{"id":42013,"date":"2025-06-24T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=42013"},"modified":"2025-06-23T22:28:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T02:28:30","slug":"lucky-friday-13th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/lucky-friday-13th\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucky Friday the 13th"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[If you don’t see pictures when this is cross-posted to email or Facebook formatting, click the link to go directly to Tracking the Light]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After dinner on Friday the 13th, Kris and I stopped down to Palmer, Mass., to see if anything was moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In time-honored practice we parked near the signals at CP83. I got out of the car and gave a listen. It was hard to hear over the cacophony of music and voices emanating from the Steaming Tender. I gazed east on the old Boston & Albany and saw that the yard was mostly empty. Then, I walked to New England Central’s former Central Vermont yard on the opposite side of the parking lot. While there, I caught a hint of a long-familiar sound. Freight cars drifting downgrade . . .Eastbound!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turning on the hoof, I ran back to the signals, and gave it a second listen. . . . . definitely an eastbound on the B&A! I stepped back to frame up the photograph and saw the switch was lined for the controlled siding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the CSX freight came into view and took the siding, I could hear another train. Eighty-five cars passed me, and when the last had cleared the signals, I saw New England Central’s freight waiting to cross the diamond southbound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had timed our arrival perfectly! Lucky for us, but it helps to be tuned to the sounds of railroading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the paint on the engines was different and the trees had grown, it was for that few minutes like old times in my old haunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos exposed using a Nikon Z7-II, NEF Raw files converted to DNG format using DxO PureRaw and adjusted for exposure, contrast and color using Lightroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Turning on the hoof, I ran back to the signals, and gave it a second listen. . . . definitely an eastbound . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42017,"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":[6060,10,6108,48],"tags":[5042,3786,8346,5047],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/CSX_eastbound_M436_CP83_Palmer_MA_DSC_4273.jpg?fit=2048%2C1273","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-aVD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42013"}],"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=42013"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42021,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42013\/revisions\/42021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}