Our new home is a relatively short drive from the former Pennsylvania Railroad bridges at Safe Harbor.
The cutoff to Parksburg was abandoned in the 1980s and has since been converted into the Enola Low Grade Rail Trail, while the old Port Road route along the east bank of the Susquehanna River is operated by Norfolk Southern.
I’ve previously described the challenges in catching trains on this route. Owning to a daylight hours curfew on through freights using Amtrak’s former PRR electrified mainlines, most freight over the old Port Road tends to pass at night.
However, in the long days of summer it is possible to catch freights on the move in daylight. So over the last week I’ve made two attempts to catch trains on this route. In both instances I waited out the daylight without a wheel turning.
On July 2nd, we visited Safe Harbor. I hiked up to the Enola Low Grade Rail Trail to scope angles and wait. The droning of the Safe Harbor dam made it difficult to hear if a train was approaching. In the hour I spent there, I exposed a variety of photos of the tracks, bridges, dam and river.
One of these days, I hope to see steel wheels rolling on these rails.
This bridge now carried the Enola Low Grade Rail Trail, which offers a commanding vantage point of the river, railroad and Safe Harbor dam.
The other day, I accompanied Wayne Duffett of TEC Associates on his annual inspection of the bridges on Conway Scenic’s Conway Branch.
This railroad was built in the early 1870s, by Boston & Maine constituent railroad, the Portsmouth, Great Falls & Conway. The last B&M train operated over the branch in 1972, nearly 50 years ago.
The bridges on the line have long and varied histories.
I made several hundred photographs as Wayne tapped, rapped, poked, measured and visually inspected each and every span.
The Conway Branch has wooden, stone, iron, steel and conctrete bridges.
I learn a lot when scrutinizing a railroad at this level.
Back in 1990, I got a good deal on a 100 foot roll of Agfa 400 speed black & white film. I took quite a few photos with this, mostly of street scenes in San Francisco, and processed it in D76 1-1, much the way I would have processed Kodak Tri-X.
That was a mistake.
Fast forward 30 years and I thought I’d give Agfa 400 black & white another go.
This time I used a more refined process.
On April 12, 2020, Kris Sabbatino and I visited St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where we made a variety of photos around the former Maine Central truss bridge, located at the far west end of the old Mountain Division. I worked primarily with 90mm and 50mm Nikon lenses. The light was dull April overcast, which I thought would be a good test for Agfa 400.
Since I didn’t have access to my processing equipment and chemistry, I wasn’t able to develop the film until recently, but last weekend I finally souped the Agfa. I decided to try Rodinal Special (NOT to be confused with Rodinal) which is formulated for higher speed emulsions.
Before introducing the Rodinal Special (mixed 1-25), I presoaked the film for 5 minutes at 70 F in a very dilute bath of HC110 (mixed 1-300 with water and a drop of Photoflo-wetting agent). This was followed by the main development using my Rodinal Special mix for 4 minutes 30 seconds at 68 F; stop bath; twin fixer baths; rinse; permawash; first wash; selenium toner mixed 1-9 for 8 minutes; rinse and final wash.
There were a few hiccups in the washing. And as a result I ended up with precipitate on the negatives, so I ended up repeating the wash cycle yesterday morning, then soaked the negatives in distilled water with a drop of Photoflo before re-drying and scanning.
Now for the judgement. . . .
Looking west.
These are straight scans; only scaled for internet and without alterations to exposure, contrast, or sharpness.
