Tag Archives: #Columbia

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Full Moon and Cotton Candy Sky

When I find a winning combination of time and place there’s a certain satisfaction in repeating the exercise and watching my results improve with each new variation.

I’ve made dozens of trips to Columbia, Pa., which is an historically fascinating place with several railroad lines converging upon it.

In daylight, it is visually challenged, and from my experience too often devoid of railroad activity.

In the evening it comes alive.

Finally over the last few weeks, Kris and I have caught trains moving through the Columbia after dark.

A few days ago, I display some successful images of Norfolk Southern on the move.

On Sunday, a full moon made for opportunity. Kris had suggested that we take another turn at Columbia, and we arrived in time to catch H19 running light engine from Lancaster, followed by a 632 loaded coal train.

My view of H19 passing the station was from essentially the same place as where I’d caught the same train a few nights previously. However, I composed my photo to included not just the train and old PRR station, but mural on the wall to the left, plus our car with Kris making a nocturnal video. For me what really adds drama is the moon rising with a cotton candy sky.

Exposed using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom.

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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 . . .

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Cola with Stars

Saturday night, Kris again suggested we head out to find a freight train on the move.

Since we scored a loaded coal train on Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Branch at Washington Boro, Pa. last week, I thought that would be a good place to start. As we arrived at the intersection of Rt999 and Water Street, I heard a whistle. We could see a distant headlight.

“Westbound!” Now that was good timing.

We drove west on Water Street toward Columbia, staying a good distance ahead of the train.

We pulled up near old Cola tower, where I had enought time to set the Nikon Z7-II to ‘M’ (manual), attach it to the tripod, level out the camera and frame up the scene, while setting the sensitivity to ISO4000 and adjusting the shutter speed.

Then the headlight came into view. It was a Norfolk Southern tank train, possibly an empty ethanol move? Kris counted 93 cars.

I made a sequence of images with the camera set at f4.5.

This selection was processed using DxO PureRaw to eliminate the effects of lens vignetting and reduce pixelization from the high ISO setting.

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