For more than a century, the repetitious patterns made by lineside rows of poles carrying code lines were a characteristic of North American main lines.

Code lines carried signal information and other railroad communications functions.

By the late 1980s, railroads in the eastern United States were replacing code lines with more modern communications hardware, often consisting of bundles of fiber-optic cables that were buried line-side.

The old lines were being removed, which contributed a significant change to the railroad landscape and altered the way I framed up my photos. While the code lines sometimes interferred with images of passing trains, in other instances the lines provided perspective and scale, presented strong vertical lines that augmented composition, and lent an element of continuity between photos old and new.

On the morning of January 14, 1989, I braved the frosty weather and stood upon the old iron bridge that spanned Conrail’s former Erie Railroad line west of Dalton, New York in order to photograph Delaware & Hudson’s NY-10 (a double stack container train carrying Sealand boxes to New Jersey from the West). This used a New York, Susquehanna & Western routing to reach its New Jersey terminal and was led by a NYS&W SD45.

Working with my Leica M2 loaded with Kodachrome 25, I made these two color slides as the train passed. The wires are the true subject of my photographs, and I carefully integrated the codeline patterns into my compositions.

The slides were processed by Kodak a few days after exposure, but most remained in the yellow box that Kodak returned them to me until a few days ago. Finally, after 37 years in the dark, I scanned them for presentation here.

Tracking the Light examines the thoughts and techniques behind railroad photographs!