On June 18, 2026, I presented my program on Conway Scenic Railroad to the Philadelphia Chapter of the NRHS at the former Reading Company station at Elkins Park.
A year ago, I presented my program on Philadelphia Trains and Trolleys to the same group at the same venue.
However, whereas last year we were met by sudden violent storm with high winds, rain, and lightning that broke trees and wreaked havoc on SEPTA’s evening commute, this year we were greeted by clear skies, and warm-but-pleasant evening weather. While waiting for the group to gather, I made a variety of images of SEPTA’s trains at the Elkins Park Station.
Elkins Park, Pa., has a classic station with wooden platforms and a distinctive station structure. Exposed using a Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens. NEF RAW file adjusted using Lightroom to control contrast.
I made this view of an inbound Silverliner IV working an Airport service paused for a brief station stop.
On our way home, we exited Rt 30 at Greenfield Road in Lancaster, Pa. The clock read 9:36pm.
“The local should be working High.”
As we drove under Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line, we could see that four freshly delivered flat cars of steel had been delivered to High Steel Structures. And Norfolk Southern’s local freight had paused on the other side of the road.
It had been a long day, we were tired, but here was a photo opportunity!
“This will take just a minute.”
I pulled in, and retrieved my Nikon Z6 from the back of the car, set the ISO to 10000, and adjusted my autofocus settings. I placed the camera close to the ground and used the rear display to compose my images.
In the surreal darkness along the Marietta Industrial Track near CP Shocks, I made these views of the setting crescent moon in a crisp June sky.
I exposed in Nikon NEF RAW for 4 to 5 seconds using my Nikon Z6-III set at ISO 800 and 1000 respectively. The camera was firmly mounted on my 3Pod tripod.
I adjusted each of the files in Lightroom to better balance the exposure and contrast for the evening light. I gave a slightly different treatment to each photo.
It is only a number, but I think catching Norfolk Southern 4444 leading a westward manifest freight on the Pittsburgh Line made for more interesting photographs than if a similar locomotive had carried a more common road number. This unusual type of numeral is known as a repdigit.
The freight consisted of more than 180 cars. In addition to 4444, a mid-train DPU provided extra power. This separation of locomotives is now common on many modern road freights. Among the advantages of DPU operation is a reduction in drawbar stress on the trailing coupler of the lead locomotive. This helps railroads operate and better control very long trains.
The technique behind the photographs also merits examination. Among the benefits of modern digital processing is the ability to control and adjust color contrast to best suit the scene. These images would not have made especially compelling photographs on Kodachrome. However, by exposing digitally to maximize data capture and then processing the files to carefully place highlights and shadows while controlling contrast, it is possible to produce pleasing images in difficult lighting conditions.
I like blending four concepts into a single essay. Each of these four paragraphs discusses a different topic relating to the photographs. A novice might ask what a repdigit has to do with DPU operations and photographic contrast control. The answer is simple: “these photographs.” I don’t know that it needs to be any more complicated than that.
Of the railroad lines radiating from Lancaster, Norfolk Southern’s Columbia Secondary represents a photographic challenge. This short former Pennsylvania Railroad electrified line connects Lancaster and Columbia, Pa., but lacks the scenic splendor, open vistas, and historic structures that have aided my photography on other lines in the area.
On a warm evening, Kris and I were approaching Columbia on South Front Street when I heard the sound of EMD diesels working in Run 8. When we arrived at the grade crossing near the old Philadelphia & Reading freight house, Norfolk Southern freight H-19 from Enola was crawling through town, ascending the grade as it climbed away from the Susquehanna River.
We jumped onto Route 30 and drove east to Mountville, where I had previously scoped out a few potential locations. We arrived several minutes ahead of the train. As it passed, I made these images using my Nikon Z7-II with a 70–200mm zoom lens and a Nikon Z6 with a 24–70mm zoom. The freight totaled more than 80 cars, including several flatcars carrying structural steel.
On this day in 2010, John Gruber and I chased a Wisconsin & Southern local toward Cottage Grove, Wisconsin. This was John’s backyard, and I was along for the ride. Over the years, John and I made numerous photographic expeditions along Wisconsin & Southern’s lines radiating from Madison.
I had purchased a new Canon EOS 7D just a few weeks earlier and was still relatively new to digital photography. I was curious to see what I could do with this new tool.
For this view, I fitted my Canon 200mm prime telephoto lens to the digital body. The 7D’s APS-C sensor represented Canon’s latest innovation. It enabled me to work at ISO 400 while retaining a high level of detail, while the sensor’s ‘1.6x crop factor’ gave the 200mm lens approximately the same angle of view as a 320mm lens on a traditional full-frame 35mm film camera.
Using greater telephoto compression, I made the most of the roadside utility lines and the patterns created by the highway itself, incorporating them as compositional elements surrounding the locomotive as it crossed the road. I like the color and classic lines of the EMD SD40-2 working long-hood first. The soft color palette and contrast of this image were partially a function of the Canon sensor and optics.
In fact, I was mimicking a similar composition that I’d made 18 years earlier on Kodachrome using 400mm Tokina lens featuring an NHV GP9 crossing Highway 116 near Littleton on the former Boston & Maine New Hampshire Division route to Groveton/Berlin—but that’s really a story for another day.
This Wisconsin & Southern image was exposed on June 16, 2010; f/5.6, 1/125 second, ISO 400. Although I’ve made modest adjustments to contrast and color balance, this JPEG was created from the original Canon CR2 RAW file.
As previously presented on Tracking the Light, Amtrak ACS-64 No. 642 is dressed in a special paint livery honoring American veterans.
Amtrak Keystone 658 was due.
I didn’t realize that No. 642 was leading the train until it came into view.
After exposing my planned long-telephoto image to make the most of the evening glint, I quickly adjusted the lens from 200mm to 70mm and panned with the locomotive to take advantage of the distinctive paint scheme. As the train passed, I received a salute from the head end.
In May 1999, I was testing Canon EOS Elan cameras and lenses for Trains Magazine. One of the key features of the EOS system was image stabilization. Among the photos I exposed was this panned view of Conrail B23-7 1930 rolling through CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts.
This photo demonstrated the advantages of image stabilization when making a long-pan image. To blur the background, I set the camera to a slow shutter speed and turned in parallel with the passing train as it raced eastward.
Interestingly, this slide was among the earliest images my father scanned for me using a Nikon LS-5000 slide scanner. However, he scanned it at a relatively low resolution. I still have the scanner, so at some point I should locate the slide and scan it again at a higher resolution.
Conrail eastbound at Palmer, Massachusetts. Exposed on Fujichrome with a Canon EOS Elan.
A few days ago I posted this mystery photo that I exposed in November 1987 of an Erie Railroad Station . See: https://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/erie-railroad-station-november-1987/
I received a variety of guesses.
Only Walter E. Zullig correctly identified the location: Jamestown, New York.
Tracking the Light Explores the Mysteries of Railroad image-making!
Hot weather last week made for sauna-like conditions along the Susquehanna River.
We pulled into Port Deposit, where a riverside park offers views of the four long-span bridges that cross the river between Perryville and Havre de Grace, Maryland.
I made this photograph using my Nikon Z7-II with a 70–200mm lens, then cropped the image to better feature an Amtrak Regional train crossing the most distant bridge. The train was powered by ACS-64 electric locomotives at each end.
Since through freights tend to run in the evening, the long days offer excellent opportunities for photography on the Port Road Secondary. That proved true last week when we found the signals lined for an eastbound freight as the glow of sunset illuminated the western sky.
Working with my Z6-III with 50mm f1.4, I made these photos near Washington Boro, Pennsylvania.
Here’s a special bonus—Norfolk Southern 4876 working as a DPU!I’m happy that the track crew left a key compositional element in the foreground.
The former Pennsylvania Railroad station and adjacent underpass at Christiana, Pa., have been a recurring theme on Tracking the Light. Recently, I posted a sequence from this location, noting that I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the results. On Tuesday evening, I set up at a different angle on this familiar scene, this time photographing from street level as Amtrak Keystone 656 raced by.
This image was exposed using a Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera fitted with a 24–70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom lens.
I wondered what the photograph might look like with different historical film profiles applied, so I imported the RAW file into DxO FilmPack 7 and experimented with several presets. Each profile is identified in the caption below its respective image.
Adjust Nikon NEF RAW file with slight changes to color and contrast.NEF RAW file converted with DxO Film Pack 7 using the Kodak Tri-X film profile. (This is intended to make the image appear as if it were exposed on Tri-X film.NEF RAW file converted with DxO Film Pack 7 using the Ilford HP5 film profile.NEF RAW file converted with DxO Film Pack 7 using the Kodak Elite 200 (Ektachrome) film profile.
Over hill and dale, following directions supplied by Google Maps, we set out on our first attempt to chase a train between Safe Harbor and Peach Bottom. There were plenty of twists and turns, but we made it!
And finally, after nearly a year of occasional visits—checking the light and sun angles in autumn, winter, and spring—we scored a daylight freight at Peach Bottom.
Hooray!
Crude oil rolling along the Susquehanna.
Tracking the Light Explores Railroad Photography Everyday.
Beginning in 1986, I made a project of photographing vestiges of the former Erie Railroad. While this often included Conrail freights and antique signal installations, I also focused on the railroad’s architecture.
To my knowledge, I made just one photo of this former Erie Railroad passenger station, exposed on Kodachrome 25 in November 1987.
Can you guess the location? Thankfully, I wrote it on the slide mount. I’ve seen relatively few photos of this station.
This would have been a neat place during Erie Railroad times. Here’s a hint; the clock stopped, but time has not.
Exposed using a Rolleiflex Model T loaded with Kodak Vericolor II Type S 120 roll film. October 1984.
Central Vermont Railway crossing the Conrail diamonds northbound; Palmer, Massachusetts. In October 1984, I exposed this image using my father’s Rolleiflex Model T loaded with Kodak Vericolor II Type S 120 roll film. I scanned the negative in 2010 using an Epson V500 flatbed scanner. Epson’s software automatically reversed the image and compensated for the orange mask inherent in color negative film. The image required only minimal color adjustment in Lightroom for presentation here.
This was a heavy train ambling east on Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Secondary. Catching a road freight in daylight on this route is always a prize.
We arrived at Blue Rock Road near Washington Boro several minutes ahead of the train.
I made these digital images near the boat launch along the Susquehanna River. I like this location because it is on a long tangent and shows the old Pennsylvania Railroad electrification polls.
Some 45 years have passed since the last electric freight traversed this route.
It was a clear evening. We paused briefly at Christiana, Pa., to roll by Amtrak Keystone 658.
The scene was unclutered and I wanted to feature the station and underpass that is the centerpiece of former Pennsylvania Railroad infrastructure in the town.
I framed up the station with a broad window of sunlight beyond the railroad bridge over the road.
When train 658 came into view, I exposed a rapid-fire burst of images with my Nikon Z6 fitted with a 24-70mm zoom set to 24mm.
In the first frame of this sequence, ACS-64 643 leading the train hadn’t made it far enough into the photo and an objectionable shadow fell on the side of the locomotive intersecting Amtrak’s logo.
In the second frame, the locomotive appears to be in visual conflict with the trees/hedges in the background.
The third is nearly satisfactory, except the front of the locomotive is alarmingly close to the righthand edge of the photo.
I think this might need another attempt. I just hope that next time I score another freshly cleaned ACS-64.
Tracking the Light Examines Railroad Photography Daily!
A few weeks back on Tracking the Light, I featured a pair of abstract images of a Norfolk Southern freight crossing the arched bridge over Vinegar Ferry Road in Marietta, Pennsylvania.
Nocturnal time exposure in early May, 2026.
Kris and I had a fortunate opportunity to return in daylight, arriving just in time to catch a freight rolling by in the early evening.
The long days and sun in the western sky made for some beautiful lighting at this location.
I made this photograph using my Nikon Z6 III fitted with an f/1.4 50mm lens.
This was a heavy train and moving at a relatively slow pace, so, seizing the opportunity, we soon found ourselves in rapid pursuit. I had a few locations in mind where I hoped to photograph a daylight freight on the Port Road Secondary.
Stay tuned . . .
Tracking the Light Explores Railroad Photograph Night and Day!
As a follow up to yesterday’s post Too Much Corn, Too Little Train, today’s post is about some alternative views of the same scene.
Some photographers are content to work with one camera and just one lens, aiming to carefully craft the perfect composition with the tools in hand. I was once that way—when I was young and carried a Leica IIIA everywhere.
Not these days. I usually have at least two cameras with me. Plus a ‘spare’, (you know, just in case.)
So, when I wasn’t 100 percent sure about my ‘perfect composition’ with wavey corn, I reached for my Z7-II fitted with a 70-200mm and popped off a few long views.
In the end, I much prefer these telephoto images over the wide views displayed yesterday. But, I thought, I’d argue otherwise.
Rods down!Screenshot of the Lightroom work window of the preceding image. All the details are in the upper right.This has better framing with the trees, but the rods are not ‘down’—hmm.Looking down Esbenshade Road in Strasburg, Pa.
Today, Tracking the Light Takes the Telephoto View!
It seemed like a great idea for a textured composition: wavy rows of corn illuminated by the late afternoon sun. I set up my Nikon Z6 with a 24–70mm lens on a tripod and framed the scene.
Strasburg Rail Road’s 4 p.m. train was returning from Leaman Place, working up the short grade from Cherry Hill toward Esbenshade Road.
Sometimes the engine crew makes a bit of smoke while climbing the grade. Not today, though. The engineer kept a clean stack—great for efficiency, but I was hoping for a little smoke to help tie the scene together.
Instead, the train is almost lost amid the waves of corn and scruffy trees.
Nice try; no prize…
However, I had a second camera fitted with a long telephoto lens…
Tracking the Light Critically Examines Railroad Photography!
This one had quite a roll on when we caught up with it at Columbia, Pa., on Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Branch
“There’s the head-end!”
“That’s the mid-train DPU. . . “
“Oh. . . “
I knew with a bit of driving we would still beat it to Safe Harbor.
We arrived in near total darkness, and I thought I’d try a different angle, so I set up for broadside view on the NS bridge, while featuring the lowest bridge in the foreground, and the old Enola Low Grade Bridge up above.
At one time all three carried tracks.
We didn’t wait long before the chug of GE’s shattered the evening quiet.
For the headend, I had my Nikon Z6-III on a tripod, but for the coal cars and DPU photos, I panned the train hand-held.
Nikon Z6-III with f1.4 50mm Nikkor lens; f1.4, 1/50th sec, ISO 32000.Nikon Z6-III with f1.4 50mm Nikkor lens; f1.4, 1/25th sec, ISO 32000. Panned.Nikon Z6-III with f1.4 50mm Nikkor lens; f1.4, 1/25th sec, ISO 32000. Panned.
Tracking the Light Posts Daily About Railroad Photography!
Here we have a former Burlington Northern SD40-2 on Wisconsin & Southern casting its reflection in a puddle in the Madison, Wisconsin yard.
How long does it take you to spot and recognize the incongruous element in this scene?
Using my Canon EOS 7D, I made this image during a visit to Madison with John Gruber in June 2013. Below are two versions processed from the original Canon CR2 RAW file using DxO PureRAW. The top image was converted to JPEG without cosmetic corrections in Adobe Lightroom. The bottom image received a subtle contrast adjustment in DxO PhotoLab, making the incongruous detail easier to spot.
The grime of mud season has been washed away and the crisp Spring evening sun makes for some nice light.
I arrived at Jefferson Drive about five minutes before Amtrak Keystone 658 was due to pass. (It takes about three minutes to reach this location after departing the Amtrak station in Lancaster, Pa.)
A month ago, I was framing up photos to make the most of evening glint. This time of year, by the time 658 passes the sun is still high in the western sky.
Rather than make a hard glint photo, I opted for a broadside view to make the most of the bright specular light. I set my Nikon Z6-III with a comparatively slow shutter speed (1/250th) in order to make a panned photo making use of speed blur to help separate the Amtrak electric locomotive from the foreground and background.
Here are three photos exposed in rapid succession as the train raced east.
Expose using a Nikon Z6-III with 24-70mm Nikkor zoom set to 70mm, f4.5 1/250th of a second, ISO 100.
A few nights ago, Kris and I were driving down Greenfield Road in Lancaster and a westward Keystone zipped by overhead with Amtrak ACS-64 642 working at the back of the consist. This is wears the stylish Veterans paint livery. Neat!
Yesterday afternoon it was clear and bright, so I went over to Christiana to catch Keystone trains on the move.
I didn’t wait long, when the rails started singing the approach of train 656 from Harrisburg.
This was led by the cherry red front unique to ACS-64 642.
Lucky break!
I exposed this burst of images using my Nikon mirrorless Z6-III with 24-70mm lens.
Twenty-seven years ago, my father and I drove to Amsterdam, New York, to begin our epic two-day final photo shoot of Conrail. Twenty-three years earlier, at the end of March 1976, Pop and I had spent two days photographing New York-area railroads on the eve of Conrail.
At Guy Park, west of Amsterdam on the old Water Level Route, we watched the evening parade. Working with a Canon EOS Elan fitted with a 75–300mm Canon zoom lens (lent to me by Canon), I framed this view of an eastward multilevel freight catching the setting sun’s glint below the 177 automatic signals.
Last night, I improved a scan of the original slide using Lightroom, darkening the shadow areas to accentuate the reflections, make the glint more pronounced, and increase the drama of the moment.
I’m impressed by the way the Canon lens and Fujichrome film successfully captured the clear signal’s green aspect on the signal bridge. In my film days, I often struggled to photograph clear signals, which tended to overexpose in low light.
Conrail on May 28, 1999. A version of this image appeared in Trains Magazine back in 1999.
50 years after its creation, Tracking the Light marks the passage of Conrail—long live Big Blue!
As regular TTL readers may recognize, I’ve been working on this location for a while now.
A few weeks back, we picked up a southward Norfolk Southern coal train rolling along the Port Road Branch and followed it to the bridges at Safe Harbor.
We arrived with a few minutes to spare, so in the darkness I aimed to improve my angle on the tracks. Previous nocturnal views had unfortunately featured a wire, and this annoyed me, so I located a tighter view without the wire.
The Safe Harbor Dam is out of sight on the far side of the bridges, but the dam’s lighting provides a halo that helps to illuminate the train on the bridge while enabling a silhouette, which I like. While the evening mist along the Susquehanna enables the ‘laser-beam’ headlight effect. Too much backlight and the laser effect would be lost.
Exposed using my Nikon Z6-III mirrorless digital camera with f1.8 50mm lens. Exposure f1.8 at 1/100th ISO 40,000, processed with DxO PureRaw5.
I was reviewing some of my early slide scans and found this intriguing but troublesome image.
On a July evening in 1994, I’d exposed this Kodachrome 25 slide of an eastward Burlington Northern freight east of Marias Pass at Grizzley, Montana.
I’m looking back toward Glacier National Park using my old Nikkor f4.0 200mm lens.
This image looks impressive on a slide screen in a darkened room, but requires attention with digital post processing.
Below is the original scan, made using my old Epson V500 Flatbed Scanner followed by the same scan with color, contrast and exposure adjustment using Adobe Lightroom.
I need to locate the original slide, one of thousands in my Burlington Northern file, and rescan it using my Nikon LS5000 with VueScan software. This may allow for an improved image that retains a greater amount of detail and improved sharpness.
Original scan without adjustment. I was trying to capture the shafts of light over Glacier National Park.Adjusted original scan.
In the heat of the day, I took a walk at Amos Herr Park in Landisville, Pa., aiming to catch Amtrak Keystone 652 on its eastward journey over the former Pennsylvania Railroad.
I exposed this pair of images as the headend zipped by.
The second one is a hair to close by my normal standard. The front of the engine is visually intersecting a tree in the park. Is this a problem? Will the image age well?
I thought about giving this the title, “Snapping Up an HST.”
In June 2010, I bought my first (and only) DSLR: a Canon EOS 7D.
It’s a great camera, and I’ve made thousands of photographs with it.
Canon is famous for its color palette. However, I’ve often felt that many of my early digital images were somewhat lackluster in terms of contrast and composition.
The other day, I imported a variety of my Canon CR2 RAW files into DxO PureRAW 5 for DeepPRIME XD3 correction and conversion to DNG files for subsequent adjustment in Lightroom.
Among the images I felt needed improvement was file 4875, which I exposed in December 2010 in the United Kingdom. It depicts a former East Midlands HST racing north near Harpenden on the old Midland Main Line.
Below are representations of the original CR2 file. Both have been scaled as JPGs for internet presentation. The top image is shown without adjustment or conversion; the bottom image reflects an improved PureRAW interpretation of the RAW data, along with a variety of nominal changes to color, contrast, and exposure.
This remains a work in progress, as I’m curious to see how Word Press file compression alters my adjusted files in their final presentation here.
Scaled from the camera CR-2 RAW file without alteration to appearance.CR-2 RAW file following correction using DxO PureRAW 5 for DeepPRIME XD3 and conversion to DNG files for subsequent cosmetic adjustment in Lightroom.
Fresh foliage and soft Spring sun in a pastoral setting made for idylic timeless images of No. 89 working Strasburg Rail Road’s midday excursion to Paradise and back.
Over the past 20 years, I’ve photographed steam locomotives along the Strasburg Rail Road from dozens of angles. Despite the familiarity of the subject, every visit yields different photographs and I never tire of listening to the locomotives at work.
The inside of the Tamaqua Station Restaurant is resplandant in the glory of its former function.
Over conversation of trains and travels, I heard a note.
“I hear a whistle.”
We paused.
“That was the music playing”
Again, the note. This time louder.
We jumped up, I reached for my camera bag and darted for the door.
We stepped onto the station platform as a pair of Reading & Northern six-motor EMDs approached. These came to a stop in front of the station giving us time to make a few photos.
After a couple of digital images with the Nikon Z6, I exposed a series of color slides using my father’s old Leica M4 loaded with Ektachrome. Then I made some more digital photos, aiming to capture the locomotives with the station as well as more detailed views.
Soon the engines were reversing back toward the Tamaqua yard, and we resumed conversation over lunch inside the restaurant. In our absence, the food had arrived.
Never mind taking a ride on the Reading — why not enjoy lunch at the former Reading Company station in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania?
I caught up with my old friend and fellow photographer Dan Howard for lunch at the Tamaqua Station Restaurant. I’ve always had good luck here. The food is excellent, and more often than not, the Reading & Northern runs a train.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6.
Where’s the train? Patience, patience. We heard a horn and made a swift exit to the platform . . . (stay tuned).
I was hoping to again catch Amtrak trains passing at Christiana.
Instead, I caught trains 651 and 656 passing the old Pennsylvania Railroad station at Christiana a few minutes apart.
When I see these aged trains, I recall the old Metroliner, which I experienced in its early days as America’s super fast New York to Washington service.
In an era when American railroading seemed to be on the verge of extinction, the Metroliner offered another vision—one of speed and hope.
Soon these former Metroliner cab cars will join the old Metroliner as memories of another era.
On our way through New Ringgold, Pa., we spotted a classic station building along the Reading & Northern.
“Wait, what’s that? It wasn’t here the last time!”
We stopped to investigate the traditional halt, built in the style of many small station structures once common on the old Reading Company.
R&N was performing track work up the line, so there was little chance of catching a train on this visit. But, it would b a be cool place to make an action photograph in the future.
You just never know what you might find along the lines of the R&N!
I was working with two cameras; a Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital body with 24-70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom, and my father’s old Leica M4 with f1.4 35mm Summilux prime wide-angle loaded with Kodak Ektachrome 100.
Below are a pair of successive images; the first is a digital image exposed as an NEF RAW image using the Nikon, the second was on Ektachrome with the Leica. The slide was processed at AgX Imaging and scanned using a Nikon LS-5000 scanner. Both received very nominal post-processing in Lightroom to adjust contrast/gamma, and color bias to make the most of the data captured.
I like both images for different reasons.
Occasionally I’m asked why I continue to work with traditional color slides. That’s a long story. The simplest answers are: aesthetics, continuity and longevity. The latter seems to upset some photographers, so I’ll leave that for a later discussion.
Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm set at 70mm.Ektachrome with the Leica.
