NY | Tracking the Light

I was working on a book on Electro-Motive Division early General Purpose diesels. Specifically the GP7s, GP9s, GP18s and GP20s.

I needed photos of GP18s to illustrate the book, and at the time New York Susquehanna & Western was still regularly operating their small fleet of three GP18s, which the railroad had bought new from EMD.

So, photographer Pat Yough and I drove to central New York state and sought out these vintage locomotives.

I made these Fujichrome color slides at Cortland, NY, where the NYS&W operated a portion of the old Lackawanna.

Last night I scanned the slides, then processed the images in Adobe Photoshop to correct for color, adjust highlight and shadow areas and make other minor adjustments to contrast etc. Below I display both the uncorrected and corrected scans to show the differences between them.

Outside my window it is snowing, so looking at photos made on a bright Spring morning is a refreshing change of scene!

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Charlotte, New York, January 1989.

When I was studying at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Kodak would annually supply photo students with a gift package of examples of their latest products.

Although I was a confirmed Kodachrome customer, as a poor student, I always make use of the other films supplied. In January 1989, I had a role of ‘Ektachrome of the year’. This was the latest 100 speed slide film.

I loaded up the Leica M2, and drove my Dodge Dart around the Rochester area looking for suitable subjects with which to sample this new emulsion.

Exposed on Kodak Ektachrome with a Leica M2. Film processed by Kodak. The image was adjusted in post-processing to compensate for exposure, contrast, and color balance.

At Charlotte, where Conrail accessed a portion of the old Hojack route, I found this local working. Was this the local freight that served Kodak’s Rochester factories on the far side of the Genesee River? I can’t say for certain, but that really would be appropriate, wouldn’t it?

January 1989; Conrail had a full ten years left. At the end of May 1999, Conrail’s independent operations ended and CSX and NS took over.

In 2004, Tim Doherty & I authored an illustrated book on Conrail for MBI.

Learn more about the evolution of the railroad network, see my book: North American Railroad Family Trees published by Voyageur Press.

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