The former Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad station in Staunton, Virginia, is a classic structure set in a tight location.
The old C&O main line—now operated by short line Buckingham Branch, which hosts Amtrak, CSX, and the Virginia Scenic Railway—is situated on a sharp curve, pressed against the rocky base of a hill that rises south of town. The street side of the station is bordered by cobblestones and faces a collection of historic buildings characteristic of Staunton’s downtown.
The station was designed by T. J. Collins and built in 1902 to replace an earlier structure.
Using my Nikon Z6-III with a 24–70mm lens, I made this selection of photographs in the late afternoon during the first of several visits to the station in late March. The high-contrast, directional light emphasizes the textures of the brickwork and cobblestones.
I’ve arranged the images below in the order in which they were exposed.
From LED headlights to distant twinkling starlight, there’s a lot of contrast in this sequence of Amtrak’s westward Keystone train 651 passing Bird-in-Hand, Pa.,
I’ve been pushing the envelope of still photography at this location for several months. My goal has been to ‘stop’ the action of a relatively fast train using only existing light (no flash).
This goal has been aided recently by a very fast camera sensor (in my Nikon Z6-III), a ‘fast-fifty’ lens (Nikkor Z-series f1.4 50mm), and modern PureRaw image post processing that uses AI technology to make the most of photos exposed with very high ISO.
For this sequence, I mounted the camera on my 3Pod tripod (with legs carefully tightened to avoid any unexpected sudden downward movement). I used all manual settings.
Several minutes before the train came into view, I focused on the rails roughly parallel in the film plane to the front of the old freight house (on right).
As the train passed through the scene, I made subtle adjustments in exposure. After the lead engine passed me, I dropped the shutter speed from 1/320th of second to 1/200th to allow more light to reach the sensor.
Following conversion to DNG files using PureRaw, I made a host of selective cosmetic adjustments in Lightroom.
Tracking the Light Posts about railroad night photography.
Kris suggested we take an evening drive to see if we could find a freight on the move.
In recent months, we’ve explored Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Branch, and based on the times we’ve caught eastward trains on the move, I thought Peach Bottom, Pa., might offer a good place to roll a train by.
The moon was nearly full and relatively high in the sky when we arrived. I parked near the public boat launch near the Susquehanna River, shut the car off, and listened . . .
“Do you hear that? We have a freight coming!”
What luck!
I set up my 3Pod tripod and attached my Nikon Z6-III with 1.4 50mm and made a few test photos as the distant roar became louder and more pronounced.
Test photo: Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Branch as seen by moonlight along the eastern shore of the Susquehanna River at Peachbottom. Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 lens, ISO 100.
After a few minutes, we saw the headlight of the approaching train.
My camera was set at f1.4, at 1/60th of second with ISO64000, and I made some trailing views. This appeared to be one of the Consol Energy unit coal trains and featured a mid-train DPU.
I focused on the grade crossing to make a photo of a former Conrail coal hopper. I think that it’s pretty neat that after all these years, Conrail-painted hoppers survive in service.
When I got home, I processed the NEF RAW files with DxO PureRaw to remove noise and correct lens defects.
Norfolk Southern unit coal train on Port Road Branch by the light of the moon; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 lens, 1/60th of a second, ISO 64,000, NEF Raw file processed using PureRaw.Norfolk Southern unit coal train on Port Road Branch by the light of the moon; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 lens, 4 seconds, ISO 400, NEF Raw file processed using PureRaw.Norfolk Southern unit coal train passing Peachbottom on the Port Road Branch; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 lens, 1/80th of a second, ISO 64,000, NEF Raw file processed using PureRaw.
Tracking the Light explores railroad night photography!
Strasburg Rail Road’s Night Before Christmas excursion was working upgrade from the East Strasburg, Pa., station with engine 90 leading tender first.
This offered another great opportunity to test the limits of Nikon’s Z6-III with the ‘fast fifty’ (f1.4 50mm).
This sequence was exposed hand held, which allowed me to pan the train as it passed. I had the ISO set to 64000 and this enabled a shutter speed of 1/100th of second at f1.4.
Not bad for hand held at night! A nearly full moon augmented street lights and Christmas lighting near the tracks.
My next Railroad Photography 101 Class will be held on Saturday Dec 13, 2025 from 9 to 11am at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. The theme to this class will be working with holiday settings, including techniques on how to make better night train photographs.
Working with little more than the light of full moon and street lights, I made these nocturnal late autumn images at Christiana, Pa.,
Years ago, I never could have imagine making action photos by moonlight! These images were test of the Nikon Z6-III with a ‘fast fifty’ (f1.4 50mm).
All were exposed with the camera on a 3Pod tripod.
In fact, the action photos could have been made without the aid of a tripod. I guess its just a habit to use a tripod after dark.
Below are several pairs of photos to compare before and after processing using DxO PureRaw to de-noise and correct for lens aberrations.
Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO; NEF RAW file.Same file as above following PureRaw conversion to de-noise and correct lens aberrations; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO.Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO; NEF RAW file.Same file as above following PureRaw conversion to de-noise and correct lens aberrations; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO.Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO; NEF RAW file.Same file as above following PureRaw conversion to de-noise and correct lens aberrations; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO.Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO; NEF RAW file.Same file as above following PureRaw conversion to de-noise and correct lens aberrations; Nikon Z6-III with 50mm f1.4 set at f1.4 1/125th second at 64000 ISO.
