I’d been chasing the Mass-Central freight and caught it here winding along the Ware River at Thorndike, Massachusetts. Condensation from the factory added atmosphere, and partially obscured former Conrail GP9 7015 that was leading the train that day.
Until a few days ago this image was lost to the mists of time, languishing among ‘BAD’ slides.
It was a Kodachrome 25 exposed using my father’s Leica M3 with f2 Summicron, probably in January 1987.
Although a color slide, there’s very little color in this scene.
I scanned it last night using a Nikon Super Coolscan5000.
Back in my Pentrex Publishing days (in the mid 1990s) I wrote an editorial about the ultimate demise of the searchlight signal.
Even then, this style of hardware was out of favor for new installations, yet thousands of the old signals still remained.
Today they are fast disappearing, and at many installations they are already gone.
Old searchlights west of Ayer, Massachusetts. Once common, this style of signal has been out of favor for decades and are now rapidly being replaced.
Two weeks ago, when traveling with Bob Arnold and Paul Goewey, we opted to photograph an outbound MBTA train passing these General Railway Signal searchlights on the old Boston & Maine west of Ayer, Massachusetts
MBTA train 453AM works west of Ayer with HSP46 2027 in the lead.. How long will this new diesel and these old signals co-exist? Bets anyone? The replacement signals are already in place at Shirley, a mile or so to the west.
I wanted to feature one of the new HSP-46 diesels passing the vintage signals to show the contrast in technology. The window for making this type of photograph is rapidly narrowing, as these searchlight’s replacements are in place and will soon be cut in.
My book Classic Railroad Signals, published by Voyageur Press, details many varieties of older signal hardware and tells the story of American signaling with stunning photographs and detailed historical information. Get your copy today!
