{"id":44851,"date":"2026-08-09T07:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=44851"},"modified":"2026-08-09T07:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T11:46:14","slug":"another-252","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/another-252\/","title":{"rendered":"Another 252."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tracking the Light<\/strong> has occasionally featured Conway Scenic Railroad’s former Maine Central GP38 No. 252. As Conway Scenic\u2019s manager for marketing, I’ll admit that\u2014yes, I like that locomotive. As I’ve often said, it was delivered just one week after I was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among my tens of thousands of color slides is a Logan slide box (a metal storage box) labeled “Colorado and Utah.”<\/strong> It is filled primarily with images exposed between the summer of 1995 and the autumn of 1998, when I was making regular trips to the Rockies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While searching for another photograph, I came across these Fujichrome Provia slides exposed on September 1, 1996, depicting a Southern Pacific empty coal train in the yard at Minturn, Colorado, on the Denver & Rio Grande Western’s west slope of its Tennessee Pass crossing. Leading the train is a relatively new GE AC4400CW, No. 252.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I exposed these just a few weeks before the Southern Pacific system\u2014including the D&RGW\u2014was formally absorbed into Union Pacific. The brief wink of sunlight was fortuitous, while the foreboding sky seemed prophetic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly thirty years later, is Norfolk Southern approaching a similarly pivotal moment? I wonder what things will be like in 2056?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Tracking the Light<\/em> posts thoughts on railroad photographs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The wink of sun was fortuitous and while the foreboding sky seemed prophetic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44852,"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":[8738,8739,5361,8737,8740],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/SP_252_at_Minturn_Colo_Sept1_1996\u00a9Brian_Solomon_\u00a9Brian_Solomon_210976.jpg?fit=2048%2C1379","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-bFp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44851"}],"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=44851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44854,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44851\/revisions\/44854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}