Tag Archives: #Leola

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Norfolk Southern at Horseshoe Road in Leola

We often drive to Leola, Pa., on Horseshoe Road, which runs roughly parallel to Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Branch.

Returning, we get a view from the car of the road, the railroad, and the surrounding architecture including the old station building.

Over the last year, I’ve made a variety of photos around the station with and without trains, and I’d been eyeing capturing it the way we see it from the road.

Perhaps, this is the more signficant angle for many people, because it is how they see the railroad.

Sunday morning a few weeks ago, I used my Nikon Z6-II with 70-200mm zoom to try to capture the Horseshoe Road perspective—with and without automobiles.

Over time, the cars on the road will add interest to these photos, as old cars often do!

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Leola and the Local

Over the last few months, I’ve paid several visits to the old station at Leola, Pennsylvania on the old PRR New Holland Branch. In 1914, there were two scheduled passenger trains in each direction on the branch that stopped at Leola.

Westward trains from Downingtown stopped at 950am and 358pm, while eastward trains from Lancaster stopped at 530 and 1110am. The line no longer goes east of New Holland, the passenger trains are long gone, and these days train movements are fewer and less predictable.

So while I’ve made few photos of freight on the branch, until last week, I hadn’t managed to catch a train at the old station .

I was delighted to find that Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Branch local had stopped just short of the Maple Ave grade crossing by the station, and I parked and made these photos using my Nikon Z7-II.

Although this location is nice and open, high-voltage electric lines run parallel to the railroad which make for a compositional challenge.

Is it better to try to exclude or minimize the lines, or accept them as part of the environment and include them in the photographs?

Of the three photos, I like this low-angle view the best.

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Old Pennsylvania Railroad Station at Leola

Just a short distance up line from our new home is this old Pennsylvania Railroad station on the New Holland Branch at Leola.

I made these photos the other evening using my Lumix LX7 digital camera.

It’s been decades since the last passenger train operated over the line and I wonder what this station was like in its heyday.

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