A few weeks ago on Tracking the Light, I described my early experiences with Kodak’s Ektachrome LPP (a warm-tone emulsion with subtle color rendition), of which I received a free-sample from Kodak back in August 1993.
Among the other photos on that roll, was this view exposed shortly after sunrise of Amtrak’s Los Angeles-bound Coast Starlight crossing Southern Pacific’s massive Benicia Bridge near Martinez, California.
Full frame scan of a 35mm Ektachrome LPP slide exposed in August 1993.
I had loaded the film into a second-hand Nikkormat FTN that I fitted an f4.0 Nikkor 200mm telephoto.
This slide sat in the dark until I scanned it on October 6, 2020.
Much enlarged crop of the same slide to better show Amtrak’s Coast Starlight.
In Spring 1994, I’d exposed some Kodachrome 25 slides of Amtrak’s Coast Starlight crossing the steel tower supported trestle at Gaviota, California.
On August 3, 2016—four years ago today—I returned with my FujiFilm XT1 digital camera and captured an Amtrak Pacific Surfliner crossing the same bridge.
I made contrast and saturation adjustments in Lightroom as part of my final scaled image for presentation here.
I made this photograph at Windsor Locks, Connecticut showing a southward Amtrak SPV2000 making its station stop.
The Budd SPV2000s only worked this Amtrak ‘branch’ for about six years and during that time they were rarely photographed.
Lets just say, I’ve seen more of my own photographs of these cars on the Springfield-New Haven run than all other published views of the cars. (And I only have a few photos).
It’s too bad. I thought the cars looked pretty cool. And they were fun to ride on. Plus, you never knew when one might show up hauled by an Alco RS-3 or some other locomotive!
On this day, January 11, 2015 I made this telephoto view of Amtrak AEM-7 944 working the back of New York City bound Keystone train passing Torresdale, Pennsylvania.
At that time, Amtrak’s AEM-7s were on the wane and photographer Pat Yough and I were capturing the relatively brief transition period between the AEM-7s and new Siemens ACS-64 electrics.
Canon EOS-7D fitted with a prime 200mm lens, ISO 200 f5.6 1/1000 sec.
