The Jacobite 44871 on the Glenfinnan Viaduct

Is this a photo of the Hogwarts Express? And is Harry Potter on board? The answer is no, but it certainly was the Harry Potter movies that made these steam trains and this viaduct famous. The Jacobite Steam Trains have in fact been running between Fort William and Mallaig and crossing Glenfinnan Viaduct since 1984. Located in the Scottish West Highlands, the Glenfinnan Viaduct was completed in 1898 and was built from concrete with 21 semicircular spans of 50 feet along its 416 yards.

On my recent trip to Scotland, I identified several locations at which I wanted to try and create an ultra-high-resolution VAST photo. With the well-known Scottish weather, “try” was all I could hope for. It would not be possible to stay at each location for a week waiting for perfect weather, so I knew I would have to work within the conditions at any given location on any given day.

One such location on my list was the famous Jacobite Steam Train crossing the equally famous Glenfinnan Viaduct. Since the Harry Potter movies, the site has become a popular tourist stop and has been photographed endlessly but what I have never seen was an ultra-high-resolution image with a train on the viaduct. So that was my quest. A “regular” photo or “regular” panoramic would not do. But unlike a static mountain or meadow, where the digital camera is repositioned across the scene with overlapping photos taken at each position and then later stitched together, this scene would present a new challenge with a train racing through it. The train needed to be captured in its entirety with its motion frozen. Shooting the entire scene in a single exposure on film was one option but I did not plan on hauling my large panoramic film camera to Scotland and even then, it would not capture the scene with the ultra-high-resolution I was looking for. So, in the weeks before my trip began, I formulated a plan on how I hoped to pull off the inclusion of the speeding train. On the day in question, I arrived early and scouted for the best location to create my VAST photo. I then got to work setting up the special equipment needed and photographing the entire scene without a train. Once completed, I prepared for the train’s arrival. The train passes over the viaduct each morning at around 10:40 am. I would have just one chance to capture the train in a way that it could be seamlessly incorporated into the hundreds and hundreds of other photos I had already taken to create one ultra-high-resolution photo. If it did not work out, I would have a lovely ultra-high-resolution photo of an empty viaduct. But as the results show, my quest was successful.

As a side note, readers may wonder why there are not two opportunities to capture the train each day on the viaduct as runs a daily return service. Well, there are in fact two opportunities but only one that makes for a good photo. The issue is the lack of a turnaround in Mallaig. As a result, the engine and tender are backward on the return trip with the front of the engine attached to the passenger cars and the tender out front. The train drives in reverse for the entire journey and it just looks odd.