My epic 8-page article on the Conway Scenic Railroad appears in the May 2020 Trains Magazine.
Months of research and personal experience contributed to my writing and illustrating this feature.
It was my hope to distill the railroad’s history, operations and spirit into these 8 pages.
Ironically, the magazine arrived the week following the railroad entering its unplanned period of dormancy owing to the on-going COVID-19 crisis and New Hampshire’s mandates in reaction to the crisis.
The photo below shows the waiting room on Friday afternoon with the first of several coats of fresh polyurethane in anticipation of the 2020 operating season.
12mm view with XT1 fitted with a Zeiss Touit.
Although ‘cocooned,’ with its operations postponed, Conway Scenic will continue to make preparations to reopen when the time is right to do so.
I’ve received my author’s advance copy of the February 2020 Trains Magazine.
This features both my monthly column and my article on railroad locomotive and signal suppliers.
In my column (pages 16-17), I discuss on-going changes in the North American railcar fleet.
These freight car photos represent some of my initial outtakes for my column prior to submission, but show the size differences between modern boxcars and the older standard cars now being phased out.
Box cars at Brattleboro, Vermont. Lumix LX7 photo.Southern Railway 50 foot boxcars at Washington, Massachusetts. FujiFilm XT1 photo.
Travels have kept me on the move. But last night I finally sat down with the paper copy of December 2019 Trains and read my column on page 13 that talks about New York Central and Conway Scenic.
Cover of Dec 2019 trains.
There I am on page 13!
Here’s the scene I wrote about in the column but didn’t picture in the article. I made a couple of color slides here too.
My author’s advance copy of July 2019 Trains Magazine just arrived.
Page 17 features my discussion of Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s success with operating regular steam excursions on the mainline and what American operators might learn from RPSI’s example.
I’ve spent 21 years photographing and traveling with the RPSI which has made for a rewarding and enlightening experience.
Here’s the cover of July 2019 Train which features Union Pacific’s world famous 4-8-8-4 ‘Big Boy’.
See page 12 of the June 2019 TRAINS Magazine for my monthly column, where in this issue I investigate perceptions of Precision Scheduled Railroading. Read it! You might be surprised.
June 2019 Trains Magazine; main cover photo by Doug Koontz.
I illustrated my column using a photo I made in January of a tail-end DPU (radio controlled remote locomotive) working an empty coal train on Canadian Pacific’s former Milwaukee Road mainline at Duplainville, Wisconsin. I exposed this with my FujiFilm XT1 digital camera.
I also podcast twice a month on Trains: see Sound Cloud for a complete listing of episodes:
Amtrak’s Empire Builder blitzes Brookfield, Wisconsin on a snow Monday evening during my visit to Kalmbach.
Check out my most recent TRAINS Podcast—Conversations with Brian Solomon, where I engage in a lively spontaneous discussion with Trains Magazine editors Angela Pusztai-Pasternak. We talk about Amtrak, Norfolk Southern, CSX and other topics, often taking unexpected tangents.
Pages of 16 and 17 of the March 2019 Trains Magazine features my column titled ‘Silver Lining for Silver Splendor’ and discusses my experiences traveling cross country by Budd Vista Dome.
Brian Solomon’s Tracking the Light Posts Every Day!
My author’s advanced copy of the July 2018 Trains has been eagerly awaited.
July 2018 Trains will be available soon!
In addition to my monthly column, I authored and illustrated two large feature articles.
The first is a detailed nuts and bolts discussion on Positive Train Control signaling, the second a travel guide to one of my favorite places: Germany’s Rhein.
I’m extremely pleased with how both stories turned out. Special thanks to my hosts at SEPTA for allowing me to better understand the intricacies of their modern signaling. And thanks to everyone at Trains Magazine for bringing these stories to print!
My SEPTA PTC story starts on page 24, this is half of the opening spread that spans two pages. Exposed using my FujiFilm X-T1 with 12mm Zeiss lens.
Travel down the Rhine beginning with my two page opener on pages 34-35. Can you guess which photo(s) in this feature were exposed on film and which are digital?
This is the cover of the January 2018 Trains. My column appears on page 17.
Yesterday I received my copy of the January 2018 Trains Magazine that features my most recent column.
Using my Lumix LX7, I made the photo illustrating my text on-board an SNCF TGV high-speed service from Brussels to Lille back in April 2017.
A photo of my iPhone displaying my E-Ticket is this months illustration. Note Tracking the Light business card to the left of the phone.
Below is a view of the same train at sunrise in Brussels prior to departure. Although unstated in the article, this was part of a trip across Europe during my research for my up-coming book on European Railway travel.
The November 2017 issue of Trains Magazine, pages 16 and 17, features my column with suggestions for improving your photography.
I offer some simple and obvious suggestions, but more importantly I challenge some common assumptions and provide some valuable counter-intuitive advice.
The nice thing about advice is that if you don’t like it, you can ignore it.
Tracking the Light Posts Daily!
Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering the photograph used to illustrate the article was exposed with my FujiFilm XT1 with the Zeiss 12mm lens often mentioned in this blog.
In July 2017 TRAINS, I look back at the effects and consequences of the Beeching Era on British Railways. Take a look on pages 16-17!
I’ve illustrated this discussion with a photo I made on the preserved Great Central Railway in 2004. This was part of a sequence exposed on Fujichrome Sensia II (ISO100) color slide film (Tracking the Light tie-in).
It was a pleasant surprise for me this morning when I checked Facebook and learned that Trains Magazine’s Brian Schmidt has nominated me as Mr. Railroad in the magazine’s on-line blog Train of Thought.
This is a real honor and thought I’d pass it on to Tracking the Light’s readers. I guess all those hours scouring libraries and making observations trackside has finally caught a bit of notice.
Tracking the Light is Brian Solomon’s Daily Blog focused on Railway Photography.
A little while ago, I was thrilled to receive my advance copy of the February 2017 Trains Magazine that features my first monthly column (see pages 18 and 19). This is illustrated by a photograph my father exposed with his Leica M on Ektachrome in Livingston, Montana.
Today has been a busy day; earlier Jerry Puffer of KSEM radio in Montana sent me a link to his review of my book A Field Guide to Trains; Locomotives and Rolling Stock published this year by Voyageur Press. Check it out at:
Beginning with the February 2017 issue (expected toward the end of December), I’ll be featured in a regular opinion column for Trains Magazine.
This is a new and exciting opportunity for me. With it I hope to explore a range of topics over the coming months
The idea for a regular Brian Solomon column came about as result of my conversations with Editor Jim Wrinn and Assistant Editor Brian Schmidt who were intrigued by my comparisons between European and North American railroading.
Unlike Tracking the Light, which is focused largely on photography, my Trains columns will be aimed at the railroad industry, its operations and practices.
I’ll be writing narratives that draw from my knowledge of history and technology. My hope to is to both entertain and inform, while also offering unusual perspectives on railroads.
I’ve been contributing to Trains Magazine since 1984. My first published photo in Trains had featured this Mass Bay RRE excursion (that had operated from Boston to Brattleboro, Vermont on February 25, 1984). The photo that appeared in the magazine was an angle of the Amtrak F40PHs on the south end of the train in the Brattleboro yard; by contrast these views were of the train shortly after it arrived at Brattleboro station. All were exposed using my old Leica 3A with 50mm Summitar.
Although it was sunny at New London, by the time we’d reached Brattleboro it was raining very hard. I got soaked making my photographs. At the time I was senior at Monson Jr.-Sr High School, and David P. Morgan was still Trains Editor-in-Chief. Ironically, the original negative that was published in Trains, remains among my missing photographs. Hopefully it may resurface one of these days. This pair of images were from my ‘out-takes’, and I only recently rediscovered them.
Tracking the Light will continue to post everyday!
I was traveling with Dean Sauvola. Just before sunrise on October 22, 1995 we paused at a favorite grade crossing near Colo, Iowa where I made this image (among others).
Rails to the horizon offer the classic textbook illustration of perspective.
Exposed on Fujichrome using a Nikkormatt FTN with 28mm Nikkor AF lens (focused manually). Exposure calculated with a hand-held Sekonic Studio Deluxe photo cell.
A vertically cropped version of this image was featured in August 2008 TRAINS Magazine, and again at the end of a special TRAINS issue commemorating photography.
Last week, John Gruber and I called into TRAINS Magazine for a social visit.
John has been a regular visitor at TRAINS since David P. Morgan was editor. I’ve been calling by since 1994.
Photo by John Gruber
We pre-arranged for the visit during a conversation at Beecherfest. TRAINS’ Matt Van Hattem met us inside Kalmbach’s glassy office building and we spent an hour chatting with the magazine’s editors.
Editor in chief, Jim Wrinn was away on assignment in California where he was on a live-feed covering the pending movement of Union Pacific Big Boy 4014.
For me, railway photography has always been more than just images of tracks and trains, and I brought my Lumix into this inner publishing sanctum to make a few photos of the people that produce America’s most popular railway magazines.
Angela watches the live feed from California to keep pace with the Big Boy.
It was near the end of a hard day editing.
John Gruber and Matt Van Hattem.
Steve Sweeney at TRAINS.
John Gruber and Kevin Keefe.
Matt Van Hattem watches Jim Wrinn on the live feed. “This is so exciting!”
Angela at her computer.
Trains staff watching Editor Jim Wrinn in California with the latest on the Big Boy.
