W/NW: Trains and Train Stations

[Franko]

I was wrong about the name of the person on the plateau. I’m pretty certain his last name was Basey. Been a lontvtime, 50 years.

Hey XRAY, do you remember the locomotive that used to sit, abandoned, in Shook's Gap during the 50's and 60's? I used to get my Dad to stop so I could climb on it every time we went to the mountains. Well, it was bought by two UT students from Ohio, shipped to Michigan and rebuilt. They've been running it on tourist lines since 1975. It's been doing that much longer than it ran on the Little River and the Smoky Mountain put together. I rode about 20 miles seated on the tender water hatch in 1979. The cab was too small for me and the hard working fireman who was hand firing the boiler.

 

[x-ray]

Hey XRAY, do you remember the locomotive that used to sit, abandoned, in Shook's Gap during the 50's and 60's? I used to get my Dad to stop so I could climb on it every time we went to the mountains. Well, it was bought by two UT students from Ohio, shipped to Michigan and rebuilt. They've been running it on tourist lines since 1975. It's been doing that much longer than it ran on the Little River and the Smoky Mountain put together. I rode about 20 miles seated on the tender water hatch in 1979. The cab was too small for me and the hard working fireman who was hand firing the boiler.View attachment 4832649View attachment 4832650View attachment 4832651View attachment 4832652

I don’t remember that one although I probably went by it dozens of times.

I think there’s still a rusted out engine near Walland. I took my 8x10 up there but the light was so contrasty I didn’t get anything worthwhile.

There was another line in Robinsville NC. I went over a couple of years ago to make a few pix but was told it was sold and gone now. Not sure where it went.

There was the Southern engine st Chilhowee Park that gone now. One of my best friends dad was the fireman on it.

The photo I’d the one in Robinsville.

By the way your images are gorgeous!

 

[x-ray]

Probably 30 years ago I met O. Winston Link in Roanoke. I happened to have a #11 flash bulb in the car and asked him if he’d autograph it. He thought I was nuts but did it anyway. I still have it and should dig it out and post a photo.

I really enjoyed talking to him. He was a real seat of the pants kind of guy like many photographers of that era. I worked with several old guys like that and learned so much from them.

 

[Coldkennels]

Probably 30 years ago I met O. Winston Link in Roanoke. I happened to have a #11 flash bulb in the car and asked him if he’d autograph it. He thought I was nuts but did it anyway. I still have it and should dig it out and post a photo.

I really enjoyed talking to him. He was a real seat of the pants kind of guy like many photographers of that era. I worked with several old guys like that and learned so much from them.

O. Winston Link is an absolute hero of mine. His work was incredible - I often end up waxing lyrical about his work with non-photographers and then show them some of his more famous shots, trying to explain (while rambling incoherently) how difficult rigging up all those flash bulbs and balancing the exposure would have been.

The man was a genius.

 

[Franko]

Everyone who knows about photographing trains knows about Link. He is to railroad photographs what Ted Rose is to train paintings.
I remember how cantankerous some rigs could be with just one No 5 bulb; to have miles of wire, big batteries and who knows how many bulbs for that one chance to photograph a moving object at night would put most of us in a rubber room. He was a man of steel.
The other engine at Walland may be the one on display at Townsend. It's also a Shay that started out as a logging engine, ran on the Liittle River in their last years, went to one or two more operators after LR and wound up as a highway display/advertisement for the Graham County tourist line in Robbinsville. That was a great little line that hauled lumber and general freight before abandonment. Their one serviceable steam engine, Shay No 1925 went to a rail museum in Spencer, NC, was rebuilt and ran until its boiler inspection ran out. It needs overhaul to run again. Lastly, the Chilhowee Park engine is ex-Southern Railway, No 154. It's in the keep of the Gulf and Ohio RR there in Knoxville, was rebuilt by them and runs occasionally, usually at Christmas.I spent more than a few afternoons looking through the park fence, wishing someone would free her to run again.
Sorry to be so long winded but it's a subject that winds my spring.
Thank you for your kind words about my images. I've been seriously photographing trains since 1971 but am primarily a painter. The cafe in the Blount County Library has a solo show of my drawings and paintings, including several rail subjects, for the month of February. If you're out this way with time, I'd appreciate you stopping by.

Frank

 

[Coldkennels]

One from this weekend:


(Yashica A, Fomapan 100 in Rodinal)

The local heritage railway were having a Steam Gala, and were offering special open-air rides on this brake van (which doesn't seem appealing on a rainy February in England, but hey, whatever).

 

[Bill Jones]

Asama (Hokuriku Shinkansen) Arriving at Tokyo Station
Sony A7R M4 Alpha mount Vario-Sonnar 16-35mm
f2.8 iso 1250 200s f5.6 at 35mm


​

 

[Taipei-metro]

Guang-shan Station, 關山 站

Taitung County, southern Taiwan

Image by Taipei-metro

Canon APSC T4i,
Canon 18-55 Lens made in Japan

 

[x-ray]

Everyone who knows about photographing trains knows about Link. He is to railroad photographs what Ted Rose is to train paintings.
I remember how cantankerous some rigs could be with just one No 5 bulb; to have miles of wire, big batteries and who knows how many bulbs for that one chance to photograph a moving object at night would put most of us in a rubber room. He was a man of steel.
The other engine at Walland may be the one on display at Townsend. It's also a Shay that started out as a logging engine, ran on the Liittle River in their last years, went to one or two more operators after LR and wound up as a highway display/advertisement for the Graham County tourist line in Robbinsville. That was a great little line that hauled lumber and general freight before abandonment. Their one serviceable steam engine, Shay No 1925 went to a rail museum in Spencer, NC, was rebuilt and ran until its boiler inspection ran out. It needs overhaul to run again. Lastly, the Chilhowee Park engine is ex-Southern Railway, No 154. It's in the keep of the Gulf and Ohio RR there in Knoxville, was rebuilt by them and runs occasionally, usually at Christmas.I spent more than a few afternoons looking through the park fence, wishing someone would free her to run again.
Sorry to be so long winded but it's a subject that winds my spring.
Thank you for your kind words about my images. I've been seriously photographing trains since 1971 but am primarily a painter. The cafe in the Blount County Library has a solo show of my drawings and paintings, including several rail subjects, for the month of February. If you're out this way with time, I'd appreciate you stopping by.

Frank

I’m in Maryville often and will stop at the library. I’d love to see your work.

I thought 158 went out of state. Is it at the Coster shops? I had a neighbor that was a blacksmith for one of the railroads and he worked at the Coster shops. It seems there was a place on the north side of Sharpes Ridge that refurbished engines or may have just been cars.

I don’t know when the facility was torn down but I photographed a roundhouse and maintenance facility that was behind fraternity park at UT. It was between Neyland and frat park. It’s been gone for decades but fortunately I documented a lot of it.

I don’t know if it’s still around but there was the Tweetsie railroad with steam near Maggie Valley NC but I never saw the train. Also Etowah runs a locomotive but I think it’s diesel.

One of the things that amazes me is how Link calculated exposure. He didn’t have Polaroid and as far as I know even if flash meters had existed I don’t think they’d read bulbs correctly. I’d have to test that though. Perhaps he shot one sheet at his best guess and ran one sheet in a portable darkroom. Or perhaps it was good old experience. That’s my bet.

Of course you look back in opportunities and think of the questions you wished you’d asked and I wish I’d asked how he calculated exposure.

Whatever his method, he certainly knew his stuff.

Franko, we’re almost neighbors and I’d entertain getting together sometime and discuss recreating a night shot using bulbs. I have a stash of #5 and all the 4x5 gear and would love to attempt a shot. #5’s a bit anemic compared to a #3 but a dozen 5’s can get bright. A few home built reflectors with a dozen 5’s in each with some HP5 4x5 would be the trick.
Rigging it shouldn’t be a big deal. Bulbs will static fire off one bulb that’s fired. If you take a flash gun and put one bulb in the socket and surround it with other bulbs touching it the all will fire when the primary bulb is fired.

I’ve lit some big areas before but think a smaller setup would be a fun project. Just need to get the cooperation of someone with an engine.

 

[x-ray]

The 1st 2 images are my first conscious effort to document an event. I was 8 years old and shot them with a state of the art Kodak Brownie Starflash on Verichrome orthochromatic film. It was 1956 in Oak Ridge Tn and the trestle collapsed under a coal train dumping everything in the Clinch River.

Franco the third shot is the maintenance building at the roundhouse behind frat park.

Shot on 4x5 around 73-74???

 

[Yokosuka Mike]

Asama (Hokuriku Shinkansen) Arriving at Tokyo Station
Sony A7R M4 Alpha mount Vario-Sonnar 16-35mm
f2.8 iso 1250 200s f5.6 at 35mm


View attachment 4833202​

I frequently (about once a month) ride the Shinkansen... I always enjoy it! Thanks for sharing.

All the best,
Mike

 

[Taipei-metro]

( Japan Railways ) JR Sapporo City Station,

Sapporo City, Hokkaido, Japan 札幌市 北海道

Image by Taipei-metro

Pentax APSC KS1,
SMC Pentax 18-55

 

[Erik van Straten]

gelatin silver print (summar 50mm f2) leica lll

Amsterdam, 2022

 

[Franko]

XRAY, 158 is probably stored in the Gulf and Ohio shops, a couple of blocks NW of the Freezo off of Central St. They are in the locomotive rebuild business and, considering the shape 158 was in, they must be good at it.

I was a Navy PH2 from 66-70 when the Navy only knew the Speed Graphic with No5 bulbs. We used open flash a lot for equipment pictures and I used the slowest shutter speed possible without motion blur for indoor "grip and grin" pictures to remove some of that harsh flash on camera look.

I hadn't heard about the train in the river. I do remember that roundhouse but was never in it. That's a nice picture, very evocative of the good old days of rail shops in steam days. That shop and yard was close to where the old Knoxville to Sevierville Smoky Mt Railroad used to tie up. I can remember some of their wooden boxcars sitting just north of Cumberland Ave on the tracks that are still there, just before the Alcoa Hwy underpass.

 

[Bill Jones]

C11 292 at Shimbashi Station (Static Display)
Sony A7R M2 Zeiss Batis Distagon 18mm f2.8
iso 400 1/3200s at f3.5
​

 

[x-ray]

XRAY, 158 is probably stored in the Gulf and Ohio shops, a couple of blocks NW of the Freezo off of Central St. They are in the locomotive rebuild business and, considering the shape 158 was in, they must be good at it.

I was a Navy PH2 from 66-70 when the Navy only knew the Speed Graphic with No5 bulbs. We used open flash a lot for equipment pictures and I used the slowest shutter speed possible without motion blur for indoor "grip and grin" pictures to remove some of that harsh flash on camera look.

I hadn't heard about the train in the river. I do remember that roundhouse but was never in it. That's a nice picture, very evocative of the good old days of rail shops in steam days. That shop and yard was close to where the old Knoxville to Sevierville Smoky Mt Railroad used to tie up. I can remember some of their wooden boxcars sitting just north of Cumberland Ave on the tracks that are still there, just before the Alcoa Hwy underpass.

That area of Central was what I was thinking of, “Happy Holler”. I used to do the work for Dempster when they were located there and my studio was on Coster Rd.

I need to find the negs but have shots of those old wooden boxcars and caboose at the L&N. That was a great place to make photos when it was still in use.

Also remember having to go to the Southern depot Railway Express to pick up packages before UPS and FedEx.

I also need to pull the scan of the Nashville L&N station interior from 1969 when they were still carrying passengers. If you’ve never been in there it was amazing with its stained glass ceiling and carved railroad scenes at each end of the 2nd floor balcony.

I’m surprised no one has posted images of the Cincinnati Union station. It’s an amazing example of art deco architecture.

 

[Franko]

Right north of Dempster was Wilson Weesner Wilkinson, a heavy power equipment dealer. My dad worked there till he retired in' '79. The Coster Shops were the reason for that big old bend in I 75. Southern railway wouldn't give up the space for a straight through.

From 50 through 54 my mother and I would get on a passenger train at the Southern Depot, ride to Chattanooga and change to an N. C. and St. L. train going to Nashville. That wonderful old depot in Nashville remains one of my earliest memories. We used to exit through the massive oak doors onto Broadway to catch a Trailways Bus to my grandparents home in Humphreys County. I started photographing that depot in 71 and didn''t stop till the train shed was torn down after a fire. You could still smell residue from a half century of coal smoke in that shed until it was demolished.

 

[Franko]

The beautiful old Union Depot in Nashville, TN was saved from the wrecking ball by a hotel chain.. The last image, of the train schedule, was made in 1986. The schedule for N C & St L was written on the board prior to 1958, the year N & C was taken over by the L & N. During the years the station was derelict, I always wanted to explore the empty parts. Some good soul was wise enough to preserve that schedule board, locked forever in the year 1958.

 

[x-ray]

Right north of Dempster was Wilson Weesner Wilkinson, a heavy power equipment dealer. My dad worked there till he retired in' '79. The Coster Shops were the reason for that big old bend in I 75. Southern railway wouldn't give up the space for a straight through.

From 50 through 54 my mother and I would get on a passenger train at the Southern Depot, ride to Chattanooga and change to an N. C. and St. L. train going to Nashville. That wonderful old depot in Nashville remains one of my earliest memories. We used to exit through the massive oak doors onto Broadway to catch a Trailways Bus to my grandparents home in Humphreys County. I started photographing that depot in 71 and didn''t stop till the train shed was torn down after a fire. You could still smell residue from a half century of coal smoke in that shed until it was demolished.

Wasn’t the Trailways across Broad from the L&N? The Tennessean was across Broad too and one of my mentors, Jack Corn, was chief photographer there.

Didn’t realize there was a fire at the L&N.

Changing the subject a little, did you do any business wit Doc McGinnis on Gallatin Rd. He had a drugstore north on Gallatin and was quite the Leica dealer. He of course carried Hasselblad, Nikon and Canon too. Great guy and great to deal with. I felt quite a bit with him and would always stop at the Gerst House for food and brew before heading home.

 

[x-ray]

View attachment 4833266



View attachment 4833267

View attachment 4833268

View attachment 4833269The beautiful old Union Depot in Nashville, TN was saved from the wrecking ball by a hotel chain.. The last image, of the train schedule, was made in 1986. The schedule for N C & St L was written on the board prior to 1958, the year N & C was taken over by the L & N. During the years the station was derelict, I always wanted to explore the empty parts. Some good soul was wise enough to preserve that schedule board, locked forever in the year 1958.

Beautiful photos! That’s the place. I remember it when it had been neglected and the stained glass was so dirty that you could barely see what it was. Sad! But it’s magnificent now. My wife and I have stayed there a few times.

Edward Weston photographed the station, I think it was in the lat 30’s.