Tag Archives: #Local freight

photography

Well Timed Visit to Columbia

The other evening we arrived near the old Pennsylvania Railroad station in Columbia, Pa., just as the signal displayed slow-clear for a westward movement at Cola from the Columbia Secondary onto the Port Road Branch.

Within a minute we could hear a train whistling for crossings up the line.

I set up my tripod and opted to experiment with my Nikon Z7-II fitted with my f2.8 70-200mm lens for action rail night photography. The last time I made photo here I’d worked with my 24-70mm and made a wide angle view with the full moon. This time I’d compose view tightly on the approaching train.

Just as I got the camera set up the level crossing signals started flashing, the gates came down, and the rail glinted from the lights of Norfolk Southern’s H19 local.

I adjusted the ISO on my camera to 25,600 and set the aperture to f2.8.

Once the autofocus had locked on to the lights of the lead engine, I switched the focus to ‘manual’ so the headlights wouldn’t confuse the focus setting; then I made this series of images.

The camera’s NEF RAW files were processed using DxO PureRaw to created DNG files, which I then imported into Lightroom for adjustment.

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Lumix Views of the Night Local

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post https://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/dusk-at-greenfield-road/

Kris had suggested seeking out Norfolk Southern’s night local, which we found working at Greenfield Road in Lancaster, Pa.

After exposing a few photos using my FujiFilm XT1 (as presented yesterday), I made this series of images with a Lumix LX7.

The first image is of the train at Greenfield Road, where it was working High Steel Structures. The others were along Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line along Jefferson Drive.

All the images were converted in DNG format from RAW files using DxO PureRaw.

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H23 at Lancaster Junction

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been exploring the old Reading & Columbia lines that were once on the periphery of the Reading Company network.

I’ve paid several visits to Lancaster Junction, where lines to Lancaster and Columbia one diverged, but until Wednesday I’d not seen a steel wheel turn at this relatively obscure location in Lancaster county.

South of the old Junction, the line heading toward Columbia via Landisville is now a trail. While the route to Lancaster is a Norfolk Southern branch.

Shortly after I arrived on this most recent visit, I heard a whistle blast for a distant grade crossing and after a few minutes Norfolk Southern local freight H23 made an appearance. This was on its way to Manheim and Lititz, Pa. Clouds danced across the sky as I made a series of photographs

I made these images using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.

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Gray Day at Creek Hill Road

The weather was mild and the light was dull when I crossed Willow Road and spotted the headlight of Norfolk Southern’s New Holland Branch freight.

I zipped down the line to Creek Hill Road in Leola, Pa., where I opted for a slightly different angle than the one I posted from this location on Tracking the Light a few days ago.

In these views, I composed photos to include the road.

Also, where in my previous encounters with the New Holland Branch local, locomotives were working back to back on the train. On this day, sequentially numbered GP38-2s were ‘topped and tailed’ (to use a British descriptive phrase). In other words, there were locomotives positioned at both ends of the train.

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NS Local and a Crescent Moon

Toward the end of dusk, Kris and I, went out to watch the Norfolk Southern local freight that serves the inustrial shippers near our new home.

As the local was getting ready to make a drop, I made this pair of photos of the train underwire on Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line near Greenfield, in Lancaster, PA. A crescent moon graced the western sky.

I was working with my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens, hand-held with the ISO set at 20000.

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NS Local Freight at Dusk

Amtrak’s former Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg runs a short distance from our new home. While this is primarily the route of the Keystone and Pennsylvanian trains, it also hosts Norfolk Southern locals that use the line to reach secondary lines and serve local industry.

Since we moved in, I’ve heard a few NS trains but not had the opportunity to investigate their movements in daylight. However, last night we saw this local near Greenfield Road in Lancaster, PA.

As a trainman was setting up the telemetry device on the locomotive that would become the rear of his train, I made a few photos with my Lumix LX7.

Lumix LX7 photo. Exposed handheld at f1.8 for 1.5th of a second at ISO80. Locomotives were positioned at each end of the short local freight. GP38-2 5607 was being set up as the rear of the freight.

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