After a light snowfall in December 1993, I set up at CP79 east of Palmer, Massachusetts, where an eastward Conrail freight led by DASH-8-40C 6069 was holding on the Controlled Siding to meet a set of light engines rolling west behind B23-7 1992.
I was working with my Nikon F3T fitted with an Nikkor AF28MM lens. Since the F3T wasn’t equipped with autofocus, I set the focus manually.
This lens offered a wide perspective and tended to vignette the corners of the photo. Also because it was relatively wide, the relative motion of the leading locomotive to the film plane was greater than with a longer focal length lens, and resulted in a slight blurring, despite a 1/250th of second shutter speed.
In May 2001, I stood on the old footbridge at Irish Rail’s Kildare Station and framed an up-road train using the bridge’s lattice iron-work .
Irish Rail locomotive 213 (of the 201 class EMD diesels) led Mark III carriages. At the time this was about as common as one could expect for an Intercity passenger run.
Now, the Intercity MarkIII carriages are long gone, and old 213 is among the 201-class diesels stored at Inchicore.
I made the square image with my Rolleiflex Model T. Kodak 120-size Tri-X film processed in a customized mix of Ilfotec HC developer.
On a visit to Oulu, Finland in Summer 2001, my friend Markku Pulkkinen arranged a visit the VR Group roundhouse.
At that time this was still the primary facility for locomotive storage and repair in Oulu.
In modern times, a big modern train care center has supplanted the old roundhouse, which on my visit in 2015 was largely used to house historic railroad equipment.
I made this photo on 120-size Kodak Tri-X using my Rollei Model T. In addition to a handful of black & white photos, I also made some color slides with my then-new Contax G2 rangefinder.
On an evening in Spring 2001, I made this monochrome silhouette at Dublin’s Heuston Station using my Rollei Model T. The photo brings back memories of another time.
The place has much changed in the intervening 21 years since the click of the shutter.
This shows Irish Rail class 141/181s working as shunters, a practice that ended about a dozen years ago when locomotive hauled consists were phased out in favor of modern self propelled Intercity Railcars (ICRs). Among the other changes: the platform arrangement was altered and extended, while the trainshed roof restored.
Friday, February 11, 2022, New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic operated its vintage Russell snow plow with former Maine Central Railroad GP38 255 pushing it west toward Attitash.
I followed the plow by road and made a few select digital photos with my Nikon Z6 fitted with 70-200mm lens.
To get a good snow exposure I dialed in ‘+3’ to the expose compensation, which helps keep the snow white. I metered manually with the in-camera ‘matrix meter’, then set both shutter speed and aperture manually.
Although I set the camera’s focas point, I let the Nikon’s autofocus system work as intended.
In a few instances, I hiked into locations to get the best angle where the snow was the deepest. On more than one occasion I found myself up to my hips in snow.
It was a good day out with the plow!
A couple of weeks ago, I put together a video for Conway Scenic on the operation of the plow. This was mostly filmed in 2021. It is available on You Tube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp5Qg-5_B6M
Intervale, NH.Intervale, NH looking west toward Mount Washington.Clearing the line at Glen, NH.Glen, NH.Working upgrade along Route 302 west of Glen, NH.
Way back in April 2001, photographer Mike Gardner and I paid a visit to the closed Old State Road bridge over the former West Shore route at Guilderland, New York.
This was only a couple of years after CSX assumed operation of Conrail’s former New York Central Waterlevel Route across New York State. At that time this was an exceptionally busy line with a non-stop parade of freights.
Eastward CSX freight at Guilderland, New
I made this coming and going pair of photos using my Rollei Model T. This featured a very sharp f3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens.
My choice of film was Kodak Tri-X processed in Ifotec HC developer. I scanned the negatives yesterday using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner, then made minor adjustements to the TIF scans using Adobe Light room to improve constrast and exposure.
On occasion I make a photograph for one of my friends.
Saturday, February 5, 2022, I traveled on Conway Scenic’s 1130 Snow Train (a train for which I drafted the schedule). Upon crossing the Ellis River bridge in Glen, New Hampshire, I though this would be an ideal place to photograph the train with heavily snow covered trees.
I returned later, and wading through deep snow I put myself in position on the west bank of the Ellis to capture the the return run of the 1330 Snow Train.
Wayne Duffett was the locomotive engineer, as seen in the cab of former Maine Central 255. Wayne is also the railroad’s bridge engineer with whom I traveled last year on his detailed structural inspection of this span and others along the line. Further, it was Wayne who first recommended to me a vantage point on the banks of Ellis.
Saturday at North Conway, NH the combination fresh snow, a clear cold sky, and brightly painted EMD diesels in a quaint setting made for some great photo opportunities.
Although compact and lightweight, my Lumix LX7 is a handy tool for capturing railroad photos. I carry it with me often, even when I have bigger cameras at hand.
Yesterday, I hosted a live radio broadcast at Conway Scenic Railroad’s North Conway Station to promote the railroad’s Snow Train excursions.
Dirk Nadon of Lakes Media arrived in the morning and set up a mini-broadcasting studio in the station lobby. We broadcast live and recorded sound bites and interviews on Lakes FM 101.5 and 104.9 The Hawk FM.
I participated in the organization of the event, spoke on the radio to convey the excitement of Snow Train, and made these photographs using my Lumix LX7 digital camera.
We also took the 1130am Snow Train to Attitash and traveled in vintage Pullman diner Hattie Evans.
You know this must have sounded good! Former Erie Lackawanna SD45-2s lead a loaded ballast extra westbound at the summit of the Boston & Albany at Bullards Road near Hinsdale, Massachusetts.
I made this photo on the evening of August 23, 1984 using a Leica 3A loaded Kodak Tri-X.
In retrospect, I wish I had a slightly longer lens here and better exposure and processing skills. With in a few years, I had better cameras and my photography had improved dramatically, but catching scenes like this one of SD45-2s on the B&A route were a thing of the past.
And, I really wish I’d recorded the sound of this train. All those 20-cylinder 645 diesels in Run-8, wow!
Driving around a few weeks ago, Kris and I paused at Gorham, New Hampshire, where I made these views of the old Grand Trunk Railway station
I wanted to feature broadside photographs that show the profile of the station perpendicular to the railroad rather than more common three-quarter views nearer to the tracks.
For these photos I was working with my Nikon Z6 fitted with my 70-200mm Z-series zoom lens. I made mild adjustment to constrast and saturation in post processing.
Do the modern highway vehicles improve or detract from the photos of the station?
On 13 April, 2001, I traveled with the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland to Mullingar, where I exposed a roll of Kodak 120 Tri-X using a Rolleiflex Model T.
Among the photos I made was this group portrait featuring RPSI’s steam locomotive 461 on the Mullingar turntable with an array of Irish Rail and RPSI crew and members.
If I recall correctly, RPSI’s Kevin Walker and Denis McCabe assisted with arranging the group portrait.
Many years earlier, I learned a trick for getting large numbers of people to all look at the camera at the moment of exposure.
I titled this photo, ‘The Usual Suspects.’ This made it a bit harder to locate in my files.
In May 2003, I was traveling with the lads from Dublin to Crewe (England) by way of the ferry to Holyhead in Wales.
Along the journey, I exposed this group portrait in front of Virgin Cross Country HST.
Saturday evening (January 29, 2022), I was saddened to learn of the passing of my friend and fellow photographer Aiden McDonnell, who is pictured here second from the left.
I’ve often made it point to photograph my friends when on excursions to document the passing railroad scene. I’m really glad that I did.
In May 1998, I stood at the south end of platform 5 of Dublin’s Connolly Station where I made this view of 2600-series diesel multiple units as they accelerated away from the platforms toward Tara Street on the Loop Line.
I was working with my Nikon F3T loaded with Fujichrome Sensia II (ISO 100).
At the time the 2600s were a common sight in Dublin.
This photo reminds me of my first impressions of Dublin and how much has changed since 1998.
This ancient viaduct spans the Ouse Valley in Sussex, England.
I photographed the bridge for a book project on my visit there in June 2001.
This evening view was exposed with a Rolleiflex Model T, loaded with Kodak Tri-X—film that I later processed using a customize mix of Ilfotec HC liquid developer.
This high constrast developer yielded a very tight grain structure with excellent shadow detail, but tended to leave the sky a bit too dense. This flaw was easily corrected with Lightroom, where sky mask feature made for a clean fix.
On November 10, 1985, I had my father’s Rollei loaded with Verichrome Pan black & white 120-size roll film.
Using the camera with the 645-size insert, I photographed Boston & Maine GP38-2 201 leading one of Maine Central’s former Rock Island U25Bs on a westward freight working the Fitchburg route at Greenfield, Massachusetts.
I scanned the negative with my Epson V600 flatbed scanner, then imported the scan into Adobe Lightroom to make a series of contrast and exposure adjustments, while elimintating dusk specs to improve the negative.
I liked the stark quality of Verichrome that made it well suited to November in New England
I made this unusual view at East Deerfield, Massachusetts where Boston & Maine’s Fitchburg route mainline crossed over the former New Haven Railroad line to Turners Falls. This was one of several grade seaparations in the Greenfield area.
120-size roll film negative on Verichrome Pan (125 Iso).
By the time I made this photo in late 1985, the track on the Turners Falls line had been abandoned, but remained largely intact and undisturbed below the weeds.
On a session of the West Springfield Train Watchers, I made this view of four BIG Conrail diesels at the west end of the yard.
It was the evening of July 19, 1983.
I traveled there with Bob Buck in his green Ford van.
As dusk settled, I set up my Leica 3A on a tripod, carefully keeping the yard lights at the edge of the frame. I opened the shutter using the ‘T’ setting and illuminated the train with a Metz strobe to compensate for the inky shadows of the summer evening.
I was keen on making the most of the Conrail C30-7s and SD45-2s leading the evening westbound. These were rare locomotives and worthy of my attention at the time. On the recommendation of my friend and fellow photographer Doug Moore, I’d wrapped the head of the strobe in a white garbage bag to soften and diffuse the light.
Looking back this photo, what strikes me is the relative sophistication my composition. Yet, for years this image sat dormant because of its poor technical qualities. I over processed the film, leading to coarse grain and excessive contrast.
Conrail C30-7s and SD45-2s at West Springfield, Massachusetts on July 19, 1983.
I asked Kris why my early photos benefit from great composition despite their poor technical quality. She suggested that this was because I was making photo for joy of the subject without too much concern for technique.
Over the years my overall techique improved, but as my technical qualities were refined my compositions grew less innovative. Eventually my improved techniques resulted in superior images, but I still look back at my early efforts trying to see what I saw.
I’ve had a special request from a regular Tracking the Light subscriber for more Central Vermont. So here we go! Read on . . .
I grew up less three miles from the South Monson crossing, where the Central Vermont Railway crosses Route 32 near the sand & gravel company.
On July 21, 1983, I made one of my earliest solo train chases by car. (Previously, I chased on a ten-speed).
I’d followed a northward CV freight from Stateline toward Palmer, where this met a southward freight led by GP9 4442.
Old 4442 was my favorite of CV’s GP9s. It was my favorite for no other reason than it always seemed to lead the freight coming through Monson, and was almost always in Palmer during my forays there.
I made this view of 4442 southbound crossing Route 32.
Fast forward to August 7, 2018. I’d stepped out of Monson Savings Bank in time to see New England Central GP38 3850 work through town with the Federal Railroad Administration inspection train.
My first point of interception was at the South Monson Crossing.
Digital photo of NECR 3850 leading a southward FRA inspection train at South Monson.This is nearly the same angle that I’d taken back in 1983.
In the intervening years between these two trains, the trees and line-side foliage have grown!
Also, I notice that my youthful enthusiasm for catching the train in motion seems to have resulted in a more successful photographic composition than my more skilled efforts.
This last point is a topic I plan to explore in great depth in upcoming Tracking the Light posts.
Nearly 21 years ago, back in March 2001, photographer Mike Gardner and I photographed this former Conrail SD80MAC leading an empty coal train by the old PRR SO tower at South Fork, Pennsylvania.
I made this medium format black & white photo using a classic Speed Graphic with roll-film back borrowed from regular Tracking the Light reader Doug Moore.
Last week I scanned this 6×9 120 negative using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner and adjusted the RAW file with Adobe Lightroom.
Tri-X.
I have numerous photos of the SD80MACs on Conrail when they were painted in blue and white and working in pairs on the Boston Line. However, I have relatively few images of these BIG 20-cylinder diesels in black & white Norfolk Southern paint.
The SD80MAC was not a common type. Only Conrail received them new frome EMD. Today, they are near extinct. The last I heard, there were just four left.
Fifty-Four years gone: The late great Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was America’s largest, busiest, and most intensive railroad.
On our trip to Pennsylvania in November we experienced plenty of action along the rails of the former Pennsylvania Railroad. But we also saw several examples of Pennsylvania Railroad freight equipment preserved for display.
I made these digital images of restored PRR equipment as it appeared to me in November 2021.
PRR GP9 7048 at Horseshoe Curve—Altoona, PA.PRR GP9 7048 at Horseshoe Curve—Altoona, PA.PRR F30A flatcar at Horseshoe Curve.PRR N5C caboose at Gallitzin, PA.PRR-X31A boxcar at Hollidaysburg, PA.PRR-X31A boxcar at Hollidaysburg, PA.PRR-X31A boxcar at Hollidaysburg, PA.
September 23, 1984; crisp autumn sunlight made for some nice light to capture a southward Central Vermont freight crossing the Boston & Albany at Palmer, Massachusetts.
I was working with Kodak Tri-X, which I was learning to process in D-76, rather than Microdol-X. D-76 offered broader tonality, but resulted in somewhat coarser grain. Complicating matters, my process time was a bit longer than necessary and I tended to over agitate, which resulted in denser negatives than I’d like.
A comparatively rare Central Vemont lash-up; GP9 4551 and GP18 3602. The former Rock Island GP18 was relatively short lived on CV.Palmer Union Station at left.
Despite the minor processing flaws, I scanned the negatives last week and made minor corrections in post processing to yield better results.
Yesterday, January 20, 2022 (01-20-2022), Conway Scenic Railroad operated its first plow extra of the season.
This resulted in the vintage Russell Plow being readied for the service it was built for. The extra was needed help clear flangeways of snow and ice accumulation, push back mounds of hardened snow, and to serve as an equipment refresher and training excercise for our crews.
I made this series of photos of the plow and GP35 216 using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera with 24-70mm zoom lens. For this I set the exposure mode to ‘A’ (for automatic/aperture priority), manually dialed in ‘+1/3 stops’ to help compensate for the bright snow, and controlled the aperture manually.
The bright snow conditions tend to result in underexposed railroad images because the camera meter treats the snow as gray rather than white. Thus the need for slight overexposure.
I made some nominal corrections to the camera’s NEF files using Lightroom and converted to moderate size JPGs for internet presentation here.
Last Novemeber, Kris & I timed our visit to Huntingdon, Pennsylvania to coincide with the passage of train 42, the eastward Pennsylvanian, which was led by General Electric Genesis P42 No. 108 painted for the passenger operator’s 50th Anniversary (1971 to 2021).
I made these views of the specially painted diesel using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
In August 1981, my family and I were on a loosely mapped vacation in Pennsylvania.
On the second day of our trip, we were driving from Hazelton to Strasburg to visit the famous Strasburg Rail Road.
Fast forward 41 years: yesterday, if you’d asked me if I’d ever photographed Conrail running freight on the old Reading Company, I’d have been hard pressed to come up with an answer.
And, yet here is a Conrail caboose crossing PA 501 near Prescott, PA exposed on the move from the rear window of our 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser!
Leica 3A with 50mm Summitar lens-Kodak 5063 (Tri-X) processed in Microdol-X developer.
I scanned the negative a little while ago. Unsure as to the location, I enlarged the photo. Thinking back, I recalled a train crossing over us enroute, but as a teenager wasn’t good with my Pennsylvania geography. Looking a the photo, I noticed the Route 501 sign, which gave me the needed clue.
A quick Google search placed this location near Prescott (where 501 ducks under the former Reading Company Crossline route). Looking a Google Earth, I’ve nearly confirmed the location.
Ironically, the next few frames on the roll show static cabooses at Strasburg’s The Red Caboose caboose-themed motel. Ironic, because in 1981, cabooses (of all colors) were still common on most America freight trains.
In 2007 while working on my book Railroads of Pennsylvania, I visited the Middletown & Hummelstown, a short line operating a short section of the former Reading Company.
I made this 2 1/4 inch square Fujichrome transparency using my Rolleiflex Model T.
The focus of the image was the Alco Products builder’s plate on the model T-6 switcher.
Here’s a photo from my black & white archives that I’d completely dismissed. I’d exposed it at Huntington, Massachusetts in March 1985.
There were a few of problems with this image that irked me.
The first was cosmic. Moments before I release the shutter, a cloud coverd the front of the train. That sort of thing used to drive me nuts.
The second was strategic. I’d released the shutter a little earlier than I’d like, leaving the train just a bit distant. I didn’t have a motor drive in those days, and typically would wait for the decisive moment to take my photo.
The third was a chronic failing from my Leica 3 days. I tended to photograph slightly off level, leaving most of my photos annoyingly tilted.
All of these flaws are now easily overcome using Adobe Lightroom.
I altered the exposure and contrast to correct for the obscured sun, while bringing in sky detail partially lost to over exposure. I cropped the photo to minimize the foreground, and this pleasantly altered the composition to feature the code lines to the right of the locomotives and milepost 119 on the left. Lastly, I leveled the image, a task that take now about 2 seconds.
Looking at this photo now, I find that I’m very pleased with it. It has aged very well. The minor flaws don’t bother me, since these were easily corrected, while the overall subject fascinates me. It is the time machine I needed today.
Tracking the Light Posts Daily!
Here’s the original, unaltered image for comparison.
It was a warm November morning, when Kris and I visited Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on the old Pennsylvania Railroad Middle Division.
Years ago, my old pal TSH and I would visit his grandmother who lived in Huntingdon. Kris and I drove around the village and I located the row house where Gram H. once lived. Then we proceeded to the Amtrak station to wait for the eastward Pennsylvanian.
Norfolk Southern fielded a few freights ahead of Amtrak, including this short local frieght led by a lone SD70ACU. Back in the old days, a pair of GP38-2s would have been standard on the local.
Norfolk Southern local freight passes HUNT tower in Huntingdon, PA.
Photos exposed using my Nikon Z6 with f2.8 70-200mm zoom lens.
March 1985: working with Ilford FP4 black & white film, I made this view of Amtrak’s Charter Oak paused for its station stop at Springfield Union Station, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Amtrak F40PH 228 leads the westward Charter Oak at Springfield Union Station in March 1985.
I processed the film in Kodak D76.
As was too often the case back in the mid-1980s, I over processed my film which resulted in excessively contrasty negatives. This is easily corrected with today’s technology.
Last week I scanned the 37-year old negative using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner. I made some nominal adjustments to exposure and contrast using Adobe Lightroom.
In mid-November , this was the view looking west from our room at Gallitzin’s Tunnel Inn located adjacent to Norfolk Southern’s former Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line near the tunnels under the Allegheny Divide.
I made this photo with my Nikon Z6 with f4.0 24-70mm zoom lens.
Kris & I spent two days and two nights at this excellent railroad themed bed & breakfast while exploring the old Main Line & environs.
I was impressed that some of my titles were on the shelf!
