Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Fall 2019 Road Trip; Part I; We're Off!

I guess the images in this post are for those of you who love steam locomotives and old railroads. (click to enlarge)
The locomotive is the Baldwin Locomotive Works #26; 0-4-0, built in 1929.
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO @ 20mm; 1/200th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200
Finally.  We are on the road!
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4
PRO lens @ 100mm; 1/250th sec. @
f/5.6; ISO 200

This road trip will take us up through Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and up to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada.  There are only two commitments we have made for this trip.  The rest of the trip will be mostly spontaneous, i.e., we will go, do and see what we may discover along the way.

One of the things I do have planned is to finally meet, in person, a photographer whom I met through this blog.  We have become good friends but have never actually met.  We talk by phone regularly, exchange emails, messages and images but we haven't had the opportunity to actually get together.  My friend and his wife have graciously and generously invited my wife and I to dinner in their home as our journey will take us close to where they live.  How kind and considerate.  We are really looking forward to the meeting.

In the roundhouse for repair (click to enlarge)
Panasonic G9; Panasonic 8-18mm f/2.8-4 @ 8mm; 1/25th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 400
Also my wife and I will meet up with some lifelong friends in Nova Scotia.  There are four of us guys who grew up together in western Pennsylvania and we've been friends since we have any memories at all.  Together, as we do almost yearly, we have all rented a house for a week.  This year our get-together is in Halifax.  So, for this adventure, my goal will be more about sharing the experience with my wife and spending time with friends than spending the most time concentrating on photographic opportunities.   That's okay with me.

Off we go!
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO @ 12mm; 1/640th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200
The first day of a road trip usually consists of just driving to get a good start and separate us from home.  I've seen just about everything to see within a hundred miles of my home so I use the first day as a driving day.  This trip is no exception as we drove from our home in SE Virginia to Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Why Scranton?  
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I chose Scranton for a few reasons.  First, I avoid I-95, the Washington Beltway and any area near the Maryland, D.C, and Northern Virginia area like the plague.  I refuse to drive on those highways.  For example, even at 3 a.m., the roads are crowded.  Imagine during the daytime!  Scranton, as a first night destination, gives me a route around the D.C. area, is about a 450 mile drive (more than enough for a single day) and is the home of Steamtown.


For those of you who know me or have been reading this blog for some time, you know that I have an affinity for steam locomotives.  Steamtown is a National Park Service site, houses several steam locomotives, quite a bit of old railroad rolling stock, many historical items and is visually (photographically) interesting.  Couple that with now free admission and I thought Scranton Pennsylvania would be a good stopping point for the first day.  Then, the morning of day two of the road trip, a visit to Steamtown to photograph is on order.  The images posted here are all from Steamtown and this road trip.
Panasonic G9; Panasonic 8-18mm f/2.8-4 @ 12mm; 1/13th sec. @ f/8; ISO 6400 (click to enlarge)
Note: ISO 6400!
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO @ 34mm; 1/125th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200
(click to enlarge)
Day two took us to Massachusetts to meet with our friends.  This blog is what precipitated our getting to one another.  He and his wife invited us to dinner and an evening of wonderful conversation and that is exactly what it was—a wonderful evening.
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO @ 50mm; 1/320th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200 (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO @ 14mm; 1/250th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200 (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO @ 38mm; 1/200th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200 (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO @ 12mm; 1/250th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200 (click to enlarge)
Day three took us to southern Maine.  I made a list of things I possibly would like to see and photograph in Maine.  I just don't know, with my "no stress" way of traveling, how many I actually will see.  That is for next post.
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO @ 18mm; 1/400th sec. @ f/11; ISO 200 (click to enlarge)

Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO @ 100mm; 1/1000th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200
(click to enlarge)
I've already done what I said I wasn't going to do.  My plan, since I had no real familiarity or experience with it other than to ensure it was working properly, was to use the Panasonic G9 only as a backup body.  But I've already used it inside the dark roundhouse at Steamtown.  I guess my curiosity got the best of me.  I wanted to see how well the sensor (a couple of years newer than the one in my E-M1 Mark II) functioned in low light situations.  I was impressed!

 I hope you enjoyed this little documentation of Steamtown.  The only caveat is that there is almost not steam locomotives running at Steamtown.  The irony of it all!
Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

 Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

 Dennis A. Mook 

 All content on this blog is © 2013-2019 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.
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4 comments:

  1. Shelly GOctober 8, 2019 at 11:32 AM

    Great images! I have not been to Scranton and Steamtown for a long time, need to get back there. Neat that is is free now. There is no steam train ride any longer? That's sad if so. Thanks for sharing all the images.

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    1. The Wandering LensmanOctober 8, 2019 at 11:44 AM

      Shelly, as far as I can tell, the only rides behind a steam locomotive are just around the yard. Sad. The place is in excellent physical condition with lots of static rolling stock on display, mainly from east coast lines. The inside displays are also well done. Like you, I’m disappointed there are no regularly scheduled steam excursions through the local countryside.

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  2. agOctober 9, 2019 at 8:02 AM

    Hi Dennis,

    My parents were from Scranton. My father was born there, my mother via Scotland. Scranton was our family's vacation spot seeing as most aunts and uncles and cousins lived there. It has been probably 20 years since my last visit when my parents retired back to Scranton from the DC area.

    Ha ha. Dc traffic is not very nice at times I must admit. Not as bad as NYC I think. Hope you have a great time. The next time you are near Scranton, you should also consider a mine tour. My mother's father worked in the mines and eventually succumbed to black lung.

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    1. The Wandering LensmanOctober 9, 2019 at 12:13 PM

      ag, thanks for your comment. Scranton reminds me in many ways of my hometown in extreme western PA. I grew up in Sharon. We didn’t have mines but we had steel mills and Westinghouse’s huge transformer plant. Most all of that has been closed down for years now. The two city’s have similar neighborhoods—solid working class—with similar styled homes and just are now just a shadow of their former selves. Our area attracted lots of Eastern European immigrants, including my maternal grandparents who settled there from Austria-Hungary in the budding years of the 20th century. When I visit those kinds of cities and towns, I feel a real connection. Not sure if I’ll get back to Scranton. However, it is a good day’s drive if I take a northerly road trip in the future, so maybe.

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