My Lumix Panasonic LX-7 is great for making grab shots.
Here’s a view exposed yesterday on Lancaster Avenue in Philadelphia.
Too often travelers today tire themselves by focusing on reaching their destination. My intention is to make getting there part of my trip and not just some necessary endurance to get where I’m going.
This means: Stopping off. Taking a break. Changing direction. Changing modes. Having a proper lunch. Going for a side trip. And then, eventually getting back on track.
I’m planning to intercept Norfolk & Western 611, by the way.
Mixed in with my regular Tracking the Light posts, I plan to have these ‘Special Extra Posts.’
Presently I’m near the heart of the old Pennsylvania Railroad.
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A little while ago, I changed from Amtrak 493 to Amtrak 93. In the the ten minute interval, a Metro-North train arrived from Grand Central and Amtrak Acela (train 2154) made its station stop at the adjacent platform.
The good news, Amtrak 93 is very well patronized, with at least 40 passengers transferring from the shuttle. The bad news, I’m wedged into train 93 which was already pretty crowded. Yet it beats driving on I-95! (And is cheaper too).
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It’s a nicer day to be on the train. A few minutes ago I boarded Amtrak train 493 (Springfield-New Haven shuttle connection to train 93).
I exposed these photos with my Lumix LX7, scaled them on-board the train using my MacBook and uploaded them on Amtrak’s free WiFi.
As I write this the train is approaching Berlin, Connecticut.
Stay tuned for more updates over the coming days!
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MBTA’s Beacon Street line to Cleveland Circle is a classic median running trolley route. Coolidge Corner is situated on a gradient and a gentle curve with a traditional traction shelter and lots of trees that help make it a cool place to photograph.
On our whirlwind tour of Boston transit a few weeks ago, Pat Yough and I spent a little while making photos here. The streetcars pass often, so in a relatively short period of time we were able to make a variety of angles.
This is one of the Green Line routes and some of the cars are in the 1970s-era green and white livery, while others are in a more modern teal and silver. I find the older livery photographs better.
Personally, I preferred the days when the PCC’s ruled this route, but those days are long gone. It’s still an interesting place to experiment with different camera-lens combinations.
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Good luck, bad luck; it’s all relative. Over the years I’ve made many visits to the Hoosac Tunnel. I recall a visit with my father in the mid-1970s, back when the way to East Portal was a dusty dirt road. We waited patiently for several hours, and eventually gave up.
The other day, a fellow photographer Tim Doherty and I drove up to the tunnel on spec, but with the anticipation of catching an eastward train. The rumor-mill had circulated reports that Norfolk Southern’s New York Central heritage locomotive was leading an eastbound.
We arrived at the tunnel, investigated a few angles, and were about to leave again, when the signals lit up: green-over-red-over-red.
As many of you know, I’ve authored a book on signals, and I know a little bit about the subject. The aspect displayed was clear, and since this was on the home signal for a siding, that means it was lined by Pan Am’s dispatcher in North Billerica. More to the point, the signal was dark when we arrived, and I know from previous experience that the signals here are approach lit.
The circuit for the signal at East Portal is relatively short. This meant we only a had couple of minutes to set up. Failing to recognize this could have cost us the desired photograph.
I needed some time to get ready: Exposure was problematic. There was a patch of sunlight immediately in front of the inky black of the tunnel portal, while part of the stone facing was also lit. Complicating matters, either condensation or exhaust was emanating from the tunnel portal causing a gauzy ill-defined patch at precisely the location where the locomotive would exit.
After a minute or two: a dull roar, followed by the gleam of the headlights, and soon the grade crossing bells were ringing. I set my camera manually, but I was cautious not to underexpose too severely, as a black locomotive against the blackness of the tunnel could be difficult to rescue in post processing.
When the locomotive exited, the combination of the ditch lights, headlight and white ‘raccoon stripes’ made for a slightly brighter front end than I anticipated. But I only had a few instants to make my photographs and if I wasted time trying to refine the exposure, the moment would be lost.
I exposed a burst of images with my Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera, knowing at the time the exposure was too bright. I then popped of a couple of color slides with my Canon EOS-3 with 100mm telephoto. I think my slides were closer to the mark (regarding exposure) than the digital images.
After the fact, I worked with the Camera RAW file to balance the exposure; and so my end result is pretty good. I’ll be curious to see the slides when they return from the lab.
Our bad luck? The night before, the locomotives for this train had been swapped out at Binghamton, NY, and so we caught a fairly ordinary Norfolk Southern Evolution-Series GE diesel instead of the one-of-a-kind New York Central-painted heritage locomotive.
Oh well: total elapsed time at Hoosac Tunnel, less than 15 minutes! So, I’m not complaining.
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I’d learned via Facebook that it was Railroad Illustrated’s annual ‘Day in North America.’ The day dawned cloudless and bright, and while I had a full schedule of events for the day, I opted to make the most of the first part of the morning.
I’d stopped into Palmer, where I’d found a couple of New England Central locomotives in the yard. Then opted to travel up the Quaboag River Valley.
This landed me at my familiar spot in the old Warren, Massachusetts yard. My knowledge goes back a good long time. While there’s not been a switch in the Warren ‘yard’ in my lifetime, although I can recall when the line was double track, and the old Warren Crossovers were around the corner to the east.
Way back in the day (and that day was more than 60 years ago) Warren was served by a local freight. Go back even further and there was really quite the complex of tracks at Warren.
Now a carwash occupies part of the property. Yet the old passenger and freight stations survive, and someone has put some effort into fixing up the windows in the passenger station.
I contemplated all of these things while patiently waiting for a wheel to turn.
Then the phone rang . . .
Doug Moore, a loyal Tracking the Light reader (and sometimes proofreader and fact checker) said to me, “there’s an eastbound piggyback train through West Warren, it should be to you shortly! I’d seen your car parked there by the station.”
Hooray for good information! (Thanks Doug).
Without a moment to waste, I sprung into action, made my test photos, when the train roared into view, I exposed these photos with my Fuji X-T1 (and also a super-wideangle view on Provia with my EOS 3).
The Boston & Albany yard may be gone, but the mainline lives on.
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Some of my earliest memories of the Green Line and the Boston Museum of Science
Much has changed since the days when I used to stare in wonder at Boston & Maine 3713 on display out front of the museum while trains of 2-3 old PCCs hummed along the elevated structure across the street.
In mid-May 2015, Pat Yough and I went for a Green Line spin to Lechmere and back, stopping over at the Science Park station for a few photographs.
The steel-girder elevated that once extended toward North Station was replaced years ago by a new tunnel with a steep ramp up to the concrete-faced elevated that still passes the museum.
Lechmere looks much the way that I remember it.
Some places never seem to change . . . and then one day all of sudden they are unrecognizable . That day may be soon approaching. Afterward memories fill the gap where photographs leave off.
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Now, is this a fair comparison? Pat Yough lent me his Carl Zeiss Touit f1.8 32mm lens to test on my Fuji X-T1. So I made two similar photographs at the same spot of successive MBTA PCCs at Cedar Grove (first stop west of Ashmont).
A more conventional comparison would have taken a more scientific approach by perhaps mounting the camera on a tripod and photographing a static subject with constant light.
And that would be a good test, its true. But that’s not what I was going to do.
Lens in hand (or more precisely, attached to my Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera), I wanted to see what the lens could do as a working tool. How does it handle? How quickly does it focus? What is the color like? Does it seem sharp?
I was comparing it against my ‘catch all’ Fujinon Super EBC XF 18-135mm zoom. At the moment this is the only lens I have for my Fuji X-T1 and I’ve been using it for just about all the photos I’ve made with the camera.
First I used my Fujinon lens of PCC 3262; then 8-minutes later the Zeiss of PCC 3260.
While the 18-135mm is a great lens, it has two drawbacks. It’s bulky and relatively slow (f3.5 –f5.6 depending on the focal length). The Zeiss lens by contrast is lightweight and very fast.
But the really important point of this exercise is the end photos. Which is better overall?
The Fujinon image was made with a slightly wider focal length. Well that’s the advantage of a zoom-lens, right, the ability to adjust the focal length on the spot.
However, one of the unspoken advantages of a prime lens (a fixed focal length lens, such as this Zeiss 32mm) is that it forces the photographer to work within the limits of the given angle of view. Sometimes this makes the photographer (me) work a little harder when composing the photograph.
I found the Zeiss to be fast-focusing, very sharp and it provides excellent clean color. On the downside, the field of view is slightly narrower than I like.
Using the Zeiss 32mm on the Fuji camera reminds me a lot of my old 50mm Leica Summicron (which owing to my use of it with a traditional 35mm-film Leica M, provided nearly the same field of view as does the Zeiss on my X-T1.). The 50mm Summicron always seemed a bit too narrow, but the results I got from the lens have really stood the test of time.
What do you think?
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I phoned Julie—Amtrak’s automated agent, as you do when you’d like to know if a train is running on time. Amtrak 448, the Lake Shore Limited was a little more than an hour late leaving Springfield.
Dennis LeBeau, Wolfie the dog, and I waited at the bridge in East Brookfield, Massachusetts east of CP64. I said, “448 left Springfield 40 minutes ago. It’s about 25 minutes to Palmer, so it ought to be between Warren and Brookfield by now. We should be seeing a headlight in a couple of minutes.
Brookfield is milepost 66 on the old Boston & Albany. There hasn’t been a station there in my lifetime. East Brookfield is at the east end of long tangent, which provides lots of warning for eastward trains.
Dennis looked west, “There’s your headlight, just like you said.”
I wandered back and forth on the bridge trying to find the most suitable angle. Ultimately I settled on this spot to the north of the mainline. All things being equal, I wish I’d brought my Fuji X-T1; this would have made a nice 135mm view to bring in the green trees and track-ladder in the distance.
Engine 48 was leading train 448 at CP 64. Got all that? Great! Too often, I have to explain the fundamental difference between an engine number and train number.
To the uninitiated this seems like a trivial difference. But to those in railroad operations it could be life or death.
Really it’s a question of hardware versus software. The locomotive is the hardware, the train is a service. Today engine 48 leads 448, but tomorrow it will lead another train with another number. On the timetable, everyday train 48 and train 448 are combined as one between Chicago and Albany. And there’s the confusing coincidence. Train 48 and locomotive 48 are different; one being a service, and the other an engine.
Nice light on engine 48, no?
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In recent years I’ve been making annual visits to MBTA’s Mattapan-Ashmont Red Line extension. This quaint relic of urban transit is a throw-back to another time.
Thanks to the wisdom and historically minded MBTA, this continues to host restored PCC cars wearing classic period paint. (today, we might call it ‘heritage paint’ but I don’t know that I approve of that term).
Back in June 1978, I visited this line with my father and exposed my first roll of Kodachrome 25 (prior to that I usually used K64 or Ektachrome).
Twenty years earlier, my father had made his first visit to the line. The cars then were double-end former Dallas PCCs, but painted nearly the same as those featured here.
The other day, Pat Yough and I spent an overcast afternoon photographing the antique PCCs. These are great vehicles to travel in and make for intriguing subjects. For me it brought back memories of living near MBTA’s Riverside Line in the early 1970s when PCCs were still the rule on that route.
If you haven’t seen it, John Gruber and I authored a compact book titled Streetcars of America published by Shire that features on the cover a freshly painted former Dallas PCC near Cleveland Circle.
This is also available through Amazon.
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My Lumix LX7 with its f1.4 Leica Vario Summicron lens is another fun tool for making photos in the subway. It sure beats my ancient old Leica 3A hands down.
Park Street Station was bright enough so that even back in film days I could get passable photos of paused PCCs in black & white. But these days with the LX7 I can make very publishable handheld views in color.
Using the digital camera in the subway allows me virtually instantaneous feedback. I can check color balance, sharpness, exposure and composition on site. No longer do I need to unfurl wet negatives from stainless steel tanks to find out that I missed my exposure by half a stop.
Of course while instant feedback allows me to make adjustments to the exposure on-site, it does take away some of the thrill of anticipation.
I’ve found that subway images, like most night photos, require a manual exposure override of about a 1/3 to 2/3rds of a stop to compensate for specular highlights (caused by overhead lights and the reflections of same off shiny surfaces such as metal encased columns and enameled station signs).
In other words, I’ll set the Lumix to the ‘A’ (aperture) mode, then dial in + 2/3 overexposure with the toggle wheel. When I don’t make this correction the images appear too dark coming out of the camera. While I can adjust for this in post processing, I’d rather optimize my exposure to allow for the most amount of detail in the RAW file.
Does all that sound too complicated? By making this nominal exposure compensation to lighten my photos in camera, the resulting images will ultimately require less work on the computer and should be easier to use on the printed page.
The photos display in this post have not received post-processing, except for scaling necessary for internet presentation. Here: I have not modified exposure, color balance, contrasts or sharpness.
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Way back, in the dim past of my formative years in photography, I’d travel the Boston subway Leica 3A in hand and try to make photos.
My camera skills were rudimentary, my spelling was atrocious, and trying to make photographs underground with Kodachrome film really wasn’t the most practical approach to making successful images.
But that didn’t deter me, and I’d try anyway.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had an occasion to regularly ride Boston’s Red Line subway. But, in the interval I’ve discovered that one of the advantages to modern digital photography is in the realm of subterranean urban rail imagery. (Digital spell chek helps greatly with the words too.)
Park Street Station, Boston. Exposed with a Fuji X-T1 fitted with Carl Zeiss f1.8 32mm lens.
The other day Pat Yough lent me his recently acquired Carl Zeiss f1.8 32mm lens. This fast sharp piece of glass combined with the excellent sensor on my Fuji X-T1 is an ideal combination for making subway images. Here’s just a few.
So where in the 1970s and early 1980s, I’d made dark slides and thin black & white images, today the photographs at least properly exposed!
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Tomorrow: Underground with a Lumix with some valuable tips!
It was 30 years ago today, on May 23, 1985, that I exposed this photograph of a Norfolk Southern freight at Atlanta, Georgia. Although the NS merger had occurred a few years earlier, the old Southern image still prevailed.
I was impressed by the hi-hood GP50s, such as those pictured running long-hood forward. In my book, Southern’s SD45s were even more impressive. The locomotives were clean, sharp looking and well maintained. By contrast, the Seaboard System with its collection of inherited locomotives seemed like a poor sister in tattered clothing.
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One traditional school of thought when making photographs is capturing the ‘decisive moment.’
This moment is arbitrary, but in theory it is the instant in time when the elements in the composition are at their optimum relation to one another.
When I work with my old Rolleiflex to photograph moving trains this is a good philosophy. I’ll carefully consider all the elements in the frame, and wait, with shutter poised, until the train is at its optimum point, and ‘click.’
Some time later, often days or weeks later, I’ll process the film. Maybe I got what I was hoping to capture, maybe not.
Such is not the case with my Fujifilm X-T1. The relative cost of exposing one digital frame versus a dozen is inconsequential as compared to film. While the ability of the camera to make a burst of images rapid has completely altered the way I consider my compositions and expose photos.
I’ll still study the scene and look at all the elements. Typically I’ll make a few test photos to check sharpness, exposure and how different focal lengths alter the scene.
But when the train arrives, instead of exposing one photograph, or in the case of my old slide camera a few ‘motor drive’ dupes, I’ll might make a burst of images all the while adjusting my framing to subtly alter the composition. More is better, right?
Then after the fact I can decide which image I like best. I can erase the rest.
Below are five similar views made within seconds of each other. These portray an Irish Rail perway train working the quad track in suburban Dublin. Operation of this particular train is sporadic, and making photographs of it require knowledge, planning and patience.
When it finally came into view, I wanted to be sure I made the best possible photo that shows the train in its environment. Which one do you like the most?
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On April 10, 2011, I was rolling along behind class 9F 2-10-0 92214 on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
This wonderfully preserved British Railway really captures the spirit of a secondary mainline as it would have been decades ago.
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It was 30 years ago this morning that I exposed this black & white photo of a northward Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac piggyback train at Alexandria, Virginia.
RF&P was among the railroads melded into the CSX system.
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It was back on January 12, 2014, when I made this view of Pan Am Southern’s symbol freight EDMO (East Deerfield Yard, Massachusetts to Mohawk Yard near Schenectady) in the Berkshire hills at East Portal.
To make these photos, I temporarily co-opted a mound of snow and ballast to gain added elevation for a better view of the bridge.
The famous Hoosac Tunnel is across the road behind me. Soon the train will enter its murky depths.
I’d followed the train on its ambling journey upgrade from East Deerfield, This is another age old tradition for me, dating back to the early 1980s.
Back in the day, the challenge would have been to stay with the train to Mechanicville, New York. “To the River!” As we’d declare. (The Hudson, that is).
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When I reviewed my latest statistics I was surprised by the results. The top five most viewed posts were neither those that I’d worked the hardest to produce, nor those the I thought might draw the most interest.
What didn’t surprise me was that my clever titles are most often lost in the mix. The blunt ‘THERE YOU GO’ headings generally do better.
So much for subtlety. A rose by any other name basically goes unnoticed no matter how sweet it smells!
The seven most viewed posts:
1 recent-images-of-dublin-ireland
2 tracking-the-light-news-flash-photos-of-philadelphia-schuylkill-river-bridge-derailment
3 sperry-train-at-islandbridge-junction-on-august-30-2012
4 streamliners-at-spencer-photos-by-brian-solomon
5 tracking-the-light-special-post-palmer-hobbies-now-open
6 panasonic-lumix-lx100-review
7 railway-photography-tips-to-improve-your-odds-the-basics
Here’s five posts I wished you’d seen, but statistically you missed. Like a post? Please share it!
U2 went there a few days ago and it went viral; Tracking the Light visited and; crickets.
2 running-numbers-springfield-massachusetts-on-a-sunday-morning
So much for betting on clever titles.
3) ghost-of-the-lackawanna-daily-post/
Cool title, cool photo, great information, check it out! (shameless plug, I know, but hardly anyone paid attention before).
4) daily-post-irish-rail-wellingtonbridge-county-wexford-december-2005/
Ah come on, it’s like the beet, man.
5) philadelphia-a-view-from-a-canoe
Hey, what’s da matter, yous got a problem with boats or something? Eh?
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I was on a personal tour of Richmond hosted by my friend Doug Riddell. This was aimed at making photographs, while exploring some history of the area and the nuts and bolts of real railroading.
We paused at Richmond’s Main Street Station to make this photograph of an Amtrak train bound for Newport News. Hoppers roll by on an adjacent bridge.
I was intrigued by the technological contrast between the Genesis diesel-electric and the old Budd-built baggage car behind it. Now, ten years later, Amtrak is replacing its old baggage cars with new cars.
The old baggage were among Amtrak’s last heritage equipment inherited from the private railroads when it assumed passenger operations more than four decades ago.
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The other day my brother sent some brilliant sunset images from Philadelphia. I commented, ‘nice drop-under’, and this led to a conversation about sunset light.
‘You should make a post about that’. And so here we are.
I’ve quantified sunset into four phases. There may be more. And in fact, sunset isn’t really so-divided, but rather one continuous changing of light. But recognizing these four phases can allow you to be in position to make better photographs (and that’s really what I’m trying to convey).
Too often, I’ve been traveling and just before the light reaches its optimum, I’ve found myself out of position.
As the sun sets, the quality of light is altered by clouds, air-pollution, and the horizon. Sometimes a lack-luster sunset in one of the early phases wll blossom during a later phase. Or vice versa.
Watch the sun and clouds and be patient.
My four phases of sunset are:
Phase three, drop under is the often the best, yet most fleeting and unpredictable element of a sunset. This often occurs on an otherwise cloudy evening, when for a moment the sun as it nears the horizon will illuminate clouds from below.
The drop-under effect is accentuated when there is a thick layer of air-pollution as the combination of particulates and gases in the atmosphere bend the light toward the red-end of the spectrum.
The bottom line: if you want to make better sunset photos, don’t abandon your photography too soon. Find a suitable location and wait for the light.
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Often it’s the details that make a difference. In April 1991, I made a few photos at Cal-Train’s Bayshore platforms near the San Francisco-end of the old Bayshore yard.
By that time the yard was but a ruin—a vestige of another era. Southern Pacific’s operational presence in San Francisco, still its headquarters at that time, was a shadow of what it had been, and diminishing.
What caught my eye was the old wooden speed-restriction post with Southern Pacific written on it. Here was tangible evidence of the SP at Bayshore.
I made a point of featuring the sign in this pair of photos of passing Cal-Train ‘Commutes.’ Interestingly, these Cal-Train F40PHs were the last locomotives delivered with the classic SP ‘full lighting package’ which included headlight, white oscillating lights, a red oscillating light, and class lamps.
Pan photo exposed on Kodachrome 25 with a Nikon F3T fitted with a Nikkor f1.8 105mm lens.
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Here’s a pair of photos from the archive. It was a bright and clear winter day, when my father and I intercepted these Amtrak Budd RDCs working the New Haven to Springfield shuttle.
At that time, the Budd Cars (as I knew them) were standard equipment on the Springfield run. I have many fond memories of riding the RDCs.
I’m glad I have these slides, but I wish I’d made many more image of the old Budds. A few of the RDCs survived into the mid 1980s.
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Back on October 30, 1999, Mike Gardner and I were on photographic expedition of the lower Hudson Valley. We were set up near Fort Montgomery on the west side of the river waiting for a northward CSX freight.
As is often the case on the Hudson, the action often seems to be on the far side of the river, regardless of which side you’re set up at.
Using my Nikon N90S with 80-200mm Nikkor zoom, I exposed this image of a Metro-North train working the old Hudson Line and framed it with a central portion of the famous Bear Mountain Bridge.
Which element has the greatest interest? The passenger train, the Hudson, or the disembodied bridge span?
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Why limit yourself to one media, when you can use two? Enjoy the best of both, go nuts.
Or, as the case maybe, slip across the street for a glass of Jupiler at the Le Cheval de Fer (The Iron Horse).
That was my call any way. I visited Schaarbeek/Schaerbeek at the end of March.
Schaerbeek is a large station in suburban Brussels. Out front is a tram terminus where modern Flexity trams gather between runs. The station building is a classic, and just recently restored. The railway themed pub is nearby and in sight of the station.
SNCB is the Belgian national railway and it runs a lot of trains. While most trains don’t stop at Schaerbeek, there’s no shortage of action. In just a few minutes, I’d caught a variety of equipment passing.
Since I had three cameras and sunlight, I made the most of my brief time at this railway nexus.
Before long, pictures exposed and beer consumed, I was rolling along through cobble stone streets on one of the aforementioned Flexity trams.
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Why film? A few weeks back, I posted some views I exposed digitally of locomotive 461 emerging from the sea mist at Bray Head. See: Steam, Diesel and Electric at Bray Head on Easter Monday.
This was Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s annual Dublin-Wicklow Easter Eggspress, which ran on Easter Monday, April 6, 2015.
I wrote in my earlier posting:
Despite clear skies and warm spring weather, wafting sea fog made for challenging photographic conditions.
Shortly before locomotive 461 emerged from the tunnels near Brandy Hole, a cloud of fog rose to add a bit of atmosphere.
The mix of stunning scenery, wafting fog and bright sun made for a spectacular backdrop for the annual special.
While I made a sequence of digital photos with my Fujifilm X-T1. I was also poised with my Canon EOS 3 with 40mm pancake lens loaded with Provia 100F (color slide film). I reserved film for the most dramatic angles. Last week the slides were returned from the processing lab (Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas see: www.dwaynesphoto.com/) and I’ve scanned the slides for presentation here.
As the photographer, I feel that these images are the best of my morning’s efforts.
Some people may ask, ‘If you have a digital camera, why do you still use film?’, others may inquire, ‘If you have a perfectly good film camera, why did buy an expensive new digital camera?’
Each mode of making photos has its strengths and weaknesses. I routinely exposed photos both using film cameras and digitally.
When I get a really nice scene on a bright sunny day, I often put it on film (and I may exposed a digital image as well). In that way I get the best of both worlds. I can’t think of a good reason why film and digital photograph should be mutually exclusive, especially since they complement each other nicely.
My color slides from April 6, 2015 are now also digital images, thanks to my Epson V600. If we have a slide show, I’ll project the slides the old fashioned way.
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Seven years ago today, I exposed this photograph on Fujichrome slide film while working on my book Railroads of California (Voyageur Press, 2009).
This appears on page 58. My original photo caption read:
Union Pacific SD70M 4772) works east on the old Western Pacific on 10 May 2008. Railroad enthusiasts have long praised the WP’s Sierra crossing because of its easy access to parallel Highway 70. This view was made from a pull off on Highway 70 east of Portola, California. Alternative angles on the same spot are available from the old highway below.
As it turned out my final caption as published in the book was more elaborate.
Related to this image, although not specified in the caption is today’s date: May 10th.
This is a significant day for American railroading. On this day in 1869, the famous golden spike ceremony marked the joining of Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads at Promontory, Utah, an event signifying the linking of east and west.
Also on this day in 1893, New York Central & Hudson River Railroad engine 999 made its legendary sprint across New York state where west of Batavia, New York it was reported to have hit 112.5 mph, a figure that was often claimed as a world speed record.
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Today, May 9, 2015 has been deemed ‘National Train Day’.
My participation with this event was to mark the passage of Amtrak 449, the westward Lake Shore Limited.
So, with this in mind, a little while ago I positioned myself along Route 67 east of Palmer, Massachusetts at a time-honored location along the Boston & Albany route. (Time-honored = I’ve made photos here many times before).
What I’d hoped would only take a few minutes, soon extended into an hour. So it goes when waiting for trains, even scheduled moves.
This was my first view of one of Amtrak’s new baggage cars.
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On August 21, 2010, some friends and I caught this loaded CSX ethanol train symbol K644 working eastward past the Amtrak station at Rochester. In the distance is the old Kodak tower.
This scene, exposed less than five years ago is now completely changed:
Amtrak is preparing for construction of its new Rochester Station.
Last week, my friend Otto Vondrak sent current images from Rochester of the old New York Central era canopies being dismantled; the classic cast iron ‘Rochester’ sign having been removed for safekeeping.
At the time I made this digital photo, I also exposed a single frame of Ektachrome slide film. It was my last roll of Ektachrome, and my last frame in the camera, and it seemed doubly apropos; to make my last Kodak slide in Rochester, and of a pair of Iowa, Chicago & Eastern/Dakota, Minnesota & eastern locomotives painted in colors remarkably similar to those use on the old Ektachrome film boxes.
I’m holding back that slide for future publication.
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I used my Nikon F3 loaded Fuji Velvia 100F and a 24mm Nikkor Lens to expose this view of an outbound Metra train headed toward Aurora.
I’ve found that a wide-angle lens is a good tool for making use of an impressive sky.
Here, I’ve offset the Chicago skyline with the old power plant at right. The skyscrapers help put the clouds above in relative perspective. By placing the theoretical horizon near the center of the frame, and thus keeping the camera body near level, has allowed for these buildings to remain on more or less on a perpendicular line with horizon.
If I’d aimed slightly more skyward, the nature of this 24mm lens design would skew the visual perspective and the buildings would seem to fall away from the film plane.
The bright blue and white paint on Metra’s MP36-3C nicely mimics the sky above, while the black band on the body of the locomotive emulates the width and tone of the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower) both of which help make for a more unified composition.
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The names and the paint have changed, but the machinery?
Back in Central Vermont days in the 1980s and early 1990s, it was common enough to see in Palmer, Massachusetts run-through Canadian National GP40-2L locomotives (some people prefer the alternate designations ‘GP40-2W,’ ‘GP40-2LW’ take your pick, I don’t mind).
Fast forward a few decades: Canadian National is no longer ‘national.’ New England Central has replaced Central Vermont, and New England Central has passed through a series of corporate ownerships. Today, the railroad is part of the Genesee & Wyoming family, making it one of more than 110 lines world wide under this orange and yellow flag.
Yet, despite all this, after more than 40 years on the move, some old former CN safety cabs GP40-2s (NECR 3015 is now listed on the cab as a GP40-2CU) still routinely work former CV rails in Palmer.
I wonder if I have photographs of these very same locomotives in Canadian National paint?
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At dawn on June 9, 1996, I was set up near the west end of the old Kate Shelley Bridge. Mist clung to the valley floor as the sun painted the sky to the east.
Across the cornfield to the west I could hear an eastward Union Pacific freight blowing for highway crossings, the roar of its locomotives gradually getting louder.
I opted for this semi-silhouetted view. My subject is the bridge; the train is meant to be incidental. Yet the train makes the photos more interesting, and the couple of Conrail engines in the large consist of locomotives provide added interest for the keen observer.
This was little more than a year after Union Pacific had absorbed Chicago & North Western.
A decade later, UP began construction of a new bridge here using a modern structure. I imagine that the scene is much changed today.
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The other day, I was on Main Street in Palmer, Massachusetts near the Day and Night Diner (where I’d just finished breakfast), when I saw an eastward CSX intermodal train approaching the Palmer diamond.
In the lead was a 4700-series SD70MAC. Since in recent times, CSX’s safety-cab General Electric locomotives have dominated the scene on the old Boston & Albany route, I was keen to make a photo of this comparatively unusual leader.
Now, I’d been away for a while, so for all I knew, the 4700s had been leading every day for the last month. Or, it may have been the first time over the line since I was here last. Hard to know, but why take a chance. Plus it was as good as excuse as I needed for a time-honored chase up the Quaboag River Valley.
But would I make it? Intermodal trains can be nimble and tend to have a high horsepower per ton rating. There’s a speed restriction across the diamond, and I thought, if I moved quickly, I might be able to zip east toward Warren for a photograph.
First I had to navigate three traffic lights in Palmer. The first two I made without problems, but the third stabbed me. Soon, I was heading out of town on Route 20, but reasons beyond my understanding, the car in front of me dawdled.
I was even with the locomotives and gaining quickly by the time I’d reached ‘Electric Light Hill’ (where the right of way of the projected Grand Trunk line to Providence was graded to cross the B&A—a point so known for the nearby electric substation opposite the tracks).
At this point, the engineer should have opened the throttle to ‘run-8’ and been charging for the grade up the valley. By rights, I would have lost the race at that stage, unless I was willing to ignore the posted limit.
As it turned out, there was no need to consider such transgression of highway safety. The eastward train had begun to slow down. I surmised that it might be stopping at CP79 for a meet with a westbound.
Kudos to the dispatcher in Selkirk! It was a very tight meet. At the field near CP79 (where the long controlled siding that began at CP83 ends), I spotted a westward train and caught a photo of it from across the freshly greened fields. Yet, my primary subject never had to stop.
This meet gave me the extra couple of minutes I needed to reach Warren with ample time to park, adjust and set my camera and compose my images.
It’s a chase I’ve done many times over the last three decades. It helps to know the railroad. All was quiet in Warren that day, save for the roar of the train.
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It was August 1992 and Southern Pacific had just recently introduced the Golden West branding on some freight cars. I was on my way back from work with a free roll of Agfachrome 50 slide film and I made these photos at SP’s South San Francisco yard.
It’s hard to resist fresh paint and so I made a variety of detail shots.
At the time I was managing an E6 color film processing machine for a photo studio nearby, so the next day I ran the film through the soup and mounted the slides at home.
Back then I only used E6 films for ‘supporting’ photographs and extra shots. Anything that I deemed really important, I exposed on Kodachrome 25.
What I recall about the Agfachrome was that it had a decidedly reddish bias as compared with K25, but was less contrasty.
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Since Tracking the Light began in summer 2012, I’ve composed more than 900 individual posts. All of these may be accessed via the Tracking the Light archives listed on the homepage.
In the archives are hundreds of photos, stories and information about railway photography.
There’s about four books worth of material in the archives.
To reach the June 2013 Archive click here. Poke around and explore.
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I exposed this black & white photograph on December 31, 1986. An eastward Conrail freight was rolling through Springfield (Massachusetts) Union Station.
I intentionally selected a relatively slow shutter speed to allow for motion blur.
Today, the scene has completely changed.
What to me seemed like a timeless scene back in 1986 is now a much dated image.
The buildings behind the freight cars are gone. The old 11-storey Hotel Charles was demolished decades ago, while in December 2014, the long closed baggage rooms and signal tower area of Springfield station were cleared away as part of a pending redevelopment of the facility.
Even the old 50-foot boxcars are rapidly becoming scarce. This once standard vehicle is being supplanted by more modern cars with larger capacity. Anytime you see an old-50 foot car on the move (or waiting in the yard) it is certainly worth a photograph or two. Don’t wait.
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