Tag Archives: #CSX

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

CSX Local Freight Along the Hudson

Road switchers are designed for bi-directional operation.

When I was younger, EMD’s running long-hood forward annoyed me.

These days, I think its pretty cool to find a single SD40-2 operating long-hood first.

Last week, we saw CSX 8400 leading a local freight along the River Line in New York’s Hudson River Valley. I made this sequence of images from the Mine Dock Park near Ft Montgomery.

Exposed using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Z-series-Nikkor lens. Contrast and saturation adjusted using Adobe Lightroom.

Note the mismatched number boards and the plow profiled for use in 3rd rail territory.

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Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

No. 30 passing Point of Rocks.

Recalling a trip along the old Baltimore & Ohio that I made with my old pal TSH some 35 years ago, I brought Kris and Seamus-the-Dog on a brief exploration of the railroad along the Potomac River.

We aimed to catch Amtrak No. 30 the Capitol Limited rolling through Point of Rocks, Maryland.

The signals have changed from the classic B&O Color Position Lights to more common traffic-light style color-light hardware. The station at Point of Rocks is boarded up and appears a bit rough around the edges. But, it was neat to see this old territory again and brought back memories from that earlier time.

Photos exposed using my Nikon Z-series mirrorless digtal cameras.

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Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Locomotives—August 27, 2016

Seven years ago today, I caught up with photographer Mike Gardner for a morning of photography near Palmer, Massachusetts.

It was a beautiful and clear sunny New England day. I made these photos using my old FujiFilm XT1 with 18-135mm Fujinon zoom lens.

New England Central 3039, a former Canadian National GP40-2L at Palmer, Mass. Fuji XT1 w 18-135mm lens set at 104mm f9 1/500, ISO 400.
CSX Q422 eastbound at Warren, Mass. Fuji XT1 w 18-135mm lens set at 123mm f5.6 1/500, ISO 400.
CSX Q422 eastbound at Warren, Mass. Fuji XT1 w 18-135mm lens set at 18.5mm f7.1 1/500, ISO 400.

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CSX RAW and Adjusted

Daybreak on June 15, 2016: I set up in West Warren, Massachusetts to wait for CSX’s westward Q009 intermodal train out of Worcester.

On the long days it was possible to catch this priority train in daylight.

I opted for West Warren to make the most of the scenery in Quaboag River valley.

Shortly after the first rays of sun tickled the old Boston & Albany line, the headlights of Q009 appeared.

I made a burst of photos using my FujiFilm XT1.

Since I made those images eight years ago, I’ve learned to work with the RAW files in Adobe Lightroom and really get the most out of my files.

Below I’ve displayed the unadjusted Fuji RAW file and my adjusted file. Notice the differences in highlight and shadow areas and subtled differences to color saturation.

This is the scaled but otherwise unmodified Fuji RAW file. Notice the highlight and shadow areas. Compare this view with my modified version below.
Working with Adobe Lightroom, I adjusted highlights and shadows to improve detail, while modifying color saturation and color temperature, warming the scene slightly and making the most of mist over the river. I also adjusted the level to correct for my slight tilted original view.

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CSX Q300 on the Reading

Ten years ago today (February 28, 2012), I made this photo of CSX Q300 on the old Reading Company at West Trenton, New Jersey.

My old Lumix LX3 was a little tricky to use when making action photos of trains. If the camera was in full ‘auto’ mode and I pressed on the shutter release the camera would hesitate for a moment.

The trick was to use the manual setting and then ‘queue-up’ the camera by presssing the shutter release halfway in preparation for making a photo. In this way the camera shutter would release almost instantaneously when pressed the remainder of the way, thus allowing for a composition with full-frame view of a moving train, such as this one.

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April 2001—CSX at Guilderland, NY.

Way back in April 2001, photographer Mike Gardner and I paid a visit to the closed Old State Road bridge over the former West Shore route at Guilderland, New York.

This was only a couple of years after CSX assumed operation of Conrail’s former New York Central Waterlevel Route across New York State. At that time this was an exceptionally busy line with a non-stop parade of freights.

Eastward CSX freight at Guilderland, New

I made this coming and going pair of photos using my Rollei Model T. This featured a very sharp f3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens.

My choice of film was Kodak Tri-X processed in Ifotec HC developer. I scanned the negatives yesterday using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner, then made minor adjustements to the TIF scans using Adobe Light room to improve constrast and exposure.

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Boston & Albany Sunset

On this day five years ago (November 12, 2016), I made this sunset view at CP64 in East Brookfield, Massachusetts with my first Panasonic Lumix LX7.

Tonight, I am scheduled to present My Conrail, a multimedia slide presentation of my Boston & Albany photography to the 25th Beecherfest in Milwaukee.

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CSX Q034 at Ashland, Virginia

On June 8, 2015, I was photographing at Ashland, Virginia with Pat Yough and Doug Riddell.

I made this traditional view of CSX’s northward intermodal train Q034 on Fujichrome Provia 100F using my Canon EOS-3 with 40mm pancake lens.

This busy line is the former Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac mainline from Richmond to Alexandria, VA.

CSX Evolution-series GE-built diesel-electric number 721 leads northward intermodal freight Q034 at Ashland, Virginia. Provia 100F.

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Rainy Night at CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts

Saturday night, July 17, 2021, I revisited Palmer, Massachusetts with Kris Sabbatino and Pat Yough, where we made night photos of the CSX signals at CP83.

For me photographing at Palmer at night is an old tradition that began in the 1980s.

Where I used to make time exposures with a Leica IIIA loaded with Kodak Tri-X, on this visit I worked with my modern Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera mounted on my father’s Gitzo carbon fiber tripod.

My own tripod had remained in New Hampshire, so needed a loan of my dad’s legs.

A westward CSX highrail truck passes CP83.

I made minor adjustements to color temperature and contrast using Adobe Lightroom.

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Chessie System at Willard

Willard, Ohio, July 21, 1988: CSXT was still a novelty and many locomotives were still painted for CSX’s Chessie System and Seaboard System components.

My pal TSH and I were traveling around central Ohio on our summer 1988 adventure.

I made this Kodachrome 25 slide using my Leica M2 with 50mm Summicron.

I scanned this slide in January 2021 using a Nikon Coolscan5000 scanner, and made minor adjustments to color, contrast and exposure using Adobe Lightroom.

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Ten Years Ago!

Ten Years ago on this day (January 24, 2011) I caught Mass-Central and CSX freights side by side at CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts using my Canon EOS-7D.

This was an effort in passing; I’d been out running errands and saw the signals lit on CSX’s Boston Line and so I turned down the road to see what was going on.

January 24, 2011 at Palmer, Massachusetts. If you look carefully, there’s a second CSX westbound blocked behind the first.

It helps to have a camera at the ready!

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CSX SD40-2 at Rotterdam Jct.

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Yesterday I scanned this 20-year old slide of an eastward CSX freight passing the signals at CPRJ—Rotterdam Junction, New York.

I’d exposed the slide using my first Nikon N90S on Fujichrome Sensia RA slide film.

I made great use of the Nikon N90S, and when I wore out the first one, I bought another.

Oddly, when reviewing my slides, I find that my work with the N90S wasn’t as refined as the photographs that I made with either my Nikon F3 (with which I used the same lens pool as the N90S) nor my Contax G2 rangefinder that had its own lenses.

I can’t really explain this phenomena, but I wish I’d recognized it sooner.

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