Tag Archives: #Pan Am Railways

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Pan Am’s Fs on this Day Nine Years Ago

August 20, 2016: Pan Am Railways operated the company office car train on the Fitchburg Line west toward Mechanicville, N.Y.

I made this view of the train passing through the crossovers at CP-AY in Ayer, Mass., before following the train west.

Yesterday, I reprocessed the original FujiFilm RAF RAW file using DxO PureRaw to see how this modern software could improve the image.

Below are some examples of the orignal file (scaled and saved as JPG) and after conversion to a DNG file.

The last image-pair is an adjusted variation of the DNG file intended to correct for exposure, contrast and color, while applying digital sharpening. Each photo is described in the captions.

FujiFilm RAF RAW file scaled as a JPG without adjustment or significant post processing.
Enlarged section of the top version (FujiFilm RAF RAW file scaled as a JPG without adjustment or significant post processing.).
FujiFilm RAF RAW file converted to DNG format with DxO PureRaw which corrects for lens defects and re-interprets the data of the original file. This is scaled as a JPG but without cosmetic adjustment.
FujiFilm RAF RAW file converted to DNG and following processing in Lightroom with cosmetic adjustments to color, contrast, exposure, saturation and sharpness.
Enlarged section of the final interpreation of the FujiFilm RAF RAW file following conversion to DNG and cosmetic adjustments to color, contrast, exposure, saturation and sharpness.

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East Deerfield— Dozen Years Ago

The McClelland Farm Bridge over the yard at East Deerfield, Massachusetts was known as the ‘Railfan’s Bridge’, although in my circles we called it the ‘Waste too much Film Bridge.’

This was a great place to catch the action.

On July 30, 2012, I made this view of Pan Am Railway’s road freight EDMO (East Deerfield to Mohawk Yard, Schectady, NY) beginning its westward journey over the Boston & Maine Fitchburg Route.

Much has changed in the last dozen years. The bridge was replaced; the railroad changed hands, and most of the classic EMD locomotives have been supplanted with more modern machines.

In 2012, I was working with a Canon EOS-7D ditial camera. I used this as my primary camera from June 2010 until I bought my first Fuji XT-1 in winter 2015. I still have the Canon. It’s a good camera and there’s nothing wrong with it, but my more modern cameras have a variety of operating advantages largely related to advances in autofocus systems, improved sensors, and improvements with lenses.

I still like the Canon color profile which made for beautiful images right out of the camera.

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Pan Am Sunset

On March 4, 2007, an eastward Pan Am Railways freight rolled through Greenfield, Massachusetts at sunset.

Maine Central 505 was one of the first Guilford Rail System locomotives to be rebranded in Pan Am paint. This was dressed in a livery similar to that once used on Pan Am Airways jet planes. Most of the later Pan Am painted locomotives were dressed in a darker navy-blue shade.

I exposed this photo on Fujichrome and scanned it with a Nikon LS5000 scanner powered by VueScan 9.8.22 software, then adjusted and scaled the hi-res TIF with Adobe Lightroom.

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F-Units and Dome—2017

On the theme of F-units and Budd Vista domes, I thought I’d offer these views from May 2017.

I was looking through the digital archives for a photo from May 19th, and I found that for whatever reason, I’ve rarely photographed trains on May 19th! May 18th on the other hand seems to be a be popular day in my files.

So, on May 18th, 2017, I’d followed a Pan Am Railways Office Car Special on the Connecticut River Line with Tim Doherty.

We caught this classy train at variety of interesting locations.

The two F-units, known as ‘The Sisters,’ had served Conway Scenic Railroad from the mid-1990s until about 15 years ago when they were traded to Pan Am for GP38 252 and GP35 216.

I made these images using my first Fuji XT-1.

Pan of Pan Am’s OCS at North Hatfield, Mass. FP-9s and a former Wabash Budd Vista Dome.
Pan Am Railways’s Budd Vista Dome ‘BlueBird,’ likely named for the famous Wabash streamliner, is pictured passing the old yard tower at the West End of Boston & Maine’s East Deerfield Yard. May 18, 2017.

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NYS&W 4034 = Pan Am Railways 5946

On Friday, Kris and I stopped by East Deerfield Yard near Greenfield, Mass., where we found a pair of Pan Am Railways’ General Electric DASH8-40Bs (B40-8) switching.

McClelland Farm Road at East Deerfield-the ‘New’ bridge, completed in 2018. Lumix LX7 photo.
Lumix LX7 photo of Pan Am Railways 5946 at East Deerfield, Massachusetts.

Lumix LX7 photo of Pan Am Railways 5946 at East Deerfield, Massachusetts.

The trailing locomotive was Pan Am 5946, a former CSX unit, and originally New York, Susquehanna & Western number 4034.

I figured I had a photo of this engine in my files, since I photographed many of NYS&W’s GE’s at the time of delivery back in 1988 and 1989.

I found the photo I was seeking. NYS&W 4034 was paired with a Norfolk Southern unit at SK Yard in Buffalo on May 4, 1989, shortly after it was built by General Electric.

Kodachrome 25 slide exposed with a Leica M2 with 90mm f2.8 Elmarit.

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Ten Years Ago at East Deerfield Yard

Ten Years ago, July 30, 2012, I made this evening view of Pan Am Railway’s EDMO at East Deerfield Yard near Greenfield, Massachusetts.

I was standing upon the old ‘Railfan’s Bridge’, where tens of thosands of photos had been exposed over the years.

The bridge and Pan Am are now memories.

In-camera JPG exposed using a Canon EOS7D. Image scaled without adjustment using Lightroom.

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Gray Locomotives in High Sun—Variations on a theme.

High sun—when the sun is at or near the highest point in the sky—can be a difficult time to make railroad photos. The harsh contrast presented by midday light makes for unflattering and abrasive visual conditions. But does that mean we should refrain from photography? I know many photographers who might say ‘Yes.’

Last month on the way to Moosehead Lake, Kris Sabbatino and I paused at Pan Am Railway’s sprawling Waterville Yard where we made a few photos of a freight sitting near the east end of the yard.

Guilford painted GP40s are a rare item these days, and worthy of documentation. Soon all of Pan Am Railways may be swept into CSX, giving a growing urgency to photographs of this New England railroad system.

I made several images of the GP40s idling in the yard using my FujiFilm XT1. In Post processing, I adjusted the camera RAW files making slight changes to contrast, exposure and color temperature. Below are four similar variations of the same scene.

These top two variations were created from the same RAW file and primarily differ in the interpreatation of color and contrast, whith particular attention to lightening the shadow areas on the top image.

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Eastward at Orange

We concluded our vigorous chase of Pan Am Southern’s ED8 at Orange, Massachusetts, having first seen this freight earlier in the day at East Deerfield Yard.

The overhead bridge in the center of Orange offers several advantages;

  1. Nice elevation.
  2. A long tangent.
  3. Parking is close, easy to obtain and not far from route 2A.
  4. There’s an orange building near the tracks, which allows the title of the photo dual meanings.

I made this photo with my Nikon Z6.

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Six Years Ago Today—Pan Am OCS.

The short days were making photography a challenge six years ago, when on December 22, 2014, Paul Goewey and I photographed the Pan Am Railways office car train at East Deerfield, Massachusetts.

The light was failing fast, and I upped the ISO on my Canon EOS 7D to 1600 in order to stop the action.

I made this sequence of images from the famous ‘Railfans Bridge’ as the OCS backed beneath us,

My RAW files were a little on the dark side and the contrast was very flat, so I made some adjustments in using Adobe Lightroom to improve the presentation.

The last photo shows the unadjusted file adapted from the camera RAW. Exposure was at f3.5 1/100th of a second, ISO 1600, with my Canon EF100mm prime lens.

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Up Close with Pan Am 345

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Last Sunday, September 27, 2020, while following Pan Am Railway’s SAPPI-3 with Kris Sabbatino, I made this close-up view of the train led by GP40 345 on the Hinckley Branch near Waterville, Maine.

I was working with my FujiFilm XT1 with 12mm Zeiss Touit. For post-processing, I imported the camera RAW in to Iridient to produce a DNG file, which I then imported into Adobe Lightroom for adjustment.

As previously explained on Tracking the Light, Iridient software has a superior means of interpreting the Fuji RAW files for adjustment. However, the difference is very subtle and can be best noticed on extreme enlargement.

Which leads to a photographic quandary: is there really value in making image of superior quality if only a handful of viewers can appreciate the difference?

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Pan Am’s SAPPI-3 Part 1

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Last Sunday, Kris Sabbatino and I drove along the old Maine Central Hinkley Branch north from Waterville, Maine to photograph Pan Am Railway’s SAPPI-3 local freight.

This was on the advice of New Hampshire rail photographer Andrew Dale, who suggest the trip and the train timings, and who joined us along with Connor Welch later in the morning.

The day was clear and bright with a deep sky.

Working with my FujiFilm XT1 fitted with 28mm pancake lens, I made these photos as the freight departed SAPPI’s Somerset Mill. The train carried mostly 50-foot boxcars of paper product.

These two photos feature slight variations in composition and exposure. The top photo is slightly lighter than the bottom. Both are camera JPGs exposed with the Velvia color profile.

The pair of GP40s and old style boxcars is a real throwback to railroading of decades gone by. It was also the first real revenue freight that I’d photographed in daylight in months!

More photos to follow soon!

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Revisiting Rigby Yard in 2020

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I made my first visit to Rigby Yard in Portland back about 1983 using directions provided to me by the late Bob Buck of Tucker’s Hobbies of Warren, Massachusetts.

Over the weekend, I traveled with Kris Sabbatino and retraced my steps to Rigby.

Working with a Nikkormat FT with 105mm telephoto, I exposed this view on Fomapan 100 Classic black & white film, which I then processed yesterday. To obtain a greater sense of depth and texture, I aimed through some tall grass in the foreground, while focusing on the Pan Am Railways EMD diesels in the distance.

Using split development with twin development bath, I produced negatives that were ideal for scanning.

My recipe: Kodak HC110 mixed 1-300 with water and a drop of Photoflo for 9 minutes at 70 F (with minimal agitation); then Ilford ID-11 1-1 with water for 5 minutes 30 seconds (agitating very gently for three inversions once a minute); stop, twin fix bath, rinse, perm awash, 10 minute wash, and final rinse in distilled water.

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