Tracking the Light presents 14 recent images—a work in progress.
Not any old mainline, but The Main Line—the former Pennsylvania Railroad west of Philadelphia. This is hallowed ground in the eyes of PRR enthusiasts.
My brother and I spent several hours examining various locations from Overbook to Bryn Mawr.
A training special (not listed in the public timetable) approaches Narberth on December 4, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.A training special at Narberth on December 4, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.A SEPTA training special departs Narberth on December 4, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.
We were rewarded by a training special operating in midday with SEPTA AEM-7 2306 and a push-pull train. These trains are typically only used at rush hours, so it was nice to catch one off peak.
Narberth. Lumix LX7 photo.
The Main Line loves its trees.
The Main Line is a throwback to another time. The line still retains many of its visual cues from year’s gone by, including classic Pennsylvania Railroad position light signal hardware.
SEPTA locals pass at Narberth. Classic postion light signaling still protects the mainline.SEPTA local approaching Wynnewood. Lumix LX7 photo.SEPTA training special inbound near Wynnewood. Lumix LX7 photo.
Among the challenges to photographing this line is the proliferation of trees along the right of way. While these can make for nice props, they also cast shadows which complicate photography.
From an operations standpoint, I would think that having so many line-side trees would be a serious problem. Not only will these cause wheel-slip in the autumn that will result in difficulties for suburban trains trying to meet tight schedules, but falling branches and trunks will interfere with the catenary.
Would the PRR have tolerated so many trees along its primary east-west trunk?
SEPTA local at Wynnewood.Advertising on a Silverliner V. Lumix LX7 photo.Old PRR-era station at Haverford. Lumix LX7 photo.An Amtrak Keystone blitzes Bryn Mawr. Lumix LX7 photo.Bryn Mawr. Lumix LX7 photo.
Weso is a contraction implying ‘Western Pacific Southern Pacific’. This is the control point at the western end of the famed ‘paired track’ where SP’s and WP’s single track mainlines were coordinated during World War I to function as directional double track to ease operations.
Weso, Nevada on July 21, 1991. Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Nikon F3T fitted with a f1.8 105mm Nikkon lens, mounted on a Bogen 3021 tripod.
My long-time photo pal TSH and I camped here in July 1991 and made a promising morning exposing Kodachrome of the parade of trains that passed after sunrise.
This view is of an eastward SP Modoc Line freight on Union Pacific’s former WP line just east of the crossovers at Weso, mile post 537. Weso is near Winnemucca. The parallel SP line is off camera to the left.
Weso, Nevada on July 21, 1991. Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Nikon F3T fitted with a f1.8 105mm Nikkon lens, mounted on a Bogen 3021 tripod.
It was a clear September 1989 morning when I parked near the twin former New York Central tunnels at Breakneck Ridge and followed a hiking trail to this commanding vantage point looking back toward Cold Spring, New York.
I exposed this photo on Kodachrome 25 slide film using my Leica M2 fitted with 50mm f2.0 Summicron firmly mounted on a Bogen 3021 tripod.
This features some of best known works of black & white photographic giants David Plowden, Jim Shaughnessy, Mel Patrick and Ron Wright as well as more recent work by Mike Froio himself, and his contemporaries including Scott Lothes, John Sanderson, and Travis Dewitz, along with Pennsylvania Railroad poster art from the Bennnett Levin collection.
These are some memorable railway images well worthy of display!
For my final Night Photo Challenge image, I thought I’d display this image.
This is not an ordinary ‘night photo’, but there are no PhotoShop computer generated enhancements. Except for cropping, which I did after scanning the slide, the rest of my technique was performed ‘in-camera’.
Making it was considerably more involved than my typical night photos. I used my old Nikon F3T with an old school f2.8 24mm lens mounted on a Gitzo tripod.
Trams pause in the fog at the Olomouc main station. This former provincial capital is now in the Czech Republic, located about three and one half hours east of Prague. It enjoys an excellent passenger service with direct trains to many Czech cities. Exposed on Fujichrome with a Canon EOS 3 fitted with a 100mm lens. Contrast and colour adjusted in post processing.
Olomouc—known as Olmütz in the day of the old Hapsburg Empire when it was the capital of Moravia—is an ancient city dating back to Roman times. I found it an exceptionally photogenic small city.
In January 2009, Denis McCabe and Tim Doherty visited Olomouc on a week-long photographic trip to central Europe. On the evening of our arrival from Prague, a heavy fog had settled across the city, making its eclectic architecture, Soviet Era trams, and well worn cobblestone street even more evocative.
We spent several hours walking around in the mist.
Olomouc, Czech Republic, January 2009. Exposed on Fujichrome with a Canon EOS 3.
Delaware-Lackawanna shops, Scranton, Pennsylvania, October 13, 2005.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: I was researching and photographing for my book Working on the Railroad, when I made this image in the rain at Scranton.
Exposed on Fujichrome Provia 100F with a Nikon F3T fitted with a 24mm f2.8Nikkor lens fitted to a Manfrotto tripod. Exposure calculated with a Minolta Mark IV light meter. (Note the code lines.)
The former British Columbia Railroad Alco Century was my primary subject. Here the combination of raw unpleasant weather, harsh sodium lighting, and a scene festooned with junk, litter and tired look side tracks meets all the aesthetical requirements for a great photo. No?
Dusk at Killucan Cabin, May 3, 2002. This was a favorite place of mine to make photos, and before the cabin was closed, I spent many afternoons and evenings here.
Signalman Donal Flynn stands at the base of the cabin poised to hand the electric train staff hoop to a Dublin-bound passenger train (seen, headlights dimmed, approaching in the distance). Exposed on Fujichrome with a Contax G2 with 28mm Biogon Lens mounted on a Manfrotto tripod. Exposure calculated with the aid a Minolta Mark IV light meter.
This image was exposed several years before Irish Rail implemented the signalling program that converted the Sligo line to Mini-CTC with remote signaling control and colour-lights. Yet, for me it is evocative of the cabin at the end of its useful life.
The final hints of daylight are symbolic of the cabin’s fate; Soon the light in the sky will fade to darkness and the cabin will close.
In response to my recent nomination by Phil Brahms and Blair Kooistra for the Facebook Night Photo challenge, I’ve selected five groups of photos that I feel might be interesting to review on Tracking the Light.
I have to admit, I’m not clear on the rules for this challenge. As a result, I’ll follow my standard policy and just wing it. Who needs rules anyway?
Among the difficulties in selecting photos for this challenge has been simply finding them. For the most part I’ve not organized images in regards to the time of day they were exposed. A related problem is the large number of night views that I’ve attempted over the years.
Lastly, what makes for a successful night photo?
Over the years, I’ve made hundreds of night photos at Palmer, Massachusetts. I exposed this image on an exceptionally foggy May 1985 evening. My subject was the old Palmer Union Station near the crossing of Conrail’s Boston & Albany line and the Central Vermont Railway. Today this old station has been restored and serves as the Steaming Tender restaurant. Tracking the Light viewers will find it a familiar subject, as I’ve often featured images in and around this building. Exposed on black & white film with a Leica 3A with 50mm Summitar lens.More than 11 years later, I exposed this view at Palmer. Here I’m looking west with the station at my back. A southward New England Central freight is waiting north of the diamond. Exposed with a Nikon F3T with 28mm lens on Fujichrome Provia 100F. December 6, 1996. Color is an added complication for night work. Would this photo be more effective as a black & white image? Or would the effect of the red signal lights be lost?
Tracking the Light; Five photos on the old Pennsylvania Railroad.
A Post-Prologue to a Night Photo Challenge . . .
On December 1, 2014, I’d met my latest deadline, and so I finally had a few minutes to make photos before charging headlong into the next project.
My brother Sean lent me back my old Bogen 3021 tripod, a piece of equipment I’d not seen in many years. I’d bought this new in Rochester in March 1989 and dragged it all around North America in the early 1990s. At some point, I upgraded to a newer tripod and gave this one to Sean.
Former Pennsylvania Railroad station at Overbrook, Pennsylvania. LX7 photo, exposed at ISO 80 f3.2 at 2.5 seconds.Rainy Night on the Main Line at Overbrook. Lumix LX7 photo ISO 80 f3.2 at 1.3 seconds. Auto white balance.A SEPTA Silverliner V pauses at Overbrook on the evening of December 1, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo. ISO 80, f3.2 1.3 seconds. (Exposed in ‘A’ mode using a + 2/3 manual override.)
It seemed like overkill to steady my Lumix LX7 on such a heavy tripod, but it did the job.
It was cold, wet and dark, but that worked fine for me. I exposed a few photos at Overbrook, Pennsylvania, and a couple of more at Wynnewood. No GG1 electrics passed me that night. Not for a long time.
Former Pennsylvania Railroad four-track Main Line west of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Lumix LX7 photo exposed at ISO 80 at f2.1 for 8 seconds. Auto white balance. I’ve experimented with this angle as a night photo before, and so this is really just my latest effort.Former Pennsylvania Railroad four-track Main Line west of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Lumix LX7 photo exposed at ISO 80 at f2.0 for 8 seconds. Auto white balance. This is from the same location as the previous image, but looking west. Would this photo be improved with a train blurring by?
Tomorrow, I begin the first of five night photo-challenges as given to me by Blair Kooistra and Phil Brahms via Facebook.
Tracking the Light Daily Post: A View from a Favorite Location.
For this photograph, I’ve selected an off-center composition and used strong side-lighting and selective focus to increase the sensation of depth.
Autumn on the Boston & Albany in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. An eastward CSX freight descends Washington Hill at the old Middlefield station-location on October 7, 2004.
This is the second of three posts in my three part series covering San Francisco’s Streetcars. Shirebooks recently published my book Streetcars of America co-authored with John Gruber.
A cable car crests Lombard Street just after sunrise on a September morning. See Shirebooks Journal for Brian Solomon’s feature on San Francisco’s Cable Cars.
The National Historic Park at Lowell has transformed 19th century textile mills into interpretive museums. Connecting various museums is a recreated historic streetcar line using electrified former Boston & Maine mill spurs. Most of the time authentic looking replica cars are the order of the day.
A Boston & Maine Alco-built 0-6-0 is also on display.
Lowell’s historic trolley gives visitors a feeling for what it was like to ride a streetcar. Canon EOS 7D with 20mm lens.The classic looking cars look good among the old brick mill buildings. Canon EOS 7D photo.
I visited briefly on my way through town and exposed a few photos of the streetcar against the urban backdrop. On previous visits I’ve traveled on the trolleys and made more extensive photographic studies.
Boston & Maine 410 is a static display at Lowell. It is one of only a few surviving Boston & Maine steam locomotives. Canon EOS 7D
However, owing to the late season, the trolley was working a very limited schedule, and my time was short, so I didn’t go for a spin this time.
Lowell 4131 is a replica of a Brill streetcar. Lumix LX7 photo.
The Lowell trolley is among historic operations covered in the final chapter of my latest book, Streetcars of America, co-authored with John Gruber, by Shire Publications. In this compact 64-page soft-cover volume, John and I offer a concise look at streetcars in North America and feature a variety of vintage and contemporary images, including many made by my father, Richard J. Solomon, on Kodachrome film.
A clear blue dome prevailed on November 3, 2014. Although I was saddled with errands, I took the time to set up a few photos along MBTA’s recently re-doubletracked line at the Willows east of Ayer, Massachusetts.
The schedule shows two trains through this location within a few minutes of each other. My interest was with the bright foliage on the far side of the tracks.
I’ve always preferred late autumn foliage when many of the leaves have fallen, the remaining trees are rusty and almost all the green leaves have turned.
MBTA 2001 works west at the Willows. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D fitted with 40mm pancake lens. F5.0 1/1000 at ISO 200.
I was rewarded with MBTA’s new HSP46 2001 working westward toward Fitchburg. Although some of these new locomotives have been lurking around for about a year, this was my opportunity to photograph one. It was great to get one on the move in bright sun with foliage, I was delighted.
The new design of the HSP46 is unlikely to be confused with anything else. Not, as of yet, anyway. These are being built by Motive Power Inc at Boise, Idaho. Inside are General Electric mechanical and electrical components.
MBTA 2001 works west at the Willows. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D fitted with 40mm pancake lens. F5.0 1/1000 at ISO 200.
An accomplished railroad photographer once said to me, “to get great railroad photos, the railroad has to be ‘on’, the weather has to be ‘on’ and you have to be ‘on’. You can’t control the first two, but you can control yourself.”
There are those days where everything falls into place. The morning of October 15, 1995 was clear and bright; I had Kodachrome 25 in my cameras; and Dean Sauvola and I were in place at Genoa along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s double track line parallel to the Mississippi.
We’d positioned ourselves high above the town and waited. Between 9:34 am and 10:32 am the railroad performed and we photographed four trains in nice light. A little later we heard of a southward Canadian Pacific freight on the westbank of the river and reposition to Lansing, Iowa for a productive chase to Postville.
Merger between Burlington Northern and Santa Fe was only a month old, yet locomotives from the two fleets were already beginning to get mixed up. Or so it seemed on this eastward freight rolling along the Mississippi at Genoa, Wisconsin on October 15, 1995. Exposed with a Nikon 28mm lens on Kodachrome 25.Trains pass north of Genoa. There’s nothing like a grand vista to alert you of approaching trains on a busy line. I used my Nikkor f4.0 200mm for this image. I don’t know if it works as a stand alone photo but it makes for a nice part of this sequence.At 10:12am Canadian National 5600 leads train 348 timetable east along the Mississippi at Genoa. I exposed this Kodachrome 25 slide and the following one using my Nikon F3t with Nikkor f2.8 135mm lens.CN 348 at Genoa, Wisconsin. My exposure was f3.5 at 1/500th of second. I’ve used variations of this image in books.
Later in the day we resumed photography on the east bank and photographed another parade of trains along the former Chicago, Burlington & Quincy at Glen Haven, Wisconsis. By the end of the day we’d photographed eleven trains in clear October sunlight. Tick all three boxes for October 15, 1995!
On April 2, 1995, I spent the afternoon with Tom and Mike Danneman perched atop a bluff photographing trains along the Mississippi River. With three SD40-2s, you just know that this westbound was making a great sound along the river! Exposed on Kodachrome 25 with a Nikon F3T.
A favorite location along the river was the Mississippi Palisades Park a few miles north of Savanna. Back in the mid-1990s, Mike and Tom Danneman and I would park at the public lot near river level and follow a designated hiking trail to one of several overlooks.
There standing on a plateau a top a river bluff made from millions of years of sediment, we command grand views of the river.
At the time, Burlington Northern would run a parade of trains in the afternoon and we’d photograph these roaring up and down the old Chicago, Burlington & Quincy line. This was a versatile location, good for photos at all times of the day. I don’t know that we ever tired of it.
At other times, we’d try angles from river level as well.
I often looked for angles that put the railroad in context with the river. Burlington Northern’s well-polished rails glint in the evening sun on April 2, 1995.Sunset over the Mississippi on April 21, 1996. Rock climbers make for a curious silhouette. Exposed on Fujichrome Provia 100 with a Nikkormatt FTN.
Exposed on Kodachrome 25, using a Leica M2 with 50mm Summicron.
Scenes like this were once common: piggyback trains on their final lap to Boston running along traffic on the adjacent Massachusetts Turnpike. But, not any more.
A few years ago, CSX finally closed its yards at Beacon Park, having expanded its intermodal facilities in Worcester and West Springfield.
I made this view on bright, brisk clear afternoon at Newton, Massachusetts. Polarized sunlight can be typical Boston weather in early winter.
It’s nice to get clear sunny days, yet the area’s low humidity combined with other elements can make the light too contrasty. Not all sunlight has the same qualities, and I’ve found that sunlight can vary greatly from region to region and at different times of the year.
But when autumn fades to winter, more changes than just the leaves. In eastern Massachusetts stark midday wintery lighting presents its own of visual challenges.
The cold razor’s edge Boston’s winter sunlight makes for blinding bright highlights and opaque shadows. But is it too harsh? I’m much fonder of softer mid-autumn sun.
Stark light, not withstanding, I’m happy to have made this view of a Conrail piggyback train on the Boston & Albany. The Conrail Trailvan trailer behind the locomotives makes it a more interesting image.
A westward freight catches the glint of the morning sun. Would the photo be improved, if let the train come closer? I like the inky gloom on the right side of the image.
Working with my old Leica 3A —a camera I’ve been using on and off for some thirty-odd years—I made this image of CSX’s westward Q293 at Palmer, Massachusetts on the morning of October 5, 2011.
My lens of choice was a 21mm Super Angulon, which tends to vignette a little in the corners. I processed the film using my customized chemical formula that makes the negatives easy to scan. This image received virtually no post-processing after scanning, except to remove a few dust specs and to scale for internet presentation.
Sometimes the old cameras yield the most satisfying results. Some of my earliest photos were made with this same camera-lens combination.
Soon, Amtrak’s Vermonter will be detoured back to the traditional passenger route north of Springfield, Massachusetts, leaving the New England Central’s former Central Vermont line between Palmer and East Northfield, Massachusetts freight only for the first time in 25 years.
On the afternoon of October 27, 2014, fellow photographer Bob Arnold suggested that we make a photo of the southward Vermonter (train 55) at Three Rivers, where line crosses the Chicopee River on a plate girder bridge.
It was a nice clear sunny day and the foliage was splendid. Somehow the Vermonter managed to lose about 20 minutes in its short run down from Amherst, a station that will cease to serve as a regular stop with the route change.
Distant view at Three Rivers. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 40mm pancake lens.Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 40mm pancake lens.
If you are interested in riding or photographing Amtrak’s Vermonter on this route, don’t delay, time is running out.
Otto Vondrak encouraged me to post some black & white work as part of the a Black & White Challenge for Facebook, so I’m on my third photo of five, all exhibited through my Tracking the Light photo blog. Normally I post daily, so consider these ‘extra posts’ (with white flags).
Using my Rolleiflex Model T, I made this image on film of a disused steam locomotive on a siding at Jarwarzyna, Poland. I find dead locomotives sad to look at, but they make interesting subjects. The contrast of the Spring flowers with rusting metal offers hope, although not necessarily for the engine.
Exposed with a Rollei Model T on black & white film. This was one of several dozen images I made of steam in Poland in the year 2000.
Tracking the Light presents: Palmer, Massachusetts February 24, 1988.
In keeping with the spirit of Otto Vondrak’s Facebook challenge, I’ve dug into my scanned black & white negative file and found this old black & white photograph from the days or yore.
I exposed this using my father’s Rolleiflex Model T that was fitted with a ‘super slide’ 645 insert. I processed the film in Kodak D76 at the Rochester Institute of technology. Back in 1988, I made prints from the negative back, but the full-frame image presented here is from a scan of the negative made in more recent times.
Preserved streetcars entertaining a new generation.
Connecticut Trolley Museum at Warehouse Point.An old New Orleans Perley A. Thomas car takes visitors for a spin.The 32 volt lamps are of another era.Cornstalks and a Montreal streetcar. Lumix LX7 photo.The old car hums as its DC motors gain speed. Lumix LX7 photo.A skilled hand at the throttle. Lumix LX7 photo.Do streetcars look better in black & white? I made this monochromatic view with my Lumix LX7.
Yet for me the most intriguing elements of the museum are the cars I once knew from the streets of Boston. These are tucked away toward the back of the collection.
There, awaiting for another day when they may run again, are old PCCs that once worked for Boston’s MBTA. They were among the first vehicles I ever put on film.
I remember when PCCs worked the Riverside Line. I made photos with my dad’s Leica at Newton Centre and Eliot. Lumix LX7 photo.
Hidden from public view are these old familiar picture window cars. Lumix LX7 photo.
These old PCCs are like some post apocalyptic vision of the future. Nature is cruel to paint and old metal. They remind me of rotting pumpkins.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
It was a windy rainy afternoon when Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited departed South Station. I was riding on the rear platform of private car Caritas with Clark Johnson Jr. and my father.
My dad and I were only traveling to Springfield, Clark was going further.
I exposed this on Kodachrome 25 using my Nikon F3T with 35mmPC (perspective control—shift lens). By adjusting the front element, I maintained the verticals on the skyscrapers in the distance. I like the effect of motion; a train traveling through time.
Today, South Station is much different. Not only was a bus station built over the tracks, but the lines have been electrified for North East Corridor services.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
It was a clear bright morning and Tim Doherty and I made our annual visit to the Mattapan-Ashmont Red Line extension to photograph the PCC cars. See: MBTA Sunday October 27, 2013—Part 1.
A vintage Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority PCC crosses Central Avenue on October 25, 2014. Exposed with a Lumix LX7.
Some of my earliest photographic efforts focused on MBTA PCCs, albeit on the Riverside Line.
These photographs were exposed digitally. Tim was working with film using a Pentax 6×7 120 roll film camera.
Approaching Cedar Grove inbound. I tried this angle last year but I wasn’t 100 percent satisfied with my result, so I tried it again. Exposed using a Canon 7D with 100mm lens. I shaded the front lens element using my note book to minimize flare.Near Cedar Grove, the first stop from the Ashmont terminal. A Red Line rapid transit car can be seen in the distance. Canon 7D with 200mm lens.Pausing for a station stop at Cedar Grove. Lumix LX7 photo.PCC cars benefit from rapid acceleration.MBTA displays its heritage at Cedar Grove. October 25, 2014. Lumix LX7 photo.The Matapan-Ashmont line was one of the earliest examples of a heavy rail to trolley conversion. This had been a New Haven Railroad line and for several years heavy rail freight service lines ran parallel to the trolley line. Today the railroad right of way is a rail trail. The trolley line fly-over crosses the old railroad in the distance. Exposed from the platforms at Butler.
Clear blue skies south of Boston. Lumix LX7 photo.Lumix LX7 photo. Contrast adjusted in post processing.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
It’s been nearly 20 years since New England Central assumed operations from Central Vermont.
In that time New England Central has had three owners. Originally a RailTex property, it was owned by RailAmerica for more than a dozen years and now is a Genesee & Wyoming railroad.
Despite that, a few of its original GP38s remain painted in the blue and yellow scheme introduced when the railroad began operations in February 1995.
NECR 3850 was working job 603 in Palmer and paused for a minute on the interchange track. Although I’ve photographed this old goat dozens of times in the last two decades, I opted to make a series of images with my Lumix LX7 to demonstrate the different color profiles (color ‘styles’) built into the camera.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, one of the great compositional tools available with the Lumix LX7 (and other cameras too) is the ability to quickly change from one color profile to another (including black & white modes).
Although, it is easy enough to adjust and alter color in post processing, I find it is useful to be able to compose a scene on-site knowing how the camera will react to color and contrast.
Below are a sequence of similar images of 3850 using different built-in color profiles. I’ve adjusted the B&W ‘monochrome’ profile in-camera to better suit my personal taste.
Image 1—Lumix ‘Vivid’ color profile.Image 2—Lumix ‘Natural’ color profile. Please note that term ‘Natural’ is purely subjective and does not infer any unusual treatment as compared with the other profiles. In other words ‘natural’ is just a name.Image 3—’Scenery’ Lumix color profile.Image 4—’Monochrome’ Lumix color profile.Image 5 ‘High Dynamic Range’ setting. (this blends three images exposed automatically in rapid succession. Fine for static scenes, but not practical for moving trains).
Which of the photos do you like the best?
Of course every computer display has its own way of interpreting color and contrast. Compare these images on different screens and see how they change.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
We had a late start, the weather was a bit iffy, and there wasn’t much running, but my father and I set out anyway to make a few railroad photos in the fall foliage.
Since Amtrak’s Vermonter is in its final months of using the New England Central route between Palmer and East Northfield, Massachusetts, we made a point to intercept it in both directions.
A New England Central local freight was working the interchange track in Palmer. Canon EOS7D with 200mm lens.For more than 19 years, New England Central’s blue and yellow GP38s have worked around Palmer. I wonder how much longer they will last? Lumix LX7 photo.Richard Solomon waves.Amtrak train 57, Saturday’s Vermonter works south of Amherst at milepost 82. A hiking trail runs parallel with the line at this location. New welded rail has been laid along the line. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
A stop by Pan Am’s East Deerfield Yard found little moving except the hump engine.
The old Boston & Maine line was pretty quiet. This is the view looking west from East Deerfield where I’ve made a great many photographs in the last 30 plus years. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.A burst of sun at East Deerfield Yard. No less than four sets of road power were idling and the yard was full of cars, but not much was moving.
Not everyday is busy in central Massachusetts, but I can always find photographs. Here’s just a few from our afternoon’s exploration.
A spin over to Montague found a GATX slugset working the East Deerfield hump job. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.I made this panned view of the GATX slug using my Lumix LX7.Millers Falls, Massachusetts, October 18, 2014.Amtrak train 54 the northward Saturday Vermonter crosses the Millers River at Millers Falls. Canon EOS 7D with 100 mm lens. Image adjusted for contrast and color balance.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
On, October 15, 2014, I was giving a tour to some visitors from France, and we passed through Ware on our way from the Quabbin Reservoir to West Brookfield’s Salem Cross Inn.
Earlier in the week, I’d noticed that Mass-Central had parked its rare Electro-Motive Division model NW5 2100 in Ware yard near the Route 9/32 overpass. So, we made a quick diversion so that I could make a photograph of the locomotive.
Mass-Central 210 rests at Ware yard on former Boston & Albany trackage on October 15, 2014. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 20mm lens.
I’ve written about this before, but it was about 1981, when I rode my bicycle from Monson to Ware, specifically to photograph this locomotive, which had then just recently been delivered to Mass-Central.
When I think about all the locomotives that have come and gone in that time, I can’t help but smile. Old 2100 has nine lives, and then some! And it’s not that I need another photograph of it, but I make them anyway.
Mass-Central NW5 2100 is one of 13 such locomotives built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1946 and 1947. It was originally bought by Southern Railway, but has worked Mass-Central’s Ware River Branch since the early 1980s. Exposed with a Lumix LX7 using the ‘Vivid’ color profile. Compare with the high dynamic range (HDR image below.)My Lumix LX7 has a HDR setting that makes three images at different exposure settings in rapid succession and then combines them in-camera to create a single image with greater highlight and shadow detail than possible with a single digital exposure. Notice how this effect mutes the color and lowers contrast. Which image is better? You decide. Lumix LX7 photo.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
By the time of my visit in 2003, Irish Rail’s old Midland Great Western line between Mullingar and Athlone had been out of service for several years. In it’s heyday this had been a relatively busy double track mainline.
On this day the weed spraying train was due for its annual visit, so a man was sent to work the cabin. Thus this incongruous scene of a disused and brushed in line with an active signal cabin.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
An Eastward Pan Am Railways Freight at East Portal.
I was working on my book North American Railroad Bridges for Voyageur Press and I’d been communicating via E-mail with the late William D. Middleton regarding the particulars of certain spans and photographs of same.
Bill asked a favor of me: He was working on article for TRAINS Magazine and hoped that I could travel to the Hoosac Tunnel to make some contemporary images to help illustrate his article.
A few days later, I met Tim Doherty, Pat Yough and Otto Vondrak at East Deerfield for a day’s photography. I needed some images of the former New Haven Railroad Whipple Truss span over the Connecticut River at Montague (now a walking trail).
Later in the day we went west against an eastward freight. This provided me ample opportunity to photograph both east and west portals of Boston & Maine’s famous tunnel under the spine of the Berkshires.
As it turned out, the eastward freight was led by one of only two locomotives painted for Pan Am Railway at the time.
Pan Am Railways freight at East Portal on March 4, 2007.
As the train approached and exited East Portal, I exposed a series of images. I sent the best of the slides to Bill via the US Postal Service. One of my photos, exposed with a wide-angle of the Pan Am Railway’s GP40-2L emerging from the tunnel wearing the experimental light blue and black paint, appeared in Bill’s TRAINS Magazine article.
I prefer this view, moments before the freight exits the inky black depths of Hoosac Mountain. For me this better conveys the experience of watching a train at Hoosac Tunnel.
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
Exposed on Fujichrome slide film using a Canon EOS 3 fitted with an f 1.4 50mm lens, set at f8 1/500th of second.
At 9:49am on July 29, 2009, I exposed this image of Union Pacific 5526 leading an eastward double stack train on the former Western Pacific at Sand Pass, Nevada. At the back of the train, another General Electric diesel is working as a ‘distributed power unit’ (a radio controlled remotely operated locomotive).
Phil Brahms and I were exploring the former Western Pacific route across one of the most remote and lightly inhabited regions of the continental United States. This is lonely, barren, wind-swept and wide-open country where you can see for great distances.
Rail traffic was sparse, but we found about four to five freights per day in daylight.
The desert gets much bigger after sunset; the haunting sounds of the wind blowing across the desert floor in the dead of night and the radiant sky with stars blazing above cannot be captured on film. Yet these things stay with you.
That morning, I wrote in my notebook, ‘at dawn, before sunrise, I climbed a hill—coyotes were howling to the east (of me).’
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
For many railway enthusiasts, the number 611 immediately conveys mental images of Norfolk & Western’s magnificent streamlined 4-8-4 steam locomotive. But the number is shared with another interesting engine.
On clear morning in February 2003, I arrived in Chicago on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited. Marshall W. Beecher met me at Union Station and we set out to explore Chicago’s railroads.
We stopped in at A2 tower, a busy place where the former Chicago & North Western crosses the former Milwaukee Road lines from Union Station. In addition to mainline suburban trains, a yard between the two mainlines west of the tower produces a host of light engine and equipment moves.
Metra 611 at A2 Tower Chicago in February 2003. Exposed on Fujichrome with a Nikon F3.
Metra 611, one of only a few remain F40Cs, was on its way to the yard. The light was perfect and I made this portrait of the unusual locomotive. The F40C was built in 1974 for Milwaukee Road’s Chicago suburban service and the near cousin to Amtrak’s unsuccessful SDP40F. By 2003 only a few remained in service.
My most recent book Chicago: America’s Railroad Capital is a collaborative project with Michael Blaszak, John Gruber and Chris Guss, and features many one of a kind photographs. It is available now through Voyageur Press. This illustrated volume illustrates the history of Chicago’s railroad from the steam era through the present.
Take a look! Keen observers will find yet another 611 displayed in the book’s pages.
I made this photo of an inbound 2600 series railcar on the afternoon of October 6, 2014 near the church at Glounthaune, Co. Cork. Exposed with a Lumix LX7 and modified in post-processing.A similar view of another 2600, this one exposed using my Canon EOS 7D with 20mm lens. This photo is unadjusted, except for scaling. I use different camera/lens combinations to alter my perspective. Compare these two images at Glounthaune, exposed only minutes apart, but with different cameras and slightly different angles.
Irish Rail operates an excellent and well-patronized service on its Kent Station to Cobh line. In conjunction with this service are trains running on the recently reopened line to Midleton. Yesterday’s post focused on Cobh Junction, Glounthaune, where the lines divide.
In yesterday’s post, I focused on a series of sunrise images exposed overlooking Cobh Junction. For this view, made minutes before sunrise, I used my Canon EOS 7D with 100mm telephoto. By raising the ISO and using the lens nearly wideopen (f2.0) I was able to stop the action despite relatively low light. For the sunrise, I used both Fujichrome slide film and digital photography.Glounthaune Station at Cobh Junction was just a short walk away. I made this image from the footbridge at the station to show the yellow signal with a feather (indicating a diverging route with the next signal at ‘danger’ [red], seen in the distance). A Midleton-bound railcar was signaled to depart the station, but needed to wait for an inbound train before it could proceed to Midleton.Here’s my view with the Lumix LX7 of the Midleton railcar departing Glounthaune. There was excellent ridership from this station in the morning.
Irish Rail’s Ken Fox gave me a personal tour of the line, driving me by road to best spots and advising me on train times, the history of the railway, and his personal experiences with the line.
While the equipment on the line consists largely of the 1990s-built 2600-series diesel railcars, the frequency of trains and the great scenery along the line, make for ample photographic opportunities.
I’m always looking for a new angle, but also to recreate the angle I used in older photos. I’d made my first images on the Cobh branch back in 1999, and since then the line had been re-signaled among other changes.
Irish Rail 2612 approaches its station stop at Carrigaloe, County Cork. Exposed with my Canon EOS 7D.Looking across Cork harbour toward Passage West, which was served by a narrow gauge suburban line until the 1930s. Canon EOS 7D photo.Lumix LX7 view of a 2600 along Cork harbour at Carrigaloe.Trailing view from a hillside at Carrigaloe.Irish Rail 2612 makes its station stop at Rushbrook, County Cork on its way to Cobh. I had time to swap lenses and make a few colour slides while the train dropped off its passengers. Canon EOS 7D with 100mm lens.Same train and location as above, but using my 40mm pancake lens.Cobh Station.Irish Rail display at Cobh Station. Lumix LX7.A railfan dog gazes with enthusiasm as a 2600 series railcar roars out of Cobh on its way back to Kent Station, Cork. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.Afternoon view looking compass west at Cobh Junction toward Glounthaune Station. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.
Having bright sun for the duration of our photography on October 7th was a great benefit.
Thanks Ken!
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Last week on my visit to Cork, I met with Ken Fox and Donncha Cronin, who are helping me with a book project on overseas rail travel.
During discussions about travel to wild and exotic places, Donncha says, “you might like my view. I don’t know, maybe you can do something with it?”
I’ve said this before, but you have to be there to get the photo.
It helps to have the right tools. In my case, I’d brought a full range of lenses to Cork, and based on my experience last year, I was prepared to make a long telephoto view at Glounthaune.
I wasn’t, however, expecting to make this elevated photograph of the rising sun. That was a bit of luck. Having inspected Donncha’s view, I decided, that ‘yes’, I might be able to work with that.
A few minutes before sunrise, Irish Rail 2600-series railcars pass at Glounthaune, Cork. At this hour the light changes quickly. Thankfully with modern digital cameras it is easy to adjust the ISO setting.
Fortunately, the next morning was mostly clear, and Irish Rail runs an intensive morning service with trains every half hour from Cobh and Midleton to Kent Station, Cork. (Cobh Junction is where the two lines join.)
With a copy of a working timetable in hand, and my Canon EOS 7D at the ready, I exposed this series of photos as the sun brightened the day.
One trick: I manually set the camera’s white balance to ‘daylight’ to avoid the camera trying to balance out the effect of the colored sunrise.
In addition to these digital photos, I made a couple of color slides.
Looking into the rising sun at Glounthaune, Cork. A layer of low cloud and mist help control the contrast while adding a bit of color to the scene. I had only a few minutes when the light was at its optimum to make a dramatic image. Thankfully, Irish Rail runs lots of trains at this hour. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.An Irish Rail 2600 pauses at Glounthaune. The car catches the glint of the sun. In a moment it will depart the station and head out onto the causeway that connects Fota Island. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.Here the 2600 railcar is on causeway to Fota Island. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. The difficulty is selecting the best exposure. This image like the others presented here is unmodified, except for necessary scaling for internet presentation.
This was only the auspicious beginning to another very productive day documenting railways around Cork. More to come in tomorrow’s post!
Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.
Now and Then: How Changes to Infrastructure Affect Composition.
Photographic pairs showing locations that have been changed by time are nothing new. Yet, usually there are decades between photo pairs, not just one year.
In the interval between my September 2013 visit to Kent Station, Cork and my subsequent visit in the first week of October this year, the station suffered damage during a fierce storm.
On December 18, 2013, high winds caused the collapse of the historic canopy that had protected the platform serving tracks 1 and 2. In the wind, the old cast iron columns supporting the canopy snapped like toothpicks, and wooden sheathed canopy turned to splinters.
Kent Station, Cork on September 25, 2013. The old canopy is a central element to this image, exposed with my Lumix LX3. I’ve used the canopy in several ways, including to block out much of the textureless white sky, and to divide the frame in a meaningful way.The canopy is now gone, but that makes it more of story than in the earlier image. Here, on October 6, 2014, the ominous sky alludes to the storm some 10 months earlier, while the boxed vestiges on the platform hint at the old cast iron columns. I’ve made no effort to precisely duplicate my earlier photograph. That would only result in an awkwardly composed contemporary image. Lumix LX7 photo.
When I arrived off the train from Dublin in the afternoon of October 6, 2014, I was well aware of the change to the canopy, having read about it on RTE’s internet news and again some months later in the Journal of the Irish Railway Record Society.
However, a change such as this cannot really be fully appreciated until witnessed in person. The old canopy was an important fixture of Kent Station and it altered the quality of light on the platforms, as well as protecting passengers from the elements.
In this September 25, 2013 image, I’m looking away from Kent Station toward Cobh and Midlton. Here the black mass of the canopy helps balance the shapes of the rail cars while shadowing the platform and ground making for a more contrasty image. Lumix LX3 photo.I’m nearly in the same place for this photo as I was in the 2013 image above. But without the canopy to add a balancing element, I focused more intently on the 2600-series diesel railcars. The lighting in both photographs is similar. Which do you prefer? Lumix LX7 photo exposed on October 6, 2014.
In these photo pairings, my goal wasn’t to make precise comparisons to show the exact nature of the changed scene, but rather to show how the canopy, and the lack there of, affected the way I composed my images. I was keen to show the broken cast iron columns because they now tell the story.
Likewise, someday the semaphores will go. And when they are gone, I’ll no longer be intent to frame trains with them. Some other element of the scene will take their place.
In this September 25, 2013 view I’ve carefully used the old canopy as a frame for the 2600 railcar departing Kent Station. Notice the relative location of semaphores, lighting masts and cast iron canopy supports. Lumix LX3 photo.In the above photo, the canopy serves more as a frame than as subject. While in this October 6, 2014 image, the broken cast iron column is an element of interest, especially after you know the story. Imagine the sound it made when it broke! Here an arriving 2600 railcar passes the old semaphores, long may they last! Notice how I’ve included more platform is this more recent image. Lumix LX7 photo.
When you make photos, how do you balance the elements in the scene? Do you focus on just the primary subject or do you adjust your composition to take in secondary elements, such as that offered by the platform canopy and semaphores in these images? Think about it.
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![Glounthaune Station at Cobh Junction was just a short walk away. I made this image from the footbridge at the station to show the yellow signal with a feather (indicating a diverging route with the next signal at 'danger' [red]). A Midleton-bound railcar was signaled to depart the station, but needed to wait for an inbound train before it could proceed to Midleton.](https://i0.wp.com/briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Signal_with_feather_at_Glounthaune_IMG_9037.jpg?resize=474%2C711)
