Western Railroad Discussion > A Black and White Mindset on Donner

Having been primarily a color film and now a color digital photographer, I find that I really need to “see” things in black and white in order to set up a shot that will be good for converting to black and white. I was born a decade or two too late to have this mindset instilled in me from the beginning. I’ve also found that not liking a color photo and reluctantly converting it to black and white doesn’t usually improve things much, if at all. That said, some of the tools available for converting color digital images to black and white are fantastic, allowing the addition of a “color filter” effect, tonal range specific adjustments, etc., going well beyond the simple desaturation of color in a digital image that usually results in a linear, flat looking result.

With a black and white image set in mind, I headed to the snowshed at West Norden on Donner Pass to shoot an eastbound train on the evening of Tuesday, June 17, 2025. The train arrived around 7:45 PM, and the contrast between the locomotive emerging from the darkness of the snowshed was perfect for a black and white shot. (I like using a manual focus Voigtländer lens for these types of shots, as the 10 blade aperture creates a unique sun-star effect with train headlights.) Adding to the drama of the scene is the diesel exhaust, dust, and ubiquitous conifer pollen catching the backlit rays of the sun and associated shadows. (The fine conifer pollen in mid-June around Truckee and Donner Summit coats everything with a thin yet rough feeling layer of dust, and shortly after you wipe it away another layer is quickly redeposited.)

Photos: UP 8892 emerges from the Norden snowshed with an eastbound manifest train. B&W conversions were made using Silver Efex Pro 2 after initial edits were made in Adobe Lightroom. The small pervasive white spots in the images that look like I mishandled a B&W negative or sprinkled table salt across the image are actually due to large hatches of assorted flying insects. All types of insects were taking to the wing, and despite a hearty coating of DEET it was about as bad as it gets for mosquitos on Donner. I still left with numerous bites.
Video: I set the video camera up opposite of where I shot the still photos, as I liked that I could see most of the way through the shed and I wanted to reduce flare by getting the camera out of direct sunlight even if it meant shooting on the shaded side of the train. The roar of the locomotives reverberations off the concrete walls and ceiling of the shed made for a “pleasant” Donner soundtrack. (Note: I sped up parts of the video to allow for inclusion of the entire train within the time and file size limits.)

Cheers,
Sean

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Great shot at East Norden. Hate the graffiti!

Thank you.

There is a Summit beatification group (I can't recall their name) that cleans stuff up every year or two. This just provides a blank canvas for someone to come in and paint. I'm not sure if the group touches the Norden snowshed, the Norden Museum of Modern Art as I refer to it, given that it's UP property, though it might have been on the docket at one time or another. They do clean up the out-of-service tunnels and snowsheds around the old Main 1 route over the Summit, though again it is futile.

weather Wrote:
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> Great shot at East Norden. Hate the graffiti!