Tag Archives: #steamtown

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Alcos on Ektachrome

It seems appropriate to photograph vintage Alco diesels on Kodak Ektachrome.

Last summer on our visit to Scranton, Pa., we found a Delaware -Lackawanna local freight working the former DL&W yard adjacent to the Steamtown complex.

A former Lehigh Valley Alco C-420 and a former Delaware & Hudson RS-3 made for a photogenic pair.

My Nikon F3 was fitted with an f2.0 35mm lens and loaded with E100.

Interestingly, in the foreground of one of the photos is Maine Central 2-8-2 No. 519, the sister engine to 501, which is displayed at North Conway, N.H.

It was just about four months from the time of exposure until I received these slides back from the processing lab.

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DL&W Heritage at Steamtown

Scranton’s Steamtown is a museum of North American railroading. But it is also a citadel of Lackawanna heritage. It is the respository of Lackawanna equipment and artifacts.

In its heyday more than a century ago, Lackawanna was an increadibly busy and very profitable railroad. In 1915, some 32 freight and passenger trains in each direction would work the mainline east of Scranton on a daily basis. Today these rails still host the occasional freights operated by Genesee Valley Transportation’s Delaware-Lackawanna, but its a far cry from the busy thoroughfare it was once.

Outside of Scranton, fragments and vestiges of the Lackawanna survive, but decades have passed since these represented a cohesive and vital transportation network. West of Binghamton, New York, little remains of the Lackawanna main line.

Photos exposed using a Nikon Z7-II.

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Steamtown Visit

One of the great things about Steamtown in Scranton, Pa., is that admission is free.

Last week, Kris and I arrived shortly after the park opened and spent several hours wandering around. There’s a lot to see and I hadn’t visited inside the museum in a number of years.

I made these images using my Nikon Z7-II and performed post processing using Adobe Lightroom. I’ve lightened shadows, reduced contrast and warmed the images as required for improved presentation.

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Antiques of the Anthracite Roads

It was a blistering hot afternoon when we exited the Steamtown Mall on the elevated footbridge that offers views of the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western shops and yards that are now part of the Steamtown complex at Scranton, Pa.

Below us was a selection of Central Railroad of New Jersey passenger cars, DL&W multiple units, various cabooses and sad looking freight cars, plus a Reading Company RS-3, some F3s masquerading as a set of Lackawanna units, a few old steam locomotives, and a Leslie rotary plow.

As I was making studies of the museum’s antiques, we heard the unmistakable chortling sound of an Alco 244 diesel . . .

Stay tuned!

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Pacific on the old Rutland

In the summer of 1983, my family traveled to Vermont to photograph Steamtown operations on the Green Mountain Railroad.

I made this view on Kodachrome 64 of former Canadian Pacific Railway 4-6-2 1246 on its return run from Chester to Bellows Falls.

It was one of several Kodachrome slides that I made that day. In addition, I also exposed some black & white film.

I was soon to begin my Senior Year at Monson Jr. Sr. High School, in Monson, Massachusetts. In October 1983, I traveled with my friend Bob Buck on Steamtown’s final run over Green Mountain’s former Rutland Railroad line. In the years after that trip, Steamtown was gradually relocated to Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Near Bartonsville, Vermont, July 1983. Exposed with a Leica 3A with 50mm Summitar.

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Big Alcos at Bridge 60

I’ve always admired the contours of Alco’s Century-Series diesels.

We arrived at Steamtown in Scranton, Pa., as the sun was on the western horizon—late sun on November day. A set of Delaware-Lackawanna’s antique Big Alcos were catching the rays near Bridge 60.

In the mid-2000s, I traveled on some of these iconic diesels as part my research for various book projects. Those photos were all exposed on color slide film. By contrast the images presented here were all made digitally using my Nikon Z7-II. (However, for the sake of continuity I also exposed a few Ektachrome slides here.)

D-L C-636 No. 3642 was originally a Penn-Central unit, and later served as Conrail 6792. In the mid-1980s, I recall seeing Conrail C-636s among hundreds locomotives stored in the Selkirk, New York deadlines. I’ll need to go back to my black & white negatives and see if 3642 (nee 6792) was among the locomotives I photographed there.

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Holiday Baldwin—Steam at Steamtown

Baldwin No. 26 is an 0-6-0 switcher built by the company in March 1929 and employed it as a shop switcher at its sprawling Eddystone Plant.

Today, it is an active locomotive at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Kris and I paid a brief visit to Scranton where I made these photos of old 26 adorned for the holidays.

Exposed using a Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom set to 65mm, f4 1/25th of second, ISO 400.

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Last Ride over Mount Holly

October 23, 1983: I traveled with Bob Buck to Bellows Falls, Vermont for the last run of Steamtown in Vermont.

Canadian Pacific Pacific No. 1246 and all three Green Mountain Railroad RS-1s were assigned to an epic consist that ran over Mount Holly to Rutland and back.

On the westward climb to Mount Holly, I made this view from the window of the train using my Leica 3A.

I was impressed by the large number of chasers on Route 103 in hot pursuit of the train.

The day had started out bright, but soon turned wet and windy.

Kodachrome 64 exposed on October 23, 1983.

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