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Background

Before beginning to write about my experience with photography, I would like to provide a little background and philosophy. I grew up in an Atlantic Coast Line/Seaboard Coast Line and Central of Georgia/Southern town in southeast Alabama, a town called Troy. I used to spend many afternoons at the station with Mr. Deal, the stationmaster, as well as Johnny and the other two members of the local switch crew. Troy usually hosted at least one switcher, typically an SW7 or one of SCL's VO-1000 rebuilds, with occasional guest appearances by an ALCO S-unit rebuilt with an EMD 567 prime mover (or some other such EMD engine). I was invited to ride with the crew on their puttering and shuffling of the cars, mostly pulpwood racks and woodchip cars of various mongrel ancestry. To this day I can still smell the Azalea blooms (with their squadrons of bumble bees) and the smell of fresh cut pine and pine chips. Those were idyllic times and firmly set in me the desire to photograph and model trains.

In those days - the mid 1970s - film and developing were nearly beyond my reach financially, so I have only 5 or 6 sets of color and monochrome prints to show for my many days and hours at the station at North Three Notch Street. Other things like school, and later work, took me away from the hobby. By sheer accidental contact with the May 1994 edition of Railroad Model Craftsman at a book store, the bug bit again, and bit hard. I now could afford film, developing, and models--and have indulged all those vices with a vengeance since.

The primary philosophy behind what I choose to shoot comes down to two prongs of the fork: I shoot what interests me, and I shoot what is rare or unusual. I would suggest to any rail photographer that the first trick to successfully recording rail history, is to shoot as much as you can reasonably afford, and shoot as often as possible. Carry a camera, even if it is a disposable in the glove box of your car, in your briefcase, in your backpack. NEVER be without a camera and film.

The hobby we pursue is largely what I think of as a memorial to things lost. Folks in the 1970's mourned the loss of the Erie, New York Central, Pennsylvania, Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, Central of Georgia, Tennessee Central, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, SP&S, the Burlington, and even the then-unlamented Penn Central. Many small, loved short lines had been swept away by economic hard times. Steam was long dead and gone (Freedom Train, NW 611 and the Southern Steam Program notwithstanding), electric interurban swept away. In the 1980's funerals were held for the Southern, SCL, Western Pacific, Missouri Pacific, N&W, Chessie and others. The 1990's saw the demise of the Rio Grande, Southern Pacific, BN, Santa Fe, C&NW, Illinois Central and Conrail. We forget, though, that funerals should be as much for the living, as to remember that which we have lost. What then, do we do?

The answer guides my shot selections. Of course I shoot because I enjoy doing it. But there are serious reasons why I photograph fallen flag equipment whenever it presents itself to me, regardless of whether I model that particular road or not. I recommend the same to any other rail historian and photographer, first because we have a commitment to the rail community to preserve images and information as thoroughly as possible. Secondly, one never knows when one will be inspired to create a few models of a particular road to represent its presence on our own lines. Even if you didn't like Conrail, if you model any road that interchanged with it (and most did), you need a few CR models to make a realistic car roster. Third, equipment painted for CR was likely to have been PC, NYC, PRR, EL, RDG or any of the other component roads, so the car info itself is useful even if the paint scheme does not appeal. I thank Dave Casdorph, editor of Freight Car Journal, for teaching me that. In 1994, in CSX's Osborne Yard, I passed up an Erie Lackawanna mill gondola to shoot a CSX C40-8W. Will I ever see it again? Wildly improbable that I will ever see that gon again, especially since the CR split. I have probably seen the SAME C40-8W multiple times since then. A painful, costly lesson for me. First, know how to prioritize. Secondly, BUY AND BRING ENOUGH FILM TO SHOOT ALL DAY. I always have at least six rolls of film handy because I may shoot two rolls on just one train.

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