{"id":44714,"date":"2026-07-20T06:22:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=44714"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:40:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T01:40:46","slug":"a-cool-old-photo-for-a-hot-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/a-cool-old-photo-for-a-hot-day\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cool Old Photo for a Hot Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes the once-common makes for the most interesting images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a chilly morning in February 1985, I photographed this eastward Conrail freight at the former New Haven Railroad crossing in Westfield, Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My old Leica IIIa was loaded with Ilford FP4 black-and-white film. Although it was officially rated at ISO 125, I always exposed it as though it were ISO 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I processed the film in straight D-76 developer. I may have made a small proof print of the image, but for forty years the negative sat in a common envelope until I located it for scanning just after Christmas last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conrail’s 6550-series C30-7As were favorites of mine back in the 1980s. These unusual six-motor GE diesels were common on the Boston Line, the former Boston & Albany route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still recall the sound of the long freight as it wound through the curves west of Westfield before No. 6592 came into view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Tracking the Light stays cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes the once-common makes for the most interesting images. On a chilly morning in February 1985, I photographed this eastward Conrail freight at the former New Haven Railroad crossing in Westfield, Mass. My old Leica IIIa was loaded with Ilford FP4 black-and-white film. Although it was officially rated at ISO 125, I always exposed it … Continue reading A Cool Old Photo for a Hot Day<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44716,"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":[8715,5128,7060,6218],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Conrail_6592_eb_at_Westfield_MA_Feb1985_Ilford_FP4_\u00a9Brian-Solomon00745-2.jpg?fit=2048%2C1293","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-bDc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44714"}],"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=44714"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44717,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44714\/revisions\/44717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}