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Broadway at Bennington Curve

On the morning of July 30, 1987, I awoke to the sounds of 20-cylinder 645-diesels roaring up the grade toward Gallitzin, Pa. at the back of Conrail freights.

The day dawned clear and bright. Amtrak train No. 40 (Chicago-New York Broadway Limited) was running a few hours behind the advertised. I set up looking upgrade toward Allegheny Summit.

Working with my father’s Rolleiflex Model T set up with a 645-sized ‘Super Slide’ rectangular insert and loaded with Kodak 120 TMY (T-Max 400), I made this image of the Broadway descending the grade at Bennington Curve (several miles from its more famous cousin).

I felt that Kodak TMY was a difficult film. This used a fine T-grain structure but was very challenging to process. I only worked with this emulsion for about two years, because I found the photos were difficult to print.

By contrast, TMY seems to scan well. I scanned the 39-year old negative using an Epson V600 scanner and then imported the TIF scan into Lightroom for nominal adjustment digitally. I wish it had been this easy back in 1987!

120 size negative on TMY film. This was processed in D76 1:1. The scan is without cosmetic processing. Compare with the adjusted file below.
Same scan as above, but following nominal changes in Adobe Lightroom aimed primarily at improving contrast and exposure. If you look carefully, you will see my shadow on the right

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New Year’s Eve 1988—Springfield Union Station.

On this day 32 years ago I exposed this frame of Kodachrome 25 slide film using my old Leica M2 rangefinder with an f2.0 50mm Summicron lens.

Kodachrome slide adjusted using Adobe Lightroom to control contrast, correct for color, and improve exposure.

Low sun and dark clouds made for a moody dramatic setting.

An Amtrak shuttle working the Springfield, Massachusetts to New Haven, Connecticut run has just departed Springfield Union Station.

The towers on either side of the train historically housed the elevators that connected the platforms with a below-track concourse.

Back in the day, I hand-printed an 11×14 inch Cibachrome print from this slide.

Happy New Year’s Eve from Tracking the Light!

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MBTA at Walpole.

In conjunction with line works on the west end of MBTA’s Franklin Branch, weekend trains were terminating at Walpole, Massachusetts with bus connections to Norfolk, Franklin and Forge Park.

The old passenger station is still in use at this location.

Here, the Franklin Branch crosses the former New Haven Railroad Old Colony line that runs between Mansfield and Framingham, Massachusetts on a traditional diamond.

More than 30 years ago I visited Walpole on several occasions to photograph trains passing the steam era semaphores that still protected the diamond.

These photos were made in November 2020 using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera.

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