On our way back from Gap, we pulled into the old PRR freight house location at Bird-in-Hand, Pa., to roll by Amtrak Keystone 656.
We didn’t have long to wait when the train raced by with ACS-64s on both ends of the short consist. Number 600-class leader named David Gunn was on the leading end; 655 on the trailing end.
I made these photos using my Lumix LX7 compact digital camera.
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I like to convey motion.
Over the years, I’ve made hundreds of pan photos—where the camera moves along with the subject to set the background off in a see of motion-blur.
For slow moving trains, I’ve typically panned at 1/30th or 1/60th of a second, and sometimes a slow as 1/2 second.
The other day at Greenfield in Lancaster, I panned Amtrak ACS64 644 trailing on train 654 at 1/400th of a second. Since the train was accelerating to a speed of just over 100mph, even this relative short shutter speed still allowed for a successful pan.
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Spring has arrived. The grass is green and the cows are out in the fields.
The time has moved forward and the sun is up after I’m through with a day at the desk.
Friday evening, Kris, Seamus-the-dog and I went over to Gap, Pa., where we watched Amtrak roll.
In this view, Keystone 651 works west of Gap on the fill near Hoover Road.
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As an allusion to the old Monkees song, I made this series of Amtrak Keystone 657 making its evening station stop at Parkesburg, Pa.
On weekdays this is the last train of the evening to stop at the old Pennsylvania Railroad station in Parkesburg, Pa.
I made these photos with my Nikon Z6 mounted on a 3Pod tripod, the camera was set to ISO 16000. In post processing, the Nikon NEF RAW files were converted to DNG format using DxO Pure Raw and adjusted in Adobe Lightroom.
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Yesterday on TTL, I featured Superliners and Searchlights at Sunset on the old Burlington. For today’s photo, I decided for a modern view of an ACS-64 passing a Color Position Light on the former Pennsylvania Railroad along Jefferson Drive at Greenfield in Lancaster, Pa.
More than 30 years separated the two images.
To make the most of the modern image, I processed the Nikon NEF RAW file using DxO PureRaw, converting it to a DNG format which I then edited for color, contrast and exposure in Adobe LightRoom. This digital processing allowed me to make the most of image, including the brilliant green lights in the signal.
My only regret with the modern photo is that I wish I’d released the shutter a split second sooner so that the front of the locomotive didn’t intersect with the signal post. Small complaint. I’ll go back an try again!
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Another photo from my Classic Chrome files.
I exposed this Kodachrome 25 slide on February 25, 1995 at Highlands, Illinois, on the famous Burlington triple-track raceway.
Amtrak No. 6, the eastward California Zephyr, was on its final lap to reach Chicago Union Station.
I was working with my old Nikon F3T fitted with an f4.0 200mm lens. The secret to this photo was my notebook, which I used as a lens shade to control flare, thus making the glint effect more dramatic.
Another key element of the image was my choice of focus, which I set on the signal bridge, which is the secondary subject and a important part of the composition.
I scanned the slide using a Nikon LS5000 slide scanner.
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There are many ‘Gaps’ in Pennsylvania but only Gap, Pa.
I’ll let historians argue about the details, but what’s important to me is that Gap offers an excellent place to photograph Amtrak.
Last week, fellow photographer Dan Cupper, advised me that Amtrak P42 108 (painted in an unusual 50thAnniversary heritage livery) was expected to work Train 42, the eastward Pennsylvanian.
My first plan was to catch both westward and eastward Pennsylvanians at Christiana, where I can picture the trains passing the classic Pennsylvania Railroad station building.
This plan was partially foiled when I arrived to find that my planned photo of Train 42 wasn’t possible because of some vehicles parked near the right of way. Complicating matters was that Train 43 was close, but running a few minutes late. (See TTL post from March 14). My quandary was that if I waited too long for 43, then I might not have time to relocate to catch 42 at another location.
Thankfully, 43 rolled through Christiana in time, and I relocated posthaste to Gap. I made it with minutes to spare, and mounted my Nikon Z7-II on a tripod and frame up a view with my 70-200mm lens.
I was about to check the tracker when I saw 42 in the distance.
Soon I was on my to get a coffee and head home.
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Amtrak Keystone 649 was minutes away.
We pulled over on Hoover Road near Gap, Pa., and I walked into position to catch the westward train in the golden light of late winter evening.
Gazing to the east, I spotted the blue-white headlights of ACS-64 632 as it took the curves at Gap (east of my location) where I’ve often exposed photos of Amtrak trains over the years.
As I exposed this sequence, the engineer gave a us a friendly ‘toot’ from the head end.
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An eastward Amtrak Keystone paused briefly on the platform at Parkesburg, Pennsylvania for its scheduled station stop. I was poised in position with my Nikon Z7-II and f2.8 70-200mm lens mounted on a 3Pod tripod.
The tripod’s ball head and the camera’s built-in level made it comparatively easy to set up.
Working with the a 2-second self-timer, I was able to minimize vibration as the result of pressing the shutter release.
I exposed using the NEF RAW format, then converted the file to PNG format using DXO PureRaw, and made corrections to color, contrast and exposure in Adobe Lightroom.
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In modern British railway practice positioned a locomotive at either end of a consist is described as ‘topped and tailed.’
Wednesday evening, Amtrak’s Keystone 649 was running slightly behind the adverstised and featured Siemen ACS-64 electrics at both ends. On the front of the train locomotive 640 led a venerable former Metroliner cab-car.
I’d been tracking 649’s westward progress. It was dusk when we opted to park off Hoover Road near Gap, Pa., to roll by the train. I made these panned photos of the passing train using my Nikon Z7-II with f2.8 70-200mm lens.
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The days are getting longer!
Yesterday evening, after Kris and I finished our workdays, we drove trackside to Bird-in-Hand, Pa., where I caught Amtrak Keystone 649 running a little behind the advertised on its way to Lancaster and Harrisburg.
It was nice to again be able to get sun-on-the-tracks photos in the evenings after work.
I made these images using my Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series Zoom.
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The other night wind was fierce, but I braved the conditions to make a photo at dusk of Amtrak’s westward 649-Keystone—passing Christiana, Pa., on the former Pennsylvania Railroad main line.
To capture the action, I’d set the ISO setting on my Nikon Z7-II to 4000, which allowed me 1/1000th of a seond at f2.8. I’d set the focal length of my 70-200 zoom to 150mm, which gave me a good view of the old PRR station to the right of the train.
This view was processed using Lightroom to boost color saturation, correct color balance, and improve both contrast and exposure. I may later import this Nikon RAW file into DxO Pure Raw to see how that software improves the image.
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Today’s Tracking the Light is a ‘happy birthday’ to my brother Séan who was born on this day in 1970!
In this photo, Amtrak’s southward Vermonter, Train 55, crosses the Connecticut River near Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
Back in 2012, Séan encouraged me start a blog, having enjoyed success with his own internet postings on his Sanguine Root.
The Vermonter will turn 30 in April this year!
The photo was exposed in 2014 using my Canon 7D fitted with an f2.0 100mm Canon telephoto. The image was exposed in Canon CR2 RAW format, converted to DNG format using DxO PureRAW 4, then imported into Lightroom for final adjustment and then saved in JPG format for presentation here.
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I think that’s a better title than, “What?!! Not another photo of a Metroliner Cabcar!”
During the shorter days, I make greater use of evening. The paucity of daylight, and demands of daytime obligations leave comparatively few sunlit hours to make photographs during the winter months.
After Christmas, I made this view of Amtrak 494, the Valley Flyer, during its brief station stop at Windsor Locks, Connecticut.
My Nikon Z7-II was mounted upon a 3pod Everest tripod. The ball head and quick-release clip make this trip quick and easy to set up.
I exposed this photo at ISO 1000, at f4.0 with a 3 second shutter speed.
Why not use a slower ISO and a longer shutter speed to produce an image with less noise, better color and greater dynamic range? Train 494 often stops for just a few moments, and I didn’t want to risk train movement, by extending the shutter speed to 15 seconds or more.
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Late autumn foliage and clear bright sun offered near-perfect photographic conditions.
It was a few days after my birthday in October. We arrived at Underpass Road near Mexico, Pa., as a NS freight was rolling through.
Using the ASMtransit.docs ap on my phone (https://asm.transitdocs.com), I calculated that Amtrak number 43 wasn’t far away. And we only waited about 10 minutes before the Pittsburgh-bound train came into view.
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My birthday has been a great opportunity to get great photos.
This year, I was up early and drove to Gap, Pa., where I hoped to find peak foliage. My enthusiasm was high, but the sun was still below the horizon.
Amtrak Keystone 605 was due, and I needed to get a bit creative. So I set my Nikon’s Z7-II’s ISO to 4000 in order to use a fast enough shutter speed to stop the train rolling by a bright red-orange tree in the early morning light.
Back in my Kodachrome days I would have settled for a blur of the train and tree.
On this October birthday morning, I used a shutter speed of 1/800th of a second, which stopped the action nicely. The tree and train made for some nice colors.
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In the mid-1980s, I made numerous trips to photograph Conrail’s Boston Line—the former Boston & Albany—at Stateline Tunnel. This short, curved, twin bore tunnel is located a few miles west of the Massachusetts-New York Stateline in Canaan, New York.
On the morning of Aug 24, 1984, my pal TSH and I spent several hours at the tunnel waiting for trains. Four decades earlier, my friend Bob Buck had photographed at this same location, and I was familiar with his photos of B&A’s Lima Berkshires, New York Central Mohawks, and new Alco FA diesels at the tunnel.
I made this view of Amtrak Train 448—Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited—approaching the west portal on the eastward track using my pre-war Leica 3A 35mm camera loaded with Kodak Tri-X.
This was an early favorite photo of mine and for years I had a mounted print of it on my wall.
The negative had been missing for decades, but resurfaced the other day while I was going through boxes in our new house.
I scanned the original 35mm negative using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner and processed the image using Adobe Lightroom.
More than 40 years have passed since I exposed this image. It just doesn’t seem so long! Today, Bob Buck would have been 95! Happy Birthday Bob!
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This past Saturday, I gave a 45 minute talk on the Development and Application of the American Steam Locomotive to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
Among the attendees was SUNY-Buffalo Associate Professor David Alff, who presented later in the evening. His topic was on his most recent publication, the Northeast Corridor. He offered a fascinating social history, not just of the modern day railroad, but of more than two centuries of transportation.
Earlier in the day David and I shared a table signing our respective books and I was telling him of my days watching trains from my grandparents terrace in Co-op City overlooking the Northeast Corridor in The Bronx.(New York City).
Sitting out in front of the museum is Amtrak AEM-7 915, a locomotive that spent roughly 35 years hauling trains on the Northeast Corridor. I have more photos of this classic electric at Strasburg than I do of it under wire.
Over the last few months, I’ve scoured thousands of my own photos, looking for the most representative and evocative images of Amtrak locomotives and trains for my latest book ‘Amtrak Equipment’ (that I’m now in the final stages of completing). In this process, I was frustrated in locating decent images of old 915 at work. (Although, I found a few of its from years ago, and some of those have appeared on Tracking the Light.)
Last night, I was reviewing some black & white negatives from the 1980s that I’d scanned back in 2016, and I found a sequence of telephoto views that I made with my father’s Leica M3 from my grandparents’ terrace.
I had been making photos here since the mid-1970s, but many suffered from inexperience and ineffective technique. By the summer of 1985, I had perfected my black & white photo technique to the point where I finally able to make some satisfying images of trains from this family vantage point.
In the black & white view below of Amtrak 915 crossing the Pelham River, I was using a Leitz Wetzlar f4 135mm Elmar lens, which was a remarkable sharp piece of glass.
Finding this photo was a Eureka! moment.
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Yesterday evening after work, Kris and I drove to the creamery in Strasburg, then over to Gap, Pa., to roll by Amtrak Keystone 651.
I was hoping to catch a former Metroliner Contral Coach leading in the late sun, but was happy when ACS-64 634 glided around the famous curve.
There’s a lot of dusk and smoke in the atmosphere which cut the light down a couple of stops while softening contrast and warmed the color.
I made this sequence of photos using my mirror-less Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Nikkor zoom lens.
I made some very minor adjustements to the NEF raw files in postprocessing.
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Over the last few months Amtrak has been performing heavy maintenance on its electrified Harrisburg Line west of Lancaster, Pa.
This has resulted in bus subsititutions for many of the Keystone trains Monday-Thursday to allow work crews to repair and replace tracks.
A few weeks ago I caught up with one of the work trains that was tied down on the main line. This was a good opportunity to make photographs of the sharp looking GP38-3 diesels that Amtrak assigns to work train service.
Photos were exposed with my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens. These are among the images in consideration for my latest book project that profiles Amtrak locomotives and Rolling Stock.
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It has been a few years since I last traveled to Philadelphia by train.
Kris and I arrived at 30th Street Station (officially William H. Gray 30th St. Station) on Amtrak Keystone 664 from Elizabethtown, Pa. It was a very pleasant journey aboard Amfleet I cars refurbished to the latest interior standards. Our train glided into platform nine on time.
The main concourse of the station was undergoing some renovation, but the space remains awe inspiring.
I made this series of photos using my Nikon Z7-II, my first Nikon digital photos at this citadel of the late, great Pennsylvania Railroad.
Outside the station it was sunny, warm and humid. Unfortunately, after leaving 30th Street, I found to my dismay that my notebook was missing! This was one of those dreadful OH NO! moments. I believe I left it on the train . . . .
I always carry a notebook, as I have for more than 30 years, and I had this one since Kris and I were in Ireland. My first entry was on March 7th and my last was at Downingtown about a half and hour before I lost it.
Kris helped me fill out Amtrak’s online lost property form including a detailed description of the book. Not only is my name and contact details written on the inside cover, but a printed copy of my Amtrak reservation was tucked into the notebook. Fingers crossed—perhaps it will find its way back to me.
Although this notebook contains my chronological notes, luckily I’ve been maintaining separate notebooks for my on-going Amtrak research, so at least I can continue my day to day writing without handicap.
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August 3, 2016—eight years ago-I made this photo of Los Angeles bound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train 768 making its station stop at Simi Valley, California.
The swoopy looking F59PHI diesels with Pacific ocean inspired blue and silver livery designed to match the bi-level cars made for some the most attractive Amtrak trains of the modern era.
This is one of many photos that I’m considering for my book on Amtrak equipment. I’ve taken a short break from writing text and captions to compose this post for Tracking the Light.
In my text, I delve into considerable technical detail regarding the equipment pictured as well as telling the story of Amtrak through its machinery.
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Today the moving truck comes to get our heavy stuff—furniture and what-not— to bring to our new house.
We’ve already moved the bulk of our smaller items including more than 135,000 color slides, 15,000 B&W negatives, and hundreds of books, notebooks and related materials.
In the spirit of this transition, I thought I’d post this view I made along Jefferson Drive, near our Greenfield apartment in Lancaster, Pa.
Amtrak ACS-615 leads train 642 on its eastward journey from Harrisburg toward Philadelphia.
This was among the locations just a very short drive from the aparment. Our new house is closer to the Strasburg Rail Road and the former PRR’s Port Road Branch, and just a 15 minute drive from Amtrak’s Harrisburg line, so I still plan to post regular photos from these locations.
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(even when ‘in-transition’)
For the next weeks the sun will be rising and setting on the north side of Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line where it runs parallel to Jefferson Drive in Lancaster.
I’ve been making a project of working the light at this familiar location.
Amtrak Keystone train 618 is a good choice because this is scheduled to depart Lancaster at 1945 (745pm) which can result in some dramatic backlit photos.
On this occasion, Amtrak ACS-64 number 615 was leading. This elusive electric was on my list of Amtrak locomotives to photograph on the move. I guess I can tick that box!
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Recalling a trip along the old Baltimore & Ohio that I made with my old pal TSH some 35 years ago, I brought Kris and Seamus-the-Dog on a brief exploration of the railroad along the Potomac River.
We aimed to catch Amtrak No. 30 the Capitol Limited rolling through Point of Rocks, Maryland.
The signals have changed from the classic B&O Color Position Lights to more common traffic-light style color-light hardware. The station at Point of Rocks is boarded up and appears a bit rough around the edges. But, it was neat to see this old territory again and brought back memories from that earlier time.
Photos exposed using my Nikon Z-series mirrorless digtal cameras.
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On the morning of June 10, 1982, my father and I arrived at Washington Union Station on Amtrak’s Night Owl having traveled overnight from New Haven in the sleeper.
Working with my 1930s-vintage Leica 3A 35mm rangefinder, I made this selection of black & white photos from the station platforms.
And the topics of interest were the antique Washington Terminal Alco RS-1s and MARC F-units.
My photography wasn’t sophisticated, but today they photos take me back. It was a different world then!
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I drive by this signal almost daily.
It’s not an easy item to represent photographically.
In light of midday, the lights are nearly lost in the inky ring.
At dusk, the lights standout, but they are are easily overexposed which has the unintended effect of desaturating the light color.
A more complicated problem is stopping a fast moving train when the light is optimal for catching the signal lights at their correct density and hue.
Focus is another issue. In this situation, I was working with an f2.8 70-200mm zoom wide open (f2.8). I set my shutter speed manually to 1/640th of a second. According to the camera meter this resulted in about 2/3s stop (-0.7) under exposure. ISO was set to 5000. My focus point was on plane with the signal. The signal and near track are sharp, but the train suffers both from motion blur and being slightly out of focus.
Not a lot of options to do better. But, I’ll keep trying.
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I am in the process of preparing a book about Amtrak’s rolling stock.
Over the last few weeks I’ve poured over hundreds of color slides exposed from the 1970s until the mid 2010s.
Among them was this view of Amtrak GE-built E60 number 603 leading a New York City bound long distance train on the North East Corridor at Linden, New Jersey on August 1, 1986. I exposed this on Kodachrome using a Leica 3A attached to a Visoflex with Leitz 200mm Telyt telephoto lens.
This locomotive is significant because it was preserved at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, just a few miles from where Kris and I live. We drive by it all the time.
The other evening we paused outside the museum, and I exposed a few digital photos of the old electric using my Nikon Z6.
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The reverse curves on the old Main Line at Gap, Pennsylvania offer endless photo opportunities.
Amtrak Keystone train 649 is a regular subject for me in the afternoon.
A couple of weeks back, I suspected that train 649 would be worked by ACS-64 no. 642, which specially painted for American Veterans.
I surmised this correctly, however, the locomotive was working the back of the train rather than in the lead (as I would have preferred for photography).
That said, Amtrak doesn’t operate its trains for my amusement, so I made due with the configuration as I found it.
Images exposed using my Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm zoom.
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A few days ago I posted an evening glint photograph made with a 35mm lens of an eastward Amtrak Keystone passing Jefferson Drive, near Greenfield in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
(see: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/35mm-sunset-glint/_)
These images were made at sunrise few days later from almost the same vantage point, but using a telephoto zoom (Nikkor Z-series 70-200mm) of eastward Keystone service train 642 (led by Amtrak ACS-64 608).
I thought it would make for an interesting comparison to show how differently a location appears at different times of day and with different focal length lenses.
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Working with my Z6 with AF Nikkor 35mm f2.0/D attached via a Nikon FTZ adaptor, I made this imag sequence of Amtrak Keystone 618 racing eastward at Jefferson Drive in Lancaster, PA.
I timed my arrival just a minute ahead of the train.
My objective was to see how the traditional 35mm lens would handle the glinting sunset on my Z-series digital camera. I adjusted my exposure manually (aiming for overall underexposure to better capture the effects of the bright sun), then made changes to the camera’s NEF RAW files in post processing to make for overall appealing photographs.
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By the time you read this, the pink blossoming trees along Jefferson Drive in Lancaster will have leafed out in their Spring greenery.
Toward the the end of the blossoming season, Kris & I took a morning drive with our new puppy, Seamus. We paused briefly along Jefferson east of the westward signal.
Soft lighting made for a good time to catch an eastward Amtrak Keystone as it raced toward Philadelphia along the former Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line.
I exposed a sequence of images to frame the train in the blossoms of one of the trees along the road. This was my fourth attempt in this sequence of pink tree photos.
I’ve included both a full frame and tightly cropped version of my favorite from the rapid-fire sequence of digital photos.
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In the summer, the sun sets to the north of the old Pennsylvania Main Line at Greenfield. And during the long days, Kris and I made a number of photos of Amtrak trains on their way to and from Harrisburg under wire.
Now into autumn, the sun is in the southern sky, which lends for a new dimension on this Greenfield location,
I made this photo of westward Keystone train 667 zipping along the old Pennsy with a nicely illuminated autumn evening sky.
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In its day, the Budd-Metroliner was America’s answer to the Japanese Shinkansen. This fast electric train (MP85) was built for Pennsylvania Railroad and some briefly carried PRR-Keystone heralds before Penn-Central assumed operations of PRR’s lines in 1968. The Metroliner service was introduced using the Metroliner cars in the early years of Penn Central.
In 1971, Amtrak assumed operation of the Metroliner and continued to use the former PRR/PC trains for fast services on the former PRR between New York and Washington D.C.
The Metroliner body style was the basis for the Budd-built Amfleet cars that were introduced in the mid-1970s, and which remain standard for many Amtrak trains today.
Amtrak later assigned locomotive hauled Amfleet consists to its Metroliner services. In their waining years as self-propelled electric trains the former Metroliner train sets worked Amtrak Keystone services to Harrisburg.
Today, some of the much modified old Metroliner cab cars survive on Amtrak’s five-car push-pull sets, many of which are assigned as standard consists to the New York-Philadelphia-Harrisburg Keystone trains. Until 2014, these consists also routinely worked the Vermonter when it was still routed via Palmer, Massachusetts.
I made these views of Amtrak’s former Metroliner cab cars passing Gap, Pa., a couple of week ago.
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Yesterday evening (June 28, 2023), poor air quality made for a rosy sunset in Lancaster, PA.
Kris and I took a short drive over to Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line to catch Amtrak’s Keystone service train 653 that was down about 18 minutes from the advertised.
I especially liked the trailing view because the stainless steel train caught the rich evening light.
I made some minor adjustments in Lightroom to make the most of the reddish glow.
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The other day I had an ‘oh no!’ moment involving the autofocus system on my Nikon Z6 fitted with a 70-200mm zoom.
Most of the time the autofocus with my Z-series cameras works very well. On rare occasion it misses completely.
I was set-up at Christiana, Pennsylvania along Amtrak’s former Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line waiting for westward Keystone service number 605 in order to catch it passing the old PRR station.
I’d set the autofocus to ‘single-point’ (which allows to preselect a distinct point in the frame as the desired place of sharpness) and the system to ‘AF-C’ (continuous), a mode that in theory should continuously adjust the focus on the subject point.
There were three complicating conditions that in combination yielded an undesirable result. 1) The scene was back-lit with bright morning sun, which can make it more difficult for the autofocus system to quickly pick the focus on the desired point. 2) The train was moving faster than 90mph, which not only made it difficult to focus, but gave me no room for error when the shutter was released. 3) The headlights on Amtrak’s ACS-64 use a form of LEDs that produce a wavelength that can momentarily confuse the autofocus system on the camera. I’ve experienced these unfortunate effects previously.
The result was one photo where the focus was slightly off, followed by a second closer image where the focus was missed completely.
One solution for future efforts; I can use the autofocus to pre-focus on the desired location and the switch it off, thus avoiding the condition where at the last split second the focus shifts. But this too is a gamble, and doesn’t always work as hoped.
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