Tag Archives: #Middle Division

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Main Line at Tyrone

October 29, 2024 brian solomon

Between Huntingdon and Tyrone, Pa., the old Pennsylvania Railroad Middle Division follows a path carved by the Little Juniata River.

By contrast, we took a more direct route by driving west via Routes 22 and 453. This allowed us to get well ahead of the westward Norfolk Southern freight that we rolled by at Huntingdon.

On arrival at Tyrone, an eastward NS intermodal was approaching, Kris photographed this from the window of the car with her Fuji X-T4.

With time to spare, I set up for a dynamic view of the westward train, exposed from a postion on the Amtrak platform using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom.

I’ve included two versions of the photo that exhibit varying degrees of post processing to make the most of the image.

I’m on the fence on this photo. I also exposed a color slide using my F3 with an f2.0 135mm telephoto. I’ll be curious to see how this came out.

Uncrossed version with only moderate post processing changes. Exposed at 70mm f4 1/1000 sec.

This version exhibits a variety of changes to the original file, including the selective cropping to eliminate the sky and make the most of autumn foliage. Both photos were processed from the same Nikon NEF RAW file. I think I like the top (uncropped) version better.

Getting to Tyrone was on the day’s agenda, and here we had a more elusive quarry to capture. The NS trains were just a bonus.

Stay tuned . . .

Tracking the Light is a daily Work in Progress!

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Huntingdon—revisited

October 28, 2024 brian solomon

After departing the East Broad Top we drove north to Mount Union and followed the old Pennsylvania Railroad Middle Division west to Huntingdon.

In the 1980s and 1990s, I often visited Huntingdon, Pa., where my old pal TSH had family.

We had a few minutes, so we drove around town. I remarked on how little the town had changed in thirty years.

As we approached the grade crossing by the Amtrak station, the crossing lights flashed and the gates came down. We pulled into the small Amtrak lot just in time to make some grab shots of the passing Norfolk Southern freight. I also photographed the old PRR station that sits well back from the present day mainline. reflecting a line relocation from more than a century ago.

Although, my photo of the westward freight is non-standard, I like this type of photo because it captures greater environment which includes the crossing signals and the colored trees in the distance.

After the train cleared the crossing we headed west toward Tyrone, where we aimed to catch the freight again.

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Heritage Surprise on the Middle Division

July 29, 2024 brian solomon

Among the trains we photographed on Norfolk Southern’s Pittsburgh Line (the old PRR Middle Division) at Cove, Pennsylvania was this eastward double-stack train.

A few minutes earlier I’d switched on my venerable scanner and heard the train calling signals, which had alerted us to its relative proximity.

Kris and I had just caught a westward train (featured a few days ago on Tracking the Light) and as its last empty container flats were gliding by, the headlights of the eastward train came into view.

The third unit on the train was Norfolk Southern’s SD70ACe 1072 painted for the Illinois Terminal—one of many consituent railroads represented in the NS fleet by ‘heritage’ paint schemes.

It was neat to see it roll by, although after week/months of hard service it seemed that it could benefit a trip through the washer.

Photos exposed using Nikon Z-series mirrorless digital cameras.

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Coal Train in the Rain

June 6, 2024 brian solomon

Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I had spent a productive afternoon along the old PRR Middle Division. It was bright and sunny when we arrived, but thunderstorms had blown in from the west. What started as a sprinkle had rapidly turned into a raging Monsoon.

Looming out the deluge at Thomsontown, Pa., was this eastward Norfolk Southern loaded unit coal train.

I set the camera shutter to a 1/8000th of second to freeze the rain drops.

The rain had falling so heavily that we were beginning to worry about the highway flooding.

Although we took a slightly circuitous route we ended up following the train east to the famed Rockville Bridge. Stay tuned for more!

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Freights rolling with backdrop of Tuscarora Ridge

June 3, 2024 brian solomon

The central Pennsylvanian setting near the village of Mexico offers a classic view looking east toward the Tuscarora Ridge, which can be photographed from a variety of angles.

In my earlier posts, I pictured Norfolk Southern freights from the north side of the Underpass Road grade crossing.

As the light changed and thunderstorms approached from the West, Kris and I took positions on the south side of the grade crossing. It began to rain lightly (but heavier rain was coming!)

A westward empty coal train rolled by. This was exceptionally long and featured a mid-train DPU (radio remote controlled locomotives working as ‘distributed power units’).

Not long after this train had gone, an east ward train could be heard. This was slowing for an ‘approach’ aspect. Its relatively casually speed made it easy to photograph. At the back was a single EMD diesel working as a DPU.

These photos were made with my pair of Nikon Z-series mirror-less digital cameras.