August 9, 1988: Boston Line milepost 81, east of Palmer, Massachusetts.

On this day, I spent the afternoon with a Conrail maintenance-of-way gang as they were undercutting the old Boston & Albany mainline where Route 20 crossed the line.

They were working with a large undercutting machine called the ‘Dirt Devil’ which used a chain-driven excavator to remove material from below the tracks. This was necessary to allow to improve vertical clearances for double-stacks and covered tri-level auto racks.

Exposed on Kodak Tri-X black & white film using my father’s Rolleiflex Model T.

Someone might ask, ‘why didn’t you make color photos?’

Who said I didn’t?

I made both Kodachrome and Tri-X photos of the Dirt Devil crew. All have withstood the test of time.

Tracking the Light Looks Back on Conrail on the railroad’s 50th Anniversary!