Regular viewers will have noticed that I’ve been focusing heavily on Norfolk Southern’s former Pennsylvania Railroad Port Road Secondary lately. That’s true, and there are several reasons why.

More than 35 years ago, I identified Conrail’s Port Road as a railroad I wanted to photograph in depth. At the time, my brother was studying geology and geography at the University of Delaware in Newark, and I used his apartment as a base for photography throughout the Mid-Atlantic.

My primary objectives then were the Northeast Corridor and CSX’s former Baltimore & Ohio routes in western Maryland and West Virginia. Then, as now, the Port Road was largely a nocturnal railroad, however, and in those days I lacked the ability needed to make consistently successful night action photographs.

Since moving to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I’ve finally had the opportunity to explore, study, and photograph the Port Road more thoroughly. As my familiarity with the line has grown, so has my understanding of its operations. That combination of familiarity, persistence, and patience has finally begun to yield the results that I expect from my efforts.

The photograph below shows the rear of the same unit coal train featured in yesterday’s post, “Coal Train Against an Evening Sky.” The truck racing north on Water Street (PA Route 441) was pure happenstance, but it creates a dramatic comparison between highway and rail freight transportation. 

More Port Road photographs are on the way. 

I wish that I’d at least made an effor to explore the line in Conrail days, which I could have easily accomplished.

Tracking the Light posts daily!