Arriving at Port Deposit, we heard that Norfolk Southern’s 38V (Enola to Baltimore) was at Perryville and preparing to enter Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. To intercept it, we made the short drive to the former Pennsylvania Railroad station in Perryville on the east side of the Susquehanna River.
Although the Baltimore leg of the wye runs adjacent to the station parking lot, it doesn’t offer a good view because of a fence and some unkempt trees. To get a better angle, I walked to where the line crosses the road on an overhead bridge.
Not every image is calendar photo. My goal was simply to document a train and its location with interesting photos, and these images do exactly that.
Norfolk Southern 8021 leads freight 38V as it is about to leave the Port Road Secondary at Perryville, Maryland. The passenger station is behind me.
The setup: At Washington Boro, we noted a Clear signal for an eastward train. We continued to Columbia while I scouted potential locations near milepost 37. We waited near COLA Tower until I heard on the train radio, “Clear COLA.”—the eastward train calling the nearest signal at the far end of the interlocking. That gave me the 60 to 90 seconds I needed to get into position near Milepost 37.
There was just enough light remaining in the evening sky to compose what was essentially a daylight photograph. I framed the train between the former Pennsylvania Railroad catenary poles, using the colorful sunset sky and the Susquehanna River as the backdrop.
I placed my focus point toward the lower left of the frame and used a very wide aperture to maximize the available light while separating the background from the main subject—Norfolk Southern locomotive No. 4613.
Initially, I wasn’t pleased with the results, but Kris thought that I’d made a great photo. That prompted me to take another look and interpret what I’d captured.
I created two different interpretations from the RAW file, which I first converted to a DNG using DxO PureRAW 5 with DeepPRIME 3 processing and lens corrections.
The top image benefits from carefully adjusted local contrast, while the lower version features greater amont of brightening and sharpening to emphasize detail.
Which interpretation do you prefer?
Stay tuned for more!
Tracking the Light examines the details of railroad photography.
Having rolled by Norfolk Southern’s H19 local freight at Cola Interlocking in Columbia, we took advantage of the slow-speed switch (which restricted the freight’s speed as it continued west on to NS’s Port Road Branch), and zipped ahead of the train by road.
We drove along West Front Street in Marietta, an older part of town near the Susquehanna River. We paused at my preselected location, where I set up my Nikon Z6-III on a 3Pod tripod and waited for the approaching local freight to illuminate the scene.
Marietta’s inky darkness made for a compelling setting, but it also created extreme contrast when the headlights of the leading SD60E pierced the night. I exposed a series of images, yet I think I prefer the photographs made before the locomotives came into view.
Tracking the Light explores railroad photography, day and night!
This was a heavy train ambling east on Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Secondary. Catching a road freight in daylight on this route is always a prize.
We arrived at Blue Rock Road near Washington Boro several minutes ahead of the train.
I made these digital images near the boat launch along the Susquehanna River. I like this location because it is on a long tangent and shows the old Pennsylvania Railroad electrification polls.
Some 45 years have passed since the last electric freight traversed this route.
Massive double coal trains typically work Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Secondary with two units on the headend and a remote pair mid-train.
We had rolled NS 622 by Riverfront Park in Marietta, Pa., then followed it east to Columbia, where I made this sequence of the train looming out of the darkness and passing the signals at the east end of Cola interlocking.
For the headend, I had my N6-III mounted on a 3Pod tripod, which kept it steady, allowing for the setting to remain sharp despite the relatively inky gloom while the locomotive display a bit of motion blur. When the mid-train DPUs approached, I opted for a hand-held pan sequence which kept the locomotives sharp while the setting blurred. I like the panned photos better.
The other evening, mist blanketed the Susquehanna Valley.
Kris, Seamus-the-Dog, and I went out looking for trains.
The signals at Washington Boro were lined for an eastbound on the Port Road Secondary. A distant rumble indicated an approaching train, and all the pieces of our adventure came together. Norfolk Southern 36A (Enola, Pa., to Edgemoor, Delaware) appeared, its headlights piercing the evening fog like the eyes of a primordial beast.
We followed the rolling mass down the valley and arrived at Safe Harbor with ample time to watch the freight pass beneath the immense viaduct that one carried the Atgen & Susquehanna Low Grade.
I made these photos using my Nikon Z6-III. NEF RAW Files processed using DxO PureRaw5.
DxO is offering a discount to Tracking the Light readers. If you are interested in buying DxO PureRaw5, FilmPack 8 and other DxO programs, the discount code “TRACKINGTHELIGHT” will work for 15% discount to any new customer at shop.dxo.com.
Persistence. Patience. Planning. (And an understanding wife!)
For more than two years, I’ve been trying to photograph an eastward train on the Port Road Secondary from the Enola Low Grade Trail at Safe Harbor.
I’ve made at least 30 visits to Safe Harbor. I’ve climbed the steps to the trail no less than a dozen times.
While I’ve caught a westward train from a perch on the old Low Grade; and I’ve made a nocturnal sequence of a coal train from below the Low Grade trestle, my vision of catching a eastward train had from the bridge had thus far remained elusive.
My friend Dan Cupper had shown me his version of a Norfolk Southern train here, and in scouring the archives at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania I found Kodachrome views of PRR electrics by the late James P. Schuman, which inspired my persistence.
My-wife-Kris, Seamus-the-Dog, and I live just 15 minutes from the bridge.
The other evening, Kris and I were on our evening drive. My thoughts of exploring Marietta were foiled by a serious automobile accident at the intersection of PA Routes 772 and 441 that detoured us eastward. So instead we drove to Columbia, and continued on toward Washington Boro, as we have done countless times in darkness.
At Washington Boro the signals displayed ‘clear’ for an eastward movement. There was still an hour’s daylight in the sky.
Kris and I had been following the Susquehanna down river. By the time we reached Port Deposit, Maryland the blue glow of an icy dusk had settled on the river valley.
No luck catching a freight on the move on the Port Road Secondary this evening, but the rich light led to a few choice photographs.
I made this view looking toward Perryville, Maryland with my Nikon Z6-III with f1.4 50mm lens. ISO 1600, f2.5 1/40th second.A view looking west across the Susquehanna. It was brisk.
