Martinsburg train station in West Virginia
Back on April 15th of 2023 my father and I went to a model railroad show held at the old Roundhouse in Martinsburg, West Virginia. While there I photographed the still active station and a couple passing trains. I’d hoped to show these photos closer to when I’d created them but time got away from me. Speaking of time, if I had more I’d likely have researched and written a little history of the station for you, but I’ll have to save that for another time. Until then, I hope you enjoy these photos.
After photographing the wider view of the tracks and the station I heard an incoming train so I set my camera to shutter priority mode and slowed the shutter speed way down to 1/15th of a second to see if I could capture some motion in the passing train. But I didn’t have a tripod, so I leaned the camera against the back of the car and held it as steady as I could as the train passed by.
A train moving away from us, showing the motion of the train.
As luck would have it, as one train moved away from us towards the station another approached from the direction of the station, so I raised the shutter speed just a touch to 1/25th of a second and made a few frames of the oncoming train.
The lights of an oncoming train seen against the motion of an outgoing train.
The train approaches
The motion of the oncoming train as it passes us by.
Finally, before the train had completely passed I decided if I could show the motion of the train I might also freeze that motion, so I raised the shutter speed to 1/6400th of a second and succeeded in freezing the motion of an oncoming train. Granted, it wasn’t moving all that fast.
A moving train frozen in time.
All in all, it was a great day!
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