River, climbed a tree and exposed this series of color slides?
Would you?
![](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Conrail_6978_w_loaded_unit_coal_train_West_Cameron_NY_Canisteo_Valley_Nov1996_28mm_Fuji©BrianSolomon_119309-1.jpg?resize=474%2C321)
![](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Conrail_6978_w_loaded_unit_coal_train_West_Cameron_NY_Canisteo_Valley_Nov1996_28mm_Fuji©BrianSolomon_119310-2.jpg?resize=474%2C319)
![](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Conrail_6978_w_loaded_unit_coal_train_West_Cameron_NY_Canisteo_Valley_Nov1996_28mm_Fuji©BrianSolomon_119311.jpg?resize=474%2C320)
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