Tag Archives: #COLA

photography

Variation on a Nocturnal Theme—Coal Train at Columbia

Under the cover of darkness, Norfolk Southern unit coal train 632 (Keating to Baltimore) was rolling down the Royalton Branch. Kris and I waited for it in Columbia, Pa., and when we heard it was getting close, I moved into position opposite Pennsylvania Railroad’s old Cola tower.

I tried this angle several weeks ago and felt it had potential for another try. I like it because the location is readily visually identifiable and has a lot of railroad history.

Among the challenges at this location at night is trying to compensate for the locomotives’ excessively bright headlights. This evening, I was also facing high humidity, stemming from damp conditions along the Susquehanna River, which kept causing condensation on the lens.

My result is atmospheric, if imperfect.

Nikon Z6-III, 50mm f/1.4 lens, set at ISO 40,000, 1/160th of a second, f/1.4. NEF RAW file processed using PureRaw 9 with DeepPRIME 3 digital corrections.

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Lucky Break at Cola.

In early April, I had about 30 minutes to wait trackside along the Port Road Branch near the old Cola Tower in Columbia, Pa.

As the clock ticked down, my scanner had crackled a few times, which was probably an approaching train calling signals. About 28 minutes into my wait, I started the car to head away on my next errand . . . then I heard the radio, “clear signal Cola.” There was a train very close.

Moments later the crossing lights for Walnut Street began to flash. With little time to squander, I grabbed my Nikons and made my way to the tower’s shadow, where a couple of years earlier I exposed some nice photos in the glint light.

Just after 7pm, this Norfolk Southern loaded coal train passed me on its way from the coal fields to Baltimore.

The time was right and I was ready.

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Slow Clear COLA

More than 30 years ago, I photographed a trolley bus in San Francisco completely wrapped with advertising for ‘Crystal Pepsi,’ a then-new dye free soda.

It was the first time I recall seeing a wrapped transit vehicle, and thus the novelty of capturing it on film.

Other than a vague allusion to the title, my above story has almost nothing to do with the photos in this post.

As a follow up from Sunday’s TTL: The second train Kris and I saw at Columbia, Pa., on Friday evening was Norfolk Southern’s H19 turn heading west off the branch from Lancaster. Kris recommened the parking lot by the old Pennsylvania Railroad station on Front Street. The station is now an ice cream stand.

At the COLA interlocking, NS H19 had a red-over-red-over-green aspect, ‘Slow Clear’ to pass through the interlocking and enter the Port Road Branch.

In the lead was NS SD40E 6322.

Unlike the Kodachrome slides of the Muni bus, I made these photos digitally at ISO 25,600 which allowed me a 1/60 of second shutter speed. I processed the NEF RAW files using PureRaw to eliminate the granular effects of pixelization and correct for lens defects.

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Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Moonlight, COLA Signals, and a Coal Train

Friday night Kris suggested we go out exploring to find more freights on the move.

So with my 3Pod tripod and N7-II at the ready, we drove to the Susquehanna River at Columbia, Pa. On the way we heard the Enola-Lancaster turn key up Norfolk Southern’s River Line desk dispatcher. This train was looking for permission to return west to Enola, but needed to hold east of Columbia for a 596 unit coal train to clear the interlocking at Cola.

We had a few minutes to look for suitable locations, and at the last minute I settled on the westward home-signals at COLA on the Port Road (located off River Road in Columbia, Pa.)

The moon was nearly full.

I quickly set up my tripod and made this sequence of images as the loaded 596 coal train glided eastbound. In the lead was NS GE 4870, and similar to the train we saw last week, this had a two unit mid-train DPU and well over 200 cars.

All files exposed in NEF RAW format and converted to DNG format using PureRaw for import into Lightroom for cosmetic adjustment.

As soon as 596 had cleared COLA we repositioned to catch NS H19 coming off the branch from Lancaster. All of this was very exciting! Stay tuned for more photos . . .

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