Friday, February 25, 2022, it snowed all day.
Yesterday, Saturday Feburary 26, I set up for the first Snow Train of the morning near the Ellis River Bridge in Glen, New Hampshire.
A massive mound of freshly plowed snow made for a elevated platform for which to stand upon.
As the train roared west over the Ellis, it set free a cascade of fresh show that showered down upon the train.
I made this telephoto view with my Nikon Z6 digital camera.
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It is rarely recognized, however on a clear winter day you can see Mount Washington from the platform of the North Conway Station.
Yesterday, I made these photos of the arriving Snow Train as I perched atop a snow mound adjacent to the platform.
I lined up the mountain, station and train using my Nikon Z6 with Z-series 70-200mm zoom.
To soften contrast, I lightened the shadows in post processing, while slighly boosting the color saturation.
I imagine that back in 1874, when the station opened, there was an unobstructed view of Mount Washington. Today, trees, buildings, and wires make for a cluttered scene.
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Boston & Maine F7A 4268, under restoration by the 470 Club, catches a ray of sun in the North Conway, New Hampshire roundhouse last week.
Soon it hoped this classic EMD diesel-electric will be moving under its own power.
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This past Thursday the temperature at North Conway, New Hampshire was 51 F, the highest its been in many weeks. The mountains of snow began to melt. Then Thursday night the rain set in. It poured all night.
By Friday morning (February 18, 2022), puddles covered the yard.
I made these images with my Lumix LX7 of the yard and station facilities saturated with water.
By Friday evening the temperture had dropped in the mid teens. Snow is again on the horizon.
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After a light snowfall in December 1993, I set up at CP79 east of Palmer, Massachusetts, where an eastward Conrail freight led by DASH-8-40C 6069 was holding on the Controlled Siding to meet a set of light engines rolling west behind B23-7 1992.
I was working with my Nikon F3T fitted with an Nikkor AF28MM lens. Since the F3T wasn’t equipped with autofocus, I set the focus manually.
This lens offered a wide perspective and tended to vignette the corners of the photo. Also because it was relatively wide, the relative motion of the leading locomotive to the film plane was greater than with a longer focal length lens, and resulted in a slight blurring, despite a 1/250th of second shutter speed.
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Last week subzero temperature following a heavy snow resulted in some very wintery scenes around the North Conway, NH station.
The polarized February sky and low sun made for excellent photographic conditions.
I made these digital photos using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm zoom lens.
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Way back in April 2001, photographer Mike Gardner and I paid a visit to the closed Old State Road bridge over the former West Shore route at Guilderland, New York.
This was only a couple of years after CSX assumed operation of Conrail’s former New York Central Waterlevel Route across New York State. At that time this was an exceptionally busy line with a non-stop parade of freights.
I made this coming and going pair of photos using my Rollei Model T. This featured a very sharp f3.5 Zeiss Tessar lens.
My choice of film was Kodak Tri-X processed in Ifotec HC developer. I scanned the negatives yesterday using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner, then made minor adjustements to the TIF scans using Adobe Light room to improve constrast and exposure.
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On occasion I make a photograph for one of my friends.
Saturday, February 5, 2022, I traveled on Conway Scenic’s 1130 Snow Train (a train for which I drafted the schedule). Upon crossing the Ellis River bridge in Glen, New Hampshire, I though this would be an ideal place to photograph the train with heavily snow covered trees.
I returned later, and wading through deep snow I put myself in position on the west bank of the Ellis to capture the the return run of the 1330 Snow Train.
Wayne Duffett was the locomotive engineer, as seen in the cab of former Maine Central 255. Wayne is also the railroad’s bridge engineer with whom I traveled last year on his detailed structural inspection of this span and others along the line. Further, it was Wayne who first recommended to me a vantage point on the banks of Ellis.
Saturday at North Conway, NH the combination fresh snow, a clear cold sky, and brightly painted EMD diesels in a quaint setting made for some great photo opportunities.
Although compact and lightweight, my Lumix LX7 is a handy tool for capturing railroad photos. I carry it with me often, even when I have bigger cameras at hand.
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Yesterday, I hosted a live radio broadcast at Conway Scenic Railroad’s North Conway Station to promote the railroad’s Snow Train excursions.
Dirk Nadon of Lakes Media arrived in the morning and set up a mini-broadcasting studio in the station lobby. We broadcast live and recorded sound bites and interviews on Lakes FM 101.5 and 104.9 The Hawk FM.
I participated in the organization of the event, spoke on the radio to convey the excitement of Snow Train, and made these photographs using my Lumix LX7 digital camera.
We also took the 1130am Snow Train to Attitash and traveled in vintage Pullman diner Hattie Evans.
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I titled this photo, ‘The Usual Suspects.’ This made it a bit harder to locate in my files.
In May 2003, I was traveling with the lads from Dublin to Crewe (England) by way of the ferry to Holyhead in Wales.
Along the journey, I exposed this group portrait in front of Virgin Cross Country HST.
Saturday evening (January 29, 2022), I was saddened to learn of the passing of my friend and fellow photographer Aiden McDonnell, who is pictured here second from the left.
I’ve often made it point to photograph my friends when on excursions to document the passing railroad scene. I’m really glad that I did.
RIP Aiden.
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I’ve had a special request from a regular Tracking the Light subscriber for more Central Vermont. So here we go! Read on . . .
I grew up less three miles from the South Monson crossing, where the Central Vermont Railway crosses Route 32 near the sand & gravel company.
On July 21, 1983, I made one of my earliest solo train chases by car. (Previously, I chased on a ten-speed).
I’d followed a northward CV freight from Stateline toward Palmer, where this met a southward freight led by GP9 4442.
Old 4442 was my favorite of CV’s GP9s. It was my favorite for no other reason than it always seemed to lead the freight coming through Monson, and was almost always in Palmer during my forays there.
I made this view of 4442 southbound crossing Route 32.
Fast forward to August 7, 2018. I’d stepped out of Monson Savings Bank in time to see New England Central GP38 3850 work through town with the Federal Railroad Administration inspection train.
My first point of interception was at the South Monson Crossing.
In the intervening years between these two trains, the trees and line-side foliage have grown!
Also, I notice that my youthful enthusiasm for catching the train in motion seems to have resulted in a more successful photographic composition than my more skilled efforts.
This last point is a topic I plan to explore in great depth in upcoming Tracking the Light posts.
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September 23, 1984; crisp autumn sunlight made for some nice light to capture a southward Central Vermont freight crossing the Boston & Albany at Palmer, Massachusetts.
I was working with Kodak Tri-X, which I was learning to process in D-76, rather than Microdol-X. D-76 offered broader tonality, but resulted in somewhat coarser grain. Complicating matters, my process time was a bit longer than necessary and I tended to over agitate, which resulted in denser negatives than I’d like.
Despite the minor processing flaws, I scanned the negatives last week and made minor corrections in post processing to yield better results.
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Yesterday, January 20, 2022 (01-20-2022), Conway Scenic Railroad operated its first plow extra of the season.
This resulted in the vintage Russell Plow being readied for the service it was built for. The extra was needed help clear flangeways of snow and ice accumulation, push back mounds of hardened snow, and to serve as an equipment refresher and training excercise for our crews.
I made this series of photos of the plow and GP35 216 using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera with 24-70mm zoom lens. For this I set the exposure mode to ‘A’ (for automatic/aperture priority), manually dialed in ‘+1/3 stops’ to help compensate for the bright snow, and controlled the aperture manually.
The bright snow conditions tend to result in underexposed railroad images because the camera meter treats the snow as gray rather than white. Thus the need for slight overexposure.
I made some nominal corrections to the camera’s NEF files using Lightroom and converted to moderate size JPGs for internet presentation here.
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Last Novemeber, Kris & I timed our visit to Huntingdon, Pennsylvania to coincide with the passage of train 42, the eastward Pennsylvanian, which was led by General Electric Genesis P42 No. 108 painted for the passenger operator’s 50th Anniversary (1971 to 2021).
I made these views of the specially painted diesel using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
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In August 1981, my family and I were on a loosely mapped vacation in Pennsylvania.
On the second day of our trip, we were driving from Hazelton to Strasburg to visit the famous Strasburg Rail Road.
Fast forward 41 years: yesterday, if you’d asked me if I’d ever photographed Conrail running freight on the old Reading Company, I’d have been hard pressed to come up with an answer.
And, yet here is a Conrail caboose crossing PA 501 near Prescott, PA exposed on the move from the rear window of our 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser!
I scanned the negative a little while ago. Unsure as to the location, I enlarged the photo. Thinking back, I recalled a train crossing over us enroute, but as a teenager wasn’t good with my Pennsylvania geography. Looking a the photo, I noticed the Route 501 sign, which gave me the needed clue.
A quick Google search placed this location near Prescott (where 501 ducks under the former Reading Company Crossline route). Looking a Google Earth, I’ve nearly confirmed the location.
Ironically, the next few frames on the roll show static cabooses at Strasburg’s The Red Caboose caboose-themed motel. Ironic, because in 1981, cabooses (of all colors) were still common on most America freight trains.
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March 1985: working with Ilford FP4 black & white film, I made this view of Amtrak’s Charter Oak paused for its station stop at Springfield Union Station, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
I processed the film in Kodak D76.
As was too often the case back in the mid-1980s, I over processed my film which resulted in excessively contrasty negatives. This is easily corrected with today’s technology.
Last week I scanned the 37-year old negative using my Epson V600 flatbed scanner. I made some nominal adjustments to exposure and contrast using Adobe Lightroom.
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In mid-November , this was the view looking west from our room at Gallitzin’s Tunnel Inn located adjacent to Norfolk Southern’s former Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line near the tunnels under the Allegheny Divide.
I made this photo with my Nikon Z6 with f4.0 24-70mm zoom lens.
Kris & I spent two days and two nights at this excellent railroad themed bed & breakfast while exploring the old Main Line & environs.
I was impressed that some of my titles were on the shelf!
Neat place.
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During a week-long vacation to coastal Maine in July 1983 to visit my grand parents, I was given the keys to the family Ford for the day. On the recommendation of my friend Bob Buck, I visited a host of interesting railroad locations in Maine.
My forth stop was at Bangor, where I photographed the Maine Central yard and a local freight switching there using my Leica 3A.
The negative for this black & white image had resided in a marked envelope until last week when I finally scanned it.
In 1983, my photographic processing abilities were rudimentary, and frankly I wasn’t very good at developing black & white film. Only recently, I was able to overcome some of the technical failings in this image by adjusting the scan I made using Adobe Lightroom.
Unlike some of my photos displayed on Tracking the Light that only receive minor corrections to tweak contrast or exposure, in this image I needed to make some fairly substantial corrections to contrast and exposure, while eliminating a host of spots.
There’s virtually nothing in this scene remaining today, and now manned crossings are nearly extinct.
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Yesterday, I was up early to help prepare for Conway Scenic Railroad’s first Snow Trains of the season.
I’d arranged a two-hourly interval schedule, based on a 930am boarding for the first train at North Conway.
It was clear and cold with a blue polarized sky.
I traveled with the head-end crew on the first two trains, and used the layover at Attitash as an opportunity to make photographs.
Since there is no run around track at the Attitash Whistle Stop, Conway Scenic Railroad operates the train ‘top and tailed’ (to borrow a British phrase) with locomotives at each end of the train. GP38 252 was positioned at the westend, GP38 255 at the east. The locomotives are not operated in multiple.
After arrival at Attitash, the head-end crew cuts out the westward locomotive, then sets up the engine at the eastend.
My visual challenge is the high contrast situation at Attitash caused by bright sun on fresh snow and inky shadows. Complicating matter was slight back lighting.
Fortunately, my Nikon Z6 has great exposure latitude, which facilitates post processing adjustment to help mitigate the harsh lighting situation.
I made more conventional images of the east end of the train at North Conway.
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Another choice image from my recently scanned roll of Ilford FP4 exposed in Spring 1985.
I made this view with a 50mm lens looking timetable west at the west end of Conrail’s old Boston & Albany yard in Palmer, Massachusetts. I had driven in behind Howlett’s Lumber to photograph a Sperry rail defect detection car that was stored near the B&A freight house.
Just about everything in this scene has changed. The freight house was demolished in Janaury 1989. The large building at right beyond burned down some years later. The code lines were removed after the B&A was re-signaled in 1986-1987.
I’ve posted two versions of this photo. The top is my unaltered and uncorrected scan. The bottom reflects a series of nominal adjustments using Adobe Lightroom.
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I scribbled locations and dates on an envelope back in the Spring of 1985, when ‘d processed this roll of Ilford FP4.
I’d bulk-rolled the film myself, thus allowing 39 frames on one roll of film, which I then exposed with a Leica 3A between March 31 and April 6 (my notes say April 5) 1985.
I recall the day, which was a Sunday. I started photographing in Palmer, Massachusetts, where I met Mike Tylick and his young son. I then followed Conrail’s former Boston & Albany route east in pursuit of a slow moving freight.
At West Brookfield, Massachusetts I caught up with my friend Bob Buck, who was train watching while reading his Sunday newspaper.
In this photograph, I’ve posed Amtrak’s eastward Lake Shore Limited, train 448, led by F40PH-2 #321, by the 1840s-era Western Railroad passenger station, which is among the oldest surviving railroad buildings in New England.
I’d borrowed my parent’s Chevy Impala (seen at the left) as I didn’t yet have my own car. The front of Bob’s green Ford van can be seen at the right.
Conrail’s B&A was still directional double track under rule 251 that governed movements in the current of traffic by signal indication.
My photo skills weren’t fantastic, but rapidly improving.
Last night I scanned this image using an Epson V600 flatbed scanner, and adjusted the RAW file from the scanner using Adobe Lightroom. This included cropping of the top of the frame to limit the amount of sky and the bottom of the frame to minimize foreground clutter.
The actual date of the photo confounds me. I know it was a Sunday, which was either March 31 or April 6. Somewhere I have a small six-ring orange notebook filled with my photo notes from 1985. This will likely solve my date quandary. But does anyone really care?
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LUCKY BREAK!
This morning (January 2, 2022) a fire started in the cab of Conway Scenic Railroad’s steam locomotive 7470.
At this point the cause is believed to have stemmed from a fault with the engine radio. The fire damaged a spring in the whistle valve that set off the engine whistle. The shrieking whistle alerted our steam locomotive mechanic who called 911.
I was called shortly after 6am and proceeded to the roundhouse where I made these photos in my capacity as Manager of Marketing & Events for Conway Scenic Railroad.
While there is minor damage to engine 7470’s cab and minimal damage to the 1874-built roundhouse, the situation could have been much worse. You could write a story: ‘The engine that saved itself!”
Thanks to the North Conway Fire Department and everyone that assisted in preventing spread of the fire.
Conway Scenic’s ‘New Year’s Special to Sawyer River’ will proceed as advertised. Motive power will be former Maine Central diesels.
Boarding is at 12 noon today (January 2, 2022).
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Among the features of staying at the Tunnel Inn in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania is the porch at the back of the building that over looks the Main Line.
This is equipped with lights designed to illuminate the railroad to aid in the views of passing freights.
On our second evening at the Tunnel Inn back in mid-November (2021), I exposed this sequence of eastward Norfolk Southern freight 36A (Conway Yard to Edgemore, Delaware).
This was an enormous freight. In addition to head-end power, there were both mid-train and tail-end distributed power units (remote control diesels).
I made all these photos using my Nikon Z6.
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Last night (December 30, 2021) Conway Scenic Railroad took 0-6-0 number 7470 for a test run.
The locomotive with crew and mechanics operated within the North Conway yard limits to the ‘Bottom of the Hill’ and returned up the three percent grade to North Conway station.
This was the first run of the steam locomotive since its repairs, and the first time it has been under steam since January (2021).
I was making a video sequence using my Nikon Z6. The camera allows for medium-resolution Jpg still photographs to be captured simultaneously with video.
This 1 MB image was exposed early in my extended video sequence. Minor adjustments to exposure and contrast were implemented in post processing.
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. . . Sky ‘enhanced’, that is.
The other day on a brief visit to Palmer, Massachusetts,Kris and I paused for a minute to make a photo of this Buffalo & Pittsburgh GP38-2 at the New England Central’s former Central Vermont yard. (Both NECR and B&P are part of the Genessee & Wyoming family.)
I thought of the countless photos that I’ve made of locomotives here over the last 45 years. Yet, I had never seen this locomotive here before. (Or certainly not in its current guise anyway.)
I made the image toward the end of daylight. Rich winter light graced the late afternoon sky, while the locomotive was largely bathed in shadow.
To make for a more pleasing image, I balanced the highlights and shadows and made adjustments to color temperature and contrast using Adobe Lightroom. The Sky Mask tool sampled this work. I felt my initial edit was a bit heavy handed so I toned it down a bit for presentation here.
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Last week I was part of a Conway Scenic crew involved with trackwork on the old Maine Central Mountain Division.
The light was December-dull, and the setting reminded me of trackwork scenes I’d photographed on black & white film back in the 1980s.
Working with my Nikon Z6 in a monochrome-mode, I made these digital images to capture the texture of the event.
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Yesterday morning (December 9, 2021) it was 11 degrees F when I arrived at the North Conway Roundhouse.
I was part of a crew to take a light engine west on the Mountain Division to clear crossings.
On the way out to our engine, I paused to make this photo of Matt H clearing snow from the turntable.
And yes, it was as cold as it looks!
Photos exposed using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom.
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Yesterday, Friday November 26, 2021, Conway Scenic began operating its annual Santa’s Holiday Express.
It was a wet & dreary debut, but well attended.
I was focused on the details of the operation; the schedule, the decorations, and the narrations.
I traveled on the first run to Conway, and made photo of Santa’s arrival.
At Conway Scenic, Santa Claus rides in the caboose.
I’ll bet S. Kip Farrington would have something to say about that!
At Conway, I made photo of Santa waving from the railroad’s vintage former Central Vermont wooden body caboose using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Z-series zoom lens.
After exposure, I modified the NEF RAW file using Adobe Lightroom.
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On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving—November 24, 2021, Conway Scenic called a work train for the Conway Branch to put up decorations for upcoming Santa’s Holiday Express Christmas themed trains.
I was on-board to assist with decorating while documenting the run. It was a perfectly clear bright sunny morning.
At Moat Brook I organized a special photo stop. At Conway we held for the regularly scheduled Valley train that was operating with RDC #23 Millie.
I made all of these photos using my Lumix LX7 digital camera.
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The light was fading.
No 8 was running late.
Kris and I arrived at Duplainville, Wisconsin where the Canadian National’s former Wisconsin Central crosses Canadian Pacific’s former Milwaukee Road. We were there just in time to see that the signals were cleared for an eastward train.
We got into position, post haste, to roll by Amtrak’s eastward Empire Builder—train No. 8.
As No. 8 blitzed by, I made these images working with my Nikon Z6 mirror-less digital camera. I processed the images in Lightroom to make the most of the NEF files recorded by the camera.
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On our way west a week ago, Kris and I paused at the old New York Central hub at Elkhart, Indiana.
This brief visit coincided with the passage of Amtrak’s westward Capitol Limited that was making its station stop on the way from Washington D.C. to Chicago.
We also visited the small railroad museum located opposite Norfolk Southern’s main line from the old New York Central station, where former NYC Mohawk 3001 is a prominent static display.
Curiously, that evening when we checked into our hotel in Wisconsin, we were assigned room 3001.
I made this selection of photos using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera fitted with a Z-series f2.8 70-200mm zoom lens.
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Last week Kris & I stayed overnight at Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. I was up early and made a big walk around town.
The old Central Railroad of New Jersey station is situated a very short distance from down town.
This architectural gem is the focalpoint of Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway’s season excursion service.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6 mirrorless digital camera.
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I was enjoying a prime rib sandwich at the Tamaqua Station Restaurant, taking in the well-preserved Victorian atmosphere with Kris, and marveling at the details, when I hear the unmistable sounds of an approaching train.
Lumix LX7 in hand, I headed for the door and arrived at the platform in time to make a sequence of photos of a Reading & Northern ‘hospital’ move of passenger equipment heading north on the old Reading Company.
I wasn’t expecting this unusual train, but delighted with the fortuity to catch it, and with nice autumn light and brilliant autumn foliage in the distance.
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November 13, 2009, I was experimenting with my then new Lumix LX3 digital camera.
Standing at ‘The Box’ at Islandbridge Junction, I exposed this sequence in RAW format using the 16×9 aspect ratio of passing Irish Rail trains.
Locomotive 175 worked a wagon transfer from Inchicore towing a pair of the 2001-built Talgo container pocket wagons (CPWs).
It was one of only a scant few photos that I made digitally of an Irish Rail Bo-Bo at work. Most had finsihed by the time, yet old 175 survived.
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On this day five years ago (November 12, 2016), I made this sunset view at CP64 in East Brookfield, Massachusetts with my first Panasonic Lumix LX7.
Tonight, I am scheduled to present My Conrail , a multimedia slide presentation of my Boston & Albany photography to the 25th Beecherfest in Milwaukee.
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