Wayne Duffett of TEC Associates included my 2007 photo of Middletown & Hummelstown 2-6-0 number 91 crossing Swatara Creek on the cover of the railroad’s 2023 Bridge Inspection Report. Wayne dedicated the report to the memory of railroad’s Wendell Dillinger who passed away in late 2023.
I made the photo on a visit to the M&H with railroad historian Kurt Bell. At the time I was researching for my book Railroads of Pennsylvania, published in 2008 by Voyageur Press.
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Yesterday (May 5, 2023), I accompanied Wayne Duffett of TEC Associates on his annual bridge inspection of the Conway Branch.
We picked up Conway Scenic Railroad HyRail truck TC206 at North Conway and went by road to Conway, where we arranged to set down on the track. From there we proceeded timetable west to look at bridges.
It was a fine Spring morning and probably the nicest day in the Mount Washington Valley in more than a week. A perfect time to be looking at bridges.
I made notes and took photos as Wayne carefully scrutinized every bridge between Conway and North Conway.
I made these images with my Nikon Z7-II, but also exposed photos with my Lumix LX7. I’ll present some of those photos at a later date.
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The other day, I accompanied Wayne Duffett of TEC Associates on his annual inspection of the bridges on Conway Scenic’s Conway Branch.
This railroad was built in the early 1870s, by Boston & Maine constituent railroad, the Portsmouth, Great Falls & Conway. The last B&M train operated over the branch in 1972, nearly 50 years ago.
The bridges on the line have long and varied histories.
I made several hundred photographs as Wayne tapped, rapped, poked, measured and visually inspected each and every span.
The Conway Branch has wooden, stone, iron, steel and conctrete bridges.
I learn a lot when scrutinizing a railroad at this level.
All the photos were exposed using my Nikon Z6.
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Last week, I traveled with Wayne Duffett of TEC Associates on the fourth of four Conway Scenic Railroad bridge inspections.
Midway through the day we inspected Frankenstein Trestle, a steel/iron tower supported viaduct that was built in sight of the ridge of the same name.
Frankenstein is really two bridges, one inside the other as the result of a strengthening effort by the Maine Central in 1930.
I made these images of the famous bridge using my FujiFilm XT1 with 16-55mm zoom lens.
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Last week involved high adventure!
The most adventurous was inspection of Conway Scenic’s Willey Brook Bridge in Crawford Notch (NH)—From below track level—by climbing through the girders with ropes, and abseiling the central support.
All activities in accordance with proper procedure.
I’ve accompanied bridge inspector Wayne Duffett of TEC Associates on several of Conway Scenic’s bridge inspections, but this one was by far the most memorable.
I made my photos using a Lumix LX7.
There’s a time an a place for a big camera, and times and places for small ones. A 4×5 studio camera would not have been well suited for this day’s photography.
Supplemental photography was supplied by Wayne’s pocket Nikon AW130 digital camera (a water proof model).
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Last week, I accompanied bridge inspector Wayne Duffett of TEC Associates on the second leg of his annual Conway Scenic bridge inspection.
Our first stop was the East Branch truss near Glen, NH.
I made these photos using my FujiFilm XT1 with 16-55mm lens. Images were converted from camera RAW to DNG format by Iridient X-Transformer then adjusted for internet presentation in Adobe Lightroom.
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