I exposed this photo of Doug Riddell at Ashland, Virginia on June 4th 2015.
The camera sews together a burst of images made during a slow sweep of the camera across the scene.
The trick to making an interesting panorama is including subjects of varying distances from the camera which add depth.
I’d had a ticket on Amtrak 95 for Main Street in Richmond. However, a call to my old friend Doug Riddell resulted in a change of plan.
I’ve known Doug for more than 20 years, since I was worked at Pentrex Publishing. Now Doug is retired from Amtrak and living near Ashland.
Getting off the train in the middle of the street is an experience. Especially when its raining. Doug and I had lunch at the Trackside Grill, a short walk from the station.
We positioned ourselves along the street near the passenger station to catch Amtrak’s Auto Train, which as I soon learned, still routinely runs with Amtrak’s older 800-Series Genesis diesels.
The weather wasn’t the best, but there was plenty of action on the old RF&P and it was great to see Doug again.
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Better train 95 than I-95!
I boarded at 30th Street Philadelphia a little while ago and just made a station stop at Wilmington, Delaware. This is leg four in my latest journey.
Engine 620, one of the new Siemens-built ACS-64 electrics is in the lead.
Today’s destination: Richmond. This weekend my plan is photograph Norfolk & Western locomotive 611. Stay tuned!
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May 24, 2015, fellow photographer Tim Doherty and I aimed to intercept Amtrak 57, the southward Vermonter at Bellows Falls. Vermont. (Is there another?).
It’d been a few years since I last visited this classic railroad junction. My first visits were back in the late 1960s early 1970s, when my family would come up to experience the old Steamtown.
I was impressed to find the old three-head searchlight signal still in operation by the station. These relics are disappearing fast. I feature the searchlight among other vintage signal hardware in my new book Classic Railroad Signals now available from Voyageur Press.
http://www.qbookshop.com/products/215886/9780760346921/Classic-Railroad-Signals.html
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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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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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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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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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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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The tide was in. The sun was low and rich. The train was on time. I was poised at the popular overlook at Pinole, California. Dozens of scheduled Amtrak trains pass this point everyday, so on one level this was akin to ‘shooting fish in a barrel.’
Yet, the ease of photography here, facilitated by great weather, open varied scenery, and frequent operations, makes for a perfect opportunity to experiment and exposed different angles.
In this case, I’ve opted to make a clean, yet dramatic vertical image. Notice how I’ve left ample room on top for a magazine title, and space all around for cover blurbs (left or right) and the requisite bar code (typically located at lower right).
When I was working at Pentrex Publishing in the 1990s, we’d often reject potential dramatic photos as not suitable because there wasn’t room for the cover blurbs. But an absolute killer (that is, no chance for cover placement) was in situations where the bar code would fall on the front of a locomotive. Bar code placement was non-negotiable.
Would this make a good cover photo? I can’t say, but I was looking to fit the format when I exposed this slide in 2008.
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The re-opening of Boston & Maine’s Connecticut River line as the ‘Knowledge Corridor’ passenger route in December has made for a variety of new places to photograph Amtrak’s Vermonter that hadn’t had regular passenger trains in more than 25 years.
In conjunction with the rebuilding of the line was brush removal, especially around grade crossings, which have further expanded photographic potential of the Connecticut River route. In addition to Amtrak, Pan Am Southern’s freights also use the line.
Up to just a few months ago, the view of the line at North Hillside Road in South Deerfield was hemmed in by brush and trees, but now it’s cleared and open.
Pat Yough, Paul Goewey and I were out for the Vermonter on January 23, 2015, and I exposed this image of it racing southward toward its station stop at Northampton.
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Back in 1991, my brother Sean and I explored the former Pennsylvania Railroad electrified mainline between Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia. I recalled from that visit that the long tangent at Marcus Hook offered some interesting views and the potential for evening glint.
Earlier this month (January 2015) we returned to this location. SEPTA maintains a ground level station that provides easy access.
I like the location for several reasons: it is open, which allows late sun to reach rail level; there’s a long tangent and signals, that provide advance warning for trains; Amtrak’s trains can travel at top speeds; and it is relatively easy to get around obstructions such as poles and wires than might interfere with photography.
We arrived in time for a flurry of activity just as the sun was setting. These images were exposed using my Canon EOS 7D, but I also made a few images on Fuji Provia 100F using my old Canon EOS 3.
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Finding a surprise in a sea of wires.
On January 16, 2015, my brother and I risked the perils of Interstate-95 and drove to Wilmington, Delaware so that I could make a few photos of the former Pennsylvania Railroad station.
I’d been working on a book on railway station architecture, and I wanted to make a few views of this iconic building credited to Frank Furness. Somewhere I’d seen a photo from the parking garage across the street that made me curious.
Thanks to Sean’s navigation, we easily found the station and the parking garage. I drove to the top level and made my photos. As is often the situation on exploratory trips, I decided this might make a better image at another time of day. At some point, perhaps I’ll return on an August evening and try again.
While on the top of the garage, I photographed a northbound train. This was led by a General Electric P42 diesel-electric, which is not the Amtrak motive power I’d expect to see here in electrified territory!
It was a brief visit to Delaware. Getting back to I-95 proved more difficult than finding the station, but in the end we were on our way. The light was getting good and I had visions of a sunset glint location . . .
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Tomorrow: glint on the North East Corridor
The late Baldwin Locomotive Works was famous for its factory in this Philadelphia suburb.
What may seem hard to believe is that it’s been nearly six decades since Baldwin’s last new locomotive.
On January 11, 2015, Pat Yough and I set up here for a sunset photograph of Amtrak’s Acela Express.
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A well-timed visit trackside to the SEPTA station at Torresdale, Pennsylvania allowed for photography of several Amtrak trains on the North East Corridor in rapid succession.
The new ACS-64 ‘City Sprinter’ electrics are become more common and its nice to get them while they are still clean.
I was especially pleased to catch Amtrak’s Silver Meteor with one of the new electrics.
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There’s something catchy about certain engine numbers. Norfolk & Western’s streamlined J-Class 4-8-4 611 is world famous.
A few months back I featured Chicago Metra’s 611, which is an EMD F40C diesel-electric.
So how about an electric with the number 611. Here’s one of Amtrak’s shiny new Siemens-built ACS-64 electrics, number 611, with train 161 at Branford, Connecticut.
It was noon at the Shore Line East station on January 10, 2015 when I exposed a rapid sequence of this modern locomotive.
The tricky part of making the photo was selecting the correct exposure for the window of sun between the overhead bridge and the platform. The sun was bright, but lighting from the side. I made several test photos before the train burst into the scene.
Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens; f4.5 1/1000th of a second, ISO 200.
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Tomorrow: New Haven Railroad reincarnated.
On January 10, 2015, it was a roasting 15 degrees F when I exposed an image burst with my Canon EOS 7D of the passing Acela Express train 2251 (Boston-Washington DC).
West Haven is a relatively new station on Metro-North. It features easy access from Interstate I-95 (Exit 42) and on weekends offers free parking.
Was able to drive right up to the east end of the station platform.
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It helps to be at the right place at the right time. Even on the busy Philadelphia-Washington D.C. Northeast Corridor there can be long gaps between trains..
After 20 minutes or half and hour between trains, you might wonder why the line even has four tracks!
And then ever thing seems converge upon you at once.
Pat Yough and I were at Crum Lynne, Pennsylvania on the evening of January 11, 2015. We didn’t spend much time trackside before we had two running meets a few minutes apart.
Was this synchronicity? Or just luck? I don’t know. In the case of the two Amtrak trains both were running a few minutes late, so that was luck. It would have been cool to see all four pass at the same time, but unless we were phenomenally lucky, it is doubtful that such an event would have produced good photos.
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In January 1980, I made my first photographs of Amtrak AEM-7s. They were then brand new. I didn’t much care for them then because the represented the end for my favorite GG1s. Nothing lasts forever, and now Amtrak AEM-7s are rolling off their final miles.
I made this photo of Amtrak 945 at South Station last year on the day before the first official run of Amtrak ACS-64 number 600. The new ACS-64 are locomotives that will ultimately supplant the AEM-7s on the North East Corridor.
And what of my first AEM-7 photos? I processed my film using oxidized Microdol-X and the negatives were exceptionally thin. (under processed). Perhaps, if I can locate them, I can fix them in post-processing, but that’s a project for another day.
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Sometimes you get more than you planned for:
On December 17, 2014, I rode the Vermonter to Amherst. This gave me the opportunity to scope the line for photo locations. Although I’ve traveled this route on various occasions, I wanted one last look at it from an Amtrak train before service is moved to the ‘Knowledge Corridor’ at the end of this month.
North of Barretts is Canal Junction, a little known location where the Boston & Maine’s Central Massachusetts line once joined the Central Vermont route. Originally, B&M had its own line that ran parallel to CVs and this old right of way is now a cycle path.
North of the Old Springfield Road grade crossing, I noticed a swampy clearing that looked like a good place for a photo. So, on December 19th, my dad and I investigated this location.
Earlier in the day we had photographed a Knowledge Corridor test run (covered in an earlier post), and I thought this would make an ideal opportunity to capture Amtrak moves on both lines on the same day.
We arrived at Old Springfield Road, and walked a short distance on the old B&M right of way. I’d gone back to the car to retrieve a lens and make a phone call, when I heard what sounded like a heavy freight coming.
Sure enough it was! New England Central’s southward manifest freight from Brattleboro to Palmer had stalled climbing Belchertown Hill, and had just got moving again. Amtrak was only a few miles behind.
We caught the freight, and about 10-15 minutes later got Amtrak train 55 (southward Vermonter), then proceeded to Three Rivers where we caught the Vermonter a second time.
Try that in a few week’s time!
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Amtrak Extra and Pan Am’s Office Cars on the Move.
8 digital photos and more!
Today, in preparation for the opening of the Knowledge Corridor next week, special trains converged on Greenfield, Massachusetts.
Paul Goewey and I intercepted the northward Amtrak special at Holyoke—where we made use of a location recently opened up by brush clearing in conjunction with work on the line.
We followed the train northward. Pan Am posed its Office Car train, complete with vintage F-unit at Greenfield.
Later, we waited patiently at East Deerfield Yard to catch the Pan Am train reversing back. This was my first opportunity to catch one Pan Am F-units on the move.
It wasn’t the brightest day for photography, but we made the best of it with digital cameras. (And I exposed a few slides for posterity!)
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Today (Dec 19, 2014) Amtrak operated a test train north from Springfield, Massachusetts on Pan Am Southern’s recently rehabilitated Boston & Maine Connecticut River Line in preparation for re-routed Vermonter service (expected to begin at the end of this month).
My father and I went out to document this special move, then went over to the New England Central route to photograph the Vermonter on its present route.
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Sunday, December 7, 2014.
Tracking the Light presents a few views at this busy location.
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor is in transition as the old battle-worn AEM-7s are being phased out and the new Siemens ACS-64 ‘City Sprinter’ locomotives gradually assume their duties.
Fellow photographer Pat Yough and I were out to make good use of the sunlight. We’d caught Amtrak 600 the ‘David L. Gunn’ (recently named for Amtrak’s former president 2002-2005) working a Harrisburg-New York Penn Station Keystone on the Main Line and were aiming for another photograph of this unique locomotive.
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It was a clear September 1989 morning when I parked near the twin former New York Central tunnels at Breakneck Ridge and followed a hiking trail to this commanding vantage point looking back toward Cold Spring, New York.
I exposed this photo on Kodachrome 25 slide film using my Leica M2 fitted with 50mm f2.0 Summicron firmly mounted on a Bogen 3021 tripod.
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Kid with a Camera.
My brother would shout, ‘Look! A GG1!’
My grandparents lived in Coop City in The Bronx for a dozen years. Their 19th floor apartment had an open terrace that looked across the Hutchinson River toward Amtrak’s former New Haven Railroad line that ran from New Rochelle over the Hell Gate Bridge toward Penn-Station.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, we’d make regular visits. I was delighted by passing of Amtrak trains, and by the time I was ten, I’d figured out how to interpret the timetable to predict when trains would pass.
Amtrak was still operating a fair few former Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electrics, and these were my favorite. From about mid-1978, I’d keep my Leica 3A poised at the ready and if a GG1 were to appear, I’d make a color slide, or two.
While I made a great many photographs, my photographic efforts were, at best, rudimentary. Complicating matters was my general panic when a GG1 finally appeared.
As the train rolled into view, I’d try to gauge the lighting using an old Weston Master III photo cell and rapidly adjust the aperture on my Summitar lens, but my understanding of exposure was purely conceptual. In other words, I went through the motions, but really didn’t know what I was doing.
Also, I was photographing the scene with a 50mm lens, and the tracks were at least a quarter mile distant. Later, I learned to use my father’s telephoto lenses for some more effective views, but by then new AEM-7s had replaced the GG1s.
Recently, I rediscovered a box of long lost Kodachrome slides, including a bunch of my surviving photos from my grand parent’s terrace. This one is one of the few passable efforts, and will a little cropping, and some post processing in Photoshop, it isn’t too bad.
Learning technique is every photographer’s challenge. My learning curve was slow, in part because it was often months between the time of exposure and when I got slides back from Kodak. By the time I reviewed my results, I hadn’t remembered what I’d done, and didn’t know what to do to improve future efforts.
By comparison, kids starting today with digital cameras can see their results immediately and have the opportunity to learn quickly. Perhaps, from one of these same terraces, some kid today has captured one of the final runs of Amtrak’s HHP8s (recently retired from active work) or the rapidly disappearing AEM-7s!
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Telephoto View of today’s Amtrak Special crossing the Connecticut River.
See my earlier post on Tracking the Light for a panoramic view of the same train. Half an hour before the special crossed the bridge there was sunlight, but by the time the train arrived the clouds had rolled in.
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Connecticut River Bridge at 3:05pm.
This afternoon Amtrak operated a special train on the New Haven-Springfield line.
It is my understanding that the special began the day at Albany. It was scheduled to operate down the Hudson to Mott Haven, then to New Haven, up to Springfield, then to the Knowledge Corridor and east on Pan Am.
Amtrak’s northward Vermonter (Train 56) was about 18 minutes late, and the special was about ten minutes behind it. One of the Pan Am business cars was located immediately behind the locomotive. This had traveled west to Albany on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited (Train 449) the other day.
This is a cropped version of a photo I made with my Lumix LX7. I also exposed a couple of views with my Canon EOS 7D. I’ll be downloading those shortly!
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Only a Few Months to go.
Soon, Amtrak’s Vermonter will be detoured back to the traditional passenger route north of Springfield, Massachusetts, leaving the New England Central’s former Central Vermont line between Palmer and East Northfield, Massachusetts freight only for the first time in 25 years.
On the afternoon of October 27, 2014, fellow photographer Bob Arnold suggested that we make a photo of the southward Vermonter (train 55) at Three Rivers, where line crosses the Chicopee River on a plate girder bridge.
It was a nice clear sunny day and the foliage was splendid. Somehow the Vermonter managed to lose about 20 minutes in its short run down from Amherst, a station that will cease to serve as a regular stop with the route change.
If you are interested in riding or photographing Amtrak’s Vermonter on this route, don’t delay, time is running out.
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November 1991.
It was a windy rainy afternoon when Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited departed South Station. I was riding on the rear platform of private car Caritas with Clark Johnson Jr. and my father.
My dad and I were only traveling to Springfield, Clark was going further.
Today, South Station is much different. Not only was a bus station built over the tracks, but the lines have been electrified for North East Corridor services.
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October 18, 2014.
We had a late start, the weather was a bit iffy, and there wasn’t much running, but my father and I set out anyway to make a few railroad photos in the fall foliage.
Since Amtrak’s Vermonter is in its final months of using the New England Central route between Palmer and East Northfield, Massachusetts, we made a point to intercept it in both directions.
A stop by Pan Am’s East Deerfield Yard found little moving except the hump engine.
Not everyday is busy in central Massachusetts, but I can always find photographs. Here’s just a few from our afternoon’s exploration.
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Classic Location: West Warren, Massachusetts.
Sometimes familiar locations work best. In the past, I’ve made many photographs along the Boston & Albany at West Warren, the combination of easy of access, scenic environment, identifiable scene, and excellent afternoon lighting continue to make it one of my favorite places to photograph Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited, train 449.
The afternoon of October 12th was clear and bright with hints of autumn color tinged in the trees. My father and I opted to intercept 449—one of the few trains running at that time of the day on a Sunday—and so we put ourselves in position on the road bridge near the old mill race. After a short wait the train came into view.
I worked with my Canon EOS 7D and Lumix LX7, my father exposed a photo using his vintage Rolleiflex Model T on a Gitzo tripod, and used his Lumix LX7, plus Minolta Mark IV light meter and various other bits and pieces.
This maintained our long tradition of going out to photograph the Lake Shore Limited that dates back to the 1970s.
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Classic Kodachrome.
On the evening of November 23, 1992, I was poised to photograph the action on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor at Grace interlocking at Havre de Grace, Maryland.
I was interested in this angle specifically to use the glint light shortly before sunset. Kodachrome film had an exceptional ability to capture detail in the extreme contrast of sunset situations.
Although it had been a clear day, there was plenty of particulates in the air from tens of thousands of automobiles driving I-95 and adjacent roads. Almost invisible to the eye, this pollution acts as a reddish orange filter and changing the quality of sunlight toward the long end of the spectrum. Kodachrome with its red-bias amplified this effect while its great dynamic range maintained excellent detail in highlight areas.
Working with my Nikon F3T and f1.8 105mm Nikkor lens, I had only a few minutes before the sun disappeared behind the trees at the right.
Moments before the light changed, a late-running Florida train bound to Penn Station, New York glided into the scene with a 1970s-era E60CH electric in the lead. Perfect!
I made a couple exposures as the train passed.
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Tomorrow: Smoggy Glint in the Land of the Rising Sun!
The Last Twinkle of Glint.
On June 30, 2014, Pat Yough and I arrived at SEPTA’s Wayne Station minutes before sunset. We’d already spent a productive afternoon and evening catching the evening rush-hour on the former Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line.
I was interested by the ‘around the corner’ light effect west of Wayne. The nearest eastward SEPTA train was half an hour away. Thankfully, this Amtrak Keystone arrived before the sunset.
For this image, I’ve cropped the leading former Metroliner cab car, and focused on the trailing AEM-7 and Amfleet coaches. The AEM-7s are running on borrowed time and I was happy to make this simple graphic image of one of the old electrics.
Calculating exposure wasn’t easy. My initial guess for exposure was about a stop too bright. I manually dialed the f-stop downward as the train entered the frame and the glinting sun reflected back towards me.
I’ve made many images like this on slide film. Kodachrome was a particular good means of capturing the glint effect. Its combination of a black & white film base (using a traditional silver halide grain structure) plus a wide exposure latitude tended to produce excellent results.
This day, Pat exposed a slide on Fujichrome, but I was limited to using my digital cameras.
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