Tag Archives: #B&A

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Classic View at Stateline Tunnel

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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Amtrak at Middlefield

Here’s an old slide from my Fujichrome archive.

This shows Amtrak P42 number 57 leading train 448 (Lake Shore Limited) eastbound on the old Boston & Albany at Middlefield, Massachusetts—more specifically the site of the old B&A Middlefield Station.

I made this slide nearly 20 years ago using my Contax G2 rangefinder fitted with a 28mm Biogon wide-angle. It is part of multiple frame sequence show the passing train.

I scanned it using an Epson V600 flatbed scanner and adjusted the TIF file in Adobe Lightroom.

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Top of the Boston & Albany—May 1985.

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In the mid-1980s, my friends and I would convene at Washington Summit on Conrail’s former Boston & Albany mainline.

Located in the Berkshires, several miles timetable east of the old station at Hinsdale, the summit offered a good view in both directions and a pleasant, quiet place to wait for trains.

On this May 1985 afternoon, the chugging of an eastward freight could be heard for several miles before it came into view. I opted to frame the train with the Top of the B&A sign.

This sign was replaced in the 1990s; Conrail was divided by CSX and Norfolk Southern in 1999; the old Bullards Road over bridge (seen in the distance) was removed in 2003; and the trees have grown much taller. So there’s not much left of this scene today, although the tracks are still there.

Exposed on black & white film using a Leica 3A with Canon f1.8 50mm lens.

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