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Lucky Friday the 13th

[If you don’t see pictures when this is cross-posted to email or Facebook formatting, click the link to go directly to Tracking the Light] After dinner on Friday the 13th, Kris and I stopped down to Palmer, Mass., to see if anything was moving. In time-honored practice we parked near the signals at CP83. I got out of the car and gave a listen. It was hard to hear over the cacophony of music and…

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Moodna Revisited

In June 1997, my father and I made photographs of Chesapeake & Ohio 4-8-4 No. 614 leading an excursion across the former Erie Railroad Moodna Viaduct at Salisbury Mills, New York. A few days ago, Kris and I revisited this famous bridge located on the old Erie Graham Line cutoff, now part of the route of NJ Transit/Metro North Port Jervis service commuter trains. Parking is available at the…

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Good Crop, Bad Crop

I have mixed feelings on cropping. In some instances, I’ve framed a photo poorly, thus resulting in my cropping from the image an element of interest . In other situations, cropping in post processing can improve a photo by eliminating or minimizing distracting, or otherwise uninteresting elements from the image area. Consider the two photos below. Both are very similar. These were exposed…

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Buffalo & Pittsburgh 3511 at Palmer

On a warm Spring evening, a New England Central job worked the former Central Vermont Railway yard at Palmer, Mass. Facing northward was Buffalo & Pittsburgh 3511—an early example of a GP38-2, now 53 years old. This classic diesel made for some nice images as it worked the north end of the yard near Palmer’s popular Steaming Tender restaurant. I recall a day back in the summer of 1981, when I…

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View from a GG1

During my class last week at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Museum Director Patrick Morrison offered to open up some of the locomotives. I asked if we could visit former Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric 4935. I made these fireman’s side views with my Lumix LX7. It was pretty neat to explore the steam-era streamlined electric locomotive. While at the museum I bought my dad a GG1 4935…

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Grade Signal at Farley

Kris and I arrived at the famous East Deerfield Yard just as Norfolk Southern/Pan Am Southern’s Chicago-Ayer, Mass., intermodal train was rolling though. We drove east to Farley, location of some Boston & Maine era General Railway Signal searchlight style signals. Once common on many railroads , the searchlight has been out of favor for more than 30 years and today relatively few remain. These…

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Twilight at Warren Station

On an evening drive through the Quaboag Valley, Kris and I paused in Warren, Massachusetts. I thought of my first visit here back about 1975, when my dad drove my brother and me to Tucker’s Hardware, then located on Main Street. I pointed out the gap in the building to Kris, indicating where the store had once stood on the main street. The hardware store also sold model railroad supplies. About…

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Amtrak Power Move at CP83

Kris and I were sitting on the platform enjoying dinner at Palmer, Massachusetts’ Steaming Tender restaurant when the unmistakable sound of wheels clattering across the CSX-New England Central diamond grabbed our attention. Amtrak’s 448 wasn’t running, so what was this? Eastward Amtrak Light engines! This included a Cabbage painted for Downeaster service and a P42 in the new ‘Phase 7’…

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New England Central's Veterans & Service Members Locomotive by Night

On that hazy evening in Palmer, Mass., last week, I made several classic nocturnal locomotive portraits of New England Central GP40-2L 3015 that has been painted to honor America’s veterans and service members. During the course of switching, this sharp looking locomotive paused for a few minutes. Thick haze contributed to the laser-like beams of the locomotive headlights. I made these images…

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Up Close with an E44 Electric

My third Railroad Photography 101 Class was a success! This was held at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania last week. While the first part of this 3rd session was conducted outside, the last part of the class was held inside the Museum in the main hall. Museum Director Patrick Morrison asked if we would like to explore some of the restored locomotives and cars on exhibit in the hall and…

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Golden Moon Rising

I have a long history of making night photos of trains in Palmer, Massachusetts. The names have changed since my first attempts at exposing Tri-X in the early 1980s, but Palmer remains an interesting place to practice night rail-photo techniques. The other night a full moon was rising through an ash-tinted sky, (presumably as the result of Canadian wildfires). Kris said, ‘Never mind the train!…

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Eastbound on a Hazy Evening

The other night, Kris and I paid a sponaneous visit to my old stomping grounds at Palmer, Mass. While the New England Central was switching the former Central Vermont Railway yard, we could hear an approaching eastbound freight on CSX’s former Boston & Albany. I set up my 3pod tripod on the platform of the old Union Station (now Palmer’s popular Steaming Tender restaurant), and exposed a…

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Philadelphia's Trains and Trolleys

Just one more week until my 7pm illustrated program featuring more than 6 decades of photography of Philadelphia’s Trains and Trolleys. This will held by the Philadelphia Chapter NRHS at the Elkins Park SEPTA station on June 19th. I will include a variety of photographs. Many of them are from mine and my father’s archives, including this December 31, 2016 view looking west on Girard…

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Exploring Angles at Amos Herr Park

We paid a visit to Amos Herr Park in Landisville, Pa., which provides trails near Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line. I made a few telephoto photographs on a sunny afternoon of Amtrak Keystone 665 as it rolled west under wire. My favorite is the trailing view of ACS64 638. The arrangement of catenary masts with single supports on the north side of the line aids photography by minimizing the number of…

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Philadelphia NRHS June 19thMeeting

At 7pm on June 19th, 2025, I am presenting a slide program to the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society at the Elkins Park, Pa., SEPTA Regional Rail Station. This will feature more than 60 years of photography of railway operations in greater Philadelphia. I am melding together a special selection of mine and my father’s photographs that will touch on a variety of…

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Pacific on the old Rutland

In the summer of 1983, my family traveled to Vermont to photograph Steamtown operations on the Green Mountain Railroad. I made this view on Kodachrome 64 of former Canadian Pacific Railway 4-6-2 1246 on its return run from Chester to Bellows Falls. It was one of several Kodachrome slides that I made that day. In addition, I also exposed some black & white film. I was soon to begin my Senior…

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Gap Views -Telephoto vs near Normal focal lengths

The speed restriction for the curves at Gap offers an opportunity to work with two cameras in tandem. For this sequence, I made a few telephoto views using my Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens, followed by a near normal view with my Z7-II with 24-70mm lens set at 53mm. The beauty of modern autofocus, auto-exposure digital cameras is the ability to switch rapidly between cameras for maximum…