{"id":44695,"date":"2026-07-18T06:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T10:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=44695"},"modified":"2026-07-15T22:29:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T02:29:56","slug":"conrail-2001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/conrail-2001\/","title":{"rendered":"Conrail 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HAL, Why Do I Keep Coming Back to This Image?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent months, I\u2019ve reviewed thousands of my Conrail photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I keep coming back to this image, made near milepost 67 in Brookfield, Mass., of an eastward Conrail freight, probably SEMB (“The Queen”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a moderately competent execution of a classic style: a three-quarter view exposed with a 50mm lens of a freight marching along the former Boston & Albany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I\u2019m saying is that, photographically, this image is unremarkable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, it means a lot to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my teenage years, Conrail’s GE B23-7s were common locomotives on the Boston Line. This image captures a time on the railroad when it was most fascinating to me. At every turn, I was finding something new. The roar of every approaching train brought fresh excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had little money. No visions of the future. No past to scrutinize. Just an antique Leica in hand, loaded with hand-rolled black-and-white film, to preserve the passage of trains for posterity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Turn back the clock, HAL.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think you know that I cannot do that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Tracking the Light<\/em> makes allusions . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had little money. No visions of the future. No past to scurtinize. Just an antique Leica in hand, loaded with hand-rolled black & white film, to preserve the passage of trains for posterity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44697,"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":[5128,8712,8711],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Conrail_eastbound_at_Brookfield_MA_mp67_FP4_May_5_1985\u00a9Brian_Solomon22235.jpg?fit=2048%2C1269","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-bCT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44695"}],"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=44695"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44698,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44695\/revisions\/44698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}