Tag Archives: #Reading & Columbia

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Perfect Light at Lancaster Junction!

Over the last couple of years I’ve paid a few brief visits to Lancaster Junction. This was once a significant divergence on Reading Company’s Reading & Columbia route.

Last week, after departing Manheim having photographed Norfolk Southern’s H23 local freight, I droved directly to Lancaster Junction ahead of the train.

Track speed on NS’s Lititz Branch is a little fast than a jog, so I arrived a solid five minutes ahead of the train. While waiting I met a local historian who showed me where the old station had once stood and other vestiges of this once fascinating place.

I’m thinking that Lancaster Junction might be a neat place to put on my reincarnated ‘Wee Reading Company’ which hopefully will begin to take shape in our basement.

Below are a few historical USGS topo maps the show the Junction at various times (1904 and 1990s).

Lancaster Junction, Pa, from a 1904 USGS topo map. Note the small yard on the leg of the wye heading toward Lancaster.
This 1990s era map shows the now-abandoned alignment of the Reading & Columbia line toward Columbia, Pa. This section is now a rail-trail. The location of my photos below were taken from the area represented by the red-cross and circle on this late-era map. It is a place well suited to early afternoon early winter sunlight. Today there are no switches or sidings remaining at the junction and the station building are but a memory.

When the H23 began to sound its horn for the Auction Road crossing, I was all set with my Nikon Z6 and my father’s old M4 loaded with Ektachrome 100. A puffy cloud was threatening to darken the scene, but this cleared off by the time the locomotives loomed into view. With the digital camera, I made photos that capture the scene as much as the train itself, while the lone color slide was more about the locomotives.

I made this sequence of photos, gave the locomotive engineer a friendly wave, parted company with my new friend, and then plotted my course for the next place to roll by H23. The Ektachrome slide will have to wait for another day, as it will need processing.

As the train approached a puffy cloud was tickling the sun, but it cleared off by the time the locomotives walked by me.

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Live Rail at Manheim

As 2025 was nearing its end, I had a couple hours in the afternoon where the sun graced the sky.

With hopes of finding Norfolk Southern’s H23 local on the Lititz Secondary, I drove to the branch’s modern-day namesake, only to find that the train had gone.

Following the line of the old Reading & Columbia, I overtook the slowly moving freight near Manheim, and drove to intercept it passing the former Reading Company station, now preserved by the local historical society. Among other things, they display a PRR position light signal and a former New York Central System boxcar.

I arrived in just enough time to expose these images using my Nikon Z6.

The chase was on! More fodder for the recasting of the Wee Reading Company, or just photos of a passing freight? It is too soon to say.

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Big Locomotive at Lititz

If you time it just right, Lititz Springs Park in Lititz, Pa., can be a nice place to catch a train. At other times it’s a nice place to watch the ducks.

We arrived around noon, just as Norfolk Southern’s H23 local was pulling down from a switching move. The track ends less than a quarter mile east of here on the former Reading Company’s Reading & Columbia line.

Tracking the Light is Brian Solomon’s blog on railroad photography.

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NS-5656 in the fields near Manheim.

I’ve made a variety of exploratory trips along the former Reading Company’s Reading & Columbia line, but until last Thursday, I had not had the opportunity to photograph a train in motion.

Working with my FujiFilm XT-1, I set up at South Penryn Road in Manheim, Pa., to catch Norfolk Southern’s local freight on its way to Lititz. By using a very low angle, I was able to better show the wheels on the rails. This perspective gives a visual separation by allowing you to see the grass on the far side of the train.

Track speed is very casual, so I had no difficulty getting ahead of the train for more photos on this pastoral and rarely photographed portion of the old Reading.

Photo exposed in RAF Raw format using a FujiFilm XT1 with 16-50mm Fujinon lens. The raw file was converted using Iridient X-Transformer and then imported into Adobe Lightroom for post processing adjustments which include a mask to improve detail in the sky.

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Lancaster Junction

There’s no junction at Lancaster Junction anymore.

Reading Company’s Reading & Columbia route split at Lancaster Junction. One line continued toward Landisville where it crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad on the way to Columbia. The other line, curved to the left and went into Lancaster, Pa.

Today, the railroad is operated by Norfolk Southern, and only the branch to Lancaster remains. The route beyond Lancaster Junction is now a trail.

I’ve made a couple of visits to this spot in recent weeks. I wished I’d seen this location in it heyday, but I’m happy there’s still some trackage here. Maybe someday, I’ll catch an NS local freight on its way to or from Lititz.

Lancaster Junction looking toward Lancaster; the old route on the right is now a trail.
Looking toward Lititz.

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Angles on the old Reading & Columbia

The old Reading & Columbia route of the Reading Company was fragmented during the Conrail-era and what remains is operated by several different railroads.

Historically, the line offered the Reading Company a through-route from greater Reading, Pa., via a junction at Sinking Spring, to Manheim, and Lancaster Junction to the once-important shipping center at Columbia, Pa., with branches to Mt Hope and Lancaster.

Today, the eastern end of this route is operated as part of the East Penn Railroad, with locomotives stored at the old Reading Company station in Reinholds. This continues via Denver and Stevens toward Ephrata.

I began exploring this route after we moved to Lancaster last year. Last week, I made another inspection of this route, making photos of the line using my Lumix LX7. I started at Reinholds and worked my way west.

One of these days, I hope to catch a train on the move over these rails.

Reinholds, Pa., looking toward Sinking Spring.
Reinholds, Pa., looking toward Sinking Spring.
Reinholds, Pa., looking toward Sinking Spring.
Reinholds, Pa., looking toward Sinking Spring.
Denver, Pa.,
Denver, Pa.
Denver, Pa.
Denver, Pa.
Garden Spot Road, near Stevens, Pa.
Garden Spot Road, near Stevens, Pa.

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