{"id":43746,"date":"2026-03-06T06:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=43746"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:08:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T03:08:57","slug":"high-altitude-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/high-altitude-steam\/","title":{"rendered":"High Altitude Steam!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the mid-1990s, I made a project out of photographing heritage steam on the former Denver & Rio Grande Western.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 1998, while working on my my book Narrow Gauge Steam Locomotives<\/em> (MBI 1999), I made this trailing view of Cumbres & Toltec class K36 2-8-2 No. 484 ascending toward Cumbres Pass at the Tanglefoot Curve on the eastside of the pass\u2014some of the highest altitude trackage in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This works for me on several levels. The most basic level is that it shows the locomotive working hard in its element. It follows variation on classic format; three-quarter sun, drive-rods down, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a preserved locomotive, it is on old home rails and yet I haven’t tried to disguise this image as a photo exposed 30 or more years earlier. Instead, I included ‘Cumbres & Toltec’ in speed lettering on the tender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tanglefoot Curve is a snaky-twist in the line that allows the railroad to maintain an even gradient; without over-emphasizing this unusual trackage, I’ve shown the rails on various levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday March 10th, I’m giving my next class on Railroad Photography at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. The topic of this class is Steam Locomotives. For tickets see: https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/railroad-photography-the-steam-locomotive-with-brian-solomon-tickets-1984093349619?aff=oddtdtcreator<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

I made this trailing view of Cumbres & Toltec class K36 2-8-2 No. 484 ascending toward Cumbres Pass at the Tanglefoot Curve on the eastside of the pass.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43747,"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":[8552,5864,8549,5139,8551],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CTS_484_Tanglefoot_Curve_\u00a9BrianSolomon_119716.jpg?fit=2048%2C1415","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-bnA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43746"}],"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=43746"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43750,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43746\/revisions\/43750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}