Way Down Yonder In New Orleans

New Orleans RTA; New Orleans, Louisiana; June 10, 2008

Last week I had the chance to visit one of my favorite cities -- New Orleans. While the weather wasn't real good for the trip (and it will take awhile to get all the photos processed and on the website), I thought it might be nice to go back to 2008 and my first visit to the Crescent City. Scenes like streetcars parading past the Ponchartrain Hotel (above) show how charming the city can be.

In 2008 New Orleans was still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. We headed out to the area along Lake Ponchartrain on the city's east side, going through the Ninth Ward which was still full of houses with the markings painted on by post-Katrina rescue workers. In 2011, much of the same area has been repopulated, and long stretches of deserted houses (at least in this area) are a thing of the past. It is here, where Norfolk Southern crosses Lake Ponchartrain on a long bridge, that we caught Amtrak's Crescent on its early morning departure entering Slidell.

Amtrak; Slidell, Louisiana; June 11, 2008

One of the most famous railroad landmarks in New Orleans is the Huey P. Long Bridge over the Mississippi River. The railroad stretches 22,996 feet across the bridge, while the adjacent highway lanes are a mere 8,076 feet long as they drop to the ground faster than the railroad does. Crossing the bridge by car is quite the experience, as the grades are remarkably steep and the lanes remarkably narrow at nine feet across (two lanes flank each side of the railroad). By the time we visited in 2011, a lane widening project was well underway.

New Orleans Public Belt; June 11, 2008

There are still a handful of towers scattered around New Orleans, but the only two still open are at each end of the Huey Long Bridge; the pair are appropriately named East Bridge Junction and West Bridge Juncton. The railroad on the bridge is the New Orleans Public Belt, but power from virtually all the U.S. Class I railroads can be seen crossing the structure.

New Orleans Public Belt; East Bridge Junction; June 11, 2008

And, of course, there are the streetcars of New Orleans. After Katrina, the two symbols of New Orleans that were immediately restored to show the city was still alive were the Superdome and the streetcar system. The St. Charles Line was heavily damaged by Katrina, but its carhouse was spared; conversely, the Canal Street Line survived the storm with minimal damage, but its carhouse was submerged, damaging all the bright red cars used on that line. Thus, on our 2008 visit we found St. Charles cars pressed into Canal Street service. In 2011 we found red cars once again on Canal Street.

St. Charles streetcars on Canal Street line; New Orleans, Louisiana; June 10, 2008

So there's a quick look back at the June 2008 trip to New Orleans. Down the road we'll take another look at what we found in February 2011.

Sunshine State

Florida East Coast; Stuart, Florida; February 10, 2009

Okay, I admit it. I'm tired of this winter. This has been one of the most miserable winters ever in the northeast. Frequent snow storms were bad enough, but the last two storms were mostly heavy-to-shovel ice.

It makes me wish I was in the Sunshine State, if only for a week just to get a break. So in this installment of my ramblings, we're going to visit Florida. One of my favorite locations is on the Florida East Coast at the town of Stuart (above). Old U.S. 1 provides this nice view of a northbound FEC ballast train. The bridge behind the train is new U.S. 1, which sports a nice walkway that makes train photography in the morning a real treat.

Florida East Coast; St. Augustine, Florida; March 21, 2008

The Florida East Coast has the disadvantage of being a night-running railroad. Trains depart their originating locations at opposite ends of the railroad (Jacksonville and Miami) in the early evening, arriving at the counterpart terminal the next morning. While southbounds coming into Miami are shootable, northbounds approaching Jacksonville are against the sun for most of the year. There is one place, however, where northbounds are perfectly lit -- the bridge in St. Augustine directly adjacent to U.S. 1. Here trains break sharply to the east to cross the bridge, then swing back north for the final miles into Jacksonville.

Florida East Coast; St. Augustine, Florida; March 21, 2008

The FEC used to be headquartered in St. Augustine, and their former office buildings can still be seen (above to the right of the train). The buildings are now a part of Flagler University (named for Henry Flagler of Florida East Coast fame who built the Key West Extension).

Florida East Coast; Bowden Yard, Florida; March 23, 2008

The FEC picked up some nice SD70M-2s a few years ago. For several years there was an early-afternoon southbound that departed Bowden Yard (Jacksonville) and it often had one of the new units leading. At right we see the class unit, No. 100, leaving Bowden Yard with the Jacksonville skyline off in the distance.

I made it to Florida in 2007, 2008 and 2009, but missed out last year. The FEC has become a little easier to shoot thanks to ATCS Monitor, a program that lets you see where trains are on the railroad -- all you need is the ATCSMon software and an internet signal. Despite having ATCS Monitor in 2009 we still missed a train. The winter weather here in the north has me thinking Florida again, and next month I'm planning on getting back down there. The FEC has plenty of photographic possibilities (when the rare daylight trains run) and Fort Lauderdale and more shooting at Stuart are high on my list of things to do. Sunshine State, here I come!

Florida East Coast; Scottsmoor, Florida; February 9, 2007

Two Virginia Towns

CSX Transportation; Ashland, Virginia; January 8, 2010

When it comes to train watching, it's hard to beat the Virginia towns of Ashland and Doswell along the former Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac (now a part of CSX Transportation). Located about 14 miles north of the state capitol, Ashland provides trackage running down the middle of the street in the business district and on into a nice residential area. Another six miles north, Doswell has a diamond where the former Chesapeake & Ohio crosses the RF&P, an old station and tower, and a short line yard (Buckingham Branch Railroad).

Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; Ashland, Virginia

I have been to both towns many times over the years, and recently had the chance to visit both twice within a week in January. Doswell has a country store called Squashapenny Junction that you really need to go inside to believe. It is just full of Americana. Back in the days before CSX, the building was simply the former Doswell general store in plain white paint.

Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; Doswell, Virginia

Today the store has numerous signs on it, most prominently the classic "Coke" circle logo, along with other signs of the past. The courtyard now features wagons and a giant hand.

Amtrak; Doswell, Virginia; January 30, 2011

 Coal trains on the former C&O through Doswell are fairly common, and if you are equipped with a railroad radio you will hear trains call the RF&P dispatcher to request clearance past the old tower and across the diamond.

CSX Transportation; Doswell, Virginia; January 22, 2011

The Buckingham Branch yard is located adjacent to the RF&P main line just north of the diamond. The Buckingham Branch now leases the former C&O. Their diesels have been given a uniform coat of gray and red paint and are looking pretty good.

Buckingham Branch; Doswell, Virginia; January 22, 2011

If your travels take you down I-95 below Washington, take the King's Dominion exit at Doswell and head on in to the tracks. Frequent Amtrak service makes train watching fun, even when freight trains are hard to find. When you are finished at Doswell, head south to Ashland for the best in small-town train watching in the middle of the street. These are indeed two of the best towns to view trains in the east.

Amtrak; Ashland, Virginia; January 30, 2011

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