{"id":40169,"date":"2024-10-03T06:57:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T10:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=40169"},"modified":"2024-10-03T11:22:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T15:22:13","slug":"wicked-roar-at-hovey-hill-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wicked-roar-at-hovey-hill-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Wicked Roar at Hovey Hill Road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In September 1984, I took a long walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started in Palmer, Massachusetts and followed the old Boston & Albany west all the way to North Wilbraham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although, I remember the walk. Some of the details are lost to time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approaching the Hovey Hill Road overpass in Monson, Mass., I heard a wicked throbbing roar coming from the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I know exactly what I was hearing. Back then I only knew a train was close. I scrambled from trackside up to the bridge. Just in time to make these photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An eastward Conrail freight passed by on Track 2 led by three former Erie Lackawanna SD45-2s and and an SD40-2 spliced between them. Wow. What I’d do to experience that again today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what was I hearing? EMD’s SD45-2, like its pre Dash-2 antecedant , the SD45, was powered by a 20-cylinder version of its 645 diesel. This engine produces a characteristic low-frequency sound; when two or more of the type work in tandem, the synchronizing effect of the exhaust from the valves creates a low throbbing sound that carries for many miles. This is especially noticeable when the engines are working in the middle throttle positions. Twenty years later I made a project of preserving that exact sound, but that’s a story for some other time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kodak 35mm Tri-X, exposed with a Leica 3A fitted with a Canon 1.8 50mm lens. Film processed in D-76.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Kodak 35mm Tri-X, exposed with a Leica 3A fitted with a Canon 1.8 50mm lens. Film processed in D-76.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This Conrail freight was one of several I saw that bright day, 40 years ago. Interestingly, I never did anything with these images until now. Pity I didn’t have a good tape recorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Approaching the Hovey Hill Road overpass in the Monson, Mass., I heard a wicked throbbing roar coming from the west.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[5043,5128,5699],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/\u00a9Brian-Solomon-582328.jpg?fit=2048%2C1294","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-arT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40169"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40169"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40175,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40169\/revisions\/40175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}