Old Flickr Rail Photos

The modern Adirondack Scenic Railroad originated with the Adirondack Centennial Railroad, a project of the Utica & Mohawk Valley Chapter of the NRHS, in 1992, and was transferred to the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society in 1994, becoming the Adirondack Scenic. I was involved in the project as early as 1990, circulating fliers advocating the preservation of the line, and was very surprised to see our small, relatively informal preservation effort balloon first to the idea that we could restore the line ourselves, and then further to the reality of running a tourist railroad, then to hauling 62,526 passengers in the first year with 4.5 miles of track, four coaches, and two locomotives, to hauling 76,803 passengers in the second year, making us the most successful tourist railroad in New York State and ranking us very high nationally. The Adirondack Scenic is still around today, although I'm no longer involved with it, but when I took this I still was. This was former New York Central #8223 with a special Utica-Thendara move at Woodgate, as the sun was going down. Note that the copyright date on this photo is wrong. That's because my records were wrong when I posted it.

This was taken in 1994 on the former Pennsylvania Railroad mainline (then Conrail) on the famous Horseshoe Curve near Altoona. Amtrak still operated the Broadway Limited between New York and Chicago, and this was it, headed by two EMD F40PHs, both now retired. The Broadway Limited has, for now, been replaced by the Manhattan Limited in Amtrak's timetable, and now all the power for the Philadelphia-Chicago (or at least Harrisburg-Chicago) leg is provided by G.E. Genesis P42s. This has always been one of my favorite "train" shots, even if it isn't great by the standards of orthodox photography, with no abstraction, merely average colors, too-perfect light, and nothing of interest to the non-railfan.

These diesels, to the uninitiated, were idolized in movies, on TV, and in countless model trainsets, and still are today. It might be the most-modelled diesel of all time. The only railroad that used the "Warbonnet" paint scheme was the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe (ATSF) Railroad (now Burlington Northern Santa Fe, or BNSF), introducing the scheme on their E1A passenger diesels in 1937. The F-Unit series of freight diesels, like the E1As, were built by EMD from 1939-1960, and the Santa Fe were the first buyers in 1941, continuing to be regular customers for them until the mid-1950s. #347C is the ultimate classic variant of F-Unit, the F7A Phase I, and in this case is equipped for passenger service with 102 m.p.h. gearing and a steam generator (or at least it would have had these things originally). I don't remember the date #347C was built, but it certainly would have been around 1949, as that was when the F7A was introduced, and that's when the Phase Is were, of course, being built.

This was our train pulling into the station at Orbisonia. The trams in the background are part of the Rockhill Trolley Museum. The odd thing is that, technically, Orbisonia Station is actually located in Rockhill Furnace, while the Rockhill Trolley Museum is technically located in Orbisonia, so the names sort of don't make any sense.

This was during the runaround, and originally I scanned this in black and white, partly because I only had my Omniscan then, but also because I thought it looked better. It's in color now, though, and I don't regret the change.

This was taken in the EBT's main locomotive shop in Orbisonia, PA, on the same 1994 NRHS tour as my other EBT photos.

I know a lot less about Prague's earlier 4-wheel trams, other than that they were mostly built by CKD, at least after electrification, and many survived into the 1970s, and many if not most of those are still in service on the historic tram service, route #91 Stresovice-Vystaviste. They're also used for charters, as here with #349 at Namesti Republiky. This is an alternate to Picture 1, taken a second or two earlier.

I know a lot less about Prague's earlier 4-wheel trams than I do about their 8-wheel trams, other than that they were built mostly by CKD (as opposed to Tatra, CKD under contract with Tatra, or in recent years Skoda), at least after electrification, and many survived into the 1970s, and many if not most of those are still in service on the historic tram service, route #91 Stresovice-Vystaviste. They're also used for charters, as here with #349 at Namesti Republiky.

This is part of the same series as Strasburg #90, Picture 3 (go figure :-)). This one, though, may have the most well-rounded artistic merit of the series, as it has abstraction, the best contrast, the best detail, and so on.

This is a photo that I took of Strasburg #90, a Baldwin Standard Decapod 2-10-0, during the summer of 1997. It was one of a series that I still regard among my best black and white photos ever taken of a steam locomotive. This is my favorite one because it shows off the details the best of the series, in my opinion, and it is a little bit more abstract than the others, even if it's still clearly a steam locomotive smokebox. I used a Nikon N6006 with a Nikkor 35-50 zoom and Kodak Tri-X 400 film. I had just learned to shoot proper black and white in the semester or two before I shot this, and this was my first real success with black and white rail photography, so that also adds to the significance of this. Hopefully sometime in the future I'll get around to posting the others.

This was taken at the 1998 National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) National Convention, although not in Syracuse, where the convention was based. Rather, I took this in Thendara, NY, at that time the northern end of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad, after having worked (as a Trainman) on the first public passenger train (at least to NRHS members from around the country) to run from Utica to Thendara since 1981. The locomotive (this one, as well as ex-NYC #8223) had been run around, and I took this picture of the cab before reboarding for the trip back to Utica.

Vystaviste is the exhibition ground for Prague, but it is also a tram terminal, with a turning loop constructed in park. It's always an interesting place to photograph trams, although here I'm not showing you the historic, pre-World War II trams that they use on service #91!!

I've been informed by cats_dd that this is the Hauptbahnhof Nord stop, but more importantly, I took it because I like the way the world underneath the bridge is dark (but not so dark that you can't see shadow details like the bicycles), while the world outside is illuminated by comparison. The yellow paint on the tram and the street sign are nice touches, too.

This shot, of former Milwaukee Road #261, was actually a photo runby, with two encores! There's nothing quite like a 4-8-4 being gunned. :-) The excursion was the finale for the 1995 NRHS National Convention.

I took this in the summer of 2005, in July, I think (I don't remember exactly), and it has always been one of my favorites. I like the compostion (more or less perfect for a train or tram shot), and the way the sunlight catches the tram just right. You also get to see the wye where Vitezna meets Ujezd.

In the Fall of 2005 I explored the new tram line to Sidliste Barrandov, looking more for Fall foliage shots than train or tram shots. In the end, I got better tram shots. I took this at the end of the line in Sidliste Barrandov, where these Tatras were on the turnaround loop awaiting their next assignment.

I took this shot at the junction at Senovazne Namesti (Senovazne Square), where the line going to Hlavni Nadrazi (the main train station) is behind me in this picture, the line into Vaclavske Namesti (Wenceslas Square) is straight ahead, and the line to Masarykovo Nadrazi (Prague's oldest mainline train station) is off the curve to the right. The sweeping curve (by tram standards anyway) gives us the chance to better see an articulated tram in action, in this case a Tatra KT8D5 from 1987, which is still in service today. The whole KT8 fleet is currently being rebuilt with LED lights, new computerized route displays, CCTV for both greater security and improved driver visibility, and many other modern features that were science fiction in the Communist Czechoslovakia of 1987. The designation is being called KT8D5RN2P. #9029 was, however, still unrebuilt and original when I took this. The big number 24 on the roof is actually the route number, rather than the tram number.

I took this one in 1993 (Note that the copyright date on the photo is wrong. I fixed it on my own website but on Flickr it's too much trouble.), waiting in Utica, New York for Amtrak's (actually Swedish Railways') X2000 tilt train to visit. It was hours late, and didn't arrive until after dark, so all of my best shots were taken during the day waiting for it, while I still had light. This locomotive, an EMD SD40-2 diesel, was leading a lashup of other locomotives pulling a garbage train. In those days, New York State had so much garbage that it was being shipped west by rail! I mainly like the impression of speed that this photo gives, with the blurred handrails and headlight, even if the train was only going about 50 m.p.h.!!!