Friday (July 5, 2019), I was rambling about with my cousin Stella—visiting from California—when we paused at Bardwell’s Ferry,.
The ferry is long gone. Instead a well-preserved pin-connected lenticular truss bridge carries the road over Massachusetts’ Deerfield River.
While we were photographing the bridge and river, I thought my ears tricked me; the rushing water sounded remarkably like a distant freight.
Since this wasn’t a serious rail-photo excursion, I hadn’t brought my scanner.
I went back to the car to get my omnipresent notebook, when I heard a whistle!
The flashers on Bardwell’s Ferry road illuminated, and sure enough there was an eastward Pan Am Southern freight approaching!
Working with my FujiFilm XT1 with 18-135mm zoom lens, I exposed this series of photos.
I assume that this was symbol freight 16R which forwards Norfolk Southern traffic from Enola (Pennsylvania) and East Binghamton (New York) to Pan Am’s East Deerfield Yard. Without a scanner or positive confirmation, guess is all I can do.
An eastward Pan-Am Southern freight approaches the crossing of Bardwell’s Ferry Road. I anticipated the window of sunlight east of the crossing and adjusted my exposure accordingly. As the freight approached, I pulled back the zoom lens to widen my field of view. Not all railroad photos can be exposed in full sunlight, but in this case I think the shadowy effect works well.
I’ve said it before, I’ll write it again: If you don’t make the effort, you won’t get any photographs.
Yet, there have been many times where I’ve driven up the valley of the Deerfield River in western Massachusetts and was rewarded with only pleasant weather and fine scenery; not a bad thing, but . . .
On the morning of May 28, 2016, an early start allowed me to catch five trains between East Deerfield Yard and the Hoosac Tunnel.
My familiarity with this railroad and the terrain gave me the insights to act, while some clever driving allowed me to make the most of the opportunities that the railroad provided.
It helped to have fine Spring weather, which aided in creation of some satisfying images.
An empty auto rack train was tied down on the siding between Soapstone and East Portal. I exposed this view using my Lumix LX7 with the HDR setting that combines three images exposed in rapid succession and combines them. HDR infers ‘high dynamic range’, which is one tool available to digital photographers for working in high-contrast situations..
The East Portal of the famed Hoosac Tunnel.
I heard a whistle deep in the valley to the east. Curiously, this was a second empty auto rack train that was overtaking the train I’d photographed earlier. In the lead was Norfolk Southern SD60E 6900 which features a modern variation of the Safety cab. Exposed with my FujiFilm X-T1 at East Portal.
I exposed this grab shot of NS SD60E 6900 as it roared by, moment before it entered the gloom of the tunnel. I adjusted the contrast in post-processing to make for a more pleasing image. Notice the profile of the locomotive cab. Panasonic LX7 Photo.
An eastward freight approaches East Portal.
Once a week, Pan Am has run a unit clay slurry train from the connection with Vermont Rail System at North Bennington/Hoosick Falls to Portland, Maine (symbol NBPO). This day it was later than usual. (So I’m told).
Pan Am 617 leads the clay slurry train eastward at Charlemont, Massachusetts. Exposed with my FujiFilm X-T1.
While waiting for the clay slurry train at Shelburne Falls, I was delighted to catch this westward move, Norfolk Southern symbol 11R that runs from East Deerfield to Enola, Pennsylvania.
Trailing view of Norfolk Southern DASH9-40C 9258 at Shelburne Falls.
I was looking for long sections of tangent track to best feature the effect of the clay slurry train which carries white tank cars full of clay used in the paper making process. Here I photographed it a Shelburne Falls (Buckland). That’s the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum at the right.
Norfolk Southern 11R was held at Buckland. The next siding to the west (Soapstone-East Portal) was occupied by an empty auto rack train. The only eastward freight I’d seen was the once-per-week clay slurry train. ‘Do the math’ as they say; there must be another eastward freight! So I drove as fast as I could (within legal parameters) back up to the east portal of the Hoosac Tunnel. I arrived about three minutes before Norfolk Southern 28N (loaded auto racks) exited the mountain. Not bad for one morning’s effort! (PS, it isn’t always this busy).
For this roll of film I made some minor adjustments to the basic formula.
The goal of my special process is to allow for a black & white negative that when scanned provides optimum tonality and contrast without the need for post processing adjustments.
This is significant for two reasons: 1) I’ve maximized the film’s tonality, thus allowing to capture the most amount of information. 2) I’ve minimized the amount of time I need to spend adjusting individual images.
Exposed on February 18, 2016 with Ilford HP5 black & white film. Processed in Kodak HC-110 1:32 for 5 minutes at 68 degrees F, three bath fixer, and then selenium 1:9 for five minutes; rinse and dry. Scanned digitally using a Epson V600. No post processing contrast or exposure adjustments. Original exposure was f16 1/500th of a second with 20mm lens.
With this photo, I scanned the original negative, and then scaled it in Lightroom while applying my water mark. I did not make adjustments to exposure, contrast, or similar. This is in essence and unmodified scan.
Here I’ve intentionally selected a very contrasty scene. This demonstrates the success of the process and makes for a dramatic photograph of modern railroading.
By using HP5, which is rated by Ilford at 400 ISO, I’ve intentionally selected a comparatively grainy film. This adds texture and grittiness to the image. I wonder how it will appear on your screen? On mine it is exceptionally sharp with broad tonal range.
