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Molino—60 Years Ago and Today

In October 1964, my father photographed Reading Company T-1 No. 2100 crossing a field at a rural gradecrossing near Molino, Pennsylvania. This was on one of his many chases of Reading’s Iron Horse Rambles.

Sixty years later—plus or minus a few of days—I brought Kris and Seamus-the-dog to this very same crossing.

“Pop made a photo here.”

We parked our Honda and walked Seamus, while waiting for the returning Reading & Northern Fall Foliage Excursion to pass with the F7s leading.

I was thinking that this location really hadn’t changed much, although the railroad has. Reading Company was melded into Conrail in 1976, and then 23 years later Conrail was divided between Norfolk Southern and CSX. In the meantime, Andy Muller carved out his Reading & Northern empire from lines cast away by Conrail during its retrenchment years.

Before the train came into view, we found an enormous praying mantis sitting on the front tire of the Honda. My first attempt to shoo the wee critter into safety failed when it scurried around the backside of the tire.

Then we heard the horn of the approaching excursion. We made our photos. However rather than jump into the car for spirited chase, I needed to persuade the mantis to relocate. Ultimately, I coaxed it to cling on to my pen. Kris found this amusing and made a few photos. I found a nice spot in the grass for the big bug and we were on our way again.

Exposed using a FujiFilm X-T4.

Yesterday, I sent Pop a preview of today’s post. He has hundreds of Reading photos.

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Old 89 with a Fuji X-T4

It has been almost a year since we added a 50-140mm Fujinon telephoto zoom to our arsenal of lenses for the Fuji X-T4.

I often like to play with . . . I mean experiment with . . . different types of equipment. So a few days ago I took the X-T4 out to make a few photos of Straburg Rail Road’s outbound midday train. Usually it is in Kris’ capable hands. I exposed these views at Blackhorse Road using the 50-140mm lens.

I’ve always liked the color palatte and sharpness offered by the FujiFilm digital cameras, and these photos exemplify the warm saturated tones offered by the X-T4.

Strasburg 89 near Blackhorse Road; exposed in RAF (RAW) format using a FujiFilm X-T4 with 50-140mm lens. Processed in Lightroom.
Strasburg 89 near Blackhorse Road; exposed in RAF (RAW) format using a FujiFilm X-T4 with 50-140mm lens. Processed in Lightroom and cropped slightly from the original file.

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Re-examining Bad Negatives Further Botched by Poor Processing

Sometimes I just got it wrong.

On my August 1984 trip to Montreal, I carried two Leica 3A rangefinders.

One was loaded with Kodachrome. The other with Kodak Tri-X.

The problem was that on the B&W camera, I was using a pre-war (1930s vintage) Leitz Elmar with uncoated elements. While sharp, this tended to produce low-contrast images that exhibited a variety of artifacts.

Complicating matters, the I had bulk-loaded Tri-X into cassetts that I’d used again and again. In this instance, the cassette suffered from some minor light leaks and scratched so of the negatives.

The shutter on the old Leica wasn’t the best. While it did ok at a 1/200th, and 1/100th (no 1/250th or 1/125th as on more modern cameras), most of the other shutter speeds were a bit random.

And if all that wasn’t enough, I did a pretty poor job of processing the film! I don’t recall exactly what I did, but from the looks of the negatives, I was using nearly exhausted developer. To compensate for the weak solution, I upped the temperature and the time. The results were very low contrast with comparatively high-grain.

Back in the day, I’d deemed the negatives too challenging to print, so I put them in a glassine envelope largely unprinted.

Despite all that, I’d managed to make some interesting compositions, if not great photographs. The other day I scanned the whole roll.

The photo displayed here iswest of Montreal at Sainte Anne-de-Bellevue along the parallel Canadian National and Canadian Pacific double lines.

I had taken a suburban train from Windsor Station. And made this view of an eastward VIA Rail LRC train with MLW diesel coming out of the afternoon sun.

Unmodified scan of 35mm Kodak Tri-X negative exposed using uncoated Leitz 50mm Elmar with a Leica 3A rangefinder processed in some sort of low-grade soup that barely qualified as developer.
Slightly improved version of the above photo. This was modified in digital post processing to increase contrast, remove spots and adjust exposure.

The following year, as my second camera, I brought with me to Montreal my father’s vintage 1960 Rolleiflex Model T, which used 120 size film and had an excellent Zeiss Tessar lens (coated!). Loaded with Plus-X, this produced vastly superior results.

Live and learn.

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F7s on the Move!

Years ago I photographed Norfolk Southern’s executive F-units leading the company office car train on various occasions.

Last Saturday, Kris and I intercepted these famous streamliners working Reading & Northern’s Fall Foliage Excursion on its return run from Jim Thorpe to North Reading.

It was a gorgeous clear afternoon and the autumn leaves were beginning to pop. We investigated a variety of places to make photos and ultimately settled on Tippets Road near Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania.

I wanted to make the most of the autumn color, while featuring the F’s classic ‘bull-dog’ nose and car body style construction.

I made these photos while working with both of my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras. Kris made photos with her FujiFilm X-T4 mirrorless camera. Seamus-the-Dog took it all in from the back seat of the car.

Once the train passed we zipped off after it to make more images in the late afternoon light!

I found it interesting that on the previous weekend we found fellow photographers at every bend to make photos of steam locomotive 2102, but on this day when photographing the F’s on exactly the same route, we only saw only other person making photos between Tippets Road and North Reading. This was especially remarkable considering the beautiful autumnal conditions!

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Reading & Northern at Milepost 105

Last Saturday was warm and clear. We had a late start, but decided to make another drive into coal country to photograph Reading & Northern Autumn Foliage Excursions.

Since we had a little time, we explored a few different locations. Kris liked the view from a grade crossing between East Mahanoy Junction and Haucks (compass north of Tamaqua, Pa.) at milepost 105. This was once a very railroad intense part of Pennsylvania. Today several lines still converge on this area.

We didn’t have long to wait and Reading & Northern’s return trip to Pottsville passed us with three vintage Budd RDCs!

I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.

Soon we were searching for another location to catch R&N’s F7s with the train from Jim Thorpe bound for Reading Outer Station. Stay tuned . . .

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Lehigh Valley 40 Sunburst

A beautiful autumn sunset made for a perfect situation to photograph Lehigh Valley number 40 which resides at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

In the 1950s, my father rode this car from Jim Thorpe to Hazelton and made several photos of it in revenue service.

Years later, we traveled together on RDCs on former New Haven lines in New England.

One of the former New Haven RDCs later came to New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic Railroad, where I had the opportunity to be qualified as a ‘motorman’, and on several occasions operated the car in revenue service.

In 2022, Kris and I took Conway Scenic Railroad number 23, ‘Millie’, on a spin to Conway, NH., and back for our pre-wedding special with many of our friends and family on board.

Every so often someone tells me that they don’t like Budd RDCs. I dismiss them as daft.

Exposed using a Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.

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I Shouldn’t Have Been at South Station

In April 1984, the Monson Jr-Sr High School Band had a musical exchange with a school band in Cohasset, Massachusetts.

The day of the joint concert, the 3rd Trombone took a bus to South Braintree, changed for the Red Line, paid a visit to South Station, photographed some former New Haven Railroad RDC’s, took a spin on the Orange Line to Sullivan Square, and eventually arrived back at the concert to play his note.

Unforntunately, karma caught the 3rd trombone, who did a subpar job of processing the Kodak Tri-X exposed on the big adventure.

These days, catching four vintage RDC’s in commuter service would be a major coup.

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RDC’s at Nesquehoning

On our October 5th trip, we were driving back toward Jim Thorpe following the former Central Railroad of Jersey line that now serves as a link between two key portions of the Reading & Northern empire.

As we approached R&N’s new station at Nesquehoning, Pa., where earlier in the day we had photographed steam locomotive 2102 on its eastward journey, we spotted the headlights of a westward train.

It was R&N’s RDC trip returning to Pottsville (via Port Clinton).

I turned the car around, parked, and Kris and I jumped out to make photos. (And Seamus rolled the train by from inside the car).

Pictures taken, we raced after the two-car pocket streamliner, catching it again a few minutes later at Panther Creek.

I’m a big fan of the Budd RDC, so this was a bonus! It was an unexpected delight that added to our wonderful day following trains in coal country.

Grab shot at Nesquehoning; Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens.
Reading & Northern’s pair of RDCs passing the Panther Creek location sign. Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens.

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Sweet Light at Zehners—Steam Marching Home.

I’m always trying to come up with catchy titles for my individual Tracking the Light Posts to entice you to read them.

I could have titled this; ‘2102, again.’ Or ‘Yet Another Photo of old Reading Company Rails,’ or perhaps, ‘OH YEAH, THIS was worth the wait!’

In retrospect, perhaps that last one was better . . .oh well, there’s always tomorrow’s post.

On the afternoon of October 5th, Kris and I were poised at Zehners, near South Tamaqua, Pa., waiting to catch Reading & Northern’s 2102 leading the return leg of the day’s Fall Foliage Excursion that had run between Reading Outer Station and Jim Thorpe.

Low sun made for dramatic lighting, and it really was worth the wait! Sometimes it pays to stick with it, even when you’ve been out all day making photos.

I made this series of photos using my Nikon Z mirrorless cameras.

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Lancaster Junction

There’s no junction at Lancaster Junction anymore.

Reading Company’s Reading & Columbia route split at Lancaster Junction. One line continued toward Landisville where it crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad on the way to Columbia. The other line, curved to the left and went into Lancaster, Pa.

Today, the railroad is operated by Norfolk Southern, and only the branch to Lancaster remains. The route beyond Lancaster Junction is now a trail.

I’ve made a couple of visits to this spot in recent weeks. I wished I’d seen this location in it heyday, but I’m happy there’s still some trackage here. Maybe someday, I’ll catch an NS local freight on its way to or from Lititz.

Lancaster Junction looking toward Lancaster; the old route on the right is now a trail.
Looking toward Lititz.

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Classic View at Stateline Tunnel

In the mid-1980s, I made numerous trips to photograph Conrail’s Boston Line—the former Boston & Albany—at Stateline Tunnel. This short, curved, twin bore tunnel is located a few miles west of the Massachusetts-New York Stateline in Canaan, New York.

On the morning of Aug 24, 1984, my pal TSH and I spent several hours at the tunnel waiting for trains. Four decades earlier, my friend Bob Buck had photographed at this same location, and I was familiar with his photos of B&A’s Lima Berkshires, New York Central Mohawks, and new Alco FA diesels at the tunnel.

I made this view of Amtrak Train 448—Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited—approaching the west portal on the eastward track using my pre-war Leica 3A 35mm camera loaded with Kodak Tri-X.

This was an early favorite photo of mine and for years I had a mounted print of it on my wall.

The negative had been missing for decades, but resurfaced the other day while I was going through boxes in our new house.

I scanned the original 35mm negative using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner and processed the image using Adobe Lightroom.

More than 40 years have passed since I exposed this image. It just doesn’t seem so long! Today, Bob Buck would have been 95! Happy Birthday Bob!

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2102 Up Close at Nesquehoning

With the sun over our left shoulder, we set up in Nequehoning near the new Reading & Northern station to roll by class T-1 4-8-4 2102 on its run to Jim Thorpe.

This is an amazing machine. Seeing it on the move never gets old.

I made this sequence of photos using my Nikon Z-series cameras.

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Orange Sky at Esbenshade

Sunday evening, we waited out the sunset at Esbenshade Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.

Strasburg Rail Road had scheduled a seasonally themed late-departure. I figured this would be an ideal opportunity to make some sunset views of the train.

The orange globe of the sun was nearly at the horizon by the time old 89 worked up the grade toward Paradise Lane.

To make the most of the sky, I exposed this sequence manually rather than relying on the in-camera meter to intrepret what I was tying to preserve digitally. Key to my exposure was the desire to capture the defining shape of the sun and not merely as a fuzzy blob.

I needed to make a variety of changes to the RAW files in post processing, and I think the final results speak of success.

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Reading & Northern 2102 arriving at Port Clinton—October 5, 2024

Saturday was a beautiful clear October morning. I walked up to the station at Port Clinton, Pennsylvania to photograph the arrival of locomotive 2102 from North Reading on its journey to Jim Thorpe.

I felt like a wee plastic man on a really big HO-scale railroad.

Back lit lighting made for dramatic images, but then required a bit of contrast control and selective lightening for final presentation.

I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom lens.

After the train arrived to pick up passengers, I walked back to the grade crossing near the village of Port Clinton to photograph the thundering departure of this magnificent machine. Stay tuned!

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Budd Cars Port Clinton

Yesterday (October 5, 2024), Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I drove up to Port Clinton, Pennsylvania to spend a day photographing former Reading Company class T-1 4-8-4 2102 on the Reading Northern.

Waiting for the magnificent iron horse to make its appearance, I was delighted to catch a pair of Reading & Northern former Reading Company Budd RDCs (rail diesel cars) making a run from Pottsville to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.

I’m a big fan of the class Budd RDC, so this was a nice bonus for me.

I exposed these digital images using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens. I help compensate for the rich polarize morning sunshine, I’ve made a variety of nominal adjustments to contrast and exposure using Adobe Lightroom.

I also exposed a few 35mm color slides with a Nikon F3. Those remain in the camera, and it might be a while before I have them processed.

(And yes, we achived our objective and spent most of the day making dynamic photos of the 4-8-4 at work).

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Timeless 89 Approaching Carpenters

Yesterday, I met up with Tracking the Light reader and photographer Andrew Ludasi at Strasburg. We drove to Carpenters to catch the 3pm returning with engine 89.

It was dull afternoon, but the sound of the locomotive in the pastoral setting was rewarding. After the train passed, we discussed cameras, film and photographic technique.

I mentioned that I always liked black & white, and in years past often used black & white film even when I’d had the opportunity to expose color. I suggested that occasionally, I’d convert digital color photos to black & white, and this might be a good idea for today’s photos.

Last night during the processing of my images, I desaturated one of the photos and cropped it to make for a more dramatic composition.

In this image, I didn’t make for a full black & white conversion as I left a hint of color and gave the image a sepia-tint for effect.

Is this better than the full color versions? Today, I can have the best of color and black & white. Take your pick as to which versions you prefer.

Full frame color version; Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Z-series zoom.

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Dark December Day—Greenfield, Mass.

I have a few notes from December 16, 1984. Not as many as I wish I’d taken.

I’d started the morning in Springfield, Massachusetts where I met my friends and we continued north to Greenfield. It was pretty dark when we caught this eastward freight, passing the old Greenfield station site. The Connecticut River Main Line is in the foreground.

It was lightly snowing/sleeting. Pretty bleak conditions for photography.

This was early in the Guilford era, at a time when it was common to find Maine Central and Delaware & Hudson locomotives working Boston & Maine trains. In this instance, Maine Central GP38 262 was leading a former D&H General Electric U23B that had been transferred to Maine Central. At the back of the train was a Delaware & Hudson caboose.

Decades later, while working at Conway Scenic in North Conway, NH. I became familiar with Maine Central GP38s 252 and 255, so I find it fascinating to review these photos that I made 40 years ago of sister locomotive 262.

Greenfield MA Dec16 1984

These are thin negatives exposed on Kodak Tri-X using my Leica 3A with a Canon f1.8 50mm lens. Back then, my understanding of black & white processing was pretty basic, and I used a straight mix of Kodak D76 for the standard time. Live and learn.

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Time and the Diamond

In the summer of 1984, I played with a variety of lenses. I’d dropped my stalwart 50mm Leitz Sumitar , and so tended to prefer either an f1.8 Canon 50mm or my dad’s prized 21mm Leitz Super Angulon.

In August of that year, I was poised at the Palmer Diamond (where Conrail’s Boston Line crossed the Central Vermont Railway in Palmer, Massachusetts) to photograph a westward set of light engines running ‘cab hop’ toward West Springfield Yard.

The sun was partially obscured by a cloud, but the air was crisp.

I made this photo with my Leica 3A rangefinder fitted with the Super Angulon. Among the advantages of this lens was the external viewfinder which allowed for a larger and more precise means of composing photos than the tiny in-camera viewfinder that was designed strictly for a 50mm.

Palmer has changed greatly since 1984. For point of comparison, I’ve included a view of the diamond that I exposed in September 2023.

Conrail single-tracked the Boston Line in July 1986, and the trees have come up obscuring the view that I was once afforded there.

Please activate the time machine and set it to August 1984!

Looking west at Palmer, Mass. New Conrail C30-7As roll west on the old Boston & Albany. August 1984.
Looking west at Palmer, Mass., September 9, 2023.

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The Elusive 915

This past Saturday, I gave a 45 minute talk on the Development and Application of the American Steam Locomotive to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

Among the attendees was SUNY-Buffalo Associate Professor David Alff, who presented later in the evening. His topic was on his most recent publication, the Northeast Corridor. He offered a fascinating social history, not just of the modern day railroad, but of more than two centuries of transportation.

Earlier in the day David and I shared a table signing our respective books and I was telling him of my days watching trains from my grandparents terrace in Co-op City overlooking the Northeast Corridor in The Bronx.(New York City).

Here I am signing a book on Saturday. Photo by Kris Solomon

Sitting out in front of the museum is Amtrak AEM-7 915, a locomotive that spent roughly 35 years hauling trains on the Northeast Corridor. I have more photos of this classic electric at Strasburg than I do of it under wire.

Over the last few months, I’ve scoured thousands of my own photos, looking for the most representative and evocative images of Amtrak locomotives and trains for my latest book ‘Amtrak Equipment’ (that I’m now in the final stages of completing). In this process, I was frustrated in locating decent images of old 915 at work. (Although, I found a few of its from years ago, and some of those have appeared on Tracking the Light.)

Last night, I was reviewing some black & white negatives from the 1980s that I’d scanned back in 2016, and I found a sequence of telephoto views that I made with my father’s Leica M3 from my grandparents’ terrace.

I had been making photos here since the mid-1970s, but many suffered from inexperience and ineffective technique. By the summer of 1985, I had perfected my black & white photo technique to the point where I finally able to make some satisfying images of trains from this family vantage point.

In the black & white view below of Amtrak 915 crossing the Pelham River, I was using a Leitz Wetzlar f4 135mm Elmar lens, which was a remarkable sharp piece of glass.

Finding this photo was a Eureka! moment.

915 now rests in front of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg.
Amtrak 915 in August 1985 leading a train toward Penn Station, as viewed from apartment 19E, Co-op City, The Bronx, NY.

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Overexposed on the Branch

Among the remarkable qualities of the Nikon Z cameras is their exceptional exposure latitude.

I don’t set out to make bad photos, but every so often I simply have the camera set incorrectly.

The other day, on our Sunday drive, Kris and I spotted Norfolk Southern’s local freight on the New Holland Branch at Leola, Pa. I pulled over and made a photo using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens set to 175mm. The problem was that I had the ISO set at 1000 and the f-stop set to f2.8.

The camera gave me the fastest shutter speed, 1/8000th, which still left my photo more than a stop over-exposed. Working with Adobe Lightroom, I was able to recover most of the data from the NEF RAW file and present a decent representation of the image, including considerable sky detail.

I also made a series of properly exposed photos, but I’m aiming to demonstrate that even in situations of extreme overexposure, it is possible to adjust the file to present a decent image if your equipment has captured the data in RAW.

NEF RAW file, converted to JPG without adjustement. This is at least one full stop overexposed.
This is the same file as above, but featured my first round of adjustments to correct for the over exposure. In my opinion, the photo still needed some work.
NEF RAW file after my second round of corrections.
This is my Lightroom work-window that shows the postion of the slider controls and the degree of adjustments necessary to correct for the overexposed photo.

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Visiting the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

Yesterday morning I paid a visit to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

My principal objective was to perform a dry run of the illustrated program on Steam Locomotive that I will present today to the Museum’s members.

Afterward, I wandered around looking at all my favorite exhibits.

I made these photos using my Lumix LX7.

One of the great things about where we live is that the museum is only about a 15 minute drive from our house.

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Angles on the old Reading & Columbia

The old Reading & Columbia route of the Reading Company was fragmented during the Conrail-era and what remains is operated by several different railroads.

Historically, the line offered the Reading Company a through-route from greater Reading, Pa., via a junction at Sinking Spring, to Manheim, and Lancaster Junction to the once-important shipping center at Columbia, Pa., with branches to Mt Hope and Lancaster.

Today, the eastern end of this route is operated as part of the East Penn Railroad, with locomotives stored at the old Reading Company station in Reinholds. This continues via Denver and Stevens toward Ephrata.

I began exploring this route after we moved to Lancaster last year. Last week, I made another inspection of this route, making photos of the line using my Lumix LX7. I started at Reinholds and worked my way west.

One of these days, I hope to catch a train on the move over these rails.

Reinholds, Pa., looking toward Sinking Spring.
Reinholds, Pa., looking toward Sinking Spring.
Reinholds, Pa., looking toward Sinking Spring.
Reinholds, Pa., looking toward Sinking Spring.
Denver, Pa.,
Denver, Pa.
Denver, Pa.
Denver, Pa.
Garden Spot Road, near Stevens, Pa.
Garden Spot Road, near Stevens, Pa.

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Antiques at Stewartstown

It was a nice day for a drive.

Meandering roads southwest of the Susquehanna brought us to Stewartstown, Pa., home to the historic railroad of the same name.

I made these images of some of the antiques on display at the end of the line. For me, the Pennsylvania Railroad flat car was most interesting to look at, but a challenge to photograph.

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Amtrak 656 at Sunset

Arriving in our new Honda CR-V Hybrid, we safely pulled off Route 741 at Gap, Pa., to roll by Amtrak Keystone 656 from Harrisburg. This was running just a few minutes after the advertised.

I set up with my Nikon Z6 and 70-200mm lens, aiming to catch the train against the sunset sky. (The sun was just an orange glob slowly melting into the western horizon.)

We received a friendly blast from the engineer in the old Metroliner control cab as the train glided through the curve at Gap.

I like the trailing view with our new car and Kris in the passenger seat. Amtrak 656 is fading into the distance, but we already know what that looks like.

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Editing the View I Didn’t Often See

I walked by this location almost everyday I was in Dublin, but I rarely ever saw this angle. My common spot was around the corner where I could get a clear view over the wall.

On September 20, 2016, I was working with my FujiFilm XT1, which had an extendable, adjustible rear panel display. I had had some help from fellow photographer Jay Monaghan who assisted me to get this angle.

The light was dull and this suited the angle, which would have been partially shadowed had the sun been out.

Belmond’s luxury Grand Hibernian tour train was departing Dublin and I made a sequence as the train passed.

Yesterday, working with Adobe Lightroom, I made a series of post-processing adjustments to the RAF RAW file, including some exposure and contrast adjustment to the AI-masked sky to bring in cloud detail.

I also lightened the shadow areas, while globally increasing contrast and saturation, and corrected the level.

The first photo is the scaled but unmodified image. The second shows the mask in the Adobe Lightroom work window. The last two are my final interpretations, the fourth features addition of a slight vignette.

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Pennsylvania Railroad Spans at Havre de Grace

In my book North American Railroad Bridges published by Voyageur Press in 2008, I described the double track former Pennsylvania Railroad bridge over the Susquehanna at Havre de Grace, Maryland;

“Between August 10, 1905, and May 22, 1906, PRR built 17 deck truss spans on the piers, ranging from 196 feet 6 inches to 260 feet long, with 24 feet 3 inch clearance above mean water level. To clear large ships, a central swing span was installed. “

Earlier this year, Amtrak broke ground for the replacement of this historic bridge. Last week, Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I drove to Havre de Grace, where I made a few photos of trains gliding across the bridge. In the distance is construction equipment, which appear to be removing the piers of an earlier railroad bridge in preparation for the new spans.

These views show Amtrak 195 (Boston-Washington) led by ACS-64 634 with Amfleet in tow. Exposed using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Z-series zoom.

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Fixing Glint and an Example of Fibonacci Composition

On September 17, 2019, my old pal TSH and I were poised at the south portal of the Bett Tunnel near St. Goar, Germany.

When a southward DB InterCity train burst forth from the inky gloom, I exposed a burst of digital images using my FujiFilm XT1.

Unfortunately the front profile of the iconic DB Class 101 electric caught the glint of the midday sun that resulted in over-exposure.

Working with Adobe Lightroom, I was able to reduce and appropriately adjust the exposure on the front of the locomotive while retaining proper exposure for the rest of the scene. I also recropped the photo and corrected for a 1-degree error in level.

Although it was unintentional, as I made this image in the briefest moment, this offers a subtle near- example of a Fibonacci composition, which is represented in the relative separation of key vertical elements.

For this example, I refer to the simple Fibonacci sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5 etc., whereby each succesive number is the sum of the two numbers that precede it. Ironically, it is the imperfect interpretation of the sequence that adds tension to the composition and makes it interesting to revisit.

Unmodified FujiFilm RAF RAW file (scaled for internet).
Adjusted image.

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Palindromes at Port Deposit

We were driving along Rt 222 and started to overtake a stopped freight on Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Branch near Port Deposit, Maryland.

Upon arriving in the village, we turned into a local parking lot adjacent to where the head-end of the train had tied up. This was an opportunity.

In the lead was NS AC44C6M 4334.

Kris and I made a few photos of the train. I like the number of the locomotive, which is a palindrome—a number (or word) that reads the same backwards and forwards.

I made a series of photos with my Nikon Z mirrorless digital cameras. The shadows were a bit harsh, so working with Adobe Lightroom, I lightened them appropriately to make for better (or at least more pleasing) images.

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Rare Photo-SPV-2000 at Spring Tower

I don’t remember the exact circumstances behind this photo.

In June 1984, I was at Spring Tower where Conrail’s Boston Line crossed the connecting track between the Boston & Maine Connecticut River Line and Amtrak’s former New Haven Railroad in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The tower was located below I-91, west of Springfield Union Station.

Connecticut DOT’s Budd-built SPV-2000 No.50 was turning on the wye at Springfield. While I don’t recall the reason, I suspect the car had something wrong with the cab at the northward end and needed to turn to make the return trip to New Haven.

CDOT had bought 13 of the SPV-2000s; cars 988-999 carried both Amtrak and CDOT logos and largely worked Springfield-New Haven shuttle services, while a lone car number 50 came with Amtrak stripes but was only lettered CDOT.

I made this photo on black & white film using my Leica IIIA fitted with a Canon screw-mount f1.8 50mm lens. If I made detailed notes on this day, I’ve misplaced them.

So, what makes this a rare photo? C-DOT No. 50 was the only car painted this way (without the Amtrak markings) ; the SPV’s self-propelled days were relatively short-lived; it was unusual to see a single car turning on the wye at Springfield. Have you ever seen another photo of this car crossing the old Boston & Albany at Spring Tower?

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Cities Sprinter at Gap

Yesterday evening after work, Kris and I drove to the creamery in Strasburg, then over to Gap, Pa., to roll by Amtrak Keystone 651.

I was hoping to catch a former Metroliner Contral Coach leading in the late sun, but was happy when ACS-64 634 glided around the famous curve.

There’s a lot of dusk and smoke in the atmosphere which cut the light down a couple of stops while softening contrast and warmed the color.

I made this sequence of photos using my mirror-less Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Nikkor zoom lens.

I made some very minor adjustements to the NEF raw files in postprocessing.

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Irish Rail 215 in Fresh Paint on September 9, 2014.

It was a bright day in suburban Dublin on this day ten years ago when I made this telephoto view of Irish Rail 215 in fresh paint leading the Up IWT Liner (Ballina to Dublin’s North Wall) on the quad track at Lucan South.

My camera of choice that day was a Canon EOS-7D with a prime 100mm lens.

I’ve included two versions of the photo; one is the in-camera color profile, the other is adjusted from the Canon RAW file using Adobe Lightroom to improve color balance, increase color saturation and lighten the shadows.

Special thanks to Colm O’Callaghan for his assistance with my photography on that day.

Scaled, but otherwise unmodified file.
This version was a modified from the Canon RAW file using Lightroom to improve color and contrast for internet presentation.

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This is a Test: Tracking the Light’s Sunday Train

Over the last few days, I had been experiencing some technical difficulties posting Tracking the Light. I received numerous alerts from readers, and wasn’t even able to view the site myself at one point. Thanks to readers who sent me suggestions on how to fix the problem and some nuts and bolts help from my father Richard J. Solomon, the site should be up an running again. Thanks to everyone who wrote to me! I consider this a test. Fingers crossed.

In the process of getting things moving, I’ve selected a new ‘Theme’. This alters the way Tracking the Light appears. This is by intent. Let’s see how it goes.

Since this is a Sunday, I thought I’d post a vintage Sunday photo.

On Sunday, December 29, 1985, I spent the day photographing trains on Conrail’s former Boston & Albany main line.

At West Brookfield, Massachusetts, I made this view of the Sunday-schedule Charter Oak rolling west behind Amtrak F40PH 216.

This train tended to have a longer consist on Sundays. This Sunday, I’m working hard to complete my latest book, which takes a look at Amtrak through its locomotives and rolling stock. It covers everything from GG1 electrics to the latest diesels from Siemens-Mobility.

Amtrak’s Charter Oak (Boston-Worcester-Springfield-Hartford-New York-Washington) at West Brookfield, Mass., Exposed using a Rollieflex Model T.

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Rolling Meet at Mp84

As a follow up to yesterday’s post, I am presenting a sequence of photos at the same location that I made in March of 1986.

Amtrak had detoured its Montrealer via Palmer as a knock-on effect of a strike on the Boston & Maine. This was a full decade before Amtrak’s Vermonter used a similar routing.

In these photos, Train 61 the southward Montrealer was being towed by a CF7 from Palmer to Springfield, Massachusetts, having arrived in Palmer on the Central Vermont. There was no direct curve from the CV route to Conrail’s Boston Line to allow for a direct north to west move.

I had been showing some visiting photographers around Palmer, and we had set up a the rock cut at milepost 84, a short distance west of the Palmer diamond.

As the Montrealer was heading west on Track one, we could hear the chugging of six-motor GE C30-7As leading the eastward TV6. As it happened the two trains passed in front of us.

In yesterday’s post, I’d mentioned that a few months later, Conrail removed the westward track (Track 1) as part of its single tracking of the Boston Line. And that’s what makes this sequence so special.

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Negative to Positive

July 20, 1986 was the last full day of traditional directional double track operations (rule 251) on Conrail’s Boston Line between Palmer (future CP83) and Springfield (future CP92).

Using my father’s Rolleiflex Model T, I made this photo of Amtrak F40PH 201 leading an Inland Corridor train east at milepost 84 (in the town of Monson, Massachusetts). The next day, Conrail crews cut in the new crossovers which took the old westward track at this location out of service. It was ripped up some months later.

In 2011, I scanned this 645 size black & white negative. Unfortunately, I forgot to reverse the scan and so it remained as a negative image.

There is probably some ‘one-click’ means reversing the scan into a positive image using Lightroom. I had no luck finding that trick, so Kris and I ‘Googled’ how to accomplish this simple task.

Basically, you open the ‘three bars’ control at top left, expand the ‘light’ controls and scroll down to the ‘D log H’ curve (it’s the graph that plot the exposure curve), and reverse the orientation of the line graph so that it goes from bottom left to top right (rather than the other way around.)

This created a positive, from which I made my corrections, albeit in reverse.

I’ve included the work windows.

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Changing Light at Christiana

During late summer and early autumn the evening light changes quickly.

Compare these views of Amtrak 651 at Christiana.

The first was exposed on August 14th, the second was yesterday evening (Sept 4).

There are other differences too. The top photo was made with my Nikon Z7-II, the bottom is a product of my Lumix LX7.

Having just composed a summary of the Metroliner for my Amtrak book, I’m feeling nostalgic about these old cars (one leads as a ‘cab car’ in the bottom photo) which are now some of the oldest in revenue service on Amtrak.

Amtrak Keystone 651 passes Christiana, PA on August 14, 2024-Nikon Z7-II.
Same location on September 4, 2024; Amtrak Keystone 651 passes Christiana, PA. Panasonic Lumix LX7.

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