It’s May 3, 2007, in Olmsted Falls. The Cuyahoga Valley and West Shore Model Railroad Club is holding an operating session inside the former Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (later New York Central) passenger station that it owns.
As trains run on the club’s various layouts inside the depot, trains are running outside, too. The station is located next to the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern.
I was there that night with a tripod to try my hand at making some night photographs. That streak in front of the station is a westbound NS train.
One of fringe benefits of railfanning in Olmsted Falls is that it can also be a great place to watch aircraft landing or departing from nearby Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Depending on wind direction, some planes make their final approach right over the former Lake Shore & Michigan Southern station that is now owned by the Cuyahoga Valley & West Shore Model Railroad Club.
These two images were made on May 3, 2007. It just happened that the club was having an operating session that night and thus the depot lights were on. Both images are time exposure, hence the streak of light from the landing lights of the aircraft. Each image was scanned from a slide.
At times I have dabbled with night photography but haven’t done it enough to feel like I’ve mastered it..
One of those occasions was on May 1, 2007, in Olmsted Falls on the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern. I knew a westbound was coming so I set my camera on a tripod and pointed it at the crossing gates for Brookside Drive.
Soon the gates came down and the westbound went barreling through the crossing. This image was scanned from a slide.
Norfolk & Western Class J 4-8-4 No. 611 was a primary star on Norfolk Southern’s steam schedule in 1984.
It’s first set of excursions near us were roundtrip Erie, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, New York, trips, the weekend of Aug. 11 and 12, 1984.
We learned that the locomotive was laying over near downtown Erie prior to the trips. After work on Friday, Aug. 10, I joined Marty Surdyk and his brothers Robert and John to capture some night photography in Erie prior to the weekend excursions that we chased.
Dan Pluta had recently hooked up as a volunteer with the steam crew and aided us with our photography. We were happy with our results that night along with images captured on the next day’s excursion. Above are a couple of my night shots.
Continuing with my 1984 night photography highlights, I always remember this next adventure. I joined up with Dan Pluta for a weekend railfan trip to southeastern Ohio.
We had no definite destination, just pot luck. We ended up in the Buffalo, New York, area. To this day I can’t explain how we ended up there.
The map had to be upside down. However with our strange mistake, I ended up with probably my favorite and one of my best night photos.
On the night of July 28,1984, we caught Arcade & Attica 4-6-0 No. 14 simmering at the engine house at Arcade in preparation for its weekend trips.
The steamer had been built by Baldwin in 1917 for the Escanaba & Lake Superior.
The A&A acquired it in 1963. I always remember Dan shining a flashlight beam into the headlight to make it appear it was on.
I also enjoy seeing the stars in the clear sky appear as streaks due to the Earth’s rotation.
On Friday, July 13, 1984, Dan Pluta was on the fire up crew at the West Third Street Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse in Cleveland with ex-Grand Trunk Western No. 4070.
It was being readied for its weekend trips on the Cuyahoga Valley Line. I along with Marty Surdyk and his two brothers ventured down to the roundhouse that night for a night photo shoot that extended way after midnight.
The next day we drove to Logansport, Indiana to capture ex Buffalo Creek & Gauley No. 13 dressed as a Pennsylvania Railroad engine. It was running for that city’s annual Iron Horse Days. This was a regular July event in Logansport in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The locomotive owned locally was dressed as Logansport & Eel River No. 1.
We captured the locomotive simmering prior to the Sunday excursions. This obviously was before the locomotive was purchased by Jerry Jacobson.
This was a typical weekend of rail enthusiasts enjoying nightlife. Then it was back to work on Monday morning.
The first three images were made at the B&O roundhouse in Cleveland while the next three were made in Logansport.
After seeing the article about the 2010 night photography outing with Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 at Fitzwater, it prompted me to look up my early attempts at night photography.
I found several sessions from 1984. When Dan Pluta still lived in the area, I teamed up with him, Marty Surdyk, Robert Surdyk and John Surdyk for one of those night photo shoots.
The May 26, 1984, event was arranged by Dan. At this time the RS3 that was previously on the Adirondack was operating on the Buffalo Southern (ex-Erie) out of Hamburg, New York.
We rode it six miles down to Eden to conduct our makeshift night photos using existing light and flashlights.
For a first time the results were pretty good. It’s hard to say which outing was a favorite. This and others to follow over the next week or two are probably all favorites.
Let’s take a trip back to September 2010. Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 has arrived on the property of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for the first of what has turned out be an almost annual ritual.
Someone – I don’t remember who – arranged with CVSR officials for a night photo shoot of the 765 at the CVSR’s Fitzwater Shops, where the Berkshire-type locomotive spends its time between excursions.
Night photo shoots used to be a thing with some railfan photographers back in the day.
The photographers would set up their cameras on tripods and one member of the party would run around the object of the photographs – usually a locomotive – firing off a series of flashbulbs while the camera shutters were held open on the bulb setting.
The late O. Winston Link is well-known for having used a similar technique to record the final years of steam operations on the Norfolk & Western.
The Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts used to engage in night photo shoots here and there. One memorable one occurred in Youngstown on Jan. 14, 1977, to mark the end of the Cleveland-Youngstown commuter train on the former Erie Lackawanna route.
That photo shoot is remembered in Trackside Around Cleveland 1965-1979 with Dave McKay.
Another memorable night photo shoot occurred Sept. 10, 1988, in Brecksville when the then-named Cuyahoga Valley Line staged Grand Trunk Western 2-8-2 No. 4070 along the Cuyahoga River with the iconic Ohio Route 82 bridge in the background.
That night is recalled in my book Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad in an Edward Ribinskas photograph.
Fast forward 22 year to the evening of Sept. 16, 2010. RRE and Akron Railroad Club members brought their cameras and tripods to Fitzwater at dusk to photograph the 765 with two CVSR FPA-4 locomotives.
There was a small fee charged for the event with the proceeds going to the CVSR if I remember correctly.
CVSR trainmaster and director of operations Larry Blanchard brought the 6777 and 800 out of the shop and posed them with the 765, which was not in steam on this evening.
We picked our spots and set up our cameras and awaited the command of “open them up.” Then someone ran around firing off a flash gun a few times.
I was still a slide film shooter in 2010 and although my results were satisfactory not all of the images I made were necessarily top quality. In some instances light from the open shop doors cast a yellow glow over the scene despite the use of daylight balanced flash bulbs.
It was my first and thus far only night photo shoot in which flash bulbs were used.
The night photo shoot at Fitzwater would be the last of its kind staged by the RRE.
There are still photographers out there who use flash to create night photographs but they use strobes rather than flashbulbs.
During the most recent visit of the 765 to the CVSR, a night photo shoot was staged at Northside Station in Akron, but the lighting was provided by floodlights rather than flashes.
I’m not sure that the CVSR would allow the RRE/ARRC to replicate today what happened on that September 2010 evening at Fitzwater. Whatever the case, nothing like it has happened since, which makes these images all the more valuable and memorable.
akronrrclub.wordpress.com 