{"id":44750,"date":"2026-07-25T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=44750"},"modified":"2026-07-26T08:28:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:28:37","slug":"reconnaissance-patience-and-a-bit-of-luck-at-pequea-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/reconnaissance-patience-and-a-bit-of-luck-at-pequea-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconnaissance, Patience and a Bit of Luck\u00a0at Pequea Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For more than two years, I\u2019ve been eyeing angles on the former Pennsylvania Railroad arched bridge over Pequea Creek, near where the smaller stream flows into the mighty Susquehanna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Survey photo exposed in May 2025 using a Fujifilm X-T1 fitted with a 12mm Zeiss Touit lens.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Scouting photo made last January with my Lumix LX7.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Scouting photo made last January with my Lumix LX7.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This location comes with a variety of challenges. It is difficult to obtain a perspective from the ground that suitably situates the bridge within the surrounding Susquehanna Valley. The bridge itself is fascinating, but lineside obstructions make it difficult to photograph more than about three locomotives crossing the span.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the biggest challenge is timing. As previously discussed on Tracking the Light<\/em>, finding trains moving on Norfolk Southern\u2019s Port Road Secondary takes patience and luck. We\u2019ve made at least a half-dozen visits to Pequea at various times of day and night without seeing a wheel turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, we got lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the dark of night, we made the long, sinuous drive following Pequea Creek. I had a sense that something was on the move nearby. Then I heard a short transmission on the radio and said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That\u2019s a train calling signals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we arrived at the boat launch, and I discerned, “. . . Clear, West Harbor . . .” from the squawk on the scanner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I missed the details of the approaching train, I knew there was a freight nearby. The bridges at Safe Harbor are visible from the Pequea boat launch, 2.6 miles upriver. Soon, a headlight could be seen tracing the horizon. We relocated to the parking lot on the inland side of the arches. A few minutes later the roar of a GE shook the night air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with my Nikon Z6-III fitted with a 50mm f\/1.4 Nikkor lens, I exposed a series of panned photographs of the eastward Norfolk Southern freight. The train was led by a single six-motor ES44DC GE locomotive, which enabled me to feature several freight cars behind the locomotive. In post-processing with DxO PureRAW 5, I converted the Nikon NEF RAW files to DNG format, simultaneously applying a variety of lens and contrast corrections. Final processing was completed using DxO PhotoLab 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

For more than two years, I\u2019ve been eyeing angles on the former Pennsylvania Railroad arched bridge over Pequea Creek, near where the smaller stream flows into the mighty Susquehanna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44755,"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":[4143,5383],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NS-36A_w_7604_Pequea_PA_\u00a9BrianSolomon_DSC_2514-DxO_DeepPRIME-3_DxO-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1665","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-bDM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44750"}],"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=44750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44757,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44750\/revisions\/44757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}