Michael Murray’s Classic Photo Take on Modern Electric Action

Amtrak ACS-64 639 leans into the superelevated curve at Newport as it overtakes a Norfolk Southern tank train near Wilmington, Delaware on November 11, 2019 in this excellent photo made by Michael Murray, who originally posted it to the Amtrak Northeast Corridor Railfans Facebook group. Michael’s dramatic photo is reminiscent of the Pennsy-era photography of that famous chronicler of electric railroading, William Middleton. When this image surfaced in my Facebook feed earlier this month, it inspired me to reach out to Michael, and now I look forward to seeing his photos on the regular. Photo used with kind permission of Michael Murray

611 Sighting at Strasburg

Norfolk & Western 611 on the nose. The J-class streamliner is doing a "residency", kind of like Celine Dion in Vegas, for the months of October and November. Rachel had railroad business at the Strasburg kickoff event and I tagged along. 

611 oriented the right direction, tiptoeing back into the Strasburg station. This extended visit to Strasburg is reportedly her first venture north of the Mason Dixon line.

The 'other' N&W locomotive that lives at Strasburg, 475, with a string of cars approaches the station/shops complex.

Whirlwind Work Travel + Trains + Interesting Light

CSX action in downtown Nashville at night, captured with my iPhone. I had been cursing the crack-o'-dawn flight that cut short an evening of Broadway honky-tonking, but this scene put a smile on my face. The iPhone excels in low-light scenes like this; I'm surprised at how well this image turned out. 

The destination of my zero dark thirty flight out of Nashville was the New York city area, where a meeting ended late in the afternoon. The Long Island Rail Road was my path back to Penn Station, but the off-peak inbound schedule is thin, occasioning a wait of over an hour for a train. During my wait at Westbury, a dozen or so LIRR trains swooshed past in the beautiful late afternoon light, including these MUs.

In the quickly fading light, a DE30AC screams past with bi-levels, headed to the island's non-electrified territory. Had never noticed that LIRR's DE30ACs and bi-level cars had a more-or-less matching profile, giving these trains a European look. With memories of my trip to the Netherlands still fresh, the look and feel of Long Island railroading is reminiscent of how they do things on the Continent.   

Netherlands: the whole country is a hot spot!

That most iconic of Dutch trains, a Koploper, slowing for the station in the mid-sized city of Amersfoort, Netherlands. Rachel and I visited the Netherlands in early June for a rail safety conference. Steps away from our hotel in Amersfoort, 15 or 20 minutes of trackside loitering yielded eight or so trains in glorious late afternoon light. We rode a train very similar to this directly from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to Amersfoort.

A Bombardier TRAXX locomotive in the colors of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS, the national railway of the Netherlands) pushing a passenger train out of Rotterdam station. I liked the NS TRAXX so much, I bought Arnold's N scale digital version as souvenir, along with a suitcase full of Gouda cheese.

A tram in Rotterdam, just outside the train station. Rotterdam boasts beautiful green spaces, modern architecture, and like the rest of the Netherlands, bicycle paths and lanes everywhere. Tram right-of-way in Rotterdam looks like lawns with rails and overhead wire.

A westbound Koploper enters the Amersfoort station. Nary a hassle or second look from security personnel or passengers while photographing Dutch trains. 

In the Amsterdam Centraal station, a Thalys high speed train bound for points south in Belgium and France. By the way, I didn't go out of my way for any of these photos--Rachel and saw trains, trains, and more trains just minding our business as tourists.

Across the station, a Germany-bound ICE train, jointly operated by the DB (Deutsche Bahn, German railways) and NS. Both the Thalys and ICE arrive on special tracks equipped with high-voltage AC catenary. The NS system runs on 1500 VDC--like the South Shore!--and as a result, it's unusual to see electric locomotives from other AC-equipped European railways on Dutch rails.

A Valleylijn Stadler car departing Amersfoort. Valleylijn is a private railroad operating branchline passenger service in central Netherlands--a kind of latter day interurban. Had we a few more days in the Netherlands, we would have ridden the Valleylijn to Arnhem and Nijmegen to see the sites of the WWII Operation Market Garden, the allies's ill-fated push across the Rhine in September 1944, immortalized in Cornelius Ryan's book A Bridge Too Far and David Attenborough's epic film of the same name.

A Belgian TRAXX drags a grungy freight through Amersfoort. Note the four pantographs; this a dual-mode AC/DC locomotive. One of maybe three freights I saw during a week or so of intensive train riding and observation.

The purpose of the trip was an international rail safety conference, and NS staged a tour of notable grade crossings around the Amersfoort area. This particular grade crossing is a rat's nest of safety challenges: it cut through an active station, is adjacent to a school and an al fresco restaurant, and the roadway has motor vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian lanes. NS is using some sophisticated sensoring and AI-enabled video to appropriately monitor and signal this crossing. But that wasn't what interested me most--I was intrigued by those cement arch catenary towers, which appeared to be unique to this line. Our NS host explained that this line was built in the middle of WWII when steel was in short supply, so these concrete arch bridges were used. They are currently considered 'heritage' architecture, which means that when one of them was damaged in a recent traffic incident, NS had to replace it with a custom made structure using WWII era techniques and materials.

The older iconic NS electric MU, the Hondekop, or 'Dog Face', on the museum track at Amersfoort. The banner on the side is leftover from a fan trip sponsored by Pijp-Lines, a major Dutch hobby shop. I bought Piko's N scale edition as a souvenir.  

The Hondekop is such an icon of Netherlands' beloved railroads, that this cartoon 'Dogface' is a stand-in for NS workers. This statue adorns the entrance of the NS training facility in Amersfoort, where Rachel' rail safety conference was held.

Trains I See, Delmarva Edition

We're spending more time out on the Delaware shore, and our drive out is crisscrossed by a number of short lines. Here are two Delmarva Central MP15ACs idling under an elevator at Seaford, Delware.

Judging by the number boards and offset headlights, these are ex-SP units. The air conditioning units on the cab rooves add more gnarly visual interest to these handsomely liveried MP15ACs. 

Texas Interurbans

This old freight motor, Interurban Express Motor #330, is on display at the Visitor's Center in downtown Burleson, TX. I visited family there recently, and they took me to see the partially restored car, the interior of which also serves as a museum exhibit.

Side view of 330. Looks like it rolled right out of the Crooked Mountain Lines shop. Particularly striking was the gaunt, small scale of the cars on display in comparison even to modern light rail vehicles, let alone to modern mainline passenger and freight equipment. 

Parlor Car #411 is also on display--a much fancier specimen than that rugged old freight motor. Unfortunately, appears to be missing its pilot and steps. The wood restoration on both 411 and 330 is excellent but both were missing traction motors wiring. Wonder what the prospects for full restoration to operability are?

Look What Drove Me Home from New York

I had a bit of an obsession with Amtrak ACS-64 642, the special veterans locomotive, a few years ago when Amtrak first rolled it out. I had at least two tantalizing glimpses of it in 2015 or so, and was either without camera or too slow on the draw to meaningfully capture it. So imagine my surprise an delight as I stepped off the 55 Vermonter in Washington Union Station after a week on client site and realized I had been riding behind 642! Bachmann makes it in HO, and an N scale version has been rumored since Kato released its ACS-64 a few years ago. This is another Sony RX100M2 capture; this image is remarkably high quality for such low-light conditions.

Looking the other way down on the platforms of Union Station, more NEC trains. This image would really never have been possible with film--today's digital cameras extend the reach of photography in ways that would have seemed miraculous 20 years ago.

New Job, New Camera, New (Casual) Railfanning

This speeding Long Island Rail Road DE30AC at Carle Place, New York, was the first railfanning occasion for my new Sony RX100M6 camera. I bought the camera to celebrate my new job, so it was fitting that traveling home from my first week in the field with clients presented this opportunity to break out the new camera. The end-of-day winter twilight did not help but this brave little superpowered point-and-shoot acquitted itself well in these challenging shooting conditions--it was dark, wet, and that outbound LIRR train was doing at least 60 mph.

A scant five minutes later this string of MUs blasted through. Trains magazine has tagged at least one major LIRR junction, closer into New York City as I recall, as a hot spot. The LIRR is very busy, and even though I was on an 'off-peak' train, I didn't wait and it was quite full. I will be on this client engagement, which also affords me an Amtrak ride from Washington to NYC, for another month or so--more photos likely.

The Best Camera is...

BNSF action: a transfer move overtakes a unit train near Denver Union Station.

...the camera you have with you, which applies to railfan photography as much as it does 'normal' photography. My trusty iPhone is the camera I have with me most often, and I've managed some remarkably good catches over the past year or so during travel and around my home area here in suburban Washington.

Admittedly, the iPhone camera is limited in functionality compared to a fully-featured camera. But it also has some intriguing low light features, including High Dynamic Range (HDR) capabilities that allow quality photography under a variety of adverse lighting conditions. This capability--in combination with the the fact that it is usually immediately accessible and available--make for exciting photo opportunities. I have found that those limited features force a focus (see what I did there?) on fundamentals of composition and planning.

A CSX unit train idles, awaiting orders to move out of Nashville's 'Gulch' at Kane Avenue tower on a rainy Saturday in early September 2018.

Denver's RTD Light Rail at Union Staion

RTD Heavy Rail Service, which serves Denver's distant and sprawling airport as well the northwest 'burbs.

Another view of BNSF action in downtown Denver near Union Station.

Closer to home, a brand new Siemens Charger diesel pushes a commuter train into Washington DC at Garrett Park, MD

Cab of an inbound MARC train, also in Garrett Park.

A more 'normal' MARC MP36PH-3C pulling a train into Garrett Park.

We travel frequently to Connecticut and ride Metro North from New York City to Danbury area. Here are Metro North M9 electric MUs in Stamford, Connecticut. 

This bit of Metro North is the former New Haven line into Danbury, which was once electrified (holla!) and still has many of the old catenary towers in place. Nowadays diesels do the work, like this rebuilt diesel sporting the modern take on classic McGinness New Haven paint scheme.

Mind the (Background) Gap

The source photo, before extensive
Photoshop-pery to blend it in.

When I visited the Northwest Indiana area--known in those parts as 'The Region'--I had several high priority to-do items, including eating some Aurelio's pizza and finally photographing the Mineral Springs crossing. I needed a good shot down Mineral Springs Road in the direction of Lake Michigan to fill the gap in the HO Dunes Junction backdrop. The appearance of oblivion elicits comment from everyone who visits the layout, and I have wanted to remediate this unsightly gap for the five or six years the backdrop and scenery have been in place. After some trial and error, I got the photo where it needed to be with Photoshop and numerous tries at the printer.

Before: that oblivion look. Is that the end of the world? Or just a high cliff overlooking Lake Michigan? Many visitors to
the layout—my father-in-law in particular—immediately call attention to this gaping sight.

After: I cleaned up the photo and used Adobe Photoshop to transform the photo, primarily to match up the angle of the road and roughly match up the coloration of the road surface and vegetation. Still not perfect, but it makes the point and solves a pesky visual distraction on Dunes Junction.

Nashville

Quick! A train! I caught this CSX freight snaking out of Radnor Yard while we were conducting an impromptu craft beer crawl after a biscuit-heavy brunch in The Gulch neighborhood of Nashville.

My wife, Rachel's attendance at a rail industry trade show occasioned a visit to Nashville, Tennessee, recently. It was an immersion into the city's ample cultural offerings--food and drink everywhere, and there was country and pop music emanating from most doorways and even sewer grates--and on the side I managed to squeeze in more than my usual amount of collateral rail fanning.

The best camera is the one you have with you. After a busy and rainy morning of trade show logistics, I captured this image of a CSX coal unit train waiting at the historic Nashville L&N station with my iPhone. I bumped into another railfan in this same spot who turned out to be Brian Schmidt, a Trains magazine editor who was in town for the rail industry trade show.

A CSX intermodal train passes hip and trendy condos in the Gulch. Not visible to the right, my new railfanning pal Brian Schmidt cursing me for distracting him from his railfan photography with my irresistible conversation skills.

A GP38 road slug set knocking covered hoppers around the Gulch.

Get a load of this lovingly painted transition-era Louisville and Nashville Geep at the Tennessee Central museum.

Serious dudes trying to stay out of the way
of real railroad operations: Andy Elkins,
center, yours truly on the right,

Another of Tennessee Central's workhorses is this SW wearing early Illinois Central-inspired colors.

Day two of my visit to Nashville was full of intriguing surprises. Friend and colleague Andy Elkins--a fellow infrastructure protection professional--gave me the backstage tour of Nashville that included the Tennessee Central rail museum, barbecue restaurants, and cab ride on Nashville's budding commuter rail line, the Music City Star.

Ex-Amtrak F40PH #121 powered our Music City Star train.

Obligatory front-end view of F40PH #121.

The cab end approaches the Nashville station. The car's Chicago Metra heritage is
apparent in the colors and lines.

In this cab car view, our inbound train is in the hole for a meet with an outbound train.

Outbound view from the F40PH cab. Unlike many commuter rail lines, the Music City Star route is curvy, single track, and features many interesting bridges and scenic views.