On September 26, 2017, I was traveling by tram in Rome.
I made this photo using my first FujiFilm X-T1 fitted with an f2.0 90mm prime lens set at f2.0, 1/250, ISO 400.
Rome is a fascinating city to explore by rail.
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Tuesday we collected our new car.
Friday evening, Kris and I went for our first proper drive in it with Seamus in the back: just a few miles over to Esbenshade Road in Strasburg, Pa., to roll by the 6pm train.
There were layers of dust and smoke in the western sky that made the sun appear fuzzy and reddish orange with sky a tangerine—mauve-like gray.
I made these photos as the train passed us with 4-8-0 475 working tender-first. I’ve included a few views of our midnight blue Honda CR-V Hybrid. In these photos it had less than 80 miles on it!
Photos exposed using my Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras. NEF RAW files adjusted in Lightroom.
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In my book North American Railroad Bridges published by Voyageur Press in 2008, I described the double track former Pennsylvania Railroad bridge over the Susquehanna at Havre de Grace, Maryland;
“Between August 10, 1905, and May 22, 1906, PRR built 17 deck truss spans on the piers, ranging from 196 feet 6 inches to 260 feet long, with 24 feet 3 inch clearance above mean water level. To clear large ships, a central swing span was installed. “
Earlier this year, Amtrak broke ground for the replacement of this historic bridge. Last week, Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I drove to Havre de Grace, where I made a few photos of trains gliding across the bridge. In the distance is construction equipment, which appear to be removing the piers of an earlier railroad bridge in preparation for the new spans.
These views show Amtrak 195 (Boston-Washington) led by ACS-64 634 with Amfleet in tow. Exposed using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Z-series zoom.
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Yesterday evening after work, Kris and I drove to the creamery in Strasburg, then over to Gap, Pa., to roll by Amtrak Keystone 651.
I was hoping to catch a former Metroliner Contral Coach leading in the late sun, but was happy when ACS-64 634 glided around the famous curve.
There’s a lot of dusk and smoke in the atmosphere which cut the light down a couple of stops while softening contrast and warmed the color.
I made this sequence of photos using my mirror-less Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Nikkor zoom lens.
I made some very minor adjustements to the NEF raw files in postprocessing.
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No, really!
I exposed this black & white negative in March 1988. This was the trailing view of Amtrak’s Sunday Niagara Rainbow racing along the Waterlevel Route at Churchville, New York.
I’ve always like the ‘cotton candy sky’ effect and I intentionally underexposed the photo to better capture the clouds with the streamlined train in silhouette.
Unfortunately, I processed the 120-sized film using stainless tanks and reels, which were relatively cold which resulted in uneven processing, especially toward the sides of the image.
I scanned the photo many years ago, but last night spent about ten minutes in Lightroom making a series of digital masks to even out the exposure and contrast to largely correct of the processing error.
I’ve included the unaltered scan, several of the work windows showing the masks (in purple), and then my final images.
The old Amtrak Turboliners are all gone, but I have many photos of these unusual trains on the move.
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It was a bright day in suburban Dublin on this day ten years ago when I made this telephoto view of Irish Rail 215 in fresh paint leading the Up IWT Liner (Ballina to Dublin’s North Wall) on the quad track at Lucan South.
My camera of choice that day was a Canon EOS-7D with a prime 100mm lens.
I’ve included two versions of the photo; one is the in-camera color profile, the other is adjusted from the Canon RAW file using Adobe Lightroom to improve color balance, increase color saturation and lighten the shadows.
Special thanks to Colm O’Callaghan for his assistance with my photography on that day.
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July 20, 1986 was the last full day of traditional directional double track operations (rule 251) on Conrail’s Boston Line between Palmer (future CP83) and Springfield (future CP92).
Using my father’s Rolleiflex Model T, I made this photo of Amtrak F40PH 201 leading an Inland Corridor train east at milepost 84 (in the town of Monson, Massachusetts). The next day, Conrail crews cut in the new crossovers which took the old westward track at this location out of service. It was ripped up some months later.
In 2011, I scanned this 645 size black & white negative. Unfortunately, I forgot to reverse the scan and so it remained as a negative image.
There is probably some ‘one-click’ means reversing the scan into a positive image using Lightroom. I had no luck finding that trick, so Kris and I ‘Googled’ how to accomplish this simple task.
Basically, you open the ‘three bars’ control at top left, expand the ‘light’ controls and scroll down to the ‘D log H’ curve (it’s the graph that plot the exposure curve), and reverse the orientation of the line graph so that it goes from bottom left to top right (rather than the other way around.)
This created a positive, from which I made my corrections, albeit in reverse.
I’ve included the work windows.
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Nine years ago, my Irish friends and I were exploring railway operations in Germany’s scenic Mosel Valley.
I made this view from the wall in a vineyard of a DB freight heading northward (eastward) toward Koblenz.
While not as busy as the Rhein Valley, there are endless perspectives on the railway in the Mosel Valley and we were certainly entertained by a continuous parade of freight and passenger trains.
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The Dublin & Kingstown was among the oldest railways in the world. This opened between its name sake points in 1834 and is considered the first steam railway in Ireland. The route is now part of Irish Rail’s network and was electrified in the early 1980s for the DART suburban service.
On August 30, 2016, I’d traveled from Dublin to Blackrock on the DART electrified suburban service to meet my friends. Working with my Fuji XT-1, I made this trailing photo from the footbridge on the south side of the station of a northward 29000-series CAF diesel railcar.
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On our visit to Philadelphia earlier this month, I made this view looking down on Amtrak’s former Pennsylvania Railroad from the Cira Green urban park.
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Over the last few months, I’ve been working on a book describing Amtrak’s locomotives and rolling stock. So, it seemed appropriate that on our visit to Philadelphia, we’d take a look at the variety of Amtrak equipment in the yard at 30th Street Station.
A parking garage located a short walk from the station offers a panaramic view of the yards, where we saw everthing from a former GO Transit GP40TC (now an Amtrak GP38H-3) and retired HHP8 electrics to the latest Siemens ALC-42 Charger diesels (first time we had seen these!) a group of stored Alstom Avelia Liberty/Next Generation Acela trainsets, as well as a selection of ballast cars and a few baggage cars from Amtrak’s Exhibit Train.
I made this selection of photos using my Nikon Z7-II.
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In the 1990s, I’d mastered a technique for capturing trains in the ‘glint’ light usng Kodachrome slide film. Golden glint was my favorite. I was especially fond of glinting Southern Pacific freights in the western mountains and Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor.
These days, I apply a similar technique using my modern mirrorless digital cameras.
Low summer sun can offer great glint light opportunities. The mix of agricultural detritus, smog pollutants, and humidity in the atmosphere help to tint evening sunlight toward the red-end of spectrum.
Amtrak’s stainless steel trains make for excellent glint reflectors, and I have a few choice locations to catch the glint, including my often-photographed tangent on Amtrak’s former Pennsylvania Railroad electrified line to Harrisburg.
In late July, the setting sun is about 30 degrees off axis from the railroad where it runs along Jefferson Drive. And this is the perfect angle to catch a train reflecting the light.
Last week on successive days, I made these glint light views of Amtrak’s westward Keystone train 653 on its approach to the Lancaster, Pa., station.
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8:50 am, October 3, 1987.
I was following the old Erie Railroad toward Buffalo and overtook a freight that had stopped a red signal.
This was Conrail’s OIBU and the location was East Lancaster, New York. I made a single Kodachrome 25 slide with my Leica M2 fitted with a 200mm Leitz Telyt lens mounted via a Visoflex and positioned on a tripod. My exposure was f4 at 1/15th of a second.
Not long after the slide came back from processing, I labled it. However at some point there after, I deemed this image unworthy and tucked it back into one of the many Kodak yellow slide boxes labled ‘2nds,’ where it resided for the last 36+ years in my parents attic.
I scanned it the other day, then imported the scan into Lightroom to correct for level, exposure and excessive cyan tint. The photograph has aged well! However the pole to the immediate left of the locomotive cab has always annoyed me.
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One of my first acquaintances with the east end former PRR Middle Division was Easter weekend 1988. I met my old pal TSH in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, having driven south from Rochester, NY where I was studying Photographic Illustration at RIT.
On that trip, I exposed Kodachrome of Conrail trains at Duncannon, Thompsontown, Mifflin and Lewistown. We missed the sweeping curve at Mexico.
It wasn’t until explorations in this area a decade later with photographer Mike Gardner that I first made photos from Underpass Road in Mexico, Pa. (If there was an underpass here, there is no visible evidence of it today).
Last weekend, Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I revisited this prime photo location on Norfolk Southern’s Pittsburgh Line where the grand sweep of the track in a bucolic setting with the Tuscarora Ridge in the background makes for a favorite place to watch trains.
We didn’t have to wait long before the distant sound of rolling thunder announced the approach of a westward freight.
It was the first of several train that we caught here.
Kris noted that I looked extra happy here.
There’s more to come!
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In the June 2024 Trains Magazine, photographer Eric Williams has an intriguing photo essay on ‘Railroad Streets.’
Following this theme, last week, I made these photos on South Railroad Avenue in New Holland, Pennsylvania.
Road traffic is light in the early evening, which made for a good time for New Holland vignettes. Unfortunately, catching a train here has proved elusive for me. I’ve seen Norfolk Southern’s local working this end of the branch a few times, but thus far I’ve not had the opportunity to picture it on the crossing.
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I drive by this signal almost daily.
It’s not an easy item to represent photographically.
In light of midday, the lights are nearly lost in the inky ring.
At dusk, the lights standout, but they are are easily overexposed which has the unintended effect of desaturating the light color.
A more complicated problem is stopping a fast moving train when the light is optimal for catching the signal lights at their correct density and hue.
Focus is another issue. In this situation, I was working with an f2.8 70-200mm zoom wide open (f2.8). I set my shutter speed manually to 1/640th of a second. According to the camera meter this resulted in about 2/3s stop (-0.7) under exposure. ISO was set to 5000. My focus point was on plane with the signal. The signal and near track are sharp, but the train suffers both from motion blur and being slightly out of focus.
Not a lot of options to do better. But, I’ll keep trying.
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My AF Nikkor 35mm f2.0/D had resided in Ireland since 2018. After years without this amazing piece of glass, it has rejoined my roster.
Using an FTZ adaptor, I am able to use this lens on my Z-series mirrorless digital cameras. Until now I had only used this lens for traditional, analog photography. This had been among my favorite lenses for black & white.
I was curious to see how it would perform in the digital realm.
Poised at the Esbenshade Road crossing, I exposed this photo of Strasburg Rail Road 475 on its return run from Leaman Place.
Below are two versions. The top is a scaled version of the NEF RAW file without modification or adjustments.
The center is my interpretation of the NEF file with local and global adjustments to contrast, exposure, color temperature and saturation.
The last photo is an extreme enlargement of the unmodified file showing the headlight to demonstrate the resolution of the lens.
So, what worked with black & white film, also works with digital!
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On May 5, 1990, I spent the morning following Southern Pacific’s timetable westward MERV-M (Medford, Oregon to Roseville-Manifest) on the sinuous and steeply graded Siskiyou Line. This was led by SP SD45E 7504, which retained its 3,600 hp 20-645E3 diesel engine.
I made this photo at Ager (railroad timetable west of Hornbrook, California) on the run toward Black Butte. At the time SP was operating 7,500 ton trains on this amazing stretch of railroad.
Exposed on Kodachrome 25 using a Leica M2 with 50mm Summicron about 9:25am.
I made dozens of photos on that beautiful May morning. Most remain unlabled, although I have all my notes from that day. I was delighted to have an SP unit with its oscillating lights in the lead. Since at that time SP was actively removing the oscillating lights from its locomotives.
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Among the attractions of the historic former Pennsylvania Railroad Harris Tower in Harrisburg is the continual parade of Norfolk Southern freights.
While this is a good venue for watching trains, it is a visually challenging place to picture them because of the array of urban clutter around the Harrisburg, Pa station,
The combination of wires and cables with an urban background results in some difficult photo choices. I’ve found one of the best ways to picture trains in this type of setting is to pan from a broad-side angle using a slow shutter speed .
I made these images using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70 and 70-200mm Nikkor Z-series zoom lenses.
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On an afternoon drive, Kris and I traversed Peace Road in Leola, Pennsylvania, where I spotted this iconic scene.
The next evening was bright and clear and so we returned, and this time I brought my Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm telephoto to frame up this photo.
I was inspired by a similar black & white image that photographer David Plowden made decades ago, so I composed several of the angles using the camera’s ‘Carbon’ profile.
The Carbon profile created an in-camera high-contrast, full-tonality monochrome Jpg, which I then imported into Adobe Lightroom for final adjustment.
I posted a version of this image to my Facebook page a few days ago and it received considerable interest, so I thought it warranted attention on Tracking the Light.
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I made another attempt a scoring a westward Amtrak Keystone passing a blossoming tree on Jefferson Drive in Lancaster, PA.
In my first attempt at this location, my efforts were foiled by a passing pickup truck that altered my composition and confused the Nikon’s autofocusing system. See: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/amtrak-pink-tree-blossoms-fail/
I did much better with my second effort, which featured Norfolk Southern’s local freight on the New Holland Branch (which is adjacent to Amtrak’s electrified line). See: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/flowering-tree-part-2-crescent-cab/
For this third effort, I reduced the size of my autofocus point and relocated it so it would not be affected by road traffic.
I also adjusted the zoom outward to provide a wider angle of view.
Although a car snuck into the photo at the last moment, at least the camera remained focused on Amtrak. This was more successful than my first attempt, but not as pleasing as my second effort. Time was running out for the pink blossoms, but I wasn’t done with this project yet!
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Part II of my Harrisburg tour included a visit to the former PRR Harris Tower that has been beautifully preserved by the NRHS.
Although this no longer serves to control train movements through the plant at the Harrisburg Station, the levers, interlocking bed and related equipment of the tower’s Model 14 Union Switch & Signal interlocking machine are maintained in working order.
A computer controlled simulation of trains, allows for a demonstration of how the tower worked, complete with illuminated indicator lights on the model board, and bells signaling ‘trains’ entering the plant.
Every so often a Norfolk Southern freight would roll by the tower for added interest.
I made this selection of images using Nikon Z7-II.
Special thanks to Dan Cupper for organizing my visit and to Jim Nowotarski and Brad of the NRHS for detailed explanations of the history and a working demonstration of the interlocking.
The tower is open for public visits seasonally on Saturdays. See: https://www.harrisburgnrhs.org/visit
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I’ll run out of intriguing titles before I get to the end of this thread.
Last week, following my compositionally challenged, autofocus mishap with the flowering tree photos, I had a second opportunity to work the pink tree into some railroad photos.
This time, I used it as a prop for some morning images of Norfolk Southern’s New Holland local approaching Jefferson Drive in Lancaster. I’d featured the reflecting pond here in an earlier post.
Bright morning sun made for nice lighting. I was impressed by the leading locomotive, which was one of Norfolk Southern’s 6900 series SD60Es featuring the so-called ‘Crescent Cab’ (the railroad’s blunt-nose variation of the safety-cab).
I was delighted to catch the local freight here, but was still hoping to work one of these colorful trees into a photo of an Amtrak Keystone, so I knew I had to try again. Although it isn’t obvious in these photos, Amtrak’s former PRR electrified line to Harrisburg passes immediately to the left of the flowering tree.
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After dozens of visits to Ireland over a span of 26 years, I finally witnessed former Great Northern Railway 4-4-0 number 131 under steam on 24 March 2024.
This also was a reunion with many of my old friends at the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI), Irish Rail and Irish Railway Record Society. And, it was Kris’s first trip behind steam in Ireland!
Many memorable photos were exposed that day!
I made these images at Dublin’s Connolly Station using my Nikon Z7-II.
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We thought about traveling to Derry, but it was a dreary day and we had evening plans, so instead I suggested we take the train toward Bangor.
And, no, we were not in Maine!
So, Kris and I traveled from Belfast Great Victoria Street Station aboard an NI Railways train, and got off the train at Cultra to visit the Ulster Transportation Museum.
The museum has some of the finest preserved railway exhibits in Ireland, (and these will be the subjects of a future post.)
Overcast lighting makes atmospheric images at Cultra easier than on a bright sunny day. Oh, wait, have I ever visited Cultra on a bright sunny day??!
I made these images near the NI Railways station at Cultra using my Lumix LX7 and Nikon Z7-II digital cameras.
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Yesterday was a working day for me, so I didn’t have time to drive hours to reach the path of totality.
I didn’t buy any fancy special equipment. I didn’t use any external filters. I didn’t use a tripod. I didn’t have special glasses. I also didn’t look directly into the sun, and so I didn’t damage my vision. Conditions were partially cloudy, which I found greatly aided my photography and made for more dramatic images.
The following photos of the solar eclipse were made on our back patio in Lancaster, Pennsylvania using my Nikon Z7-II mirrorless digital camera fitted with a standard f2.8 70-200mm Z-series zoom lens. This is the same equipment that I regularly use to photograph trains and other terrestrial subjects.
The Z7-II has a flexible/adjustable rear diplay screen that allowed me to point the camera skyward while looking away from the sun. I set the focus manually to infinity (confirmed by the digital readout on my lens). Likewise, I manually set the ISO rating to the lowest possible setting (‘Low 1.0’) which effectively provides an ISO rating of 40, and set the exposure (shutter and aperature) manually.
By exposing a series of test photos, I determined the optimal aperature/shutter speed combination to preserve the eclipse digitally. I’ve included this data in the caption below each image. I tried a few exposures at both ISO 64 and then ISO 40 at f22 1/8000th of a second, and ultimately settled on between f10 and f22 at either 1/2000th or 1/4000th of a second.
Just for frame of reference; f22 at 1/4000th of a second at ISO 40 is about 8 and 1/2 stops down (darker) than my standard daylight exposure for photographing trains in full sunlight.
After making several rounds of celestial exposures, I’d download the card to my Apple laptop to inspect the images before making additional images.
Using Adobe Lightroom, I scaled photographs from 51.4MB NEF RAW files to manageable sized JPGs to display via the internet. I made no corrections/alterations to color, constast, exposure etc.
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Tomorrow on Tracking the Light, I will reveal my eclipse technique.
I made this photo without the aid of complicated specialized equipment, just my standard Nikon Z7-II with 70-200mm lens.
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The weather was rapidly changing when we walked across the grassy plateau of the Downhill Demesne located west of Castlerock, Northern Ireland.
Although it was bright and sunny, we could see dark clouds over the Foyle estuary to the west.
NI Railways operates an hourly service between Belfast and Derry, and one of our objectives was to capture views of these trains running along the coast. For my money, some of the finest views of trains in Ireland can be made from this plateau. The fee is putting up with the weather.
We timed our arrival well. A Derry bound train passed just a few minutes after we found a suitable overlook. Minutes later dark clouds obscured the sun, the wind kicked up and soon we were pelted with hail and soaked with icy rain. Before the eastward train to Belfast came into view the sky started to clear.
This pattern repeated itself about an hour later. Such is the price of getting great scenic photos of NI Railways!
Tuesday evening (April 9, 2024), I am presenting a program on our recent travels in Ireland and the UK to the Harrisburg Chapter NRHS. My program is scheduled to begin about 6:30pm at: Hoss’s Steak and Sea House, 61 Gettysburg Pike, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055.
https://www.harrisburgnrhs.org/meetings
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Irish rail freight is comparatively scarce today compared to my visits years ago.
While visiting county Mayo, I’d hoped to catch one of the several freights that still routinely grace the rails there.
On the advice of an old friend at Irish Rail, Kris and I paid our second visit to Manulla Junction on a rainy Monday March morning. After passage of the morning Dublin-Westport passenger train, we caught the once-per-week Ballina-Waterford timber train led by class 071 locomotive number 074.
I exposed these photos of the train as it squealed through the junction. It was like old times again! The sound of the turbocharged 12-645 roaring away brought me back many years.
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Clifden is located on the western periphery of County Galway. Between 1895 and 1935, it was served by a lightly traveled branch of the old Midland Great Western route.
In mid-March, we stayed at the Clifden Station House Hotel. The hotel included the Signal Bar & Restaurant, located across the carpark in the old Clifden Railway Station. This was decorated with antique signaling equipment, photographs and vintage railway advertising posters.
Interestingly, on my first visit to Clifden in 1998, I interviewed the railway gate keepers who lived in a railway cottage near the station. This elderly couple had closed the gate after the passage of the last train in 1935.
I made these photos using my Lumix LX-series cameras.
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Irish Rail’s station at Manulla Junction exists to serve as a remote transfer point for passengers to/from the Ballina Branch.
Passengers are afforded a cross-platform connection between Dublin-Westport trains and the Ballina Branch local. There is no sanctioned public access from nearby roads.
In 2006, Dublin-Westport services were typically provided by Class-201 hauled Mark III sets,; while the branch saw antique GM diesels hauling steam heated Cravens carriages.
In 2008, Irish Rail completed the re-signaling of its Mayo lines, which eliminated the Manulla Junction cabin and resulted in a re-alignment of trackage and the connection with the Ballina Branch.
Today, Hyundai-Rotem built ICRs work through trains to Westport, while pairs of 2800-series railcars provide the connection with Ballina.
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Westport, Co. Mayo is at the western periphery of the Irish Rail network. I made my first visit to Westport station in February 1998. Over the years, I’ve called in to make photographs on many occasions.
On our visit to Westport earlier this month, we made a brief visit to the old station where I found an Irish Rail ICR waiting to head up to Dublin.
I’ve included a couple vintage photos of Westport station along with views from 14 March 2024.
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I could have titled this post as “Railcar passes Milepost 47 1/4”.
Years ago, when Irish Rail was rebuilding its line between Athenry and Ennis, I’d scoped this location in County Galway south of Ardrahan, near Labane. At the time antique General Motors diesels (classes 141/181) were being used for per-way trains carrying rail, sleepers and ballast.
During our explorations in the west of Ireland earlier this month, Kris and I re-visted the bridge at MP 47 1/4 in order to photograph a revenue train passing the old castle. We were pleased to find that the hedgerows had been recently trimmed.
I made this sequence using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom. In post processing, I made some minor adjustments to enhance sky detail and provide more pleasing contrast.
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Earlier this month we traveled by train from Killarney to Mallow.
While I’ve made many rail journeys through Mallow over the years, more often than not this was just a place to change trains.
This trip we traveled specifically to Mallow. Kris wanted to visit Crystal Earth in the village, where she bought some decorative stones. We also enjoyed lunch and a coffee and caught up with friends at Irish Rail who gave us a driving tour of the town and of the railway station.
An unseasonable snowfall in the Dublin area had resulted in delays to InterCity trains to Cork and Kerry. As as result there was a parade of trains in the evening. While we waited for our return to Killarney to depart, I made a variety of photos of the passing trains.
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Earlier this month, while visiting Killarney, Co. Kerry, we stayed at the Great Southern Hotel, a grand old railway hotel across from Irish Rail’s station.
Years ago, I traveled from Killarney aboard Irish Rail’s Cravens carriages. These rolling antiques were heated with steam that wafted alongside the train as it sat in the station.
On our recent visit, Kris and I decided to take a short spin out the line to Tralee and bought day return tickets, which we used to travel on the evening train. As the train approached Killarney, a young man on the platform, who was speaking with a friend on his mobile phone, exclaimed ‘Like, there’s this really old train. One of the square ones.’
With visions of the Cravens in my head, initially I had difficulty understanding what this fellow was describing. As the 2600-series railcars rolled into Killarney, it occured to me that these were now antiques that had been on the move for thirty years!
In 1982, I would have viewed sets of Budd-RDCs built in the early 1950s as ‘old trains,’ and those cars were just as old to me, as Irish Rail’s 2600s were to the young man at Killarney.
So Kris and I Traveled out and back on the old 2600s. Not quite the experience of traveling on Cravens, but we still enjoyed our trip!
Photos exposed using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series Zoom.
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Working with my Nikon NZ-II mounted on a compact Gitzo tripod, I made a variety of photos around Cork City.
The tripod allowed me use a lower ISO, which required a slower shutter speed but captures a greater amount of data with minimal loss.
Working with Lightroom, I adjusted shadows and highlights to reduce contrast and make for better balanced images despite the prevailing darkness punctuated by harsh artificial light.
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