Tracking the Light Daily Post: On The Main Line at Overbrook, Pennsylvania—Part 1

Visual Quandaries in a Fascinating Place—July 1, 2014

Overbrook retains much of its Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line heritage. Not only is it a surviving portion of four track line, but it retains an active tower, traditional PRR position light signaling, plus its old station buildings and historic signage.

SEPTA at Overbrook. — Outbound SEPTA Silverliner V approaches Overbrook on a sunny evening, July 1, 2014. All the elements are here, but what is the best way to put them together in a dynamic image? Can one photo really do Overbrook justice? Canon EOS 7D photo with 100mm lens.

It remains a busy place with a regular interval SEPTA suburban service and Amtrak Keystone trains.

Curiously, it features track-work dating to an earlier era of railroad engineering. It is located on a sweeping curve with a full set of crossovers set in and around the station and low-level platforms.

Without getting into a detailed discussion on modern railroad engineering, let me just say, that there’s no way an interlocking and station would be situated like this today.

The interlocking at Overbrook is a vestige of steam-era railroad engineering. Today railroads wouldn't consider placing crossovers on curve in the middle of a busy station with low level platforms. Note the signal displaying 'Restricting' with a classic PRR aspect. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. July 1, 2014. — Looking west on the Main Line: The interlocking at Overbrook is a vestige of steam-era railroad engineering. Today railroads wouldn’t consider placing crossovers on curve in the middle of a busy station with low level platforms. Note the signal displaying ‘Restricting’ with a classic PRR aspect. Canon EOS 7D with 200mm lens. July 1, 2014.

Yet, for all this historic railroad interest, Overbrook is a challenging place to make photographs. The curvature which adds so much character to the place, also makes it difficult to find a satisfactory photographic angle. While there is lots of antique infrastructure, it’s hard to find way to include it in balanced compositions.

Further difficulties are caused by nearby trees and a large overhead arched bridge that cast shadows on the line.

On successive evenings, July 1^st and July 2^nd, 2014, my brother Sean and I visited Overbrook to watch the evening parade of trains. Working with my Lumix LX-7 and Canon EOS 7D, I exposed images from a variety of angles. I was particular interested in featuring the old Pennsylvania signaling.