On Saturday December 13, 2014, Pat Yough and I made a pilgrimage to Port Clinton, Pennsylvania to photograph Reading & Northern 425 working Christmas specials.
I’ve found that one of the best times to photograph steam at work is on cold days. This makes for spectacular shows of effluence from the locomotive.
So, do you expose for the steam or the steam locomotive?
Reading & Northern 425 made a stunning display of steam at Port Clinton on December 13, 2014. Exposed with a Fuji X-T1 with 55-200mm lens.Blue Pacific Under Steam: R&N 425 at Port Clinton, exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.Running gear; valve gear and drivers. Exposed with a Fuji X-T1 with 18-55mm lens.On the dead-head run from Port Clinton to Schuylkill Haven, R&N operated an SD40-2 ahead of the Pacific. The SD40-2 was removed for the revenue passenger trips. Personally, I can’t complain about photographing an old SD40-2, and honestly I’d rather see a diesel leading that hiding behind the steam locomotive as ‘protection power’. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.I made this view at Landingville with Pat Yough’s Fuji X-T1. Now, this would be an ideal camera to photograph an extra move with R&N’s ex-Reading 4-8-4 number 2102!Reading & Northern 425 approaches Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania on the old Reading Company line. Exposed using a Canon 7D with 200mm lens.Reading & Northern 425 pauses at the old station in Schuylkill Haven. Lumix LX7 photo.Crossing the Schuylkill River near Landingville, Pennsylvania. Canon EOS 7D with 100mm lens.The old Pennsylvania Railroad crossed the Reading on a truss span near Auburn, Pennsylvania. More than 35 years have passed since a train last used the old PRR. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens.There are not many places in North America where you can photograph a steam locomotive working upgrade at speed unassisted. (Where’s that SD40-2 now?). Canon EOS 7D.Reading & Northern 425 near Auburn, Pennsylvania. Fuji X-T1 with 18-55mm lens.
