I boarded Amtrak’s Cardinal, train 51, at Trenton.
A little more than 28 hours later, having traveled through 10 states plus the District of Columbia, I arrived in Chicago, where I had 45 minutes to walk to my next train.
I enjoyed the seemingly endless panorama, but was happy to get some fresh air upon arrival.
Here are some views from my journey exposed with my Lumix LX7.
Amtrak 51 arrives on Platform 4 at Trenton, New Jersey. Lumix LX7 photo.Amfleet 2 to Chicago!Philadelphia Zoo at Zoo Junction.30th Street Philadelphia.Wilmington, Delaware.I thought I saw a ghost! Here’s one of Amtrak’s AEM-7s working out its final miles on Maryland MARC at Baltimore.I’ve had bad luck catching Amtrak’s ACS-64 642 painted in a special livery for America’s Veterans. Here it is at Ivy City in Washington D.C. One of these days I’ll get it on the move!K-tower Washington Union Station.I got a bit of air at Washington D.C. while 51 exchanged its electric for a diesel.Amtrak’s logo represent tracks on a rolling landscape.Here’s my car on the platform at Washington Union Station.Manasass, Virginia.13 months ago I was here to see Norfolk & Western J-Class steam locomotive 611.Rural Virginia.A view at Gorduonsville, Virginia.This preserved Chesapeake & Ohio GP7 was on display at Clifton Forge, Virginia.CSX GE diesel at Clifton Forge. I saw quite a few freights on the move on the old C&O route. More than I expected include several unit coal trains.
In West Virginia I saw considerable evidence of recent floods.Hinton, West Virginia-one of several small towns still served by the train.Hinton, West Virginia. We were here for at least ten minutes.Old C&O signal tower west of Hinton.Rolling along the New River Gorge. I used a relatively slow shutter speed to capture the effect of motion.Work trains to help repair flood damage. Train 51 was blocked at several locations as repairs were still underway.Fixer upper, West Virginia.Upon leaving Alexandria all the way to Chicago my train was fully occupied. I was surprised at the large numbers traveling to and from intermediate stations. I’d guess 50 or so got on in Cincinnati when we stopped at about 2:30 Am. Why not run a day train?Sunset in the New River Gorge.Black tea at sunrise crossing the Indiana corn fields.Monon, Indiana.Chicago.Crossing 21st Street Bridge, Chicago.Cardinal’s Chicago passengers at Union Station.
Contrasts in transport: A CSX local ambles along a four-lane highway south of Benwood, West Virginia.
It was a bright clear morning on August 18, 2011 when Pat Yough and I followed this freight on the old Baltimore & Ohio to make a series of images including this one.
What does this photograph say about the road? The railroad?
Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D fitted with 28-135mm lens set to 38mm. ISO 200, f7.1 1/500th of a second.
In the gutter between the road and the tracks is some rubbish. Litter. I wish it weren’t there. Using Photoshop I can make it disappear. I haven’t.
For that matter, I can change the color of the locomotives, add clouds to the sky, or remove some cars from the road. I haven’t done that either.
CSX westward hopper train approaches ‘Z’ Tower in Keyser, West Virginia.
This was the icon-image used to advertise my November 2008 Silver & Steel photographic exhibition. I’d exposed it six years earlier on a three-week autumnal photographic exercise that began in Vermont, and brought me as far west as Omaha. I returned east via Cincinnati, Roanoke and Washington D.C.
The photograph was among those made on the outward leg of the trip. I’d met some friends for a few days of photography on CSX’s Mountain Subdivision, the old Baltimore & Ohio ‘West End’—the original B&O mountain crossing. On the morning of October 18th, we found this westward empty hopper train working west through the fog covered Potomac River Valley. Getting ahead of the train, we exposed a sequence of images of it near ‘Z’ Tower at the west-end of Keyser Yard. The sun had begun to burn off the fog, some of which still clung to the river valley and surrounding hills making for a cosmic setting worthy of the old B&O.
Working in silhouette can be tricky; low light and fog helps. An image like this works when the main subject is clearly defined from the background. The ditch-lights on the leading locomotive are crucial to maintaining compositional balance both identifying a focal point and indicating action; without the lights the image takes on a completely different character.
I was working with my Nikon N90s and a Nikkor f2.8 180mm lens and Fujichrome Astia 100 film. Fuji introduced Astia in 1997, and supplied it concurrently with its Provia 100. Astia offered a slightly warmer color balance, and a rich black, remaking it an ideal medium for autumnal situations. Unfortunately, Astia was replaced with Astia 100F in 2003. While nominally sharper, I never found the Astia 100F as pleasing as the original Astia. Asked about this film choice, my friend Brian Jennison, once exclaimed, ‘Its nastia with Astia!’ Indeed it is!
