Steam Trains! Power and drama

There is something magical about steam trains that has not been matched by any of the more modern designs of locomotives. Yes, they are probably very unfriendly to the environment, but as pieces of engineering which have a real presence in the landscape, they can’t be beat! There is a popular railway relatively close to me – the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad that operates many differently themed excursions from Cumberland to Frostburg in Maryland, up the steep slopes of the Appalachians.

Way back in 2011, we visited for one of their excursions organized for photographers. I don’t believe that they operate this now, and so perhaps these images are going to go down as collector’s items in the future! But back in 2011, the trip was a day-long adventure where we clambered on board and at carefully selected locations the train would pause to allow all the photographers off with their cameras and tripods. The whole train would reverse out of sight, and then come steaming up the track towards us giving great opportunities to capture the engine in places where there is normally no access at all. Then the train would reverse to pick us up again ready for the next location. A great way to spend the day, and, as you can see from the images, a lovely sunny day with the fall colors of Maryland surrounding the railway.

A particular highlight was the tunnel adventure. Here we were dropped off by the entrance to one of the tunnels on the route and we walked deeper into the gloom to set up our tripods. Then the train steamed into the tunnel and stopped just in front of us. This was particularly tricky to photograph as you have all combinations of lighting levels – bright sunlight outside, deep black in the tunnel itself and the headlight of the train coming towards you.

At the halfway stage in Frostburg, we had lunch while the engine was given some much need maintenance. It is over a century old and so deserves some oil!

I’ve tried one of my digital art projects on one of the images I made that day. The location was perfect with the rolling hills with their autumn colors, and so here is my pastel version of the train steaming through the Maryland countryside:

While I am pleased with that one, I thought a charcoal style might be more in keeping with the subject matter – a bit more gritty realism perhaps! So here is a different view of the train done in charcoal with a little colored pencil:

And so finally, we made our way back to Cumberland in the late afternoon. Here I made what is perhaps my favorite image of the day. I was looking through my old files in preparation for this article and came across one image that I hadn’t processed before. I was looking for one with lighter colored steam and smoke and this one looked interesting. Even more so once I had brought the best out of it with my work in Lightroom and Photoshop to bring out the details:

Unseen by human eye since 2011! And I’m pleased with the way it turned out!

You can see all my railway prints in my online store with free shipping in North America and a 30-day money back guarantee here at Pictorem. Incidentally, there are some great artists at Pictorem and I have relatively few railway images. If you are interested in seeing more, here are their more popular examples of railway imagery.