Tag Archives: signal tower

photography

Devon Tower—November 1986

I’ve been scouring my archives looking for interesting photos of railroad interlocking towers for my next book project. I found this gem of Connecticut Department of Transportation Budd SPV2000 No. 50 passing Devon Tower in former New Haven Railroad electrified territory.

C-DOT operated the SPV’s on the Waterbury and Danbury Branches, so what was the single SPV2000 doing on the main line here?

For the moment this is a mystery.

I’ll try to find an answer to that puzzle while continuing my quest for signal tower photos! I’m open to contributions, suggestions, and information for this project, which will be a visual examination of interlocking towers in North America, with a focus on years gone by.

K64 color slide exposed at Connecticut’s Devon Tower on November 29, 1986.

Tracking the Light Examines Signal Towers for an Upcoming Book!

photography

Irish Rail’s Ballinsloe Cabin on its Final Day

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On May 23, 2003, I exposed this photo of a signalman setting the points at Ballinsloe Cabin just a few hours before the historic structure was relieved its operational functions as part of the commission of a Mini-CTC system on Irish Rail’s Galway Line.

Exposed on black & white film using my Rolleiflex Model T.
Exposed on black & white film using my Rolleiflex Model T.

It was the end of an era at Ballinasloe, but one that was a long time in coming. On my first visit to the cabin five year earlier I was warned of its impending closure. Delays in installing the Mini-CTC ultimately prolonged the cabin’s closure. By the time I made this image, the signalman I’d visited in 1998 had retired!

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Brian Solomon’s Night Photo Challenge-Part 2.

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Dusk at Killucan Cabin, May 3, 2002. This was a favorite place of mine to make photos, and before the cabin was closed, I spent many afternoons and evenings here.

Signalman Donal Flynn stands at the base of the cabin poised to hand the electric train staff hoop to a Dublin-bound passenger train (seen, headlight off, approaching in the distance). Exposed on Fujichrome with a Contax G2 with 28mm Biogon Lens mounted on a Manfrotto tripod. Exposure calculated with the aid a Minolta Mark IV light meter.
Signalman Donal Flynn stands at the base of the cabin poised to hand the electric train staff hoop to a Dublin-bound passenger train (seen, headlights dimmed, approaching in the distance). Exposed on Fujichrome with a Contax G2 with 28mm Biogon Lens mounted on a Manfrotto tripod. Exposure calculated with the aid a Minolta Mark IV light meter.

This image was exposed several years before Irish Rail implemented the signalling program that converted the Sligo line to Mini-CTC with remote signaling control and colour-lights. Yet, for me it is evocative of the cabin at the end of its useful life.

The final hints of daylight are symbolic of the cabin’s fate; Soon the light in the sky will fade to darkness and the cabin will close.

Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.

Please share Tracking the Light!

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Stay tuned for more ‘Night Photo Challenge’ images . . .