December 9, 1984: I photographed an eastward freight on Guilford’s Boston & Maine at Cheapside in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

It had been almost 25 years since the Erie Railroad merged with the Delaware, Lackwanna & Western, and more than nine years since Erie Lackawanna’s operations were melded into Conrail.

I was astonished to see this 50ft boxcar built in 1956 rolling along, complete with catwalks, still lettered for the old Erie! This antique seemed improbable even then, and I’m sure there a story behind this car.

These photos were exposed on Ilford FP4 black & white film and processed in Kodak D-76. I scanned the negatives last week.

For an aesthetic comparion, I’m also including a photo I made last month of a Conrail hopper rolling though Peachbottom, PA., more than 26 years after Conrail’s operations were divided between CSX and Norfolk Southern. I exposed this view digitally and converted the image to black & white using DxO FilmPack7 software which gives me an Ilford FP4 profile. The purpose of this is allow the modern digital image to resemble my efforts from the mid-1980s.

DxO has offered a discount to Tracking the Light readers. If you are interested in buying DxO Film Pack 7 or other DxO programs, the discount code “TRACKINGTHELIGHT” will work for 15% off for any new customer at shop.dxo.com. 

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