Tag Archives: #Parkesburg

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Parkesburg at Twilight

Amtrak’s Parkesburg, Pa., station facilities are a curious anomaly.

The train service is very good, but the platforms are short and shelter is minimal, both representing surviving vestiges of another era.

But, in addition to its role as a passenger station, Parkesburg was once an important interlocking where Pennsylvania Railroad’s Atgen & Susquehanna Low Grade route connected with and the mainline. Portions of the junction remain as a hint at of something greater.

The other evening we paused at Parkesburg so I could document the atmosphere of this place in twilight.

I wonder what will become of these old station facilities? What will it look like in years to come?

Tracking the Light explores railroad photography!

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Evening Station Stop Parkesburg, PA.

An eastward Amtrak Keystone paused briefly on the platform at Parkesburg, Pennsylvania for its scheduled station stop. I was poised in position with my Nikon Z7-II and f2.8 70-200mm lens mounted on a 3Pod tripod.

The tripod’s ball head and the camera’s built-in level made it comparatively easy to set up.

Working with the a 2-second self-timer, I was able to minimize vibration as the result of pressing the shutter release.

I exposed using the NEF RAW format, then converted the file to PNG format using DXO PureRaw, and made corrections to color, contrast and exposure in Adobe Lightroom.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Pennsylvanian Passes Parkesburg

Leave a comment

Parkesburg, Pennsylvania was once an important interlocking where the Enola Low Grade cutoff (Atglen & Susquehanna Branch) joined the Main Line (now Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line) via a grade separated junction.

Today, a vestige of the old low grade survives to serve local industries, but the remants of the interlocking, the town and Amtrak’s former Pennsylvania Railroad station seem like shadows of another era.

This remains a station for Amtrak’s Keystone service, but the station facilities are minimalistic and a contrast to most stations on Amtrak’s Northeast electrified routes.

Last week, Kris and I timed our arrival at Parkesburg to coincide with the late-running Pennsylvanian. This is the through train that connects Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City.

It typically runs with a diesel between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, but on this day diesel power was swaped for an electric at Harrisburg.

I made this sequence of images using my Nikon Z mirror-less digital cameras.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!