Tag Archives: #Hudson River

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The Imposing Smith Bridge

In my search for Conrail SD50 photos, I rediscovered this image that I exposed on February 23, 1985 and scanned back in 2010.

My father and I had driven to Selkirk, New York to photograph a Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts excursion scheduled to cross the Hudson on Conrail’s normally freight-only Selkirk Branch.

The crown jewel of New York Central’s low-grade Castleton Cutoff is the immense Alfred H. Smith memorial bridge. Construction for this massive structure began in 1922. It was named for the late Central president who had initiated its construction but died before its completion.

While we waited at the west end of the Smith Bridge for the passenger special, Jim Shaughnessy arrived with 4×5 Graphic in hand and a similar vision in mind.

My dad made video, Jim exposed large-format photos, and I worked with 35mm black & white in my father’s Leica M4. For this view of a freight preceeding the passenger train, I used a Leitz f4 Elmar 135mm telephoto.

That’s Conrail 6721 in the lead. But, I’m looking for 6722 and 6723 (among others), so it’s Back to the Files for me!

On April 1, 2026, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth of Conrail. Big Blue was not yet 9 years old when I made this 1985 photograph.

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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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New Haven Heritage

Last week we paid a brief visit to Mine Dock Park at Highland, New York.

This location along the west shore of the Hudson offers a variety of vistas to photograph trains.

One of the first trains that we saw was northward Metro-North 837 running from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie on the former New York Central Hudson Division.

This was led by a General Electric Genesis model P32DM-AC, a dual-mode diesel-electric/electric designed for passenger service into New York City. This locomotive was funded by the Connecticut Department of Transportation and painted in a retro New Haven Railroad scheme.

I was delighted to catch it on the move and made this photo using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens. I panned the photo which helps separate the locomotive from the background.

To improve the contrast of the photo, I made some minor adjustments in post-processing using Lightroom.

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Poughkeepsie Crossing

On a foggy evening last week, Kris and I visited the waterfront park at Highland Landing, New York along the west shore of the Hudson River.

With my Z7-II firmly mounted on my now antique Bogen tripod, I made a series of time exposures of the famous former New Haven Railroad Poughkeepsie Bridge.

The year 2024 will mark a half century since a fire on this mightly span ended railroad service over the bridge.

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