Ok, how about then and when? (click on the link to Brian Solomon’s Tracking the Light to see the modern view).
These photos were exposed 28 years apart from essentially the same place in West Warren, Massachusetts.
One view was made of an eastward Conrail freight in March of 1984; the other of an CSX freight at almost the same spot on November 15, 2012.
In both situations I opted to leave the train in the distance and take in the scene.
Over the years I’ve worked this vantage point with a variety of lenses, but I’ve chosen to display these two images to show how the scene has changed over the years.
In the 1984 view notice the code lines (the ‘telegraph poles’) to the left of the train and the scruffy trees between the railroad and the road. Also in 1984, the line was 251-territory (directional double track).
It was Spring 1984 when I made this black & white photo of Conrail’s SEBO-B climbing east through Warren, Massachusetts.
Until a couple of day’s ago, this negative was lost and unprinted, part of a group of Conrail negatives on the Boston & Albany.
When I first relocated these images after 32 years, I was puzzled.
What had happened and Why?
Then I remember the situation: I’d messed up the processing of the negatives at the time and I was disgusted with the results. And, so I’d put the negatives away in a general file, where they were mostly mixed in with similar outtakes from my High School yearbook collection (I was a sort of unofficial class photographer.)
In 1984, I’d typically use Kodak Microdol-X as my black & white developer, aiming to work with this solution at 68 degrees F.
To mix the solution from powdered form, I’d have to bring the temperature up to about 120 degrees F, then let it cool (often in glass bottles soaking in ice water).
I must have been in a hurry, and in this instance, I’d failed to allow the developer to cool properly. When I processed the negatives the solution was still over 80 degrees F. Worse, the rest of my chemistry was still at 68 degrees.
The result was that my photos were grossly over processed, but since the developer was highly active, it affected highlights and shadow areas differently. This provided much greater shadow detail to highlight detail than I’d normally expect.
Also, the shock to the emulsion when I dropped the hot film into relatively cool stop bath solution caused it to reticulate.
Reticulated emulsion results in grain clumping that lowers the sharpness, produces a ‘halo-effect’, and creates a speckled and uneven grain pattern that is most noticeable in even areas such as the sky.
Since the negatives received much greater development than usual, they are very dense, and back in my day printing photos in the family kitchen, were effectively unprintable.
With modern digital scanning and post processing techniques, I was able to overcome difficulties with the density and contrast.
I find the end result pictorial. Perhaps, it’s not an accurate rendition of the scene, but pleasing to the eye none-the-less.
I’m just happy I didn’t throw these negatives away. After all, Conrail SD40-2s were common, and I had plenty of opportunities to photograph freights on the B&A.
It was a spirited chase; the day was fine and we made many photos.
But, was it really more than 31 years ago that my friends and I followed an extra freight, symbol EDLA from Erving to Ayer? (That was an East Deerfield to Lawrence, Massachusetts train, which my notes show as an ‘EDLA-X’, but I’m not sure I have that down right.)
Even in 1985, catching a GP18-GP9-GP18 leading a freight on the old Fitchburg was considered a prize.
The Boston & Maine GP18s are long gone, but a few of the old GP9s are still knocking around.
Recently, I scanned this negative using my Epson V600. I processed the file in Lightroom and cleaned up some of the dust spots.
Something to ponder: later that evening, symbol freight POPY (Portland to Potomac Yard) went west with D&H Alco C-420s in the lead.
A few weeks ago, my friends and I met to explore recent changes to the old Boston & Maine Fitchburg Route (Pan Am Southern’s main line) including re-signaling and trackage upgrades.
Among the first places on our tour was Gardner, Massachusetts, where we found Norfolk Southern 66N, which is a loaded Ethanol train destined for the Port of Providence.
This was led by four Norfolk Southern DASH9-40CWs that were followed by an idler car and 80 cars of ethanol. The train was waiting on Pan Am rails for a Providence & Worcester crew to take it south from Gardner.
Among the recent changes was the installation of a crossover at the Gardner yard that makes it easier to make a progressive move from the old eastward B&M mainline track to the P&W, which facilitates operation of unit trains such as the 66N. This is a low-tech solution, as the switches are operated manually (of the ‘hand-throw’ type).
I made this series of images featuring the 66N with my FujiFilm X-T1.
Static and slow moving freights offer many opportunities for photography.
When we arrived the morning was clear and sunny, but over the next hour, clouds rolled in from the west and softened the light.
Thanks to Rich Reed, Paul Goewey and Felix Legere.
It was five years ago today—June 1, 2011—when extremely unusual weather conditions produced a tornado that swept through Monson, Massachusetts and surrounding towns.
I’d just returned from Dublin a few days earlier.
I made a few photographs of the storm from my window on Moulton Hill Road. I only glimpsed the funnel for a few moments and the passage of the storm was remarkably quick.
Fortunately for us the funnel missed Moulton Hill by about 2 miles. Many others were not so lucky.
On June 3, 2011, I ventured into the village and made photographed evidence of the most extreme damage.
Dozens of buildings in town were destroyed and many thousands of trees were ruined. The event made national and international news.
These photographs are intended as a document of the event and its aftermath as I witnessed it and do not represent an interpretation of the storm nor complete record of its destruction.
I made this study of CSX’s former Boston & Albany mainline at Brookfield, Massachusetts in January 2001.
Step back a century and there were two main tracks and an array of sidings here; back when the railroad focused on local business in addition to long distance traffic.
CSX 611 is a AC6000CW—a big GE diesel by any measure.
In January 2001, My pal T.S.H. and I were making an inspection of the old Boston & Albany between Palmer and Worcester, Massachusetts ( reliving a trip we’d made in the summer of 1984).
I exposed this view using a Rollei Model T that I’d bought from Mike Gardner.
My intent was to recreate a view I’d made of westward Conrail freight at the same location 16 years earlier.
Sadly, the old Boston & Albany station at East Brookfield was destroyed by arson in Autumn 2010.
Once upon a time, long ago Boston & Albany’s main line over Washington Summit represented an engineering achievement and a lifeline of commerce that connected Massachusetts to the West.
Today, it is CSX’s Boston Line; but effectively a branch railway off the old Water Level Route.
Amtrak’s daily Lake Shore Limited traverses the line, as do periodic CSX freights, but its relative importance is but a pale shadow of it former greatness.
I made this stark image at Muddy Pond using my 12mm Zeiss Touit lens; I controlled contrast using a Lee graduated filter, which I adjusted to even the exposure between sky and foreground.
Key to my composition is the jet contrail overhead, which for me represents both historical symbolism and my next step.
In the last few months I’ve been lucky to catch a variety of the more obscure operations on the Pan Am Railways system.
Last week, Mike Gardner and I spent the afternoon around North Adams, Massachusetts.
EDRJ arrived with two locomotives to drop for local freight AD-1.
Although, we had high hopes of following EDRJ west toward the Hudson River Valley (uttering the now-famous battle cry, ‘To the River!’), Pan Am had other ideas.
History will forgive them.
So instead we followed AD1 down the old Boston & Albany North Adams branch to Zylonite.
After a taste of this surviving segment of B&A’s extension to North Adams, we followed the abandoned vestige of the line that runs southward to Pittsfield, then made the most of the late afternoon on the former B&A mainline!
The other day Jim Shaughnessy invited me over to look at some photographs.
Over the years Jim has contributed many excellent images for my books. I’ve lost track of the many different books of mine that feature his work, but at least 20 titles.
Presently, I’m gathering material for a detailed look at the Boston & Albany and Jim has hundreds of images of the B&A route in the New York Central and Penn Central eras.
Personally I find these photographs fascinating. Decades before I found the B&A and made photographs, Jim had been there to explore many of the same locations.
Compare the above view with a photo I made on December 28, 2015 of Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited at the same location.
In the 45-year interval between images, the railroad was reduced from directional double track to a single main track and the old road bridge over was replaced with a modern span that is slightly higher.
In recent years, CSX has undercut the line and cut back much of the brush along the right of way.
Jim’s Penn Central photo is just one of the many I’ve borrowed for consideration in the B&A book.
While I was visiting Jim, my friend Dennis LeBeau phoned from East Brookfield and set up the next day’s adventure which has ties to the B&A project among other things. Stay tuned for more!
The old Boston, Barre & Gardner Railroad was a 19th century line that ran from Worcester, Massachusetts to Peterboro, New Hampshire.
Today, the bottom portion of the line serves Providence & Worcester’s through connection with Pan Am Railways at Gardner.
Last fall I explored this line between Holden and Gardner looking for locations.
On Thursday, February 11, 2016, Mike Gardner and I arrived at Gardner in time to find Pan Am’s ED-8 making a drop for the P&W. Earlier, another train, probably symbol 28N had dropped autoracks, so the yard was nearly full of cars.
Based on past experience, I quickly surmised that the P&W hadn’t arrived from Worcester yet. So after a quick lunch, we started working our way south against the train.
North of Princeton, Massachusetts there are several grade crossing with nicely curving track. The snow covered ground made for Christmas card scene.
Mike and I didn’t have to wait long before P&W’s symbol freight WOGR (Worcester to Gardner) came charging northward. We were impressed by the length of the train. One unit was at the head-end with a second locomotive at the back of the train.
Southbound the train was even more impressive, but it required about 3 hours of switching to put it all together.
Back to the old, ‘f5.6 and be there’. (While paying close attention to the signals and scanner).
Lately CSX’s freight operations on the old Boston & Albany have been largely nocturnal.
Mondays on the other hand can prove busy in the morning.
February 8, 2016: I wasn’t out for the day, but rather running some errands. As always, I had my Lumix at the ready. Snow was forecast and it was beginning to flurry.
On my way through East Brookfield, I took the time to check the signals at CP64.
These were lit: “Limited Clear” westbound. I knew a train must be close.
Soon I could hear the clatter of cars descending Charlton Hill. Then affirmation on the radio, ‘Q427 clear signal main to main CP60’.
I made my photographs. But a few minutes later I heard that Q427 had stopped west of milepost 72 owing to difficulties with the locomotives.
That’s Warren, 72 miles west of South Station, Boston.
Q427 had to meet two eastward trains at CP83 (Palmer).
I continued to follow west, while making photographs along the way. Like shooting fish in a barrel.
I made a few photos of the first meet, then opted to head back up the Quaboag Valley rather than stay put.
The snow was now getting heavy and it wasn’t getting any warmer.
This was a heavy train. And despite the snow, it was easy enough to follow up the grade to Warren.
It was just 18 degrees at the Warren station.
That’s good enough for my morning errands!
All photos nominally adjusted for contrast and saturation in post processing.
Tracking the Light is a Daily Blog on Railway Photography!
A few weeks ago I posted some vintage Ektachrome slides of MBTA’s Mattapan-Ashmont trolley line that I made with my old Leica 3A when I was 12 years old.
Among these was this view at the Milton station that showed Conrail’s former New Haven Railroad tracks in addition to MBTA’s trolley line.
The trolley line had been adapted to use part of the railroad right of way, and yet it was still necessary to serve freight customers, so tracks from both operations had co-existed for decades.
Today, the freight railroad at Milton is but a memory. (And, if news reports prove correct, the trolley may soon vanish too!). Take nothing for granted.
I made these Now and Then views from approximately the same place looking in the same direction, but nearly 37 years apart.
If I captioned this post, ‘23K passes Shirley’, would you have looked any way?
The other day when Paul Goewey, Bob Arnold and I were photographing trains at Shirley, Massachusetts, I exposed these views of the daily westward intermodal train symbol 23K that originates a few miles to the east at Ayer.
The Lovely Trees: These two massive trunks have fascinated me for years, and make for an excellent means to frame up a photo. Here, in the first view the intermodal train is almost incidental to the scene.
Which of these views of Norfolk Southern/Pan Am Southern’s 23K do you prefer?
This photo was product of one of dozens of trips I made to the old Boston & Albany west end in the mid-1980s.
The west end is the railroad west of Springfield over the Berkshires of Massachusetts toward Albany, New York.
On this morning I waswest of Chester, Massachusetts perched on the top of an rock cutting that dated to the time of the line’s construction circa 1839-1840.
This Conrail eastward train was slowly making its way east. It was serenely quite in these hills and I’d hear the freight making its descent of Washington Hill miles before it finally appeared.
Imagine this setting one hundred and forty years earlier when it was the old Western Rail Road (precursor to the Boston & Albany). A time when one of Winan’s peculiar vertical boiler 0-8-0s would have led a train of primitive four wheel freight cars over this same line.
These modern locomotives have been on the move in New England for a few months now, but they managed to elude me. Or my camera anyway. (I saw one in Worcester some weeks ago.).
The Tier 4 are the most modern high-horsepower freight locomotives offered by General Electric. They are designed to meet EPA’s Tier IV emissions standards.
While similar in appearance to other late model GE freight locomotives, they have a distinctive large capacity radiator and vents at the back. This provides increased heat exchange area in the radiator cab is required to meet the stricter Tier 4 exhaust emission requirement using by using Exhaust Gas Recirculation
On Tuesday, January 26, Bob Arnold, Paul Goewey and I found CSX 3308 working symbol freight SEPO (CSX Selkirk Yard to Portland, Maine) at Ayer, Massachusetts.
I always like to catch new power on the move and we caught this freight at several locations.
What about a classic three-quarter ‘roster view’ you ask? Well, I exposed that on color slide film, of course!
The other day down in the valley I heard the roar of a train ascending the old New London Northern grade to State Line.
EMD diesels working hard.
“Hmm. That’s odd. Daylight move on the New England Central?”
In recent months, New England Central’s freight south of Palmer, Massachusetts has been largely nocturnal.
I thought I’d best investigate, I hopped in my car and headed south to intercept.
Driving toward Stafford Springs, Connecticut I heard a telemetry hit on my scanner. (That’s the FRED—the end of train device the sends a signal reporting air-brake pressure from the tail end of the train to the engineer’s cab.) I knew the train was close.
Then, chatter on the radio: engineer to conductor. They were working the ground. The train was switching.
I altered my path and went to the south switch at State Line siding at Crow Hill Road, Stafford.
There I found the train: An NECR local freight from Palmer putting cars in the siding.
Sixteen loads and five empties.
At one end was a GP38 that’s nearly as old as I am. At the other end was NECR’s Tunnel Motor, engine 3317. A former Southern Pacific engine.
That’s neat. I’d never seen NECR’s Tunnel Motor south of Palmer before.
Sorry, did I mention that New England Central’s reporting marks are NECR?
Back in March 1984, I wandered down to Palmer with my dad’s Rolleiflex Model T loaded with Tri-X.
It was a miserable day; typical early of early Spring wet, clammy and dark.
Yet, Conrail was running trains. A westward midday freight (remember those?) was blocked at the diamond for a Central Vermont train.
Using the Rollei’s square format, I composed some interesting images. Conrail’s Boston and Albany was still a directional double-track railroad back then. This was before the modern signals and single tracking that began in 1986.
I took the negatives home and processed the negatives in the sink, as I often did in those days. I was using Microdol-X for developer. I was cheap, and my developer was rather depleted by the time I souped this roll.
The result; unacceptably thin negatives that wouldn’t print well, even when subjected to a number 4 polycontrast filter.
It was a just a dark day in Palmer. Conrail in 1984 was common for me, so I sleeved the negatives, filed them away in an envelope and that was that.
Until a little while ago, when through the improved tools available to me through Lightroom, I was able to finally get the results I desired from these old photos.
After nearly 32 years, they are looking pretty good now!
Sometimes small operational anomalies on a railroad will combine to benefit the photographer by opening up different angles or opportunities.
Last Wednesday, delays on Mass-Central’s northward run (owing in part to congestion at Palmer Yard that resulted in a later than usual departure) combined with operation of engine 1750 with a southward facing cab opened some different winter angles on the old Ware River Branch.
I was traveling with Bob Arnold and Paul Goewey and we made the most of the variations in winter lighting along the route.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, over the last three decades, I’ve made many photos along this line. So, I’m always keen to find new viewpoints of this operation.
Low clear sun in January makes for rich colors and wonderful contrast, but also posed problems caused by long shadows.
It is true that carefully placed shadows can augment a scene, but random hard shadows too often do little more than add distractions and disrupt a composition.
Below are a few of the more successful angles I exposed on this southward trip.
Winter is an excellent time to photograph Mass-Central former Boston & Albany Ware River Branch.
The lack of foliage and a dearth of heavy underbrush opens up angles for photography obscured during the warmer months.
My challenge is to find new views on this railroad that I’ve often documented over the last 35 years.
On Monday, January 4, 2016, I made these views of the southward Mass-Central freight descending Ware Hill on its return run to Palmer.
Here I present two of the sequence of images. Compositionally, I feel the first image works better as it allows the eye to wander from the locomotive at right to the other subjects. The second image places too much emphasis on the left side.
Which do you prefer?
Tracking the Light Explores Photographic Technique Daily!
I exposed these views of Pan Am Southern symbol freight 28N at Gardner, Massachusetts on the old Boston & Maine Fitchburg mainline.
Dark Clouds on the Horizon.
Heavy wintery clouds were rolling in from the west, yet a few shafts of sun remained. The contrast between the bright sun and billowing churning clouds allowed for dramatic lighting; ‘storm light’.
I was traveling with Bob Arnold and Paul Goewey. Our bonus on this day was catching one of Norfolk Southern’s recently acquired former Union Pacific SD90MACs (a large General Motors model, built to accommodate a 6,000 hp diesel, but in this case powered by GM’s more reliable 16-710 engine with a more conservative rating).
Pan Am’s 28N is a autorack train that drops cars at Gardner and Ayer, Massachusetts. At Gardner Providence & Worcester interchanges, and often P&W’s WOGR (Worcester-Gardner) arrived about the same time as an eastward Pan Am freight.
By the time the P&W arrived at Gardner, the dramatic light had faded, yet the sky was still full of texture.
One hundred and thirty five years ago, the railway station was key to many communities commerce and communications. It offered the connection to the world.
My 1880 Official Guide is a window on the past. The Boston, Barre & Gardner Railroad (among the companies later melded into the Boston & Maine network) schedule lists three trains a day in each direction stopping at Holden, Massachusetts.
Trains ran from Worcester to Winchendon stopping at Holden at 8:28 am, 4:15 pm, and 7 pm, and Winchendon to Worcester at 9:06 am, 1:22 pm, and 7 pm.
Obviously based on this schedule, there was a planned meet between northward and southward trains at the station.
In its heyday, back in 1880 Holden was an important station. It served as a telegraph office and as a transfer point for stagecoaches to Rutland (Massachusetts).
Today the old station is but a relic, the vestige of another time. Its train order signal is no longer part of the rules of operation; and the last passenger train passed in 1953. Yet the railroad remains active.
Providence & Worcester’s freights connect with Pan Am Railways/Pan Am Southern at Gardner and this has developed as a route for the movement of new automobiles and ethanol moving via the port of Providence, Rhode Island.
My book, Railway Depots, Stations & Terminals features a variety of railway stations in New England, across America and around the world. It was published by Voyageur Press this year and is available from Amazon and other outlets.
As I approached the Tenneyville bridge in Palmer (that’s the Route 32 bridge in modern parlance), I heard two CSX trains talking to each other. It was obvious a meet was in progress between CP79 and CP83 (east and west ends of the signaled dispatcher controlled siding).
When I crossed the bridge, CSX Q293 (westward empty autoracks) was easing along below me. The signals at CP83 had just cleared and the sun had just peaked above the horizon.
In a matter of moments, the engineer on Q293 would begin to accelerate. I needed to act quickly.
With my VW, I can accelerate faster than a long freight train, and I was lucky that the roads were clear of traffic.
I drove to a known photo location near the location of the old Boston & Albany freight house (demolished in 1989). This has the advantage of being open, while providing a long view on the tangent track through Palmer yard toward the rising sun.
I arrived with just enough time to set my FujiFilm X-T1 and expose a series of photos of the train rolling west out of sunrise. Soft morning clouds dampened the harshness of the direct light.
Here I’ve included both a long telephoto view, and a wide angle to give you a sense for both the lighting and the location. The wide view required a bit of contrast control and exposure adjustment to make for a satisfactory final image.
It is always a delight to stumble upon something relatively unusual and have the foresight and knowledge to make the most of the opportunity.
The old Boston, Barre & Gardner was among the railroads gobbled up by the growing Boston & Maine during the golden years of American railroads. The line primarily extended from Worcester to Gardner and beyond to Peterboro, New Hampshire.
Historically, the route crossed B&M’s Fitchburg line on a set of diamonds in front of the Gardner station. Back in 1880, three passenger trains a day served the 27 miles between Worcester and Gardner.
By the 1950s, one lonely train covered the run, and this made its final journey on March 7, 1953. Check out Robert Willoughby Jones’ book Boston & Maine: Forest, River and Mountain for photos.
These days, the line between Worcester and Gardner is operated by Providence & Worcester, and I’ve featured it on several occasions on Tracking the Light, while a short vestige of the north end of the route extends from a connection with Pan Am Southern in Gardner to a shipper a short distance away.
Last week, Bob Arnold, Paul Goewey and I were photographing in Gardner when we noticed the flange ways were clear on this rarely used stub branch. ‘There’s got to be an engine up the line,’ I said, and we went to investigate.
We found our quarry, and waited for the locomotive to return.
As I explained to a friend later: this operation might happen every Monday, or only on odd number days following a full moon in months ending in the letter ‘R’, but in more than 30 years of photography in the area, none of us had ever seen it before.
Hooray for fortuity!
Tracking the Light posts new photos Daily!
[Tracking the Light also offers advice and insights on the how the photos were made.]
I exposed this view of Amtrak 449, the Lake Shore Limited, from a favorite field off Route 67 near Palmer, Massachusetts.
Since 1980, I’ve made hundreds of views from this field. If I put up one new image every day, we’d still be looking at them come summer!
Yet, I still like to make photos from this field, and a few weeks ago it offered a classic vantage point to catch the Lake Shore Limited with autumn color. Sometimes its best to go with what you know!
Exposed using a FujiFilm X-T1 mirrorless digital camera set for ‘Velvia’ color profile.
Tracking the Light posts something different everyday!
Early November is a great time to explore the Ware River Valley. The trees are largely bare, yet a few colored leaves still cling to higher branches.
Vestiges of old industries survive, as the old Boston & Albany branch meanders up the valley. This is a railroad that was left for dead nearly 40 years ago, and only survived through the dedication and hard work of a handful of local people.
At least once every autumn, I make a photographic study of the line.
Using my FujiFilm X-T1 I exposed these views at Gilbertville— a village in the town of Hardwick, where the old B&A station remains as a restaurant.
Most week days, Mass-Central’s local freight departs Palmer after 7 am and works its way up to South Barre and back serving its customers along the way. On this day I found the train working in Ware.
November light in New England; fleeting shafts of low sun, heavily textured skies; images with brown, burnt and amber hues mixed with shades of slate and blue.
It was always tough with film because of the subtlety of light, but how about using digital media?
The other morning I went out to some familiar locations and made some photos. I’ve imported these into Lightroom and made some minor adjustments to contrast, color temperature and saturation.
This is an exercise in lighting and texture. The photos are more about the places and the quality of light than about the specific railroad elements.
I can return tomorrow to these same places, but I’ll get different images because the quality of November light is so subtle and always changing, like drops of mud spilt into a pond.
It’s been more than 30 years since I first chased a train west toward the Hoosac Tunnel.
The railroad makes a steady uphill climb west from Greenfield to the famous bore in western Massachusetts. Relatively slow train speeds make it easy to catch a freight at various locations.
Symbol freight EDRJ (East Deerfield to Rotterdam Junction) had an interesting consist of older EMDs. In the lead was high-hood GP40 371. This made for some great sound and interesting photos.
Often as you leave the Connecticut River Valley the weather changes. On this October 2015 day, it was sunny at East Deerfield Yard, but raining by the time we reached the Hoosac Tunnel.
Sometimes rain offers an improvement. Not all great railway photos need bright sun. Mike Gardner and I were undaunted by the rain and made the most of this classic chase.
As a follow up to the black & white variations I posted the other day showing Central Vermont Railway RS-11s crossing the Palmer diamonds, I exposed this view made at precisely the same location.
In 1984, Conrail’s directional double track line crossed Central Vermont. Today, CSXT’s single track line crosses Genessee & Wyoming’s New England Central.
More than just the tracks, names and locomotives have changed.
In the early 1980s, I made trips to Boston & Maine’s East Deerfield Yard to catch the waning days of the old GP7s, GP9s, and GP18s.
More than 30 years later, some of those old goats are still on the move, hauling freight and now in heritage paint!
On the morning of July 9, 2015, photographer Mike Gardner and I stopped into East Deerfield and found the Pan Am Railways GP9s getting ready to work east with a ballast train. I made this view of the colorful old locomotives crossing the Connecticut River east of the yard.
I’ve spent a lot of time researching railroads in Worcester. It was the site of one of the earliest North American railway junctions and was perhaps the first significant railway gateway city.
Yet, for all its history, Worcester can be a difficult place to make satisfying railroad photographs, owning in part to a massive grade separation project a century ago that raised the tracks above the city streets and effectively partitioned the city.
So much of what’s good and bad about Worcester are direct effects of its railroads.
On the long days of summer. The sun swings far to the north and makes for nice afternoon light at Worcester Union Station. Near the Summer Solstice, I made a few photos of CSX symbol freight Q423 (Worcester-Selkirk, NY) with one of the remaining AC6000CWs wearing its as-built ‘Bright Future’ paint.
MBTA’s Beacon Street line to Cleveland Circle is a classic median running trolley route. Coolidge Corner is situated on a gradient and a gentle curve with a traditional traction shelter and lots of trees that help make it a cool place to photograph.
On our whirlwind tour of Boston transit a few weeks ago, Pat Yough and I spent a little while making photos here. The streetcars pass often, so in a relatively short period of time we were able to make a variety of angles.
This is one of the Green Line routes and some of the cars are in the 1970s-era green and white livery, while others are in a more modern teal and silver. I find the older livery photographs better.
Personally, I preferred the days when the PCC’s ruled this route, but those days are long gone. It’s still an interesting place to experiment with different camera-lens combinations.