Over the last few years works have been underway in the Dublin city centre to install tram tracks and related infrastructure for the LUAS Cross City extension of the Green Line.
Last week, Mark Healy and I made a walking tour on Dublin’s North Side to inspect progress on this route.
Part of the route uses the former Midland Great Western Railway right of way from its old Broadstone terminus to Broombridge.
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In early February, I was running a few last minute errands before my Trans-Atlantic journey.
Crossing the Boston & Albany on South Main Street in Palmer, Massachusetts, I saw a New England Central local approaching with an impressive cut of interchange.
In the lead was clean New England Central GP38-2 2048 in Genesee & Wyoming corporate paint. Although I’ve made countless hundreds of photographs from this location over the years, I won’t look a gift-horse in the mouth.
So for the sake of a couple of minutes detour, I made these images at CP83 using my Lumix LX7.
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Here’s a variation on a theme: another view of Irish Rail’s IWT liner at Stacumny Bridge near Hazelhatch.
Brian is Traveling for St. Patrick’s Weekend. New Material Daily!
Service Notice: Brian will be traveling for the next few days. New Tracking the Light posts will go up daily, but email notices may be delayed. To see the most recent posts, please check: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/
On Monday, 13 March 2017, I photographed Irish Rail 071 in heritage paint working the Sperry rail-defect detection train. (The Sperry equipment is in a yellow container at the middle of the train).
I’d planned these photographs at ‘the Gullet’ (west of Islandbridge Junction between Dublin Heuston and Inchicore) on the previous Friday, but the train was canceled. Patience and persistence paid off in the end. (There’s your tips for the day).
Irish Rail’s section of three tracks running from Islandbridge Junction to Inchicore in Dublin runs upgrade through a cutting (parallel to Con Colbert Road) known colloquially as ‘The Gullet’.
On Friday, 10 March 2017, I exposed these photos over one half an hour.
My primary subject was Irish Rail’s elusive spoil train that was expected up-road. When this passed, I relocated.
Sunlight? What’s that? After weeks of cold, wet, windy weather, we had a rare sunny afternoon in Ireland on Wednesday 8 March 2017.
Irish Rail class 201 number 232 was in fresh paint and working the up International Warehousing & Transport liner from Ballina to Dublin.
I traveled with Colm O’Callaghan to Stacumni Bridge near Hazelhatch on Irish Rail’s Dublin-Cork mainline. This is the section that was rebuilt with quad track a few years ago.
I made these images using my Fujifilm X-T1 with f2.0 90mm prime lens.
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That’s an Eric Clapton Song right?
Shortly after midnight on the morning of 26 July 2015, Dv12 diesels depart Oulu yard with a laden timber train.
I exposed this view thanks to the help of my Finnish friend and railway guide Markku Pulkinnen.
On Thursday 9 March, 2017, I’ll present my illustrated lecture called Night Trains, Pendolinos, Iron ore, Timber and Trams to the Irish Railway Record Society in Dublin.
This will be delivered at the IRRS premises near Heuston Station in Dublin (opposite the entrance to the car park). I will begin at 7:30pm (1930).
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It was bitterly cold when I exposed this view of the Burlington Northern in Minneapolis, Minnesota in January 1994.
Working with Kodachrome 25 and a borrowed Nikon F2, I carefully positioned myself to take advantage of the exhaust cloud from the distant power plant that nicely diffused the evening sun.
Years ago I was told; don’t photograph into the sun.
When making photos it’s important to recognize bad advice.
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In October 2014, I photographed this old MBTA (Boston) PCC car at the Connecticut Trolley Museum at East Windsor, Connecticut.
Just a rusty old ruin; but the car and its Kenmore destination board, brought me back to the early 1970s when my family lived a few blocks from MBTA’s Riverside Line at Newton Centre.
This route had been the Boston & Albany Highlands Branch, and was converted to a trolley line in 1960.
As young child, I was permitted freedom to wander around the neighborhood. My fascination with railways naturally brought me to the trolley line.
One afternoon, I’d been watching the PCC’s coming and going in front of the old B&A station. I’d often traveled on the cars with my parents, and I understood how the system worked.
Taking a chance, I quietly boarded one of the cars through the back door. I rode to Kenmore Square, where I boarded another car and returned to Newton Centre. I might have been five at the time. More than 40 years passed before I told anyone of this adventure. 🙂
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The old wig wag style grade crossing signal is now virtually extinct. However, in the 1990s, a fair number of these signals could still be found in Wisconsin.
This is an excerpt from my book Railroad Signaling (first published by MBI 2003):
One of the first standard types of automated visual grade crossing warning was the automatic flagman, a signal commonly known as a ‘wig wag’. [This was] adopted as a standard crossing device by the American Railway Association in 1923. A standard wig wag is actuated by a track circuit and consists of a paddle with a red lamp that gracefully swings back and forth in a horizontal pattern when a train approaches [and] usually accompanied by a bell . . . [at one time] the wig wag was the preferred type of grade crossing protection in the Midwest and far west. [They were] largely supplanted by modern flashing signals and crossing gates.
I was traveling with Marshall Beecher on the morning of August 3, 1996, when I exposed this view of Wisconsin Central’s southward freight ANPR-A approaching a grade crossing on the former Chicago & North Western line in Fond du Lac. This line saw less traffic than WC’s near by former Soo Line mainline over Byron Hill, but the attraction was these antique signals. Notice my use of selective depth of field.
I find one of the great benefits of digital photography is the ability to carry a high-quality imaging machine with me at all times. Also, other than the initial investment, the relative cost of individual photos is inconsequential.
As result, I’m unhindered by weight or cost in the seeing and making of photos.
Does this make for better images? Not necessarily, but it facilitates me to make a more complete record of my travels and capture ordinary scenes such as this view of the Mass-Central at Gilbertville, Massachusetts on a brilliant October 2014 afternoon.
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Back in the old days of television when a broadcasting problem developed a test pattern would appear.
Eventually the problem (of which the details remained elusive) would be resolved and the programming would resume.
Please note that if you do not see a photo below, then Tracking the Light is experiencing a problem today.
However, if you do see a photo than perhaps the problem has been resolved.
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In September 2001, I used a Contax G2 rangefinder to expose this view of a VR (Finnish Railways) Dv12 diesel at the Oulu roundhouse.
On Thursday 9 March , 2017, two weeks from tonight I’ll be giving my Illustrated Lecture called Night Trains, Pendolinos, Iron ore, Timber and Trams to the Irish Railway Record Society in Dublin.
This will be delivered at the IRRS premises near Heuston Station in Dublin (opposite the entrance to the car park). I will begin at 7:30pm (1930).
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The gloom of last Sunday afternoon in Dublin was briefly brightened by the appearance of this specially painted tram, dressed in the latest advertising livery.
Having spotted the tram arriving at St. Stephens Green, I hoofed it up Harcourt Street, where I selected a spot near the Albany House Hotel to photograph its outbound run.
Tracking the Light features something different every day.
It was a pleasant surprise for me this morning when I checked Facebook and learned that Trains Magazine’s Brian Schmidt has nominated me as Mr. Railroad in the magazine’s on-line blog Train of Thought.
See: http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/staff/archive/2017/02/20/and-mr-railroad-is.aspx
This is a real honor and thought I’d pass it on to Tracking the Light’s readers. I guess all those hours scouring libraries and making observations trackside has finally caught a bit of notice.
Standing upon the wall of King John’s Castle in Limerick, I made this photograph looking in a northerly direction.
I found that I could just see the top of Irish Rail’s bridge on the Limerick-Ennis Line (top right). (Not to be confused with the prominent non-rail spans over the River Shannon at the top left).
I was about to consult my phone to see when the next train was scheduled, when I noticed a Ennis-Limerick railcar rolling toward Colbert Station. ‘Poor timing’ I thought, ‘I’ve just missed a train.’
No, actually the timing was perfect. So perfect in fact I didn’t even know I’d caught the train until I inspected my results later in the day.
Wait! You don’t believe me do you? Admit it, you think I sat upon that wall in anticipation, all the while poised waiting for the train to appear!
As they say in Philadelphia, ‘Uh uh.’
Next time, I’ll bring a big telephoto lens.
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It was here at Colbert Station Limerick that I boarded my first Irish Rail train, a two piece push-pull led by a 121 Class General Motors diesel. That was just about 19 years ago (February 1998).
The other day, I decided to travel by train to Limerick. Unfortunately on the way out I discovered that my ‘connection’ at Limerick Junction was a bus. Poor show Irish Rail. (Can I blame them for the rain too?)
On the return, my train operated (hooray!). Waiting to board, I made a few photos of the old station, which uses of the traditional terminal head-house and iron train shed arrangement.
Out front it has been cleaned up a bit, but for the most part the station looks much the way it did on my first visit all those years ago. No 121 though.
All photos were exposed using my Lumix LX7 in February 2017.
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Tomorrow: how I photographed a train by accident.
I exposed these photos of Irish Rail’s former Midland & Great Western Railway station at Ballinsloe in January 2000. At the time, Fujichrome Sensia II (100 ISO) was my standard colour slide film.
Crisp winter sun made for excellent lighting to feature this stone building.
A low angle can make for a more dramatic image.
Maybe this is why that at an early age some of us were so impressed by trains to begin with?
I made this view at East Troy, Wisconsin on September 3, 1994 using my Nikon F3T with an AF f2.8 28mm Nikkor lens. Kodachrome 25 was my preferred emulsion at that time.
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So do you go out in poor light to catch something unusual? That’s your choice.
Sometimes I hold off for fine weather or good light to make images. Other times I’m faced with catching something in prevailing conditions. The railway doesn’t run for sunshine.
Once a week Irish schedules an extra IWT Liner (International Warehousing & Transport—Dublin North Wall to Ballina, Co. Mayo). In recent months, this has operated with the elusive container pocket wagons (CPWs). But it doesn’t necessarily run every week.
I have plenty of photos from Islandbridge Junction, and no shortage of images depicting the IWT Liner, and while I’ve photographed the CPWs over the years, last week I knew for certain (that’s railway certain, which is at best uncertain) that the CPWs were on due to pass.
So despite flat light, I made the effort.
Literally.
Hooray for puddles and dusk. (I’ve put all the useful information in the caption).
I’ll be giving my Illustrated Lecture called Night Trains, Pendolinos, Iron ore, Timber and Trams to the Irish Railway Record Society in Dublin to be presented on Thursday 9 March , 2017.
This will be delivered at the IRRS premises near Heuston Station in Dublin (opposite the entrance to the car park). I will begin at 7:30pm (1930).
This is a follow up to my Tracking the Light post of December 23, 2016, where I explained that on Wednesday December 21, 2016, Otto Vondrak sent me the sad news that the old station at Berlin, Connecticut had been gutted by fire.
This was reported as a ‘total loss.’
I generally avoid accidents, derailment sites, and fires. However, a few weeks ago, I decided I should take a look at the remains of the Berlin station before the scene was made unrecognizable.
In July 2007, I was about to board a long distance train for L’viv, when I exposed this photo at Chernivsti, Ukraine on Fujichrome with my Canon EOS 3 with 100mm lens.
Ukraine was a great place to watch and ride trains, except for the business of buying tickets, which I found unusually challenging, especially without the ability to speak Ukrainian!
An old favorite photo location is the Connecticut River bridge at East Deerfield, Massachusetts.
Earlier this month, photographer Mike Gardner and I caught two freights crossing this traditional span within just a few minutes of each other.
The first was eastward autorack train symbol 28T operating to Ayer, Massachusetts with Norfolk Southern locomotives. A few minutes later, Pan Am freight POED (Portland to East Deerfield) worked west with recently acquired former CSX General Electric DASH8-40Cs.
Historically this was the Boston & Maine’s Fitchburg line; B&M was melded into the Guilford system in the 1980s and in the mid-2000s . Today, Pan Am and Norfolk Southern are partners in operating Boston & Maine lines west of Ayer as Pan Am Southern.
Sorry, not the N&W J.
The other day when photographer Mike Gardner and I were in hot pursuit of New England Central freight 611, and we saw this scene unfolding as we approached the Vermont-Massachusetts state line.
The locomotives were catching the light against a dramatic sky in a wide-open landscape.
Wonderful, but we were sorely out of position.
This 112-car freight had been making better progress than I anticipated.
Rather than bemoan the loss of a cosmic shot, I rolled down window and popped off a few frames with my old Leica IIIA.
When you see a true photograph, act decisively—no regrets.
I wish I this clever in other areas.
Here I am with the Leica IIIA. New England Central freight 611 is along side the car near Brattleboro, Vermont.
Exposed on Ilford HP5.
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Last week I traveled with fellow photographer Mike Gardner to Brattleboro, Vermont to make images of the New England Central Railroad.
In this view, I photographed Mike photographing the train as it works the south end of Brattleboro yard.
Filtered morning sun, snow and hoar frost all added to the atmosphere.
This was exposed on Ilford HP5 using a Leica IIIA with 50mm Summitar lens—the camera & lens combination with which I made thousands of photos between 1977 and 1986.
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I said. “Give it five minutes, that Acela ought to be along. The light’s nice, it would be a shame to waste it.”
Amtrak’s High Speed Trains in Acela service make for nice evening subjects since their stainless-steel bodies reflect the light well.
Exposure can be a bit tricky. If you don’t compensate for the flash of glint, you might end up with a washed out photo (over exposed).
Here’s a secret; anticipate the flash as being about 1.5 stops brighter than the ambient lighting and set your exposure manually rather than using one of the camera’s automatic settings.
Last summer, fellow photographer Pat Yough and I made a project of exploring the old New Haven Shoreline route between New Haven and Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
We decided that some of the locations we investigated on summer evenings, would have better lighting on a winter afternoon.
So on January 29, 2017, we re-visited the Shore Line East station at Clinton, Connecticut and photographed a processions of trains.
Here’s a view of Shore Line East train number 3645 working west with a locomotive painted for the old New Haven Railroad.
This colorful engine was a bonus since many Shore Line East trains run with old Amtrak Genesis P40 diesels in faded Amtrak colors.
For a change, I thought I’d present a three-quarter lit view of a nice clean train on a clear sunny January afternoon. (If you are viewing on Facebook, be sure to click the link to Tracking the Light to see the un-cropped image).
Often on Tracking the Light I detail unusual or uncommon photographic techniques. I’ve discussed how to make pan photographs, how to work with graduated neutral density filters, how to expose at night or in very low light.
I made this at Old Saybrook. Pat Yough and I were wandering around Connecticut after the BIG Railroad Hobby Show, and we paused here to catch Amtrak 163 led by clean ACS-64 635.
Nothing fancy about this photo, although I’ve include the relevant details in the caption, just in case you are curious.
A couple of weeks ago, I made these views from a public overlook of the Palisades Parkway that show the former New York Central electrified Hudson Division at Spuyten Duyvil.
The sun was rising through a thick layer of urban pollution with made for a stunning red-orange glow.
My challenge was balancing the light so that the train running along the river wouldn’t completely disappear into the background.
Below are four variations. I’m displaying two photo files, one made with an external Lee 0.9 graduated neutral density filter. The others were made without the external filter, with one of the two images adjusted digitally using Lightroom with a simulated graduated filter.
I’ll explain each in the captions, but let you draw your own conclusions.
A dreary evening at Mitteneague in West Springfield, Massachusetts was briefly brightened by a wink of drop under sun.
Luckily for me, at the very moment the trees in the distance were illuminated by this unexpected golden glow, I heard CSX’s Selkirk to West Springfield manifest freight Q424 approaching.
I exposed these trailing views with my 90mm f2.0 Fujinon lens.
Below are two variations of each image; one is a JPG made from the RAW without interpretation, the other is an adjusted file to represent what I saw at the time of exposure.
Camera RAW files only represent the information (data) collected by the camera sensor, and rarely display an image as the scene actually appeared, thus the need for interpretation/adjustment during post processing.
It was a rainy Tuesday last week when I made these photos near University City in Philadelphia.
Regional passenger operator SEPTA has two unusual road-switchers (nos. 60 and 61), model RL-1, built by Republic Locomotive.
As locomotives go, these are real rare-birds. Although I’ve seen these from the window of the train, I’d never before caught one on the line.
On this day, I saw engine 60 working SEPTA’s wire train.
I made several photos using my Lumix LX7, plus a film photo exposed on Foma Retropan 320 using a Nikon F3 with 50mm lens.
Needless to say it wasn’t a very bright day. But it always pays to capture unusual equipment regardless of atmospheric conditions.
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Last week, I made another visit to the scenic Lower Hudson Valley.
At first I was delighted by about 6 inches of freshly fallen snow.
Then I began to discover a new challenge. One by one, I found that all my usual parking spots were essentially inaccessible because of the snow.
Despite this difficulty, I secured a spot near Breakneck Ridge, and made the difficult climb on foot to this vista. While not a bad hike on a dry day, this was tricky with snow on top of mud.
My reward was a clean Amtrak dual mode Genesis running south on the normal northward track to go around a HyRail truck.
Photos exposed using my FujiFilm X-T1 digital camera with 18-135mm Fujinon zoom lens.
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