During our forays along the old Pennsylvania Railroad, I sometimes like to imagine what it would have been like to witness the passing of the railroad’s great electrics.

Although I never saw them pass Gap, I remember seeing the GG1s, and to a limited extent, PRR’s E44s on other portions of the electrified system.

My father made photos of PRR’s P5 boxcabs, streamlined ‘P5A modified’ electrics, among the more obscure types that worked under wire more than a half century ago.

Last week as the late winter glow colored the evening sky in Christiana, Pa., I looked to the west as headlights illuminate the rails. As the train approached, I was expecting one of Amtrak’s ACS-64 electrics to pass me in a flash, but wondered what it would have been like to see a pair of the P5/P5A electrics pass with a freight. That really would have been cool.

Photos exposed using my Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom. Files exposed in NEF RAW format, converted to PNG format using DxO PureRaw, and adjusted for final presentation with Adobe Lightroom.

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