This is among my favorite signal photos. It has appeared in various publications over the years including my original book on railroad signals.
I made the image on a trip along the old Denver & Rio Grande Western in the Utah desert on September 3, 1996 the mid 1990s with Mel Patrick and my pal TSH .
This shows an ‘Approach’ aspect for an eastward train at the west switch of Solitude siding. Seen in the distance is the headlight of a westward train taking the siding.
I made the image in the minutes before sunrise when the light in the desert is rapidly changing. Exposed with a Nikon F3T.
At 6:38am on March 15, 1997 near Sagers, Utah, photographer Mel Patrick & I were set up to photograph this Burlington Northern Santa Fe container-on-flatcar/trailer-on-flatcar train as it worked east behind a pair of former Burlington Northern SD40-2s.
I exposed this color slide on Fujichrome film using my Nikon N90S with 80-200 zoom lens. Although this image appeared in print many years ago, I opted to scan it last night using an Nikon LS-5000 scanner for presentation here.
I find it hard to believe I made the photo more than 25 years ago!
I like the pink sky, I feel it goes well with my mixed-metaphorical Pink Floyd title reference.
