I was on my way to intercept Amtrak’s westward Pennsylvanian. As I cautiously approached the Jefferson Road grade crossing in Lancaster, I looked left and spotted the headlight of Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Branch local freight in the distance.
That’s some good luck! I had enough time to park the car and pick my spot.
In the lead was Norfolk Southern SD40E 6340—another former Conrail SD50. In its original incarnation, this had been Conrail 6722.
It’s great to live in a neighborhood where you can see trains at random times, and find them by happen-stance.
Now to find that photo of 6722 in blue!
These photos were exposed using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens.
By design, this day last week I caught up with Dan Cupper and railroad artist Craig Thorpe at Black Horse Road in Strasburg. We planned our meeting to coincide with the passing of the hourly excursion.
I made photos of the train and my friends.
Craig had brought with him a print of painting that he made of Reading & Northern 4-8-4 2102 at Nesquehoning that he created from still photographs that Dan had made.
After Strasburg 89 passed, we walked up the hill to Carpenters Cemetery and photographed the return run. In the meantime some Amish farmers were working a nearby field with an impressive team of draft (draught) horses.
These views were products of my Nikon Z-series mirror-less digital cameras.
A couple weeks ago, I caught up with my friend Kurt Bell at the Strasburg Rail Road, and later we went across the street to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. These are two institutions with which Kurt has had decades-long affiliations.
Kurt is a Railroad Collections Archivist in Harrisburg with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museums Commission and the author of a book about the Strasburg Rail Road.
It was a beautiful autumn day and we wandered among the antique trains, visiting with people and taking in the majesty of the railroad environment.
I think one of the highlights of the day for Kurt was seeing his old favorite engine, Strasburg No. 31 (a former Canadian National Railways 0-6-0 switcher) ‘in kit form’ in Strasburg’s shop, where it has been undergoing restoration work.
Kurt had a story to tell me about everything we saw and everyone we met. I learned a lot about tourist railways and railway museums that day!
I made the photos with my Nikon Z7-II.
Thanks Kurt!
Kurt with the cab of Strasburg Rail Road No. 31.At the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.This is perhaps the museums newest exhibit inside the main building. The cab signal display inside of PRR G5 5741 is desgined to be in sync with the position light signal to the right of the locomotive.
October 23, 1983: I traveled with Bob Buck to Bellows Falls, Vermont for the last run of Steamtown in Vermont.
Canadian Pacific Pacific No. 1246 and all three Green Mountain Railroad RS-1s were assigned to an epic consist that ran over Mount Holly to Rutland and back.
On the westward climb to Mount Holly, I made this view from the window of the train using my Leica 3A.
I was impressed by the large number of chasers on Route 103 in hot pursuit of the train.
The day had started out bright, but soon turned wet and windy.
In the summer, the sun sets to the north of the old Pennsylvania Main Line at Greenfield. And during the long days, Kris and I made a number of photos of Amtrak trains on their way to and from Harrisburg under wire.
Now into autumn, the sun is in the southern sky, which lends for a new dimension on this Greenfield location,
I made this photo of westward Keystone train 667 zipping along the old Pennsy with a nicely illuminated autumn evening sky.
In March 1997, I was traveled from California to Denver with photographer Mel Patrick. We were returning from WinterRail ’97, which was one of the great rail-photographic venues of the 1990s.
A decade earlier Mel had published some memorable photographs of the Western Pacific in the pages of CTC Board magazine and on this trip he and I revisited some stunning locations.
This view looks timetable-west on Union Pacific’s former WP main line. We were perched atop a hill near West Wendover Nevada/Utah to photograph an eastward Union Pacific intermodal train inching its way across the vast expanse of desert in eastern Nevada.
For point of reference, the headend of the freight is just over three miles from our vantage point. The near row of mountains is at least a dozen miles away, while the distant snow-crested mountains, including Spruce Mountain were about 60 miles distant.
I made the photograph on Kodachrome 25 using a Nikkor 105mm telephoto.
Bird-in-Hand is a classic Pennsy Main Line location.
The 1920s-era grade separation with concrete stairwells over Pennsylvania Route 340 is largely intact.
The once four-main railroad snakes through a gentle curve, which can make for a dynamic setting. I caught eastward Amtrak Keystone 670 shortly after its Lancaster, Pa., station stop.
The zebra striped cab-car works well in the autumnal scene.
In September 1990, I made a trip over Donner Pass.
What was special about this trip was photographing the familiar piece of railroad on Donner in new way.
Between Autumn of 1989 and Autumn 1990, I made dozens of trips over California’s Donner Pass to photograph Southern Pacific trains. What was visually significant about the Sept 1st, 1990 trip was that I’d borrowed a Nikkor f4.5 300mm lens from Brian Jennison, with whom I was traveling.
Over the course of a long weekend, I used this novel focal length to take ‘new’ photos of familiar places.
Among the variety of 300mm views, was this photo that I made at 7:37am on September 1, 1990 of SP 6713 west at Yuba Pass, California. It was one of several from a fixed tripod sequence.
The novelty of the extreme telephoto compression had caught my interest and I made the most of this borrowed lens. Up until that time, the longest lens in my camera bag was a Nikkor f4.0 200mm.
It was only on reviewing my notes from this trip did I realize how much this telephoto had impressed me on that trip. Ironically, a new Nikkor 300mm was completely out of my price range at the time.
It is interesting to see how working with this one lens influenced the way I made photos on that trip.
Strasburg Rail Road operates its freight on weekdays between the East Strasburg Station and the Norfolk Southern interchange at Leaman Place Junction (pronounced like ‘lemon’), in Paradise, Pennsylvania.
My friend Dan Cupper featured Strasburg’s freight operations in the October 2023 Trains Magazine in his article titled ‘The Strasburg Rail Road You Don’t Know.’
He tells the history and inside story in this well written and illustrated feature.
Most of the time I’ve photographed Strasburg’s freight has been by dumb luck. On this occasion, I paused at Black Horse Road to roll by a steam excursion, when I heard the bark of a diesel horn approaching Cherry Hill Road crossing.
On this afternoon, the freight led by SW8 8618, was working ahead of the passenger train , so I walked down the hill from the Black Horse Road crossing and made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens.
Clear autumn mornings are one of my favorite times to make photographs.
The other day, everything came together: the weather was perfect, and Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Branch local was right on time. This featured classic EMD diesels back to back, and I had just enough time to get into position at Jefferson Drive to catch the train in lush setting.
I made this sequence of photos as the train squealed through the curve on its way toward New Holland, Pennsylvania.
Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom set to 46mm; f5.0 1/1000th sec, ISO 200.Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom set to 24mm; f5.0 1/800th sec, ISO 200.Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom set to 30mm; f5.0 1/800th sec, ISO 200.Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom set to 32mm; f5.0 1/800th sec, ISO 200.
Strasburg Rail Road’s Mogul No. 89 was sprinting toward the East Strasburg station near the grade crossing with Paradise Lane.
I wanted to capture the spirit of the moment and the motion of the engine. The backdrop of Red Caboose Motel and flags flapping in the wind was a bonus.
I like the burst of steam from the whistle.
Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm set at 70mm, f10 1/40th of second, ISO 100.
This was a just a routine scene from 40 years ago: Amtrak’s eastward Lake Shore Limited (Boston section) train 448 at the Warren Crossovers.
Back in the days when Conrail’s former Boston & Albany was still operated as a traditional directional double-track mainline (under rule 251), there were manual cross-overs at strategic locations, including Warren, Mass.
Historically (pre-1960), the Warren Crossovers also served the Warren Yard and the long unsignaled eastward running track from West Warren that had allowed slow moving freights to keep out of the way of faster eastward trains.
These crossovers were removed after Conrail installed TCS signals and single-tracked the B&A east of Palmer in 1986.
I made these photos on Kodachrome using my Leica 3A during the second week of October 1983.
Here’s another classic K25 slide from that wonderfully perfect autumn day on October 14, 1988.
I’d been following Delaware & Hudson PLMT (Pittsburgh & Lake Erie-Mount Tom) unit coal train that was rolling east on Conrail’s Southern Tier (former Erie Railroad) main line.
The old Cass Street Tower had controlled the Junction where the original Erie Maine Line that went west via Andover, New York diverged from Erie’s Buffalo Line that went via River Junction and Attica, New York. By 1988, the Buffalo Line was the preferred route for most freights.
Delaware & Hudson had trackage rights on Conrail between Buffalo and Binghamton, NY. By mid-1988, Guilford Transportation Industries had relinquished control of the D&H, and New York, Susquehanna & Western was the court appointed operator of the line.
NY&W had acquired a fleet of former Burlington Northern SD45/F45s that it assigned to road freights.
I was fan of the SD45, and when I caught this coal train slogging east on the old Erie, I did my best to keep up with it, making photographs with my old Leica M2 along the way. This view at Cass Street was one of just 16 places I photographed the train that morning.
Cass Street, Hornell, New York at 10:30am on October 14, 1988. Leica M2 with 50mm lens, Kodachrome 25 f4.5 1/250 sec.
To mark the date, I thought I’d share this classic Kodachrome Slide of MBTA F40PH-2 1013 passing former New Haven Railroad semaphores at Readville, Massachusetts.
I made this photo using my old Leica M2 back in June 1987.
Reading & Northern’s class T-1 2102 is an awe inspiring locomotive.
On October 1, 2023, Kris and I were poised to photograph this machine as it worked former the Central Railroad of New Jersey line near Nequehoning, PA.
Rich autumn sunlight and a hint of autumn foliage made for excellent conditions.
The locomotive crew made a show of steam and smoke as the engine passed us.
Nikon Z-6 with 70-200mm Z-series zoom set to 200mm; f5.6 1/250 sec ISO 200.Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom set to 45mm; f4.5 1/640 sec ISO 200Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom set to 24mm; f4.5 1/640 sec ISO 200
Amtrak’s General Electric Genesis™ diesels are reaching the end of their useful lives.
Yet, as of this writing in October 2023, these 1990s-vintage diesels still regularly work the Pennsylvanian between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
During the high midday light of summer, I didn’t expend time to photograph the passage of the Pennsylvanian, Amtrak trains 42 and 43, which normally pass one another not far from where we now live in Lancaster, PA. However, last week, I picked a bright afternoon to photograph both trains at Gap, similar to what I had done back in January.
Amtrak train 43—the Pennsylvanian—westbound at Gap, PA. Amtrak train 43—the Pennsylvanian—westbound at Gap, PA.Amtrak train 43—the Pennsylvanian—westbound at Gap, PA.Amtrak train 43—the Pennsylvanian—westbound at Gap, PA.Amtrak train 42—the Pennsylvanian—eastbound at Gap, PA.Amtrak train 42—the Pennsylvanian—eastbound at Gap, PA.
Both trains were captured using my Nikon Z7II with 24-70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
Over the last few months, I’ve paid several visits to the old station at Leola, Pennsylvania on the old PRR New Holland Branch. In 1914, there were two scheduled passenger trains in each direction on the branch that stopped at Leola.
Westward trains from Downingtown stopped at 950am and 358pm, while eastward trains from Lancaster stopped at 530 and 1110am. The line no longer goes east of New Holland, the passenger trains are long gone, and these days train movements are fewer and less predictable.
So while I’ve made few photos of freight on the branch, until last week, I hadn’t managed to catch a train at the old station .
I was delighted to find that Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Branch local had stopped just short of the Maple Ave grade crossing by the station, and I parked and made these photos using my Nikon Z7-II.
Although this location is nice and open, high-voltage electric lines run parallel to the railroad which make for a compositional challenge.
Is it better to try to exclude or minimize the lines, or accept them as part of the environment and include them in the photographs?
Of the three photos, I like this low-angle view the best.
Near the Church Road crossing in Hometown, PA, we scored Reading & Northern 2102 passing a pumpkin field.
I made the wide angle view of the steam locomotive using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm set at 40mm. For the telephoto view of the former Milwaukee Road Super Dome, I used my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens set at 135mm.
Bright sun and an early autumnal setting made for some wonderful photos of Reading & Northern’s Iron Horse Ramble!
Amtrak Keystone 650 was running a wee bit behind the advertised.
I was set up at Leaman Place, east of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
There had been brilliant bright sun light— and there still was all around me—but in the interval between when the train was scheduled to pass my location and when it actually raced by, a puffy cloud had found its way between me and the sun.
There’s an (unmentionable) phrase for this.
Anyway, my going away (trailing) views made use of the softened directional light, which treated the metallic train nicely.
I made these photos with my Z7II and 24-70mm lens set at 40mm; ISO 200, f4 1/1600th sec.
Reading & Northern’s recreated Iron Horse Rambles are real throwback to the early 1960s.
Sunday, as we stayed well ahead of former Reading Company 4-8-4 No. 2102 as it worked toward Tamaqua and Jim Thorpe, Pat Yough led us to inspect several locations on the old Reading Co.’s Little Schuylkill Branch. These are places that I recognized from my father’s photos of Reading’s Iron Horse Rambles of 60+ years ago.
We settled on the popular location at Reynolds (near Atlas), not far from South Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.
Many photographers were set up for a classic 3/4 angle. Having followed that formula on previous trips, this time Kris and I opted for a broadside view where the BIG 4-8-4 would be lit by the morning sun.
I made this sequences with my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens and Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens.
Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens.Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lensNikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens
At 9:35 am on September 5, 1987, I was standing on the old bridge over Conrail’s former Erie Railroad mainline at Carsons, east of Canisteo.
Heavy fog over New York’s Canisteo Valley was lifting as the late-summer monring sun peaked out from behind some clouds.
A westward empty Delaware & Hudson coal train from New England led by Pittsburg & Lake Erie GP38/GP38-2ss was roaring west, as a Sealand double-stack with New York, Susquehanna & Western former Burlington Northern SD45s glided below me.
I had my Leica M2 loaded with Kodachrome 25. In my haste to capture the scene, I’d failed to take into account the effects of fog and bright morning sun. The result was a very over-exposed color slide. Since the very nature of the Kodachrome process linked saturation with exposure, my photograph has a bleached look to it.
For more than 36 years this languished in a file of rejected slides. I nearly pitched it in a purge of my collection back in the early 1990s.
The only reason I kept it was because—despite its technical flaws—it had captured the spirit of the moment.
The other night, I scanned the image and then imported the hi-res scan into Adobe Lightroom for some necessary posts processing corrections.
Sunday, Kris and I joined our friends Pat Yough and Tom Kline and followed Reading & Northern’s famous 4-8-4 2102 on its run from Reading Outer Station to Jim Thorpe.
The light was perfect—clear and sunny; the locomotive highly polished. Pat lead us to some great line-side locations. Our first was at Hamburg, PA, near where the old Reading Company mainline passes beneath Highway 61.
I made this sequence using my Nikon Z-series cameras.
Nikon Z7II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom.Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Z-series zoom.
In the fading of sun of December 22, 1992, I made this Kodachrome slide of Amtrak AEM-7 915 slowing for its Newark, Delaware station stop on its way toward Philadelphia and New York’s Penn-Station. In the distance is a Conrail local freight.
Nikon F3T with Nikon f4.0 200mm lens.
Working with glint light was always a challenge. And I’d made a series of exposures of the train. This is probably my darkest; f8 1/125 with K25.
Greatly enlarged section of the same scanned slide.
On Wednesday, I stopped by the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania to continue research for my next book, and paused to make these contemporary photos of old 915 using my Lumix LX7.
I’ve scoured through hundreds of Conrail slides. Finally, in my Erie box, I had my Eureka! moment when found what I’ve seeking:
Conrail SD50 6753 (now NS 6342) leading a freight in nice light. (See recent posts).
This was exposed at the grade crossing at East Hornell, New York. Conrail 6753 was leading BUOI-4X on January 14, 1989. The train had made a pick-up at M-K in Hornell consisting of recently rebuilt New York City subway cars and was about to make its move to go through the cross-overs and then reverse back onto its train.
Conrail’s BUOI was a daily symbol freight connecting Buffalo’s Frontier Yard with the former Lehigh Valley Railroad Oak Island Yard near Newark, New Jersey. On this day, traffic was sufficient to warrant two sections, thus ‘BUOI-4X’ (X for eXtra).
Exposed on Kodachrome 25 with my old Leica M2 and 50mm Summicron.
So why ‘ZY?’ That was the old Erie two-letter telegraph code for CP East Hornell. My friends and I continued to refer to CP East Hornell as ‘ZY’ even though this designation had been discontinued years earlier.
Interestingly, if you locate this place on Google Maps, you’ll find on Magee Road a marker for ‘ZY Crossing Station.’ Someone at Google respects Erie history!
Someday I’ll tell another story about this day, but not today .
My Lumix LX7 photo from Monday September 18, 2023 that spurred the quest to find Conrail 6753.
My detailed article on Conway Scenic Railroad is a 24-page illustrated feature in the latest National Railway Historical Society Bulletin (Volume 86, No. 2). “Day to Day at Conway Scenic Railroad” is written from my perspective as the railroad’s Marketing Manager. This tells behind the scenes stories of the railroad at work that focuses on the people and the various roles they play.
I worked with Bulletin Editor Jeff Smith on this feature story. The photo reproduction is excellent and I’m delighted with the way the article appears in print.
Information about the NRHS can be found at: www.nrhs.com
I photographed for this story using my various digital cameras including: Panasonic Lumix LX7, Canon EOS 7D, FujiFilm XT1, and Nikon Z6 and Z7-II.
Between 1986 and 1991, I documented vestiges of the former Erie Railroad using hundreds of rolls of Kodachrome, Ektachrome, and T-Max black & white film.
I made dozens upon dozen of trips along Conrail’s lines, seeking to make images of this fascinating railroad in its environment.
There could be long intervals between trains, and some days were more productive than others.
October 14, 1988 was memorable because it was a perfect day. I had a very early start. The autumn foliage was at its peak. It was clear from dawn to dusk. Conrail and Delaware & Hudson ran a lot of trains, and I had Kodachrome 25 in my Leica.
Among the photos I made that was this view of Conrail SD50 6774 leading OIBU west through Swain, New York at 8:07am.
I like this image because although 6774 is key to the composition, it isn’t the only subject of interest and it captures the essence of rural western New York in autumn.
Soon old 6753 will be featured on TTL. The lure of the quest is about finding treasures along the way. If I found the prize too soon there would be no joy in the path to it.
This is the raw and adjusted scan of my original Kodachrome 25 slide. Exposed at 8:07am on October 14, 1988 using a Leica M2 rangefinder with f2.0 50mm Summicron lens. My old Dodge Dart is parked behind me with the engine running. Soon, I’ll be in pursuit of this train en route to my next desination. Slide scanned with Nikon LS5000 slide scanner powered with VueScan 9.8.04 software.This the same scan as above, but adjusted using Adobe Lightroom to improve its presentation. I’ve lightened the image, reduced contrast, warmed the color balance, lightened and warmed shadow areas, while slightly increasing overall saturation.
March 23, 1989 was a busy day on the old Erie Railroad.
Between Conrail and the Delaware & Hudson, the railroad was alive with trains.
I’d spent much of the day around Attica, New York, where the line snaked around on its climb over Attica Hill.
In the afternoon, I caught Conrail’s BUOI (Buffalo to Oak Island, NJ), the daily mixed freight. This was often a huge train and some days in ran in two sections.
In this view, BUOI has just crossed Main Street in Attica, and has begun to bog down on its eastward climb. In the lead are two Conrail SD50s. These are numbers 6773 and 6763. I found this slide looking for the elusive 6753, which appeared on Tracking the Light a few days ago as Norfolk Southern 6342.
Conrail’s 135 SD50s spanned the number series from 6700 to 6834. Over the course of my years photographing Conrail trains, I’m sure I saw nearly all of them. At the time they seemed so common.
The quest for SD50 6753 continues!
Kodachrome 25 slide exposed with a Leica M2 and 50mm Summicron lens. Image cropped slightly for presentation here.
A few days ago, Wayne Duffett and I had a discussion about a photo that our friend Don Marson made recently of an A-B-B-B-A set of BNSF GP60M-GP60Bs.
I hadn’t realized that such curious locomotives were still owned and operated by BNSF. I thought back to the days when Santa Fe’s GP60M were new and wearing fresh Warbonnet red-yellow-and-silver paint.
Among the ‘seconds’ I’ve been sorting through recently include many of the Kodachrome slides that I made on the Santa Fe between 1989 and 1995.
In October 1990, photographer Brian Jennison and I made a trip to Christie siding on Santa Fe’s extension to Richmond, California that winds its way through Franklin Canyon.
I made this photo of an eastward Santa Fe freight at the west switch of Christie. I’d been very impressed by the rolling terraced hills covered in California golden grass, and wanted to emphasize this unusual scenery.
At the time, I was working with a Nikon F3T (titanium) fitted with an f4.0 200mm lens. My placement of the locomotives in the lower left was designed to accentuate the hills while creating visual tension that forces the eye back to the Warbonnet painted GP60Ms.
This was by no means the last time I photographed Santa Fe’s ‘Hot Rods’ in action. Over the years, this photo has grown on me.
Kodachrome 25 color slide exposed with a Nikon F3T fitted with a Nikkor f4.0 200mm lens.
At 7:11 am on May 4, 1989, I parked my 1981 Toyota Corolla on School Road in Batavia, NY.
I was moments ahead of a Conrail westbound freight symbol SENF-X (Extra section of the Selkirk to Niagara Falls train). I’d heard this on my scanner and knew that the fill on Byron Hill at School Road offered a nice broadside view of the tracks.
With my Leica M2, I made this Kodachrome view of a pair of Conrail SD50s rolling west. I located this image the other night while searching for a suitable photo of Conrail 6753, and thought it was a pretty neat photo.
While the pair of SD50s ‘elephant style’ (tail to trunk) is cool, what catches my eye today is the freshly painted Conrail 50ft box car. I wish that I’d made a photo full frame of that car. Today, any clean railroad-owned boxcar is worthy of attention. Back then, I just wasn’t all that impressed. And there’s a lesson for you!
A year earlier, I photographed the same leading SD50 (6793) on May 1st at CP402 in Batavia. I’ll need to find that photo. In the mean time, stay tuned for a nice view of Conrail SD50 6753 (now Norfolk Southern SD40E 6342-See yesterday’s post).
Kodachrome 25 color slide exposed at f3.5 1/250 second with a Leica M2 and 35mm Summicron lens on May 4, 1989. Scanned with a Nikon LS5000 scanner at 4000 dpi using VueScan software.
Following up on yesterday’s post about the former Conrail SD50 working Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Branch, I’ve started searching my 1980s Conrail files looking for a photo of SD50 6753 at work.
Traditionally my system of organization was not oriented around locomotives, nor set up to find a particular engine by number. Typically, I filed photos by railroad, division, and location, usually grouped by era.
I have countless thousands of slides from the 1980s depicting Conrail all around the system. Some show locomotives, others focus on other elements of the railroad. These were organized by historic routes. I have boxes of Boston & Albany, New York Central Water Level Route, Erie Railroad, PRR, etc.
For the SD50 search, I’ve started with my Conrail-New York (state) box from 1987-1989 that largely covers the Water Level Route from about Utica, NY to roughly Westfield, NY, with various forays elsewhere. Mixed in with the Conrail photos are some of Delaware & Hudson, Norfolk Southern, and New York, Susquehanna & Western.
On March 10, 1989, I visited Dunkirk and photographed a parade of freights rolling along the Waterlevel Route. At 10:39am, I made a sequence of images of a westward mixed freight led by a Conrail SD50 using my Leica M2 loaded with on Kodachrome 25.
This was Conrail 6777, not 6753. But (hopefully) we’ll find the elusive locomotive eventually.
A westward Conrail freight at Dunkirk, New York has SD50 6777 in lead. I made both these images at 10:39am using my Leica M2. Exposure is f4.5 1/250th of a second.35mm Summicron lens with Leica M2 loaded with Kodachrome 25. Dunkirk, NY. March 10, 1989.
On Monday, I was running errends. My timing wasn’t coincidental, as the Norfolk Southern New Holland Branch local often passes through my neighborhood around 9am.
The day before it ran a little late, but as previously posted, I managed to catch it anyway.
On my way to the market, I noticed that the local was stopped at Cork interlocking near Greenfield in Lancaster, so I completed shopping quickly. On my way back, I saw the train had moved on.
On spec, I zipped over to Jefferson Drive, where the branch crosses near our apartment. As I approached the crossing, I heard the throb of classic EMD engines.
The train was cautiously approaching the crossing. I stopped, parked, grabbed my Lumix LX7 (which I carry with me for just such occasions) and made this series of photos as it crossed Jefferson Drive.
It was the same pair of NS SD40Es, that I’d seen the day before. These engines had worked out of Cresson, PA as helpers, but have since been bumped to other duties.
I was curious to know more about these locomotive, and looked up their road numbers on-line. According to an SD40E roster maintained by Chris Toth on the site: http://www.nsdash9.com/rosters/6300.html , I found that NS SD40E 6304 had be rebuilt from NS SD50 6522 in January 2009, and SD40E 6342 was rebuilt in September 2011 from NS SD50 5430, originally Conrail 6753.
Learning that makes me curious. In the 1980s, I made hundreds, perhaps thousands of photos of Conrail SD50s. I’m sure I have an image of that locomotive in blue paint in my Conrail files. I’ll keep my eyes open for it and plan a follow-up post when I do.
Below are two images from my ‘lost’ Kodachrome file.
These were exposed on one of my many trips on California’s Donner Pass to document Southern Pacific in the 1990s.
On this day, SP had called a train with its BIG snow-service Jordan spreaders at each end to help clear the line over the pass.
I was set up at the east end of the snow shed complex at Norden near Donner Summit. While SP’s crew adjusted the wings on the Jordan for an eastward move to clear snow, I made a series of exposures using my Nikon F3 on Kodachrome 25. Back in the 1990s, I had deemed the two images displayed here as less than optimal.Until I scanned them the other night, they had never seen the light of day.
The top exposure was part of a bracket sequence and is a bit ‘hot’ (1/3 stop overexposed). It was challenging to select the correct exposure in bright sunbleached snow , which is why I’d made the bracket to begin with.
The middle image was exposed using a circular polarizing filter in my effort to reduce glare and obtain better highlight detail. Unfortunately, this was a cheap filter and lent a slightly cyan tint to the scene. Also, I didn’t compensate properly for the effect of the filter on my exposure, so the image is about 1/2 stop too dark. The bottom image is an adjusted/color corrected version of the middle image.
Kodachrome 25, exposed using a Nikon F3T with f4.0 200mm lens. Approximate exposure f5.6 1/250th.Kodachrome 25, exposed using a Nikon F3T with f4.0 200mm lens and circular polarizer. The image below is from the same scan.Same scan as the middle image: Kodachrome 25, exposed using a Nikon F3T with f4.0 200mm lens and circular polarizer. This image was adjusted in post processing to correct for the cyan color balance and improve overall appearance.
