January 15, 2023: Kris and I spent the day driving to Strasburg, Pennsylvania. We arrived just in time to make photos of 2-10-0 No. 90 arriving with the last scheduled train of the day.
With the setting sun just above the horizon, we had some beautiful winter light to photograph this historic machine in action. Cold weather can offer the best conditions to photograph steam locomotive because of the superior light and dramatic effects of condenstation.
I made these images using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Nikkor zoom lens.
Strasburg Rail Road No.90 at East Strasburg station, Pennsylvania.
I’ve been photographing trains around Greenfield, Massachusetts for more than 40 years.
Sometimes there have been long waits. Sometimes I got lucky.
Saturday, Kris and I were driving south on I-91. I asked, “would you like to stop by East Deerfield Yard”
She said “ok!”, so we jumped off the Interstate at Route 2, and took the roundabout (traffic circle) and headed east. At that moment I saw containers rolling east on the old Boston & Maine Fitchburg line.
“That’s 22K, the NS intermodal train”.
We zipped over to East Deerfield Yard—located railroad timetable east of Greenfield—where I had just enough time to make these photos using my new Nikon Z7-II.
Nothing fancy, but these are lucky shots. I was delighted!
I always like it when luck prevails!
Norfolk Southern-Pan Am Southern symbol freight 22K at East Deerfield Yard.
With these ‘in the bag’, we drove to the Connecticut River bridge for more photos. Why waste a lucky day?
Yesterday, Kris & I visited White River Junction, Vermont, where I photographed a pair of EMD diesels on Genesee & Wyoming’s New England Central, including Buffalo & PIttsburgh GP38-2 No. 3511.
To emulate an image I made here in the 1980s of a Boston & Maine GP7, I framed B&P 3511 in the station canopy using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens.
Below are two versions of the NEF file. The top version is scaled but otherwise unaltered. The bottom version has been adjusted with changes to shadow and highlight density, color temperature, and contrast, with nominal sharpening.
January 7, 2023, Conway Scenic Railroad hosted Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthuasiast’s Covered Wagons in the Snow photo charter.
I helped arrange and organize this uncommon trip and spent countless hours working with Mass Bay RRE’s Dave Brown, members of the 470 Club (which owns the two former Boston & Maine F7As that were the stars of the day) and the Conway Scenic staff to refine the details.
Mother nature cooperated and provided several inches of fresh powdery snow the night before the trip.
The morning of the trip, I conducted a safety briefing with Mass Bay’s people, and Kris and I made photos of the F-units in the North Conway, NH yard.
We traveled on the train and during the course of the trip we made hundreds of winter F-unit inspired images.
More to follow over the coming days!
Nikon Z-6 Mirrorless digital camera with 70-200mm lens.Nikon Z-6 Mirrorless digital camera with 70-200mm lens.Nikon Z-6 Mirrorless digital camera with 70-200mm lens.
On the afternoon of January 29, 1988, Conrail TV7 was changing crews at Buffalo’s Frontier Yard on the old New York Central Water Level Route.
Compositionally, this photo has always both intrigued and annoyed me. I wish I’d either got a little closer or framed in a way so that the top of the locomotive hadn’t been cutoff.
As it stands the image is awkward and imperfect, yet it serves as a window in time to another era.
Inbound and outbound crews were preserved for posterity.
Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Leica M2 fitted with 50mm f2.0 Summicron. Scanned with a Nikon LS5000 scanner.
Since September 2020 I’ve been regularly photographing with a Nikon Z6 Mirrorless camera. This offers great flexibility and exception image quality with its 24.5 megapixel full frame sensor
On New Years Eve my new Nikon Z7-II mirrorless camera arrived. The Z7-II is even more powerful than the Z6 and features a 45.7 megapixel CMOS sensor that Nikon boasts offers
‘maximum color depth and dynamic range.’
New Years Day, Kris and I went for a drive in western Maine and stopped along the way to make photos.
Kris made this photo of me with the new Nikon Z7-II at Harrison, Maine.
Learning a new camera takes time. In my initial setup, I thought I’d profiled the Z7-II camera to work in both JPG and RAW. However, although I’d set up the RAW specifications, I’d failed to select the correct output setting and only exposed in JPG.
Although disappointing, this wasn’t a huge problem since the files straight out of the camera were extraordinary, even without the ability to make major adjustments.
Below are a selection of images scaled from the in-camera JPG files. In some situations, I’ve also enlarged a portion of the photo to demonstrate the capabilities of the sensor in regards to sharpness, etc.
My intention is work with both the Z6 and Z7II. Initially assigning my 24-70mm Z-series lens to the Z7II, and various telephoto lenses to the Z6.
Grave yard at Lovell, Maine. Full frame using the Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series telephoto.Enlarged portion of the above JPG.Tree in Lovell, Maine. Exposed at f22; Image is Ffull frame using the Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series telephoto.Enalrged portion of the above JPG.Grave yard at Lovell, Maine. Full frame using the Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series telephoto.Enlarged portion of the above Jpg.Church at Waterford, Maine. Full frame using the Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series telephoto.Larged portion of the photo above to demonstrate sharpness.Kris with her FujiFilm X-T4 at Harrison, Maine. Exposed full frame using the Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series telephoto.Enlarged view of the above photo to demonstrate sharpness.Harrison, Maine; exposed full frame using the Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series telephoto. The causeway at the upper right is a vestige of the long-defunct Bridgton & Harrison two-foot gauge railroad.Kris at Harrison, Maine; exposed full frame using the Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series telephoto.
I’m including two photos to usher in 2023. The first is one of the last photos that I made in 2022: a telephoto image of Mount Washington that I made from the viewing area off Route 302 near Bretton Woods yesterday afternoon when Kris and I were returning from Littleton, New Hampshire.
Mount Washington, New Hampshire, as photographed on December 31, 2022. Notice the route of the Mount Washington Cog Railway.
The second image is from a scan that I made yesterday evening of a vintage Kodachrome 25 color slide . I’d exposed this view of Conrail’s PASE (Palmer to Selkirk) on the afternoon of June 1, 1989. This is among my classic chromes and shows Conrail’s 6611, one of ten distinctive GE-built C32-8s that regularly operated over the Boston Line (former Boston & Albany main line) beginning in 1984. My slide had remained in the yellow Kodachrome box from the time it was processed until yesterday.
Conrail PASE was a short-lived symbol freight that forwarded traffic from Palmer, Massachusetts to Selkirk Yard near Albany, New York. This view was made at milepost 84, located within the town of Monson, Mass., just over the Quaboag River from Palmer, which can be seen in the distance.
The BIG event for me on New Year’s Eve was the arrival of my latest camera! I hope to feature photos from this picture making machine over the coming weeks. I’ll reveal details about this new camera in upcoming posts during 2023! Stay tuned . . . .
October 17, 1987: I was set up along the New York State Barge Canal at Clyde, New York and photographed an eastward freight led by SD60 6841.
At the time this was one one of only a handful of SD60s on the Conrail system. It was originally an EMD demonstrator. I deemed it unusual and in my notes I wrote. ‘SD60!’
Unfortunately, I’d over exposed the slide by at least a full stop, and it was this defect that landed it in the junk pile for more than 30 years.
Scanning allowed me to easily correct for most of effects of overexposure, while postprocessing in Lightroom enabled color and contrast corrections.
Conrail and the town of Palmer, Massachusetts were replacing the old South Main Street Bridge immediately east of the signals at CP83.
I made this view from the old bridge that was in its final weeks. New retaining walls had just been installed and machinery was working near the old Palmer Union station as Conrail’s eastward SEPW (Selkirk to Providence & Worcester) took the conrolled siding to make a meet with a set of westward light engines holding on the main track.
The old bridge featured classic wooden decking and makes for an interesting foreground. To make the most of the bridge and railroad code lines, I framed the scene with my Leica M2 rangefinder fitted with an f2.0 35mm Summicron.
A Central Vermont local freight was working the interchage track to the right of the Conrail freight.
My wife has an annual tradition of setting up an elaborate Christmas village as a central part of her holiday decorations. She has had some of her decorations for many years and these have great sentimental value.
I helped this year by setting up the railroad portions of the village including stations, signals and the railroad cars and locomotive.
After it was complete, I made a few photos using my Lumix LX7 and Nikon Z6 digital cameras.
Yesterday morning, Conway Scenic Railroad assigned former Maine Central GP38 255 on a Work Extra sent to Conway, NH., to collect a flatcar for the maintenance-of-way department.
Working with my Nikon Z6, I made this view of the train returning to North Conway, climbing the 3 percent on the approach the yard.
On our return from Cape Cod last month, we paused at Norfolk, Massachusetts for lunch and to roll by MBTA Train 2706 on its way to Boston, South Station.
During an earlier visit to Norfolk two years ago, Kris and I noted that MBTA/Keolis was working to install two-main track (signaled in both directions on both tracks) on this portion of the Franklin Line—a former New Haven Railroad route that was at one time graded for directional- double track, but in my lifetime has been a single track railroad.
Some progress was made and on this visit I noted that new signals and crossovers were in place on both sides of Norfolk, however the track through the station has not yet been completed, and the signal heads turned away, indicating they were not yet in use.
Using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens, I made these trailing views of train 2706 looking toward Walpole and Boston.
I exposed this Kodachrome 25 color slide on Jan 11, 1998 of Conrail SD80MACs leading SEBO eastbound approaching CP83 in Palmer, MA.
Below, I’ve posted five different examples of scans all from the same slide. All were made with an Epson V600 flatbed scanner. All were scaled from TIF RAW files using Lightroom without alterations in post processing (In otherwords other than scaling, I didn’t make changes to the files to alter the appearance of the scans.)
In addition to the full scan of each slide is a greatly enlarged view to better judge the quality of the scan
The first three were exposed with Epson Scan 2 software; the last two using VueScan 9.7.96. The purpose of these various scans is to show how minor changes in scanning may alter the end appearance of the scan.
V600 with Epson Scan 2 software, no mask at 3200dpi. (no sharpening).Enlarged view: V600 with Epson Scan 2, no mask at 3200dpi. (no sharpening).V600 with Epson Scan 2, low mask at 3200dpi. (minor sharpening).Enlarged view: V600 with Epson Scan 2, low mask at 3200dpi. (minor sharpening).V600 with Epson Scan 2, middle mask at 3200dpi. (Moderate sharpening).Enlarged viewl V600 with Epson Scan 2, middle mask at 3200dpi. (Moderate sharpening).V600 with VueScan_9.7.96, no mask at 3200dpi. (no sharpening).Enlarged view: V600 with VueScan_9.7.96, no mask at 3200dpi. (no sharpening).V600 with VueScan_9.7.96, medium mask at 3200dpi. (moderate sharpening).Enlarged view; V600 with VueScan_9.7.96, medium mask at 3200dpi. (moderate sharpening).
Last night I made two scans of an ET 160 (Tungsten balance) Ektachrome slide. This film was designed for use with incandescent lighting.
I exposed this slide as part of sequnece of night images at the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor, CT in December 1993.
The first scan was using an Epson V600 flatbed scanner powered with Epson Scan 2 software. The second was using a Nikon LS5000 Slide scanner powered with the latest VueScan software (version 9.7.96).
Other than scale the scans for presentation here, I made no changes to color, exposure, sharpness etc.
I’ve included a greatly magnified portion of each scan for comparison.
Epson V600 scan; 3200 dpi TIF format, scaled for internet.Nikon LS 5000 scan at 4,000 dpi TIF format, scaled for internet.V600 scan enlarged.Nikon LS 5000 scan enlarged
Over the years, I’ve photographed hundreds of locomotives, on scores of railways, in dozens of countries.
Occasionally I’ve opted for the classic ‘three-quarter’ roster angle. More often I’ve opted for various more dramatic, interpretive, or dynamic views.
A long time ago I learned that when I find some equipment resting in a accessible location, to photograph it from a great variety of different angles, because you never know what might suit a book or magazine article later on.
Two weeks ago on our visit to Cape Cod, I had the opportunity to make a sequence of photos of this former New Haven Railroad FL9 that now works for Cape Cod Central and was assigned to the west end of the Polar Express at Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.
I have countless photographs of FL9s in various schemes when they worked for Amtrak, MTA, CDOT and Metro North, so this was an opportunity to do something a little different.
Perhaps the FL9’s most distinctive external attribute is the A1A Flexicoil truck at the rear of the locomotive.
I made photographs of Amtrak at Meriden, Connecticut on two occasions.
The first was in February 1979. My father brought my brother and me out for the afternoon and we stopped at Meriden’s Amtrak station to watch the arrival of a New Haven-Springfield shuttle operating with a pair of Budd RDC’s. I exposed these coming and going Kodachrome photos with my old Leica 3A. (previously featured on Tracking the Light in 2015. See: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2015/05/14/amtrak-rdcs-at-meriden-connecticut-february-1979/)
My second visit was on January 2, 1988, when I stopped at a grade crossing just north of the station to catch a southward holiday extra that was running with F40PH 205 and borrowed MARC passenger cars.
Last night, I was able to place the location 1988 photo by carefully scrutinizing the older slides. The distinctive profiles of the buildings to the left of F40PH 205 also appear in the distance of the trailing view of the RDCs, which is how I know that the 1988 photo shows the train approaching Amtrak’s Meriden station stop.
If you look carefully at the 1988 photo, you can see the conductor standing in a vestibule door. The platforms were at the east side of the tracks for trains in both directions, as evident in the first view of the RDC at the station.
Before Thanksgiving, Conway Scenic operated a Work Extra to Conway and back to help decorate for Christmas.
This included placing Christmas decorations along the line for the treasure hunt in Santa’s Holiday Express.
In addition to helping select locations for the decorations, and assisting with placement, I also photographed the Work Extra along the course of its season journey.
All photos were exposed using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera.
Some of my earliest digital photographs were exposed in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
In Novemeber 2008, I’d traveled to Chicago to visit with photographer Chris Guss and attend the annual Beecherfest railroad slide program.
At the time I was exclusively using film to make photos. Chris lent me his Canon EOS 50D and we spent several days in northern Illinois and Wisconsin making photos.
We stopped in to Kenosha, where we traveled on the streetcar loop and made photos of the vintage PCCs.
I exposed this view using my 100-400mm Canon zoom fixed to Chris Guss’s Canon 50D.
It was almost a year before I bought my own digital camera, and 18 months before I invested in a Canon EOS-7D.
On Friday, November 18, 2022, I traveled on Conway Scenic’s work extra to Conway to assist with decorating for the holidays.
Our train had to clear to allow for the arrival of the regularly scheduled morning Conway run, which was handled by Budd RDC Millie.
I opted to make a sequence of photos of Millie arriving in Conway where it passes the company billboard, which I recently arranged to display the railroad’s Winter ad. This ad features a photo that I made a couple of years ago of locomotive 573 in morning light paused in front of the North Conway Station.
Below is a selection of the photos that made with my Nikon Z6, including the image that I ultimately selected for display on the railroad’s Facebook page. I modified this image by cropping it and adjusting the color temperature, color saturation, exposure and contrast to make it more appealing in the social media venue.
I selected this photo for Facebook. This has been cropped and modified using the original Nikon NEF RAW file. The billboard design was performed by Erin Bott of Silverline graphics; it was printed and installed by Gemini Signs of Conway.Nikon NEF RAW file presented without adjustments or alterations except for scaling for internet. Notice the relative darkness of the shadow areas. This frame was the next one in the sequence from the photo selected for Facebook (above).Nikon NEF RAW file presented without adjustments or alterations except for scaling for internet. In this view the RDC is pictured closer to the billboard.
A month ago—LUAS on Provia—18 Oct 2022—I made these photos of LUAS trams working the Green Line in the Dublin City Centre using a Nikon F3 with Provia 100F (RDPIII) color slide film.
During our trip to Ireland I exposed 7 rolls of film along with hundreds of digital photos. This is just a sampling of a few photos from our last day in Dublin.
Last night, I scanned the slides using a Nikon LS 5000 (Super Coolscan5000) slide scanner powered by VueScan software and then imported the scanner’s hi-res TIF files into Adobe Lightroom for minor color and exposure corrections.
I find that film offers a different quality of image, which is part of the attraction. But, I also find that working with my old Nikon F3s produces different compositions than I get when making photos digitally. So despite the inconvenience of carrying both film and digital cameras and the comparatively high cost of exposing color film, I continue to work with both film and digital media.
Fuji Provia 100F slide exposed using a Nikon F3 with f2.5 105mm telephoto lens.Fuji Provia 100F slide exposed using a Nikon F3 with f2.5 105mm telephoto lens.Fuji Provia 100F slide exposed using a Nikon F3 with f2.8 24mm wideangle lens.
Among the myriad aspects of Conway Scenic Railroad that I photograph as part of my job are various maintenance and repair projects.
On Thursday, Novemeber 10, 2022, I traveled in HyRail TC207 to the site of crossing repair at Intervale Lane (east of milepost 63).
This cooperative effort between the town of Bartlett, NH DOT and the railroad were aimed to repair and improve the grade crossing and to allow a smoother ride for highway traffic, improve running time for Conway Scenic and ease future repair to the track.
It was necessary to coordinate the repair effort to allow trains to safely pass over the crossing between elements of the repair and repaving activity.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens.
A few days ago, I exposed this high contrast view of Conway Scenic Railroad’s Budd RDC ‘Millie’ at Conway, New Hampshire using my Lumix LX7 digital camera.
The camera simultaneously saves each exposure as a RAW and JPG file. I’ve set the camera to profile the JPG with the in-camera ‘Vivid’ color setting.
In this sequence, I compare the un-altered camera RAW (RW2) file with the un-altered in-camera JPG file and my altered (adjusted) Jpg image that I manipulated in Adobe Lightroom to make the most of the camera RAW data. Notice the differences to shadow and highlight detail.
I’ve also included a screen shot of the Lightroom work window to reveal the changes that I made.
Un-adjusted RW2 (scaled without color or contrast corrections)Un-adjusted in-camera JPG with ‘Vivid’ color profile.Adjusted RW2 (RAW) file with changes made using Adobe Lightroom.Screenshot of the Adobe Lightroom work window showing the position of sliders to adjusted RW2 file.
To help promote Conway Scenic Railroad’s culinary services, I arranged to have the company culinary van wrapped with photos of the railroad.
For the sides of the van, I opted for a photo of the Mountaineer at Frankenstein Bridge that I exposed in September 2020. This image appears in many of the railroad’s billboard, print and digital ads and has become a marketing icon.
JPG of the original photo used in the van wrap and other Conway Scenic Railroad advertising.
The back of the van is decorated with a classic view of the North Conway, New Hampshire railroad station that also appears in print ads.
Silverline Graphics assisted with the basic design concept, and SignSmith LLC of Gorham, Maine performed final design and applied the wrap to the van.
I made these photos of the van in the railroad’s North Conway yard.
It’s been more than 23 years since my first visit to Athenry, County Galway.
On that day, my objective was to see an Irish Rail cement train (traffic long gone), and visit the signal cabin (which was then an active block post and interlocking. I was there the day it closed in May 2003.)
Last month, on our way back from Maam Cross, Kris and I were delivered by road to Irish Rail’s Athenry station. It was wet and windy. We had a half hour to wait for the evening Galway-Dublin train to arrive.
During the interval, an Irish Rail 2800-series railcar on its way from Galway to Limerick arrived to make its station stop before changing directions to head down the Western Rail Corridor.
I made this selection of action photos using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera set at high ISO (between 8000 and 12000).
This two-piece 2800-series railcar had just arrived from Galway. The Galway-Limerick railcar has the ‘feather’ to take the switch for the Western Rail Corridor toward Ennis and Limerick.The evening Galway-Dublin train approaches Athenry.
Friday, the musical duo Eastwood Station visited North Conway where they performed live for Conway Scenic Railroad’s guests, made live appearances on the radio, and recorded scenes for video featuring a song about Maine Central steam locomotive 505.
505 was famously destroyed in a boiler explosion 95 years ago.
I arranged for Eastwood Station to record on locomotive 501, a surviving sister to the ill-fated 505, which presently resides inside the North Conway Roundhouse.
A glint of sun illuminated the cab for a few minutes making this photo possible.
Exposed digitally using a Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera fitted with a 24-70mm Z-series zoom.
Saturday, October 22, 2022, Conway Scenic Railroad operated the annual 470 Club autumn charter.
This year the train was assigned the club’s pair of former Boston & Maine F7A diesels Nos. 4266 and 4268, which are painted in the classic General Motors designed maroon and harvest gold livery.
I was asked to draft the trip schedule and assist with arranging photo stops for the train on its journey.
I made this group of photos of the F’s and the special train at North Conway using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm lens
During the course of the day, the special ran to Conway over the former Boston & Maine Conway Branch, and then west over Crawford Notch to Fabyan, New Hampshire on the former Maine Central.
The weather was outstanding with ‘wall to wall’ sunshine from dawn to dusk.
More photos to follow over the coming days.
View from the cab of 4266.f22 1/60 sec at ISO 200, lens set to 24mm. The small aperture allows for the sunburst effect.
Kris and I traveled from Belfast to Dublin a week ago Wednesday (12 October 2022).
This was our third of three Enterprise journeys on our Irish travels.
Since 2022 marks the Enterprise‘s 75th year, I though it was appropriate to include some of celebratory signage at Belfast Lanyon Place and Dublin Connolly Station.
Last week, Kris and I traveled from Cork Kent Station on Irish Rail’s 2600-series railcars to Cobh—the town formerly called ‘Queenstown’—a place well-known for its role in Transatlantic transportation.
Among other things, Queenstown was the last port of call for the ill-fated Titanic, which sunk 110 years ago.
The old railway station building now houses the Cobh Heritage Centre.
I made my views with my Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera. Kris made the photo of me at Cobh station with her Fujifilm XT4.
Nikon Z6 with Z-series 24-70mm lens.Nikon Z6 with Z-series 24-70mm lens.Nikon Z6 with Z-series 24-70mm lens.Exposed using a FujiFilm XT4 digital camera.Doodles in training at Cobh. Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm.Cobh Heritage Centre. Nikon Z6 with AI f2.5 105mm lens.Cobh Heritage Centre.Cobh Harbour. Nikon Z6 with AI f2.5 105mm lens. Exposed for highlights.Nikon Z6 with AI f2.5 105mm lens.Nikon Z6 with AI f2.5 105mm lens.Nikon Z6 with AI f2.5 105mm lens.
Thanks to our friends in Cork, the other evening Kris and I made a few photos of Irish Rail’s Cobh Branch near Cork’s Kent Station.
It had rained (and rather hard at that) before the clouds cleared for some intense evening sun. These were great conditions for photos.
Irish Rail’s 2600-series diesel railcars have been working the Cork-Cobh run since my first visit in 1998, but now these are on borrowed time.
I made these digital photos using my Nikon Z6. I’m curious to see how my Kodak Ektachrome 100 slides will turn out.
It was beginning to rain when I made this photo of 2600-series railcars arriving on Plaform 1 in Cork. Within the hour the skies had cleared.Less than an hour after the above photo, I made this view of an arriving train from Cobh.Good ol’ 2616 at Kent Station, Cork.Cork-bound train from an overhead bridge.
