The Road To Acela

Amtrak Acela; Holmesburg Junction, Pennsylvania; November 29, 2009

Amtrak's Acela Express has certainly been a success. Since its inception a little more than a decade ago, Amtrak has made significant inroads into the market that has been dominated by the shuttle airlines between Boston, New York and Washington. The Northeast Corridor is the closest the United States has to true high-speed rail.

It was the Pennsylvania Railroad that brought electrification to the railroad between Washington and New York. The Pennsy was just about to merge into the Penn Central (with the New York Central) when it debuted its new high speed Metroliner trains. These self-propelled trainsets raised speeds on the Corridor, and operated through the Penn Central years and into Amtrak in 1971; they were the precursors to the Acela.

Amtrak Metroliner; Perryville, Maryland

The Metroliners were aging, and not gracefully. By the 1990s conventional locomotive-powered trains were holding down Metroliner schedules (and carrying the name as well), while the actual Metroliner cars were bumped to Keystone service between New York, Philadelphia and Harrisburg. Amtrak needed new high-speed trains. But first, in order to capture the Boston market successfully, it had to upgrade the Corridor east of New York, where electric locomotives powered trains to New Haven, Connecticut, and diesels continued east to Boston. Amtrak commenced to stringing wire in anticipation of its new trains.

First, Amtrak had to decide on what it wanted. To get a better idea, it borrowed two trainsets in regular service in Europe. First up was the X2000 from Sweden. Fast and lightweight, the X2000 featured tilt technology that allowed the passenger cars to tilt on curves, countering centrifugal force and allowing for higher speeds on curves (a necessity given the curve-laden nature of the railroad east of New Haven). The X2000 certainly impressed Amtrak as it worked in regular service for several months during 1993.

Amtrak X2000; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; April 28, 1993

The next train to test on Amtrak in regular service was the ICE (Inter City Express) from Germany. While the X2000 was light and nimble, the ICE was brute force with its rapid acceleration. With the two trainsets tested, Amtrak took the best of both worlds, combining the tilt technology of the X2000 with the strength of the ICE. Bombardier was hired to build the new trains, which were called American Flyers while under construction.

Amtrak ICE; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; October 6, 1993

Amtrak Acela; Old Greenwich, Conn.; August 2001

Acela finally made its debut on December 11, 2000. While there have been occasional problems (the entire 20-train Acela fleet was taken out of service briefly in 2002 and again in 2005 for maintenance issues) there is no question that it has been a success. I was fortunate enough to catch the Amtrak test trains (X2000 and ICE) and even rode the cab of the ICE between Trenton and New York and back (it was quite a ride!). When the Acelas entered service the upgrading of the New York-Boston segment hadn't been quite completed -- obviously the wire had been finished from New Haven to Boston, but the older infrastructure between New York and New Haven needed replacing. In August 2001 I was able to get a new Acela trainset passing under decades-old triangular wire on the former New Haven railroad (right).

Some say the Pennsylvania Railroad's classic GG1 locomotives were the best thing to ever run under wire on the Northeast Corridor. It would be foolish to argue otherwise, so I won't. But I will say the Acela trainsets are a worthy successor to the GG1s and make for quite a sight coming down the tracks. Power and speed -- all in a classy package. They have one decade under their belts now and should have another two or three to go.

Southern Steam Specials

Southern Railway (Texas & Pacific) No. 610; Mitchells, Virginia; August 1978

There was no other steam program in the diesel era as ambitious as the program run by the Southern Railway (and later successor Norfolk Southern) starting in the 1960s and running until 1994. A modest program expanded to the point where there were two main line steam powered trips running almost every weekend except in the winter. Over the years I had the chance to see many of the locomotives used by the Southern and NS.

My first encounter with the Southern Steam Program was in August 1978 when I convinced Dad to chase a trip from Alexandria to Charlottesville in Virginia. Power for the trip was leased Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 No. 610 (above), a massive locomotive. This would be the only day I would see 610 under steam.

My first National Railway Historical Society convention was the gathering in Washington, D.C., over Labor Day weekend in 1979. The Southern lacked a fast main line locomotive in its roster, so it turned to a leased engine, Canadian Pacific "Royal Hudson" No. 2839. With its tall drivers and impressive speed, Southern's Master Mechanic-Steam William Purdie commented, "Now I have a locomotive that can outrun the railfans."

Canadian Pacific No. 2839; Orange, Virginia; September 1979

Now that I knew about the Southern program, trips to Alexandria to chase steam became common. In March 1980 I followed Southern 2-8-0 No. 722 as it ran over the Front Royal branch. The 722 was one of the original locomotives in the steam program and its light weight, low drivers and strong pulling power made it the perfect locomotive to pull low-speed trips on the branch lines.

Southern Railway No. 722; Springfield, Virginia; March 29, 1980

In 1981 Southern found itself power-short. The 722 was down and couldn't work the Front Royal branch, so the Southern turned to a privately-owned locomotive -- Jack Showalter's ex-Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 No. 1238 (lettered for Showalter's Allegheny Central). The Southern advertised a photographer's special that year, promising numerous runbys. I tried to get tickets, but the trip sold out so I decided to chase. Somehow the locomotive ran low on coal, so after about two photo stops the rest of the runbys were canceled. The chasers were the winners that day!

Allegheny Central 1238; Linden, Virginia; June 1981

 Canadian Pacific 2839 was soon returned to its owner and the Southern started looking for another high-speed main line locomotive. This time they turned to the Kentucky Railway Museum and discovered ex-Chesapeake & Ohio 2-8-4 No. 2716. Unlike the Royal Hudson, which Southern ran in its Canadian Pacific colors, the 2716 was taken into the Birmingham shops and had its distinctive C&O look changed to a Southern look by Mr. Purdie. I chased one trip with 2716 to Charlottesville, but in 1982 firebox problems sidelined the locomotive for good after a too-brief career. I had the chance many years later to ask Mr. Purdie what his favorite locomotive was in the program and he quickly said, "The 2716."

Southern No. 2716; Culpeper, Virginia; July 1982

 The star of the Southern Steam Program was always 2-8-2 No. 4501. Painted in its apple green, it was the flagship locomotive of the program. Somehow, though, I could never catch up with 4501. A trip to Shenandoah, Virginia, to chase it resulted in chasing diesels substituting for it. Finally, in 1985 I made it to Richmond to chase a trip to Keysville, Virginia. Finally, I had crossed paths with the 4501. It would be the only time I would see her under steam.

Southern Railway No. 4501; Amelia Court House, Virginia; August 1985

In 1982 the Southern Railway merged with the Norfolk & Western to create Norfolk Southern. With the N&W a part of the railroad's legacy, a pair of N&W steam locomotives was added to the mix. Class J 4-8-4 No. 611 was first, and one of the most memorable chases I had with her was in September 1989 on a trip from Roanoke to Walton up Christiansburg Hill. The trip was billed as a recreation of the N&W passenger train Powhattan Arrow and the 611 pulled an all-tuscan red consist -- plus, it carried no water canteen behind the locomotive tender, one of the rare times this happened. One of my favorite shots from that day was of the 611 passing under the coaling tower at Vicker, Virginia.

Norfolk & Western No. 611; Vicker, Virginia; September 1989

The Norfolk Southern Steam Program came to an end in 1994. There are plenty more stories and plenty more photos from those trips, and we'll relate a few of those in the coming months.

Jim Boyd - Bringing Night Photography Out of the Dark

Steamtown U.S.A.; Riverside (Bellows Falls), Vermont; October 1979

Jim Boyd, former editor of Railfan & Railroad magazine, passed away on New Year's Eve 2010. It would probably be fair to say that no other single person influenced the railroad hobby as much as Jim did in the 1970s and 1980s. Through the magazine (which started in 1974) he shaped the rail enthusiast world by bringing steam trips and train chasing and numerous other aspects of the hobby into the mainstream. And while he didn't do anything groundbreaking, what he did do was make some of the mysteries of railroad photography available to the masses through his Camera Bag column and his group night photo sessions.

Ah, the group night photo session. For decades photographers have been taking pictures of trains after dark. And while people like O. Winston Link were doing it on a grand scale with dozens of flashbulbs lighting up entire towns in one big burst of light, there were people who were doing night photography on a smaller scale with maybe a single flash gun. Open flash photography (often called "painting with light") involved locking open the camera's shutter, loading a bulb into the flash gun, firing the flash at a point on the subject being photographed, ejecting the spent bulb, loading a new bulb, moving several feet along the subject and firing the flash at a different point on the subject. Eventually the entire locomotive would have had a flash on it and the shutter would be closed. Depending on the size of the subject and how fast the photographer could eject and reload bulbs, the shutter could be open for 30 seconds up to two minutes or more. And while Link was working with moving subjects that required synchronization to one camera, the static subjects of open flash could be captured by multiple cameras simultaneously.

Jim Boyd was not the first to do open flash photography. He probably wasn't the first to conduct a group night photo session. But in the 1970s his night photo sessions at Cass Scenic Railroad in West Virginia and Steamtown U.S.A. in Vermont (above) brought delightful results to groups that could include 100 or more photographers. The first group night photo session of Jim's that I attended was one at Steamtown. His night sessions soon became staples of the National Railway Historical Society's annual conventions. At the 1980 Convention in Toronto (the second one I attended) he did night sessions that included streetcars, Canadian Pacific diesels and GO Transit's commuter trains.

GO Transit; Mimico, Ontario; August 1980

Richmond Triple Crossing; Richmond, Virginia; July 1983

 Perhaps the most ambitious of the night photo sessions occurred at the NRHS Convention in Richmond, Virginia, in 1983. Richmond has the only "triple crossing" of three main line railroads in North America; at the time there was the Southern Railway at ground level, with Seaboard System above it and Chessie System above them all. Jim arranged for all three railroads to provide locomotives and short trains and he and his staff lit the entire scene for about 100 photographers. It will go down as one of the most classic open flash shots of all time. Today the Triple Crossing is still there, with Norfolk Southern on the bottom and CSX Transportation controlling the two elevated levels.

The 1991 NRHS Convention was in Huntington, West Virginia, and the night photo session had a new problem -- it was pouring rain. While the photo line was busy getting wet and trying to keep cameras dry, Jim (who was also an avid diver) simply put on a wetsuit so he could throw the flash in the storm. The session featured two large steam locomotives, Nickel Plate Road 765 and Pere Marquette 1225, two locomotives that would later star together 17 years later at Train Festival in Michigan in 2008.

Pere Marquette 1225 and Nickel Plate 765; Huntington, West Virginia; August 1991

If I recall correctly, Jim's last NRHS night session was at San Jose in 1992. By this time the flashbulbs that he used (large bulbs the size of a standard household lightbulb) were getting expensive -- if you could find them at all. Jim had shared his knowledge of how to conduct night photo sessions with a new generation, and these guys had adopted high-powered strobes to replace flashbulbs. Jim was perfectly happy to stand back and watch the next generation take over. Eventually I wound up conducting several night photo sessions for NRHS and other events. I still use the same commands Jim used -- "stand by" just before the shot is ready to be taken and "open 'em up" when the flash is ready to be thrown. Every time I yell "open 'em up" and here the clicks of dozens of shutters being tripped, I'll say a small thank you to Jim Boyd for sharing his knowledge that has let the photographers following him get the same kind of results that made Jim famous.

The Last Roll of Film

Norfolk Southern; Kimball, West Virginia; April 18, 2006

Yesterday marked the final day that Kodachrome film was developed anywhere in the world. While slide films are still being produced and developed, it was Kodachrome that made color slide photography popular. And yesterday as I was reaching for a stack of slides to scan, I just happened to grab the last roll of film I ever shot. No, it wasn't Kodachrome - I had switched from Kodak's standard bearer to Fuji's Provia line of films in 2001, as I felt that Kodachrome was in a state of decline - but still I thought that it was perhaps ironic (and certainly coincidental) that as an era in film came to close I would be scanning slides from the end of my personal film era.

The last rolls of film I shot were in April 2006. My brother, Bruce, and I had headed down to West Virginia to shoot Norfolk Southern's Pocahontas Division - the "Pokey" - and CSX's former Clinchfield lines in southwestern Virginia. I didn't know during the trip that I was shooting film for the last time, but the decision to switch had been made about a month earlier. Things fell into place to finally buy a digital camera after this trip ended.

The weather on the Pokey started out worse than awful, with pouring rain on our arrival. But the weather cleared and the next two days were spent under sunny skies shooting mountain scenes such as a train emerging from Big Four Tunnel No. 1 near Kimball, West Virginia (above).

One shot we had wanted to get was of a train emerging from the tunnel and onto the bridge at Welch. When we got there we were dismayed to see the area was full of railroad maintenance workers. Nonetheless, figuring the worse they could say was "get out of here," I wandered over to the crew foreman with a copy of Railfan magazine that had the shot I wanted on the cover. "We'd like to get this shot," I said, pointing at the cover. He replied, "Okay. Looks like if you go over there and stand by our truck you should be able to get it." He had no problem with us being there, and in fact we had a really good conversation about the Heartland Corridor clearance project that would soon be coming to the Pokey.

Norfolk Southern; Welch, West Virginia; April 18, 2006

CSX; Pool Point, Kentucky; April 20, 2006

With our time on the Pokey done, we headed over to CSX to do more coal railroad photography. One place I had never been (but seen plenty of shots from) was Pool Point, located in Breaks Interstate Park just south of Elkhorn City, Kentucky. We tried and tried to find access to Pool Point with no luck. Finally, we went to the park's headquarters and tracked down a ranger. He described exactly where we needed to park and exactly where to look for the winding path from the road down to the CSX bridge. His directions were perfect and we soon were rewarded with a southbound coal train.

Towards the end of the trip, the weather had gone south again. Our final morning was spent with local rail historian Ron Flanary and he showed us some photo locations around Natural Tunnel State Park in Virginia. We chased a few trains, and finally in a fairly heavy rainfall we found a CSX train meeting a Norfolk Southern train near Yuma, Virginia. We shot the meet, had lunch at a Pal's burger drive through, then Ron took us back to our car at Duffield and we began the long drive back to New Jersey in the rain. Little did I know that the meet at Yuma would be the last trains I'd ever put on film.

CSX and Norfolk Southern; Yuma, Virginia; April 20, 2006

Fun (at least for me) Facts
With the year coming to a close, I have counted up what I have shot and scanned. The preliminary count for the end of the year is I shot 14,475 digital photos in 2010, bringing my total to 53,510 digital photos since switching in May 2006. I have also scanned 18,859 of my slides, but using monthly averages of the stuff scanned so far and extrapolated over the years I shot film, it looks like I'll eventually finish with 156,827 slides in the collection. This means that 12.03% of the collection has been scanned and scanning should finish sometime in February 2016. (Note: I do expect that number to actually go down, as right now the scanning is heavily back-loaded on more recent years where I shot a lot more; once I get deeper into the 1980s and early 1990s the average shots per month [which stands at 496 slides per month] will probably decline).

Forgotten Photos

Monongahela Railway; Time, Pennsylvania; October 1990

I've been slowly working through my slide collection making scans of just about everything. I'll take a stack of slides, load them into the scanner stack loader, make the scans, and then import them into Lightroom. Since I'm not really looking at the slides I'm going to scan as I load them in the scanner, when they open in Lightroom it's like the good old days of opening a fresh box of slides to see what's in them. I'm often surprised at what comes out of the scanner!

Such was the case when I loaded up the slides from October 1990. When the images opened in Lightroom I found a trip that I had taken to the Monongahela Railway back when that was the place to go for photography. The weather was bad for part of the trip, and to compound matters I managed to blow the exposures on some of the best scenes from the trip. Thus, the slides sat unlooked at and unappreciated for 20 years. But with Photoshop and Lightroom, slides that were rendered useless can yield very nice images. My favorite from the trip was of a pair of Detroit Edison GE diesels leading a train at Time, Pennsylvania. I had over-exposed the original, but thanks to modern technology I've managed to save this photo (above).

The rain made for some dark photography on the first day, but some brightening in Photoshop put the Monongahela's "Super 7" GE diesels back into good light, such as this scene of a train heading out of Waynesburg.

Monongahela Railway; Waynesburg, Pennsylvania; October 1990

There were a few other gems located in the October 1990 stack. The town of Nicholson, Pennsylvania, had a large event, complete with a parade, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western's magnificent bridge over Tunkhannock Creek and the town. That night the bridge was illuminated by a searchlight truck. The black & white photos I took that evening were pretty good (one appeared in the NRHS Bulletin), but I was never happy with the color slides. But thanks to scanning technology, the color version is now usable.

Nicholson Viaduct; October 1990

There was still more hidden gems in that stack of slides. A bunch of us did an informal night photo session at the shops of the New York, Susquehanna & Western in Little Ferry, New Jersey. One of the scenes from that evening is among my all-time favorites, but there was a second scene I had almost forgotten about. There was a front-end loader parked near GP18 No. 1800, and four of us carefully stacked ourselves, cameras and tripods onto the hood of the loader to get a nice scene of the 1800 with another locomotive tucked away in the shop.

New York, Susquehanna & Western; Little Ferry, New Jersey; October 1990

And finally, it's been my goal recently to get the Stourbridge Line's BL2 diesel passing the PP&L power house in Hawley, Pennsylvania. I knew I had shot a fan trip there many years ago, but forgot exactly when. Well, guess what showed up in this stack of slides. Yup, the trip was just over 20 years ago, in October 1990. It's great to go down memory lane with a stack of old slides made new through modern technology!

Stourbridge Line; Hawley, Pennsylvania; October 1990

Special Trains at Christmas

New Hope & Ivyland; Hood, Pennsylvania

Christmas has always been a special time for railroad enthusiasts -- how many railfans got their start with a Lionel set under the tree? Trains and Christmas just go together.

The Polar Express movie from a few years ago only reinforced the Christmas and trains connection. Many tourist railroads offer official Polar Express trips or knock-offs (North Pole Express is one way to avoid copyright issues!).  And a lot of this magic can be found at night, when the trains and the surrounding communities are decorated in lights. Thus, in addition to being a time for peace on Earth and goodwill towards men, it's also a good time to break out the strobes for some good ol' night photography.

On December 10, 2010, I headed down to the New Hope & Ivyland at New Hope, Pennsylvania. Just outside of town is a location called Hood, with a nice bridge over a small stream. Santa was riding the NH&I throughout the day, but on Fridays and Saturdays there were three departures after dark. I met up with Mike Burkhart and Jeff Smith at Hood, and each of us set up a set of lights to capture the Santa Claus specials. With two flashes each, it was quite the light show each time 2-8-0 No. 40 steamed by. We stayed at Hood for three hours, trying different angles with each departure. It was a cold, but fun, night.

SEPTA Christmas Lights Special; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The next night the three of us were onboard the Christmas Lights Streetcar Special hosted by the Wilmington Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. Mike is the Chapter president and assisted with moving lights around, while Jeff and I used over-the-shoulder Lumedyne flash units to light a PCC-2 streetcar on the streets of Philadelphia. SEPTA personnel (consisting of streetcar operator Gary Mason and supervisor Ed Springer) were cooperative in allowing several night photos; locations were picked based on the amount of Christmas lights along the street or, in some cases, because a street was quiet of auto and other streetcar traffic. No Santa tonight, but it was an unusual streetcar opportunity.

SEPTA Christmas Lights Special; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  A week later (December 19) Mike and I were in Delaware along the Wilmington & Western, where their Pennsylvania Railroad "doodlebug" (a self-propelled diesel-powered railcar) had its halls decked with many, many Christmas lights. We went to the small community of Wooddale, location of one of many bridges across Red Clay Creek, to photograph four after-dark trips on the railroad. Steve Jensen, a volunteer for the W&W, was out chasing as well, and he arranged for the railcar to traverse the bridge slowly on each trip, allowing us to fire off several shots each trip.

Finally, the last trip ran and it was time to head home. Now I really have the Christmas Spirit!

Wilmington & Western; Wooddale, Delaware

More photos from each of these trips can be found in Photo Lines.

Timeless Treasure

Passing the sandhouse at the Rockhill Furnace shop complex

Back in October I participated in a photo charter on the East Broad Top Railroad in Rockhill Furnace, Pa., hosted by Lerro Productions. The EBT is the last narrow gauge railroad still operating in its original location east of the Mississippi River (although Maine's Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington now has tracks on the old right-of-way after decades of abandonment). The EBT has five miles of track, much of which parallels busy U.S. Highway 522. Back yards and businesses have encroached on much of the EBT, especially immediately north of Orbisonia.

Pete Lerro of Lerro Productions decided to focus the charter on the EBT's true treasure -- the nearly intact shop complex in Rockhill Furnace; the EBT station is there as well, although it bears the name of Orbisonia, the larger town across Blacklog Creek from Rockhill. The roundhouse, sand house, coal tipple and water plug all make the shop complex a trip back in time.

EBT has six 2-8-2s on the property in three sizes -- No. 12 is the smallest, with Nos. 14 and 15 in the medium size range and Nos. 16, 17 and 18 the workhorses of the old coal hauler. Currently only No. 15 operates, while the rest sleep in the Rockhill roundhouse. Pete arranged for Nos. 16 and 17 to be brought outside the roundhouse for the charter, and through some pyrotechnics the two dead locomotives had some life brought to them.

East Broad Top 15 passes 17 and 16 in the yard at Rockhill Furnace, Pa.

The previous evening, an elaborate night photo session was held at the Orbisonia station, with No. 15 posing by the depot. Lerro Productions used fix lighting to allow photographers to capture many different angles over the course of a couple of hours.

At the Orbisonia station

The evening wrapped up with some classic scenes inside the roundhouse as No. 15 was put to bed. Thanks to the staff of the East Broad Top and Lerro Productions for a journey back in time.

In the Rockhill Furnace roundhouse

More photos from this event can be found in this section of Photo Lines on the website.

That's What It's All About

Santa tosses presents at Clinchco, Virginia

The 50th running of the Clinchfield Santa Train in 1992 

On November 20, 2010, brother Bruce and I chased the 68th running of the Santa Train on the Clinchfield Railroad (now a part of CSX) in southwest Virginia. The last time I chased this train was 18 years ago, on the 50th Anniversary, when Union Pacific sent their Challenger No. 3985 to run in disguise as Clinchfield No. 676. On that day in 1992 we spent most of the time photographing the head end -- the steam locomotive. But the real story of the Santa Train occurs at the rear, where the Jolly Old Elf tosses off tons of toys and goodies to the people of Appalachia.

The Santa Train arrives in Fort Blackmore

This year Santa had two helpers, mother-and-daughter singing duo Wynonna and Naomi Judd. Bruce and I first went into Haysi to photograph the stop there as swarms of people gathered to see Santa. Down the line at Clinchco the crowds got larger. We bypassed a couple of stops to get some head-end shots of the train on the road, but returned to the rear during the busiest stop in St. Paul. Here there were hundreds of people ready to see Santa and the Judds. And as Santa tossed off toys, I just happened to be at the right spot when a little girl smiled as she held her new stuffed bear. The Santa Train isn't about passenger locomotives and steel -- it's about a little girl's smile.

Smiles at St. Paul, Virginia

Southern Ontario Rails and Transit

I was invited up to Ottawa to do a program for the Ottawa Valley Associated Railroaders, a large group of railfans and modelers, in April 2010. Coincidentally, my home Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, the Wilmington Chapter, had been looking to do a set of streetcar charters in Toronto. Combining the two into one trip into Canada seemed pretty logical, so on April 13 I set out with brother Bruce and friend Tom Moran for a trip north of the border.

Day 1: April 13, 2010 -- The Charge To Ottawa
Photos for both April 13 and April 14 can be found here in Photo Lines.

On the first day I met Bruce and Tom over at the airport in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where we ditched Bruce's car and headed north in my rental. Since the OVAR meeting was that night, we were on a bit of a time constraint, so we headed straight across the Canadian border at Thousand Islands. Once in Canada, we made a brief stop at Brockville, where we shot the signals and station.

The light wasn't real good at the station for an eastbound (which is what we had coming), so we moved around the corner from the depot and got one VIA Rail Canada train from Toronto bound for Ottawa. From there, we pressed on to Ottawa.

The OVAR meeting turned out to be a lot of fun. They are a large group (140 people at the meeting, which included a pre-meeting meal) and I really enjoyed giving the program. After the meeting it was off to a motel in Ottawa for the night.

Day 2: April 14, 2010 -- Around Canada's Capitol

The next morning we were invited to take a look at the ongoing restoration of Ottawa streetcar 696 at the OC Transpo shop. We had time beforehand, however, to go looking for a VIA train or two, and a pair left Ottawa bound for Toronto and Montreal early in the morning. We set out looking for a spot to shoot the Toronto train first, finally settling on Richmond, Ontario. After shooting there, we scooted cross country to the Montreal line, but were too late getting there for the second VIA train.

From there we went back into the city to the OC Transpo shops. We took a look at car 696, which is undergoing a full restoration to operation (which can't happen until Ottawa gets a new electric light rail system put in). Also at the shop was car 905, which had been rescued from its second career as a summer cottage.

After our tour of the two cars, we headed over to where Ottawa's diesel-powered light rail line crosses the Rideau River near Carlton University. Dubbed the O-Train, the five-mile line features two trains in service simultaneously, and all northbound and southbound trains are scheduled to meet just north of the Rideau bridge at the Carlton station. We shot many trains on the bridge, but then got out of town -- there was a shot southwest of the city calling my name.

Our afternoon destination was Dalhousie, Quebec, where a surviving water tank still stood along the Canadian Pacific main line. I had spent an afternoon there in 2009 but didn't get any trains. All I wanted was one westbound in the afternoon, and I'd be happy.

Along the way we made one brief stop to catch VIA at Maxville, Ontario, then we got to Dalhousie, which sits right on the Ontario-Quebec border. With the CPR quiet, however, we decided to gamble and leave the shot of the tank (even though it was perfectly lit) and grab a shot of VIA up at Glen Robertson, Ontario.

Well, you can probably guess what happened. Yup, as we headed back to Dalhousie a westbound CPR train passed the water tank in perfect sun. We were about three minutes too late -- in fact, the rear of the train was still on the crossing in Dalhousie as we came to a sad, mad stop in town.

Okay, that didn't work. After another long wait with nothing happening, two more VIA trains were due heading for Montreal. We decided to gamble (again) and headed just east of Dalhousie to the diamond at DeBeaujeu where the CPR main line crosses VIA's Montreal-Ottawa line. Here we were rewarded with a couple of trains -- and CPR didn't show up to make us mad this time. A couple of signal boxes with locks for both Canadian National and Canadian Pacific made for some nice "detail" shots as we waited for trains.

Back at Dalhousie the wait for a westbound CPR freight resumed. The sun was rapidly setting, and all we got was two out-of-the-sun eastbounds. The sinking sun made for some very nice silouhette shots of the tank, but that still wasn't what I was after. Very reluctantly, we finally packed up at sunset and headed for a motel in Cornwall. Once again, I had been beaten by the tank.

Day 3: April 15, 2010 -- On The Ontario-Quebec Border
Photos for April 15 can be found here in Photo Lines.

We awoke in Cornwall as the sun was rising into a clear sky. That silouhette shot we had gotten at the tank at Dalhousie at sunset the previous night kept going through my brain -- that wasn't a bad shot for a morning eastbound. The sun was out, we had some time -- "We're going back to Dalhousie," I declared.

So back we went. This time, luck was very much on our side, and it didn't take long to get an eastbound Canadian Pacific freight rumbling past the water tank. One of the primary missions of the trip had been accomplished!

With that piece of business out of the way, we heard on the scanner what sounded like a train up on VIA's line at Glen Robertson. We headed up there to investigate, and sure enough there was a Canadian National local, led by a battered locomotive, taking the switch onto the old Ottawa Central (which CN had just recently bought back). The train quickly vanished into the trees to do some switching, so we headed up to Glen Sandfield to wait him out at the crossing. Eventually he arrived and we got our shot.

Next up was a Montreal-bound VIA train, so we returned to the main line at Glen Robertson and got a broadside shot passing a farm. With that train out of the picture, we were then left to try to figure out what to do next. Hmmmmm.... We finally settled on chasing that CN train up the Ottawa Central on its way to Hawkesbury. We headed up the line and finally overtook the train at Vankleek Hill, which has a small yard used when the OC ran the line.

The train only paused for a moment here before resuming its journey up the line. We'd get him again crossing the fields at Green Lane. Alas, once in Hawkesbury we found that photo opportunities were limited. We broke off there and headed back down to the VIA main, which had two trains due through -- one Montreal-bound and one headed for Ottawa -- in fairly short order. We decided to head for the station in Alexandria to shoot them.

Our arrival into Alexandria had a bit of a surprise -- the Montreal train was already sitting in the station! As it turns out, he was running about ten minutes early, so we had plenty of time to park (more or less), get out and get a few photos before he departed. The meet occurred "just around the corner" at DeBeaujeu, so we didn't have long to wait for the Ottawa train. We shot him in the station, and again as he made his departure.

With the day pretty far along at this point, we had to make a decision -- we were ultimately heading for Toronto, but we weren't really in good range to see a lot before darkness settled in. We decided to head back the wrong direction, eastward towards Montreal, and hit the Canadian National main line at Coteau, Quebec. This is where Ottawa-to-Montreal trains join the main line, plus there are the through Montreal-Toronto trains, a yard, some freight, a station and a three-track signal bridge. Plenty of stuff to shoot.

Our arrival pretty much coincided with a westbound VIA train powered by one of the "genesis" diesels pulling LRC cars. About 45 minutes later we got a treat, as an F40 pulling an all-stainless steel train headed westward. An eastbound CN grain train was through shortly thereafter. As soon as the eastbound freight cleared, we got a westbound VIA train under the signal bridge, followed by a freight 20 minutes later. A local freight pulled into the yard, and the day finished off with one more eastbound VIA train and two more westbound VIA's. A nice show to end the day.

Day 4: April 16, 2010 -- Rain, Rain, Go Away
Photos for April 16 can be found here in Photo Lines.

We were back in Cornwall for the night and when we awoke, unlike the previous morning, we found clouds and rain. The clouds had actually moved in the previous day while we were at Coteau, but now they had precipitation along with them.

We headed west towards Montreal, and almost immediately picked up a westbound Canadian National freight. We gave chase, finally pulling off the freeway and down to the tracks at Ingleside, Ontario. Unfortunately, we were blocked by a gate here and couldn't get a really good shot, so we headed back out, this time getting the train at Maitland.

We knew we had both east- and westbound VIA trains coming, so we headed into Lansdowne where the two trains met almost in front of us (actually just a few seconds apart just to our east). Just as we were leaving, we spotted a headlight and caught a Canadian National freight heading east through the signals in town.

We continued our westward push, stopping at the VIA station in the middle of nowhere at Gananoque, Ontario. With the rain still coming down, we got a westbound and eastbound freight about 20 minutes apart. The (fairly) new construction station, built for VIA, now houses a model railroad club and a small VIA waiting room; only a few trains stop here.

We arrived at the next big town, Kingston, with the rain still falling. An eastbound VIA train was due, and as he made his station stop a westbound freight came by. Fortunately, the freight cleared before the VIA train proceeded east, so we were able to photograph both trains. The VIA train would split at Brockville, with one section going to Montreal and the other to Ottawa; interestingly, the two trains operated as one unit, complete with the Ottawa section's locomotive tucked into the middle of the train!

Up next was the train we were looking for -- a Windsor-bound train that would have F40s on the point and Budd-built stainless steel cars following -- almost a 1950s streamliner (ignoring the F40 for a moment). While this westbound train made its stop, something nice happened -- the sun came out!

The clouds had returned by the time we made our next two stops. We caught eastbound and westboundVIA trains at Napanee on the bridge located there, then we shot a westbound VIA train at Belleville. The next stop was at Trenton, where the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National run side-by-side. We caught an eastbound CP freight and a westbound VIA train on the CN, but the photo angles were pretty tight. Heading west, the CP and CN remain fairly close together, so we headed towards Newtonville, a location that has bridges over both railroads.

We didn't get to Newtonville -- at least not right away. I spotted the end-to-end wooden bridges over the two railroads at Wesleyville, and with the sun out we decided to make our stand there. The Canadian Pacific was up first, with a prefectly-lit view of a train passing the signal on single track.

Then the double-track CN got into the action with two westbounds -- a freight followed by VIA. Back over on the CP, we got a westbound passing under the wooden road bridge. We finally moved down to Newtonville, where (with the sun still out) we got an eastbound VIA train and a westbound CN freight right at sunset. Time to head to Toronto!

To be continued -- check back.