Tag Archives: #black & white photography

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Killer Combo—Super Angulon and Pan-X

May 13, 1984: I was four weeks away from graduating high school. On that day I traveled with Bob Buck and met friends on the ‘B&A West End’ (Conrail’s former Boston & Albany climb over Washington Hill).

At Middlefield, Massachusetts the deep chug of big General Electric diesels alerted us to a westward freight.

Working with my Leica IIIA fitted with my dad’s 21mm Super Anglon, I exposed this series of black & white photos.

The Super Angulon was a favorite lens, but best used judiciously. Another key to the success of these photos was my film choice : Kodak’s Panatomic-X.

Rated at ISO 32, this super fine grain black & white emulsion offered super sharp images and wonderful tonality. The difficulty was its slow speed. It was really only practical on very bright days.

Looking back at my many photos made in the early 1980s, I wish I’d used Panatomic-X more often, rather than my preferred film of time: Kodak Tri-X (rated at ISO 400). If I’d had the resources, I sould have had multiple cameras with different types of film in each. Oh wait . . . I think I had another camera that day . . . and it was loaded with Kodak Ektachrome 200.

Those slides are for another post on another day.

Conrail had just ten GE C30-7s, locomotives 6600-6609, and in the the 1980s these were often assigned to the Boston Line. In mid-1984, the railroad began receiving its order for fifty C30-7As. Where the C30-7s had 16 cylinder engine that feature a louder heavier sound, the C30-7As, used a 12-cyldiner engine, and I believe were fitted with more effective sound emissions controls, which muted the sounds of their exhaust. The three C30-7s working this heavy westbound shook the earth at Middlefield that morning nearly 42 years ago!

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View Through a Moving Window—Bridgeport—1980.

In the summer of 1980, my brother and I were traveling by train from Rye, New York to Hartford, Connecticut.

We were riding behind E60 957 in a Budd-built Amtrak Amfleet-1.

I made this view with my Leica 3A on Kodak Plus-X, as we came into the restrictive curve on approach to the station at Bridgeport.

The E60s are long gone, as is Kodak Plus-X. But, I have the old Leica on my shelf as a display-piece, and the Amfleet-1 cars are still rolling—yet replacements are on the way.

Tracking the Light Gazes Back Through Time . . .

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Square Format at Ennis (click the post to see the photo full frame)

My Rollei model T offered a square format, which presents an interesting way of composing photos.

In January 2002, I traveled from Dublin to Limerick by train, where I changed for the branch train to Ennis, Co. Clare. At the time, Irish Rail was still operating a short Cravens set with steam heat hauled by a lone 141-class General Motors diesel.

Upon arrival at Ennis, I made series of square photos of this quaint branch train on Fuji Neopan 400 black & white film. My intent was to preserve for posterity the train in the station.

I scanned this image using an Epson V600 scanner and performed some nominal digital processing to make the most of the black & white negative.

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Irish Rail’s Wicklow Cabin—Armstrong Levers at Work.

In the summer of 1998, Denis McCabe and I paid a visit to Wicklow Cabin on the Dublin & South Eastern route.

Working with Ilford HP5 35mm film loaded in a Nikon, I exposed this photograph of the signalman working the old mechnical frame. I don’t recall his name, but he was friendly and enjoyed having his photo made.

I processed the film in Ilford ID11, and many years later scanned the negatives using an Epson V600 flatbed scanner.

Over my many years photographing Irish Rail, I exposed hundreds of black & white photos in signal cabins to preserve on film these icons of antique signaling that were still in daily use.

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