Tag Archives: #Boston Line

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Hot Train on a Hot Day—Conrail’s Friday Only TV80W

I liked to seek out unusual trains: Second Sections, Extras, unit trains, and moves that operated once a week—or less.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Conrail’s Friday-only TV80W was a short, hot intermodal train that ran to Worcester, Massachusetts, over the Boston Line (former Boston & Albany).

August 12, 1988 was a steamer: hot, humid, and polluted.

I drove over to CP79, east of Palmer, Massachusetts, to catch the once-a-week intermodal train. On this day, it was powered by a pair of GE B23-7s, locomotives atypical for Conrail’s intermodal service.

Conditions were less than ideal for photography—flat light and hazy—but I made this 120-size black-and-white view with my father’s Rollei Model T. TV80W was waiting for a “limited clear” signal to exit the controlled siding after meeting a westward carload freight.

Two versions of the photo appear below: the unmodified scan and an adjusted version using Lightroom to eliminate spots and vignetting and improve contrast and highlight detail.

Scan from B&W negative without cosmetic adjustment. (Scan size scaled for internet presentation only)
Adjusted scan to improve contrast and overall appearance without eliminating the effects of the hot hazy afternoon. It was unpleasant to be outside that day.

Someone may ask, “What is a ‘hot’ freight?” To run “hot” means to operate quickly, often in excess of normal speed. A “hot freight” is a high-priority train. So, it was unusual to find TV80W sitting in a siding.

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GP40-2s and the Billboard

Palmer, Massachusetts; then and now.

Since Spring 1999, CSX GP40-2s have worked the Palmer local.

I’ve paired two views of CSX GP40-2s on the local at CP83 (control point 83, as measured in miles west of Boston, Ma). In both photos, the lead locomotive is positioned in almost exactly the same place.

The first photo was exposed on Fujichrome using my Contax G2 rangefinder in June 2005, this is from the north side of the tracks; the second was made a few days after Christmas 2024 with my Nikon Z7-II, from the south side of the tracks. Both views feature the trackside billboard, which has been there in one form or another since at least the mid-1940s.

My friend Bob Buck had photographed steam locomotives at this same location with the billboard (or one of its early predecessors).

CSX local Palmer, June 2005.
June 2005.
Dec 28, 2024.

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Room with a View.

On a rainy December afternoon, Kris and I met my old friend Dan and his wife Mary at Palmer’s Steaming Tender for lunch.

We were seated by a window facing the Boston & Albany—today’s CSX’s Boston Line.

The rails were alive and freight trains were on the roll.

Some time after a very long westward manifest freight cleared the diamond (where CSX crossed New England Central at grade), a local freight arrived to work the yard with a set of three GP40-2s.

For more than 25 years these vintage EMD’s have be stalwarts on the Palmer local. I complimented the crew on their ‘antiques’, but they seemed unimpressed with the old diesels.

I made these images from our seat as the engines arrived.

More soon!

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On This Day; Sunburst & Contrail at Muddy Pond.

On the afternoon of February 28, 2016, I made this wintery view at Muddy Pond near CSX’s summit of the Boston Line.

This is the old Boston & Albany main line, which was once the principal lifeline from Boston to the West.

I wonder where that jet was headed?

Exposed using a FujiFilm XT1.

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Palmer Yard—Spring 1985

Another choice image from my recently scanned roll of Ilford FP4 exposed in Spring 1985.

I made this view with a 50mm lens looking timetable west at the west end of Conrail’s old Boston & Albany yard in Palmer, Massachusetts. I had driven in behind Howlett’s Lumber to photograph a Sperry rail defect detection car that was stored near the B&A freight house.

Just about everything in this scene has changed. The freight house was demolished in Janaury 1989. The large building at right beyond burned down some years later. The code lines were removed after the B&A was re-signaled in 1986-1987.

I’ve posted two versions of this photo. The top is my unaltered and uncorrected scan. The bottom reflects a series of nominal adjustments using Adobe Lightroom.

Unadjusted sca&W negative. Back in the day, I suffered from a propensity to tilt my camera to the right, leaving many fine photos flawed by being off-level. I also had a tendency to over process my negatives, which led to ‘white skies’ and excessive highlight contrast.

In this view, I leveled the image by rotating it about 2 degrees clockwise. I then adjusted sky density and contrast and make overall changes to image contrast and density to improve tonality and detail..

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Conrail in Worcester—1997.

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Here’s another photo from my Classic Conrail Kodachrome Files.

Photographer Mike Gardner and I had spent December 2, 1997, photographing Conrail operations around Worcester, Massachusetts.

Early in the day, we dropped E6 slide film at E.B. Luce for processing and then occupied our time documenting the parade of Conrail trains on the former Boston & Albany line.

In this view at CP44 at the east end of Worcester Yard, I photographed some SD50s that had arrived with an eastward train and cut off to make a drop and were running ‘light engine’ past the signals.

It was clear, cool and crisp. Perfect weather for Kodachrome 25!

My book Conrail and its Predecessors is now available from Kalmbach Media. Click the link below.

https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/01309

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Conrail C32-8s August 13, 1988.

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On the evening of August 13, 1988, I visited Conrail’s West Springfield Yard (Massachusetts) after a day on the old Boston & Albany ‘West End’.

At the time, General Electric six-motor diesels were standard power for road freights on the Boston Line.

Among the locomotives common to the Boston Line in the 1980s were the ten pre-prototype GE C32-8s that featured the ‘Classic’ curved roof cab and hump-back body style.

Significantly, these were among the first road-units with microprocessor controls.

I’ve covered these locomotives in several of my books over the years, and most recently in my new title Conrail and its Predecessors now available from Kalmbach Media.

https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/01309

These photos of Conrail 6618 were exposed on Professional Kodachrome 25 (PKM) color slide film and scanned using a Nikon Super Coolscan5000 digital scanner operated with VueScan software.

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Conrail’s CP83 Palmer, Massachusetts—October 1998.

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This was just an ordinary scene at CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts in October 1998.

Amtrak’s Vermonter was holding on the interchange track as C30-7A rolled east on to the controlled siding, and a westbound with SD80MACs waited on the mainline.

I made this view on Fujichrome using a Nikon N90S with 28mm lens.

At the time I made this image, Conrail’s class 1 operation had less than a year remaining.

I recall Conrail’s 23 years of operation in my new book; Conrail and its Predecessors published by Kalmbach Media. 

https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/book/01309

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Sound of Power: Conrail Ballast Train June 1984

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Just imagine the roar! Conrail C30-7 6600 leads three former Erie-Lackawanna 20-cylinder EMDs!

So far as I can remember, this was the only time I caught an SDP45 (second unit) hard at work on the Boston Line.

I made these views of an uphill BAL (Ballast train) at Middlefield, Massachusetts on a day’s photography with my old pal TSH on a beautiful spring evening in June 1984. I was a week away from my high-school graduation.

My only regret is that I didn’t have better photography skills and better equipment.

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On the Roll with CSX’s Q264—Five Photos.

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CSX Q264 is a unit autorack train that terminates at East Brookfield, Massachusetts.

On Tuesday, November 26, 2019, I was waiting at CP83 in Palmer for fellow photographer Mike Gardner to arrive. To the west, I could hear the distant roar of a heavy eastward train.

Long ago I learned to use my ear. Listening, and knowing what you are hearing can make the difference between finding a train and missing one.

Mike pulled in and I signaled to him there was in eastbound on the diamond (crossing at Palmer between New England Central and CSX’s Boston Line).

I was delighted because low rich November sun illuminated CP83 and there weren’t any automobiles in the parking lot in front of the Steaming Tender restaurant (that occupies that the old Palmer Union Station).

As Q264 rolled through, I said to Mike, “quick, jump in! The train is limited to 30mph at the diamond, we’ll get him down the line.”

And we were off in hot pursuit!

Up to West Warren, a recent and long-time favorite location of mine for railroad photography. We pulled over where the Boston Line is adjacent to Route 67, and I exposed another sequence of photos.

That was two trains, on two lines in less than two hours, but it was only going to get better! Tuesday was a very good day!

More to come!

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CSX Q022 on the Roll at West Warren—November 25, 2019.

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November sun and a little elevation is a good start.

I’d spotted CSX’s Q022 rolling across the Palmer diamond as I departed the old union station, where I’d pulled in to see if anything was happening!

(No scanner and poor timing on my part!)

Not a bother. I drove post haste west on Route 20 and Route 67 to West Warren.

CSX’s Q022 had a decent size train, but with nearly 9,000 hp leading in the form of a pair of GE Evolutions, the train made good progress climbing eastward through the Quaboag River Valley.

I had time to park at West Warren, Massachusetts and walk briskly to the South Street Bridge, an old standby vantage point where I’ve made countless railroad photos in the last 35 years.

I exposed these views using my Lumix LX7.

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Autos East with Mid-Train Locomotives: CSX Q264 at CP79—3 Digital Photos.

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In recent months CSX has adopted the practice of using distributed power on the former Boston & Albany.

Distributed power is essentially the application of radio-remote controlled locomotives positioned deep in a freight train and/or at its end to reduce drawbar stress and improve starting and braking characteristics with very long/heavy trains.

The concept dates to the 1960s, but much improved radio-controlled remote technology was introduced by GE-Harris in the 1990s where it has become standard operating practice, and the remote locomotives being known as distributed power units (DPUs)

Still, to me it seems like a novelty on the Boston & Albany route.

Yesterday (May 23, 2019), I made my first photographs of a CSX train with a DPU working east of Palmer.

Mike Gardner and I caught Q-264 (the loaded autorack train destined to East Brookfield) from the field of Route 67 near CP79.

By B&A standards, this was an enormous train for just two modern GE diesels.

I exposed these photographs using my FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm f2.0 lens.

Head-end of CSX Q264 east of Palmer, Massachusetts.
Autoracks on the roll.
Mid-train DPU working hard on the grade up to Warren.

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