Kris suggested we make a foray to look for a freight train. So, we were driving around in the darkness near Columbia. During our last few visits to the Port Road Branch we’ve found Norfolk Southern trains on the move between 9:30 and 10:30pm.

I investigated a few places to make night photos near Marietta. Not one to my liking. And then I thought I heard a distant whistle.

Sometimes its best to go with what you know. So we drove back to the intermediate signals at Washington Boro, Pa. These offer a sense of place, provide added railroad interest, and give us a clear signal (literally and metaphorically) that a train is coming.

“Yellow-over-Green”—Approach Medium. Our train was lined.

I set up my 3Pod tripod and made a few test photos. Off in the distance I could hear the roar of heavy freight cars rolling along the Susquehanna.

For almost 20 minutes we listened to the train gradually getting closer. Sometimes there was a whistle for a crossing, but mostly just the clattering of heavy freight cars. I knew this was going to be a huge train.

Finally, the headlights came into view. The headend roared by the signals at about 20mph. It was a symbol 594 (of the 25th), a Natural Resources (former Consol Energy) Bailey Mine to Baltimore unit coal train. I counted more than 100 cars, and then a two unit DPU, which included the Virginian heritage unit in the tradtional navy and yellow paint. By the time the last coal car cleared, I’d counted a total of 212 cars!

These photos were made with my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Nikkor Z-series zoom. Iso set to 25000. NEF RAW files were processed using PureRaw to demosiac and correct for lens defect and finally create a DNG file. I then processed this file using Lightroom to lighten shadows, correct color balance, and a variety of other small adjustments.

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