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Rescued Photo from the Archive

On October 4, 1993, I paid a visit to Groveton, NH to photograph this NHV GP9 working trackage around the old paper mill.

It was a dark morning, so I was working with Kodak E100 LPP Ektachrome that was rated at ISO 100, two stops faster than my staple color film: Kodachrome 25.

Despite the faster film, I badly miscalculated exposure and the resulting color slide was too dark for presentation. For more than 30 years, it sat in a Kodak box labeled ‘Seconds’ along with a host of other rare photos, including an Alco RS-11 passing the ball signal at Whitefield exposed earlier the same day.

To rescue the Groveton photo, I made a multiple-pass scan using a Nikon LS-5000 scanner driven by VueScan software. I significantly increased the sample rate to minimize the loss of data. Then I imported the RAW file into Lightroom, where I made a variety of heavy-handed adjustments to lighten shadows and hold detail in the sky in order to make for a more pleasing photograph.

Here, I’ve posted bothe unadjusted ‘dark’ photo, and my post processed version aimed to restore the scene so that it looked more like I recall the light on that morning many years ago.

My original scan of my slide as it appears without adjustment. This is more than a full stop underexposed.
My rescued version of the same scan. I lightened the photograph, adjusted shadow and highlight areas, while making localized improvements to various areas of the scene, and adding saturation and contrast controls.

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NHV on LPP—October 1993.

During the summer of 1993, Kodak had introduced a new flavor of Ektachrome slide film with a rating of 100 ISO and a warm color balance.

I bought a few rolls for use imaging trains with New England autumn foliage.

On October 6th of that year I drove to Groveton, NH to intercept the NHV local that worked the old Boston & Maine line toward Whitefield.

It was raining and dark when I pictured the train ambling along a few miles south of Groveton.

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New Hampshire & Vermont Alco RS-11 at Whitefield.

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It seems like another age when I drove to Whitefield, New Hampshire on spec to photograph the famous ball signal in October 1992. As a bonus, I caught this New Hampshire & Vermont Alco RS-11 working the yard.

In this view the RS11 crosses Union Street-Route 3 on the former Boston & Maine line to Wells River via Littleton.

I exposed this Kodachrome 25 slide using my Leica M2 with a 50mm Summicron.

The ball signal still stands at Whitefield, but the tracks are almost never used. I wonder what happened to this RS-11?

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