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photography

Former PRR Four Track Line at Work.

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It helps to be at the right place at the right time. Even on the busy Philadelphia-Washington D.C. Northeast Corridor there can be long gaps between trains..

After 20 minutes or half and hour between trains, you might wonder why the line even has four tracks!

And then ever thing seems converge upon you at once.

Pat Yough and I were at Crum Lynne, Pennsylvania on the evening of January 11, 2015. We didn’t spend much time trackside before we had two running meets a few minutes apart.

SEPTA Silverliner Vs pass near Crum Lynne, Pennsylvania. The train on the left is approaching its station stop, while the train on right accelerates toward 30th Street Philadelphia. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. ISO 400.
SEPTA Silverliner Vs pass near Crum Lynne, Pennsylvania. The train on the left is approaching its station stop, while the train on right accelerates toward 30th Street Philadelphia. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. ISO 400.
The same two trains a few moments later. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. ISO 400.
The same two trains a few moments later. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. ISO 400.
Just three minutes after the rolling meet between SEPTA trains on the outside tracks, we witnessed this high-speed meet between Amtrak trains on the inside tracks. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. ISO 400.
Just three minutes after the rolling meet between SEPTA trains on the outside tracks, we witnessed this high-speed meet between Amtrak trains on the inside tracks. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. ISO 400.

Was this synchronicity? Or just luck? I don’t know. In the case of the two Amtrak trains both were running a few minutes late, so that was luck. It would have been cool to see all four pass at the same time, but unless we were phenomenally lucky, it is doubtful that such an event would have produced good photos.

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Amtrak’s Mayflower at South Norwalk, Connecticut, November 16, 1992.

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Amtrak AEM-7 911 on the Northeast Corridor.

At 11:11 am on November 16, 1992, I made this image of double-headed AEM-7s leading train 169 The Mayflower passing the interlocking at South Norwalk on the former New Haven Railroad mainline.

Amtrak 911
Amtrak train 169 led by AEM-7 number 911 at South Norwalk; exposed on Kodachrome 25 with a Nikon F3T fitted with a Tokina f5.6 400mm telephoto lens.

This was a routine event. I don’t recall anything unusual or noteworthy about the train itself. I was playing with a Tokina f5.6 400mm lens I’d recently purchased secondhand. I made this photo with that lens attached to my Nikon F3T on Kodachrome 25.

My exposure-notes indicate that the lens was at its widest aperture and the camera at 1/125 of a second. I probably had the camera on my Bogen 3021 tripod as I doubt I would have tried to hand hold the 400mm lens at 1/125th of second.

Telephoto lens compression with truss-bridges under the old New Haven catenary makes for a tunnel-like effect, while giving context to the crossovers.

At that time, Amtrak’s AEM-7s were still in their ‘as delivered’ condition with their original paint scheme. These powerful little locomotives have been the backbone of Amtrak’s electrified operations for more than three decades. Their day in the sun will soon end; replacements are on their way.

 

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