Brian's Tracking the Light

Some readers may have experienced difficulty accessing Tracking the Light over the past day or so, including an occasional “Access Forbidden” message. I’m aware of the problem and am working to determine its cause. The site and its archive remain intact, and at present the site appears to be operating normally, although access may still be intermittent. Thanks for your patience—and for…

You’ve heard of the ‘elephant in the room’? There are enough of those to found our own zoo! But that’s not what I’m writing about today. If you watch freight trains, you’ll see it pass by all the time. We may hate it; we may love it. It’s there in broad daylight and in the dark of night. It has been part of the railroad scene for a long time now, and like it or not, it’s here to stay. I look…

During a visit to Hungary In July 2007, I used my Contax G2 rangefinder to expose this Fujichrome color slide of the Budapest Metro.  I’ve adjusted the exposure, color balance and contrast using Lightroom to improve the presention here.  Generally speaking, I’ve found that the versatility and sensativity of modern digital sensors do a better job of rendering the lighting conditions available in…

Sixteen years ago—on July 27, 2010—I made a series of photographs of Pan Am Southern’s eastward MOAY (Mohawk Yard, Schenectady, N.Y., to Ayer, Mass.) as it plied the old Boston & Maine Fitchburg Route. It was a pleasant, sunny afternoon—ideal for railroad photography. Occasionally, I’m asked, “How do you know what lens to use?” I have no easy answer, since each situation depends on the…

Every so often, it’s nice to catch Norfolk Southern’s H28 working the New Holland Secondary. I had an errand to run, so I worked in a couple of photos of this short freight on this former Pennsylvania Railroad branch line. The little pond at Greenfield, along Jefferson Drive in Lancaster, Pa., is among my favorite places to photograph this local freight. Located near Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line,…

Today, something a little different. Instead of working from a camera RAW file, I’m adapting an in-camera JPEG. The image in question is a photograph I made in June 2013 of Massachusetts Central’s rare EMD NW5 No. 2100 working a surviving fragment of the former Central Massachusetts line in Ware, Massachusetts. It was a hot, humid, and hazy day when I exposed this view using my Canon EOS 7D…

For the second year in a row, we watched Strasburg’s fireworks from Blackhorse Road near the Strasburg Rail Road grade crossing. This year, like last year, the fireworks coincided with fireflies. It was especially dark where we were standing, which made manipulating cameras a challenge. I made this photo looking toward Cherry Hill from the grade crossing. The image required considerable post…

The sun was getting low when I caught SEPTA’s Conrail Heritage Unit inbound at Elkins Park, Pa. This vintage Silverliner IV multiple unit was wearing the Conrail ‘can opener’ and an early version of the SEPTA logo to pay tribute to the Conrail influence on SEPTA in its early years. In the spirit of retro-railroading, I’ve adjusted the color profile of this photo to resemble an image exposed on…

We call them ‘blinky bugs’. Riverfront Park in Marietta is a peaceful place along the banks of the Susquehanna and nice spot to wait for a freight on Norfolk Southern’s Port Road Secondary. On previous visits Kris and I could watch the fireflies, while listening to a distant train rolling down the river. The other night featured the appearance of the brilliant full moon— a radiant golden orb…

Modern Class I freight railroading is often a story told through double-stacked containers riding in articulated well cars. Thirty-five years ago, JB Hunt was a newcomer to the railroads. I still remember the novelty of seeing JB Hunt trailers aboard Santa Fe piggyback trains in the California Tehachapis. Today, Norfolk Southern moves mile-long trains of JB Hunt containers, stacked two high,…

On our June 2026 visit to SEPTA’s Elkins Park station, I made these seven digital images in an effort to capture the historical and contemporary contrasts of this classic suburban station on the former Philadelphia & Reading. In an era when many stations are little more than a platform and a parking lot, it is refreshing to find one that remains true to its roots. Tracking the Light explores…

In May 1999, I was testing Canon EOS Elan cameras and lenses for Trains Magazine. One of the key features of the EOS system was image stabilization. Among the photos I exposed was this panned view of Conrail B23-7 1933 rolling through CP83 in Palmer, Massachusetts. This photo demonstrated the advantages of image stabilization when making a long-pan image. To blur the background, I set the camera…

Hot weather last week made for sauna-like conditions along the Susquehanna River. We pulled into Port Deposit, where a riverside park offers views of the four long-span bridges that cross the river between Perryville and Havre de Grace, Maryland. I made this photograph using my Nikon Z7-II with a 70–200mm lens, then cropped the image to better feature an Amtrak Regional train crossing the most…

Exposed using a Rolleiflex Model T loaded with Kodak Vericolor II Type S 120 roll film. October 1984. Central Vermont Railway crossing the Conrail diamonds northbound; Palmer, Massachusetts. In October 1984, I exposed this image using my father’s Rolleiflex Model T loaded with Kodak Vericolor II Type S 120 roll film. I scanned the negative in 2010 using an Epson V500 flatbed scanner. Epson’s…

At 7pm on June 18, 2026, I’ll be presenting a program on Conway Scenic Railroad to the Philadelphia Chapter NRHS at the Elkins Park SEPTA Station. At 7pm on June 18, 2026, I’ll be presenting a program on Conway Scenic Railroad to the Philadelphia Chapter NRHS at the Elkins Park SEPTA Station.

It was a clear evening. We paused briefly at Christiana, Pa., to roll by Amtrak Keystone 658. The scene was unclutered and I wanted to feature the station and underpass that is the centerpiece of former Pennsylvania Railroad infrastructure in the town. I framed up the station with a broad window of sunlight beyond the railroad bridge over the road. When train 658 came into view, I exposed a…

I thought about giving this the title, “Snapping Up an HST.” In June 2010, I bought my first (and only) DSLR: a Canon EOS 7D. It’s a great camera, and I’ve made thousands of photographs with it. Canon is famous for its color palette. However, I’ve often felt that many of my early digital images were somewhat lackluster in terms of contrast and composition. The other day, I imported a variety…