A Bitterly Cold Evening, February 7, 2010.
Pat Yough, Chris Guss and I spent a few cold minutes making night photos in downtown Toronto. 
I exposed this image using my Lumix LX3 mounted on a Gitzo tripod. A GO Transit train was gliding away from Union Station. Twenty five years earlier on a glorious May morning, I’d been up in that tower! Different times, but basically the same place. Seems like a different world altogether.
July 25, 1997.
I’ve often liked to make detailed studies of equipment. On this day, George S. Pitarys, Bill Linley and I had been following a westward Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia freight.
In the evening it stalled near Afton and had to double the hill. This made for ample opportunity to make photos.
At one point when the train was stopped, I used my N90S with a 28mm lens to expose this backlit study of an M630 that was second unit in the consist.
I like the image for its great contrast and its ability to distill the curves and lines of the Alco Century profile. It’s moody, dark, and all about Alco.
See: Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia, Cape Jack, July 24, 1997
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February 24, 2010.
I’d called up to Tucker’s Hobbies at closing time. Bob Buck met me at the door. “The CSX Business train passed Worcester westbound more than 20 minutes ago!”
We made a hasty departure for Palmer. And halfway down the Quaboag River Valley between West Warren and Palmer, I hear CSX’s dragging equipment detector at West Warren report, ‘no defects’.
“It’s about 3 minutes behind us,” I said, as I accelerated the car.
We pulled into the yard at Palmer, near the site of the old freight house. It was wet, the light was fading. I prepped my Lumix as the train came into view, and popped off a few pan photos as it raced west. Bob was delighted! I made a few prints for him.
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Final Friday Night in Warren.
Tucker’s Hobbies was the dream business for my late friend and mentor, Robert A. Buck, who in 1981 relocated and transformed his Tucker’s Hardware into Tucker’s Hobbies. This had long been a focal point for railway interest, a place to meet railroaders, model railroaders, enthusiasts, and others.
I’ve been regularly visiting Tucker’s since its hardware store days on Main Street in Warren. In the 1980s, I was a regular for Friday night sessions and despite living in myriad locations, I’ve often come back for visits.
Bob Buck passed away in October 2011. Yet, the store has remained open on Friday and Saturday’s. However, all things must end. And this past weekend (May 16-17) represented the store’s final opening hours in Warren.
I called into Tucker’s for an hour Friday night (May 16) to visit with old friends and take a final look at the shop. I made these digital images using my Canon EOS 7D. This was a venue that via Bob Buck had a profound influence on my interests in railways and on my photography.
Yet Tucker’s legacy lives on, and the store will be taking a new form as Palmer Hobbies opening soon on Main Street in nearby Palmer, Massachusetts.
For more about Tucker’s Hobbies see: http://www.tuckershobbies.com/store/pages/closing.htm
www.tuckershobbies.com/store/images/gallery/store/index.htm
For details on Palmer Hobbies see: http://www.palmerhobbies.com/
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On the old Lehigh Valley, August 1, 1986.
It was a hot, humid and hazy morning. The sunlight was tinted by gauzy smog which softened the scene.
Bob Karambelas and I were exploring the junction at Hunter Tower in Newark, New Jersey, where the former Lehigh Valley crossed the old Pennsylvania Railroad electrified mainline.
A westward freight with a pair of SD40-2s was departing Oak Island yard and I exposed this view looking a down a grungy side street with a 200mm lens.
I’ve always been fascinated with urban images like this, where the railroad is prominent but not necessarily dominant, and passes through post industrial decay. Look at the grime on surface of the street and the great beat up old cars!
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Tomorrow: Farewell to an Institution!
Learn more about the evolution of the railroad network, see my book: North American Railroad Family Trees published by Voyageur Press.
May 9, 1987.
I’d been out along the former Erie Railroad since before dawn that day. The tracks had been alive with freight. By early afternoon, I was down at Gang Mills Yard, near Corning, which served as a local hub for freight.
Back then General Electric B23-7s were a common locomotive. I’d grown up with these diesels working locals and road freights on the Boston & Albany route. I always like their classic GE style and their great sound. My B&A engineer friends despised them because of their ‘slow loading,’ ‘low cab doors,’ and other perceived inadequacies.
I made this photo at the engine terminal. I liked all the Conrail signage behind the locomotive. There’s nothing especially unusual about this scene, it was as ordinary as it got for the time, but today this really says, “Conrail” as I remember it.
Conrail ended independent operations at the end of May 1999, fifteen years ago. Between 1976 and 1999, I exposed thousands of views of Conrail. In 2004, Tim Doherty & I authored an illustrated book on Conrail for MBI.
Learn more about the evolution of the railroad network, see my book: North American Railroad Family Trees published by Voyageur Press.
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Tomorrow: Conrail on smoggy morning! (Yous got a problem wit dat?)
The Blue Haze of a Summer Morning.
Mike Gardner and I were enjoying a trip along the Hudson River on June 27, 1997.
This photo really says ‘1990s’ to me. A clean Conrail SD60I leads intermodal freight TVLA (New Jersey to Los Angeles) with a long line of piggyback trailers. I exposed it on Fujichrome slide film using my Nikon N90S with 80-200 zoom lens.
This lens/film combination had a color balance and contrast that I associate with my mid-1990s photography. On the down side, used of a telephoto zoom-lens and Fuji film resulted in bright headlights and ditch-lights appearing as ill-defined blobs.
I embraced the convenience and versatility of the N90S and zoom lens with 100 speed filem, which was easier and faster than my old prime lenses with Kodachrome, but I sacrificed quality.
At that stage I was still carry my Nikon F3T with Kodachrome. But following a string of processing disasters that summer, I largely phased out Kodachrome in favor of Fuji. Sometimes there’s no perfect solution, and some sort compromise is necessary.
Learn more about the evolution of the railroad network, see my book: North American Railroad Family Trees published by Voyageur Press.
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Tomorrow: Classic Conrail at Gang Mills!
Pinole, California, August 1992.
Here’s something neat; I was photographing a westward Southern Pacific freight running along the shore of San Pablo Bay at Pinole, when I spotted this old Northern Pacific box car in consist.
By 1992, Northern Pacific had been gone for 22 years, which seemed like a lifetime to me! Here was this vision of a railroad long gone, but still moving freight.
Of course, today its not still uncommon to see Burlington Northern cars in old paint, and BN has been gone 19 years. Funny how that works.
Learn more about the evolution of the railroad network, see my book: North American Railroad Family Trees published by Voyageur Press.
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Tomorrow: Summer in the 1990s!
Guilford SD26 at Silver Springs, May 2, 1987.
I thought I try something different; so I reached into a Logan slide storage box on the shelf and fished out a slide. This is what I found!
Step back 27 years . . . Doug Eisele and I had started the morning on the old Erie Railroad near Attica, New York. When Conrail’s heavy BUOI (Buffalo to Oak Island) freight came growling upgrade we followed it on side roads to Silver Springs. Here it took the siding for a westbound.
The signals read ‘yellow-over-red-over-red’—approach. What came along was Delaware & Hudson’s East Binghamton to Buffalo freight with a freshly painted former Santa Fe SD26 trailing.
At the time I wasn’t especially impressed by the D&H train. It was rolling hard out of the sun on tangent track. But, I rarely let an opportunity get away, so I made this going away view to show the signals and the meet.
In retrospect, I find this photo fascinating. The signals that interested me then, are all the more interesting today; the SD26 and leading GE U23Bs are all long gone; and Conrail’s former Erie operations faded into Norfolk Southern fifteen years ago. So, it’s pretty neat to look back and see what has changed!
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Tomorrow: Ghost of the Northern Pacific!
November 21, 1987.
Making the most of a clear bright autumn morning, I’d driven to New London, where I visited Central Vermont’s waterfront yard, located below the massive Thames River bridges for I-95. CV’s local was getting ready to head north.
While I was waiting for the CV to get moving, I made photographed Amtrak’s late running Night Owl and its southward Colonial train 95.
The CV local had three GP9s, standard locomotives for that run. In the lead was a personal favorite, engine 4442.
What was special about 4442? Nothing, that’s why I liked it. It had been working CV rails as long as I’d been making photographs, and it seemed like it was always around. I liked 4442 simply because it was familiar. It looked good, and sounded great.
I followed CV’s northward local toward Willimantic, Connecticut, making photos along the way. This was one my best efforts for the day. It’s something of an icon in my collection of CV photos. At the time it was a grab shot. I barely had to time to jump out of my Plymouth Scamp and release the shutter.
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Tomorrow, a random slide from the file!
Window in Time, 2012.
Here was an opportunity. Back in autumn 2012, a single LUAS Citadis tram on the Red Line was dressed in this attractive blue advertising livery.
It was the sort of item you see in the corner of your eye when crossing O’Connell Street, or when boarding a bus heading in the opposite direction, or when gliding by on the DART.
After a while, I had a few lucky moments, where was able to make photographs of this elusive tram.
On September 7, 2012, I saw it heading to the stub-end turn-back terminal at Connolly Station. This was my chance to make a few images.
In addition to this digital photo, I exposed a few Fujichrome color slides for posterity.
Why slides? In my mind, digital photograph remains an ephemeral format; nice to have, nice to work with, but one good zap to the old hard drive and. . . .
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August 12, 2011.
There are places that I’ve visited repeatedly over the years, where I’ve made hundreds, if not thousands of images, and explored from every angle and at all times of day and night.
Then there are the places I’ve visited just once, and rather briefly.
On August 12, 2011, Pat Yough and I were driving across south central Ohio on our way to the annual Summerail convention in Cincinnati. We started the morning in West Virginia, and on our way visited many places new to me.
We paused at Circleville where Norfolk Southern and CSX north-south mainlines run parallel. Three southward NS trains were heading toward us, so in a relatively short span of time, I made several interesting images of trains on the move.
Back in the day, this was a Pennsylvania Railroad town, and the old station still stood. Many the years since a scheduled train last stopped at the old depot.
That was all. Just a few photos and we were on our way! Most of my trips across Ohio have been like that.
Norfolk Southern 18M lead by SD70 2501 rolls through Circleville, Ohio on August 12, 2011. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 28-135mm lens.
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Tomorrow: Looking back on a Blue Tram.
May 14, 2011—on this day Three Years Ago.
SBB express trains to and from Basel approach the station in Gottmadingen, Germany (west of Singen) near the Swiss frontier.
Later in the day, I visited the Zeppelin museum at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.
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Views from Ireland’s Capital City.
Many more Dublin photos: LUAS, Irish Rail and City Center views! Click here to see my Dublin Page for the latest photos of Dublin!
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Tomorrow: Views near the Swiss Frontier!
Action at Kildare.
Here’s a dozen images: On Monday May 5, 2014, I traveled to Kildare, and spent the day making photos of Irish Rail’s operations.
The goal was to photograph the Up and Down IWT (International Warehousing and Transport) Liners (running to and from Dublin from Ballina), with a hope that the elusive timber trains might operate.
Irish Rail’s timber is elusive enough, so far as I’m concerned. It only operates two or three days a week, and often seems to get canceled when I’m out for it.
The weather was mixed; a bit of rain in the morning, a few bursts of sun in the afternoon. In other words, a typical May day in Ireland, if a bit on the cold side. The foliage was lush and green.
The down IWT liner (Dublin-Ballina) ran later than I anticipated, while the up IWT was more or less as expected.
Timber trains made their appearance as hoped. Since the timber must run around at Kildare station to change direction (it runs from Waterford to county Mayo, and there’s no direct chord at Cherryville Junction to facilitate a move for trains moving from the Waterford Line to the West), this allows opportunity to catch the timber train twice.
All in all, it was a productive day photographically.
Since most of Irish Rail’s passenger services are now provided by common 22000 series Rotem-built InterCity Railcars (ICRs), I’ve only included at few of the many passenger trains that passed that day.
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Irish Rail Mark 4 in the Gullet.
Satruday May 3, 2014 was cloudy and bright. I met Colm O’Callahan at an old favorite location west of Heuston known as ‘the Gullet.’
It was here in the 1840s that the Great Southern & Western Railway excavated a deep cutting for the line coming up the bank out of Dublin. In so doing, they cut through an ancient Viking burial ground. Some of the artifacts and bones can be viewed at the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street.
Photographing in the cutting has its challenges. However, in recent weeks, Irish Rail had re-ballasted the line, which brightened up the tracks and foreground. Directional overcast made for interesting lighting, while fresh green trees and grass offered some color.
To avoid the distraction of a white-sky, I completed cropped the horizon. This is a trick I learned years ago when studying at the Rochester Institute of Technology. If the horizon isn’t adding anything, lose it! To do this, it helps to have a bit of elevation.
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Tomorrow: Irish Rail on the May Bank Holiday!
May 10, 2007—Seven Years ago today.
In 2007, I coordinated a team of 37 photographers to document a full day’s worth of North American railway activity from Nova Scotia to southern California and from the Pacific Northwest to southern Florida in what became a book titled The Railroad Never Sleeps published by Voyageur Press.
In addition to coordination, I played an active role in making photographs. I’d coordinated with Genesee Valley Transportation to ride a locomotive on their former New York Central Falls Road (now Falls Road Railroad) and boarded the train at Lockport, New York.
My aim was to make photos of the crew to capture the feeling of an active short line railroad. Hal Reiser shadowed the train making photos from the ground, and at one point collected me so I could also make trackside views.
I’ve included several of the images from May 10, 2007.
Although The Railroad Never Sleeps is now out of print, it remains a stunning photographic collection, which is especially impressive considering it was entirely accomplished within the limits of just one day!
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June 9, 1996.
A variation of this photo appeared in a Railway Age supplement some years ago.
Back in June 1996, I was following the old Rock Island mainline. As I recall, I didn’t find much moving, and the day wasn’t the brightest. Yet, at Iowa City I visited a bridge over the Iowa Interstate’s yard and made a handful of images.
I’ve always liked this photo because it offers an unusual view with a lot of railway interest. The gondola carrying steel bars and open-door Burlington Northern 50ft boxcar are the sort of ordinary everyday elements of American railroading, meat and potato freight cars, that rarely get feature-treatment in photographs.
It was also the best way to make use of a dull day. Would this photograph be more effective if the sun had been out?
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Tomorrow: An Anniversary!
Pan Photography: Why and How.
I made this pan of a Blue Line light railcar on the streets of Long Beach, California while researching my book Railroads of California.
Panning is one of my preferred techniques for making a dynamic image while separating the subject from the background.
This can be especially useful on dull days where a lack of contrast makes for bland scenes, or in complex urban environments where the subject maybe lost in a tapestry of intersecting lines.
It’s also a great way to compensate for harsh lighting.
Some tricks for making successful pan photos: select a slow shutter speed (1/15 -1/60th of a second), aim for a broadside angle, and follow your subject while releasing the shutter as you move. Use smooth lateral motion. Do not stop panning once you release the shutter. Practice repeatedly.
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Tomorrow: An Iowa Interlude.
NWP Sprint Train—April 1992.
Back in the early 1990s, Southern Pacific was still serving the Northwestern Pacific route as far as Willits, California where it tapped connections, including its former line that was still in operation all the way to Eureka.
Sometimes on Sunday mornings, I’d drive north from San Francisco across the Golden Gate to Petaluma on Highway 101. There wasn’t much traffic at that time of day. Occasionally, I make this run with fellow Bay Area photographer Brian Jennison.
Although the Willits-Petaluma portion of the run was often nocturnal, on Sundays SP’s ‘NWP Sprint Train’ made a turn from Petaluma to Fairfield and this often called for groups of SD9s.
On this day, normal California blue skies were muted by a dull fog. Yet, I persevered and chased the train. It was hard to argue with the great sounds produced by a quartet of 1950s-era 16-567 diesels in multiple. Also, dull days have their moments too.
At Novato, I made this image featuring the gently rolling green hills that characterize Marin County as a back drop. Admitted, I was disappointed by the ‘lobotomized’ leader, which had its classic SP lighting package disturbed; its oscillating headlight was missing leaving a scar on the short hood. Oh the shame of it all!
Looking back, I’d quite happily take this again. It was an era before graffiti covered freight cars, the uniform proliferation of locomotive ditch lights, and when SP was still the SP!
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Tomorrow: On the Streets of Long Beach!
Along the Rhein at Festung Ehrenbreitstein, May 1996.
I made this view from the massive fortress above the Rhein opposite Koblenz. My father and I had traveled by train from Köln.
The train pictured was a local train gliding in for a station stop.
The fortress is a popular attraction and offers magnificent views of the confluence of Rhein and Mosel Rivers, while also providing some nice elevated angles on the railway along the ‘right bank.’
Trains are plentiful on this line, and every few minutes freights would rumble along the river. To view the river and railway from the massive stone walls is an experience. We arrived by cable car, and departed by a Mercedes Taxi. What a cool place!
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Tomorrow: Freight in Marin County!
Islandbridge, Dublin April 29, 2014.
Among the difficulties of living within sight of the railway is the chance that such proximity may breed photographic apathy and slough. One the plus side, when something rumbles by, all I have to do is look out the window!
There are several nice photo locations within a ten minute walk of Islandbridge. On the downside, over the last decade I’ve covered these nearly to the point of exhaustion. Yet, that doesn’t keep me from taking advantage of them.
Shortly before 11am on Tuesday April 29, 2014, I heard the distinct roar of an Irish Rail 071 class diesel (built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division). I glanced out the window to see a gray locomotive roll into the Phoenix Park tunnel with a wagon transfer for Dublin’s North Wall.
Ah! A grey locomotive and the elusive wagon transfer!
I made a call to alert a friend, and a short while later I got a call back to say that the wagon transfer had collected three flats and was on its way back. The locomotive was 085 which wears a variation of the gray and yellow livery introduced a year ago.
It was a rare clear sunny morning, and I was keen to make a color slide of this engine passing Islandbridge Junction. Armed with good information, I walked five minutes up the road to my often-used location and waited. Less than 15 minutes passed before 085 appeared from the tunnel with the three flats.
I exposed a few digital images with my Canon EOS 7D and 100mm lens, before executing a color slide (or two) with my EOS 3 with 40mm lens. I was home less than 30 minutes after leaving. Back to the book writing! I’m presently researching a book on North American signaling.
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Tomorrow: View from a Castle.
Rockhill Furnace, October 12, 1997.
It was a foggy dawn at Rockhill Furnace, Pennsyvlania on the second day of East Broad Top’s annual ‘Fall Spectacular’. Mike Gardner and I had arrived the day before for the event.
Low dew point resulted in a cosmic mix of mist, steam exhaust and locomotive smoke.What I remember best was the clanging of locomotive bells and the soft whoosh of exhaust.
By 10 am the sun had burned off the fog and it was a glorious Pennsylvania day.
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Tomorrow: Proximity and Apathy?
Embarcadero May 2008
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Making use of April Evening Light.
Years ago, I noticed that in mid-April the evening sun floods Abbey Street in Dublin with low warm bright light. This only lasts for a few weeks. During the winter, the street is largely shadowed and in summer the evening sun swings too far to the north.
The other day, I walked along the LUAS Red Line on my way into the City Centre. Where Abbey Street crosses Capel Street there’s a bit of jog in the tracks which allows for an interesting perspective with a telephoto lens.
In past years, I’ve worked this spot with some really long lenses. However on this occasion I took a more conservative approach, choosing my Canon 100mm.
It was a Friday evening so there were lots of people on the street and outbound trams were full with passengers heading home.
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Tomorrow: PCC Car in Morning Light.
Surveying Places for Photography on the CP Mainline near Vale de Figuera.
Using Google Maps, I’d pre-selected a variety of locations on Comboios de Portugal’s main line between Entroncamento and Santarem that I thought warranted investigation.
The great thing about modern tools is that they can save a great deal of time searching for photographic angles with minimum investment.
Back in the old days, I spent hours in libraries scouring USGS topographical maps and making photo copies of same in preparation for a trip.
Today, I simply go to Google Earth and make screen shots on my iPad of various maps and satellite views of prospective locations which I file for reference when navigating. Street view can offer additional perspectives.
I realize there are even more efficient ways to accomplish this, but I’m ‘old-school’ in my basic approach.
Finding a spot on a map is all well and good, but I still find it imperative to inspect locations in person and on the ground.
A place that looks good on a map or satellite view, may prove be unworkable for a variety of reasons; line-side brush, fences and other obstructions may interfere with photography, elevation may be too high or too low. Access may be restricted or difficult to obtain. Lines with overhead electrification can prove especially difficult.
Sometimes, a location that seemed uninspiring on a map proves to be just the right spot.
Case in point: these photos were made from an overhead bridge north of Vale de Figueira on a short steeply grade section of mainline.
What I liked about the location was the curves in the track, the texture of plants in the cutting, and the distinctively scenic backdrop. On the downside, this place would have been better a couple hours earlier in the day, as the light was harsher than I’d like.
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Tomorrow: Urban view with a telephoto lens!
January 3, 1989.
The old New York Central Mohawk Division is an enigmatic stretch of railroad. It’s very old. It has lots of history. It passes through some stunning scenery. It carries lots of traffic. And it can be really difficult to photograph.
Access to the line is limited, elevation is often in the wrong places, and trains seem to run in the wrong direction or at the wrong times. Or, following holidays, it seems that trains are absent altogether. Yet, when driving the New York State Thruway, it seems that every time you look across at the tracks there’s a train racing along.
On this day, I was driving west under sunny skies. I joined the Mohawk at Amsterdam, New York where I found Conrail B23-7 1999 working a local freight—hard out of the morning sun. A blanket of lake effect snow covered the ground. Hmm.
Very little else was moving, but I caught one of Amtrak’s Empire Corridor trains at Fonda. Then took my time to explore locations.
At Little Falls, I again caught up with this Conrail B23-7. At the time it was the booby prize, but I’m glad I took the time to make photographs.
Ten years later, Conrail faded into history. My dad and I made photographs along the Mohawk on Conrail’s final day.
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Tomorrow: using modern tools to find locations.
Guilford—May 1997.
It was a clear fresh May morning when I met my friend George S. Pitarys for a day’s photography. We were aiming to photograph the New Hampshire North Coast’s rock train, however, George said to me, ‘lad, we have a diversion.’
We set up at Boston & Maine’s heavy truss over the Merrimack River at Haverhill for a westward freight. The attraction was a trio of former Santa Fe SD26s in the lead.
As the train approached the bridge, I was impressed by the view of the old brick buildings with the train looming to the left.
I exposed this image with my Nikon N90S with 80-200mm lens. I also made a more traditional view of the locomotives on the bridge, but for me, this one better conveys railroading in a post-industrial New England scene.
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Dublin Area Rapid Transit—April 2014.
In 1984, the DART began electric services between Howth and Bray. This offered an improvement to existing Dublin suburban services by wiring existing routes. The service was later extended to Greystones and Malahide.
The line between Pearse Station (formerly Westland Row) and Dún Laoghaire (formerly Kingstown) had been opened in 1834 and is considered the world’s oldest suburban railway.
The hum of DART’s electric multiple units are a familiar tone of Dublin transport.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve made several images of DART trains during my travels around Dublin. All were exposed with my Canon EOS 7D.
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To Wicklow and Return, April 21, 2014.
A clear bright day and an excellent crowd made for a great day out with locomotive 461 and the preserved Cravens carriages.
The train boarded at Dublin’s Connolly Station and ran directly to Wicklow with stunning views of Dublin bay from Killiney and Bray Head.
At Wicklow, the special was overtaken by a holiday ‘relief’ special to Gorey that operated with the freshly painted candy apple green 29000 set.
A short trip was run from Wicklow to Greystones and return, with some spirited running along the beaches south of Greystones.
Engine 461 is a former Dublin & South Eastern 2-6-0 goods engine, so it was working on old home rails. The locomotive was steaming well and made for a great performance.
Reported difficulties with the points at Wicklow resulted in minor delays on the return trip, but clear signals up to Dublin and excellent running by the steam crew found us back at Connolly only a few minutes behind the advertised.
I traveled on the train, and used opportunities at station stops to make photos of the crew.
These are some of my digital results. I also used my old Nikon F3 with a 24mm lens to exposed some Fuji Acros 100 black & white film. Somehow steam and B&W seems like an appropriate combination! Those images remain latent, and perhaps will be a topic for a future post!
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Tomorrow: The DART in Pictures.
Connolly Station, Dublin, April 21, 2014.
Several weeks ago, Irish Rail released one of its 29000-series suburban railcars in a fresh new two-tone green and yellow livery.
My initial haphazard attempts at finding this train on the move were unsuccessful. However, on April 21, 2014, I got lucky.
I was riding Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Easter Eggspress led by steam locomotive 461, when at Wicklow, our train was overtaken by an Easter Monday ‘relief’ from Connolly to Gorey worked by set 0129117 (formerly 29117) in the new livery!
Armed with this knowledge, I consulted my operations expert for advice on when the train would return to Dublin.
After the Easter Eggspress arrived back in Dublin, I made my way over to Platform 6. Here I scored these views of the freshly painted train that arrived about 15 minutes later.
Soft early evening sun made for nearly perfect lighting conditions. After the train discharged its passengers, it worked back over the Loop Line toward Pearse Station and the old Boston sidings.
I always like to catch a new livery as soon as I can; Before it gets dirty, before someone decides to change it.
Tomorrow: Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Easter Eggspress!
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Traveling to M3 Parkway on an ICR.
A few years ago Irish Rail rebuilt a portion of its old line between Clonsilla and Navan. This had been closed in the early 1960s and the right of way had largely returned to nature.
In late 2009, I’d explored the rebuilding as tracks were being installed, but I’d been negligent in my photography of this new route since that time.
On Wednesday, April 16, 2014, I rode the LUAS tram to Dublin’s Docklands and walked over to Irish Rail’s Dockland station at the North Wall. This was built during the Celtic Tiger boom, which had also resulted in abandonment of most of Irish Rail’s North Wall freight yards.
I went for a relaxing spin directly to the end of the new branch at ‘M3 Parkway’. The track was in superb condition.
On my return trip, I changed trains at Clonsilla. Instead of returning via Docklands, I rode directly to Connolly Station. Later, I learned that two hours before my trip the elusive Sperry train had made a run to M3 Parkway and back! I had no idea. Right place, wrong time. Lucky miss, I guess.
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Tomorrow: Irish Rail’s new Suburban Livery!
August 1, 1986.
On this hot and humid evening, fellow photographer Bob Karambelas and I were poised to catch the parade of rush hour trains that raced the former Pennsylvania Railroad at Linden, New Jersey.
Here six main tracks and high voltage overhead make for an impressive right of way.
At that time, the New York-Philadelphia Clockers were still run with heritage fleet cars, while the AEM7 in the lead was only a few years old.
Today, the AEM7 fleet still work for Amtrak, but will soon be running their final miles for the national passenger carrier as their replacements come on-line.
For more than 25 years this slide sat unattended in my files. For so many years, it just didn’t seem noteworthy. I see it now with fresh eyes.
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Tomorrow: Exploring a New Line!
April 6, 2014.
Back in 1996 a European friend said to me, ‘you ought to visit Lisbon, they’ve got some wonderful old trams there.’ Some 18 years later, I finally ticked off that box in my notebook. Better late, than not at all.
Lisbon is famous for its narrow gauge trams that crawl up narrow and steeply graded streets. This track work is amazing. It’s amazing that it was ever built, and even more so that some of the lines are still worked in 2014!
The old trams are of course a tourist attraction, but like San Francisco’s cable cars, these function as part of the transit system.
Visitors queue to board, much to the delight of local pickpockets. I was forewarned about light-fingered activities, so I took precautionary measures. And, also made a sport of spotting the picks. Not to point fingers, I saw nothing lifted, but I saw some suspicious characters in the queue (who didn’t seem to have any interest in riding a tram).
The quirky old cars are enhanced by the colorful tapestry that makes up Lisbon’s old city. Sunny skies were delivered as ordered.
Route number 15 is populated by modern LRV style cars, but passes through some interesting areas and runs parallel to an old heavy-rail commuter rail route.
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Tomorrow: Looking back on a Clocker.
Irish Rail, Heuston Station, Dublin.
A railcar sunset? No, it’s not a metaphor, it really was a railcar at that time of day.
On April 15, 2014, I was passing the Heuston shed and notice that the soft orange light of the setting sun had illuminated this cavernous space. Lucky for me, there was a train approaching platform 4. (If it had been lined to any of the other platforms this photograph wouldn’t have worked.)
Using my Lumix LX3, I made this panned view. It captures the motion while helping to visually separate the front of the train from the interior ironwork. The low light allows for a pleasing glint effect without becoming overbearing or distracting.
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Tomorrow: narrow alleys and narrow gauge.
Osceola, Wisconsin, August 1996.
The advantages of being up early include being treated to cosmic light. On this August 1996 morning, I was photographing Northern Pacific 4-6-0 number 328 as it was being prepared for a day’s excursions with the Minnesota Transportation Museum.
The engine’s rods, bathed in boiler steam reflected the muted glow of the rising sun. A magenta hue had graced the Wisconsin sky. The effect lasted only a few minutes, and before long the sun was shinning brightly.
I worked quickly, making many detailed views of the locomotive equipment and its crew. At the time I was researching for my book The American Steam Locomotive (published by MBI), while working as editor for Pacific RailNews
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Tomorrow: Railcar Sunset!
