Tag Archives: Massachusetts Central

photography, Tips and Technique

Ware? June 15, 2017.

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It’s a town with a funny name.

Massachusetts Central serves Ware on a mix of former Boston & Albany and Boston & Maine lines.

For the last few years the railroad has stored two of its antique locomotives in the Ware yard, including its unusual former Southern Railway EMD NW5 number 2100.

I have many images of this locomotive in various paint schemes over the years; hauling freight, switching the yard, and working excursion trains.

I made these photos the other day with a Nikon F3 fitted with an old school (non-AI) Nikkor 24mm lens (a favorite tool of mine for making unusual and dramatic images).

24mm view in the afternoon.
A vertical engine photo with a wide-angle lens, and I clipped the pilot. The travesty of it all!

My process was also unusual. Working with Ilford HP5 rated at ISO 320 (instead of 400), in the dark room I allowed the film to get a very small degree of base fog to thus raise the detail in the shadow areas, while under-processing the film in Kodak D-76 (stock solution mixed 1-1 with water) by nearly 40 percent. Instead of an 11 minute time as recommended, I cut my time to just over 7 minutes, but raised the temperature to 73 degrees F for increased activity. This also boosts the grain a little but that adds to the texture of the photos and clearly distinguishes them from digital images produced by modern cameras.

 

As you might guess, I’m not opposed to visual characteristics in a photo that hint at the process that created them.

 

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photography

News Flash! Massachusetts Central’s Recently Acquired GP38 makes First Revenue Run

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 A Clear Autumn Day to Photograph a Shiny Blue Bird.

Today, Massachusetts Central assigned one of two recently acquired GP38s to its weekday Palmer-South Barre local freight. Although Mass-Central received the two locomotives earlier this year, it is my understanding that today’s train is the first regular revenue service run to use one.

Blue Bird
Mass-Central 1751 leads the northward freight at Forest Lake, north of Thorndike, Massachusetts on October 24, 2013. Canon 7D photo.

The train departed Palmer this morning with the GP38 leading Mass-Central’s 2100 and 960. The second two locomotives were left in Ware, while the freight continued up the Ware River Valley on the former Boston & Albany branch.

Both of the Massachusetts Central’s GP38s have been beautifully painted in a livery inspired by the classic Boston & Maine ‘Blue Bird’ scheme. Although most of Mass-Central’s current route uses former Boston & Albany tracks, the railroad began as a switching operation on vestiges of  Boston & Maine’s Central Massachusetts line around Ware.

Historically, the Central Massachusetts was a Boston & Maine route between Boston and Northampton, although it hasn’t served as a through route since the 1930s. Massachusetts Central still operates a few segments of old B&M trackage, notably in Ware.

Mass-Central.
Mass-Central 1751, 2100 and 960 lead the northward freight near Ware, Massachusetts on October 24, 2013.
Mass-Central arrives at Ware Yard on October 24, 2013. Canon 7D.
Mass-Central arrives at Ware Yard on October 24, 2013. Canon 7D.
Mass Central 1751 works toward South Barre, Massachusetts on October 24, 2013.
Mass Central 1751 works toward South Barre, Massachusetts on October 24, 2013.

 

 

 For today’s regularly scheduled post see: Hot Spot: Palmer, Massachusetts, October 17, 2013 

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See my Dublin Page for images of Dublin’s Open House Event in October 2013.

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