Tag Archives: #Trolley

Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

Tokyo Trolley in Traffic

April 22, 1997: I ascended a footbridge over a busy Tokyo thoroughfare to make photos of the rarely captured Tokyo trolley.

Where most of the railway lines in Japan are meter-gauge, the Tokyo Trolley is unusual because it was an early use of 4 ft 8.5 inch gauge train in Japan. The other big users of ‘standard gauge’ in Japan are the Shinkansen routes.

In yesterday’s post, I described the compositional challenges of poles and wires near Bartlett, NH. Compare those images with the sea of poles and wires in this view!

Exposed on Fujichrome Velvia50 using a Nikon N90S with an AF f2.8 80-200mm Nikkor zoom lens.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

photography

Connecticut Trolley Museum-August 13, 2022.

Over the last 45 years, I’ve made countless visits to the Connecticut Trolley Museum at East Windsor.

Last Saturday, Kris and I paid a visit to the museum, in part to experience this classic interpretation of a early twentieth century New England electric railways, and to meet with Daryl Mundis of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society (as described in Sunday’s post).

I made the photos below working with my Lumix LX7.

Lumix RAW files were adjusted in Adobe Lightroom to correct for exposure, contrast, and color temperature.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

photography, Rail transit marathon

Where is Everybody?

In June 2008, I visited San Diego, California for the day and traveled around on the famous San Diego Trolley.

I made this view of the Orange Line near downtown.

I can’t help but wonder, where is everybody?

I’ve photographed light rail in dozens of cities, and usually there’s lots of people about. This was a pleasantly warm weekday afternoon in San Diego and there’s virtually no one on the street. Bizarre!

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

photography, Rail transit marathon

PCCs with John Gruber—July 11, 2016

On July 11, 2016, John E. Gruber collected me at Lake Forest, Illinois. I’d just recently arrived from the East Coast on Amtrak’s Cardinal.

After lunch, we drove to Kenosha, Wisconsin to photograph and travel on the historic PCC trolley cars that operate in a two-mile loop through the center of the town.

It was a beautiful afternoon for photography on the shore of Lake Michigan. I made this pair of images using my FujiFilm XT1 digital camera.

In 2016, I made this post to Tracking the Light:

http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/2016/07/15/kenosha-wisconsin-pccs-july-2016/

Brian Solomon’s Tracking the Light explores railroad photography daily!

Rail transit marathon

San Diego Trolley

In June 2008, I traveled from Los Angeles to San Diego to research and photograph my book titled Railroads of California (Published by MBI-Voyageur Press in 2009).

I traveled over most of the San Diego Trolley system, during which time I made several dozen photos of the cars including this one near downtown San Diego.

I was working with a pair of Canon EOS 3s. This was was loaded with Fujichrome and fitted with a 200mm Canon lens.

Today, looking back on San Diego from frozen New Hampshire, it seems like a long way away and a long time ago.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

SEPTA PCC 1980

In August 1980, on the return from Los Angeles, my family and I visited Philadelphia for a few days.

This was the view from our hotel room.

Working with my vintage Leica 3A rangefinder, I exposed this photo of an inbound SEPTA PCC car working the No. 10 route as it approached the Trolley subway portal off 36th street.

I was working with Kodachrome 64 slide film. The window glass and summer haze contributed to a cyan tint.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

photography, Rail transit marathon

Pittsburgh Light Rail October 1992.

1 Comment

On October 12, 1992, my father and I traveled on the Pittsburgh Light Rail, traversing both the 47 Shannon and Drake Shuttle routes where vintage PCC cars still roamed. Both lines are now defunct. Later in the day, my brother Sean and I revisited these lines by road to make a few more photos.

On that trip, I exposed this Kodachrome slide with my Nikon F3T fitted with a 35mm perspective control lens.

While I was aiming to fill the frame with the rarely photographed PCC car, in retrospect I wished that I’d allowed a little more space around the streetcar.

I’m happy to have made this photo, since it was my only photographic adventure with the Pittsburgh PCCs.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

photography

Not In Service

Leave a comment

On a June 2008 trip to San Diego, I made this photo of a Metropolitan Transit System car in fresh paint running on the Green Line without passengers.

The car’s destination boards boldly read ‘Not in Service.’

I exposed the photo on Fujichrome slide film using a Canon EOS3 with 24mm lens.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!

photography, Rail transit marathon

Tokyo Trolley.

Leave a comment

In a city laced with railway lines, perhaps one of the most obscure is the light rail line that I call ‘the Tokyo Trolley’.

So here in the land of Fuji, I exposed this Kodachrome view on April 22, 1997, of the trolley leaving a private right of way and beginning a section of street trackage.

While I only have a few photos of the Tokyo Trolley, I’m quite pleased to have taken the time to seek out this unusual Japanese railway operation.

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!