Old Flickr Rail Photos

Arguably the most famous meeting place in the New York City (and one of the most famous in the world) is the kiosk in the center of the main concourse in Grand Central Terminal. Some people were gathered there on this day, but only a moderate number.

It's not my favorite station in the world, but surely no other station has quite the cred of Grand Central Terminal. It's probably the most famous station in the world, more so than even London King's Cross, London Paddington, Paris Gare de Austerlitz, or any other station that I can think of. Built gradually during the early 1900s to replace an earlier station, it was America's first new all-electric heavy railroad station, necessitated by New York's new (at that time) clean air legislation banning steam locomotives from Manhattan. It's still, unless I'm mistaken, the world's largest station, too, with 42 tracks, although if truth be told much of this capacity is redundant.

This was my first ever shot of an Amtrak Acela Express high speed tilt train, in this case trailed (notice the markers are lit) by power car (locomotive) #2031. We were over a half hour late, if I'm not mistaken, which was symptomatic of the larger problem of the Acela Express program being scandalously botched. Now, over six years after I took this, it's still a debacle of scandalously bad engineering, management, and substandard performance, and I think that anyone who follows Amtrak (with a clear, unbiased mind) will see the immense incompetence and probably corruption that went into creating this problem. It's also been a scandalous waste of money, not because Amtrak shouldn't get buckets of money right now, but because if the money is to be spent, it should produce quality results. When I took it from Philadelphia to NYP on this particular day, however, it was a fun ride, though. :-)

Here's a larger view of the large waiting room in which the statue insert in Pictures 2 and 3 was placed.

Being one of the first U.S. railroad stations built exclusively for electric trains (although not the first, as the second, and current, Grand Central Terminal, as well as C.U.T. both preceded it), 30th Street Station was nevertheless built to the grandiose standards of the steam era. This is the main concourse, still decorated for Christmas, on Boxing Day, 2000.

This was the third shot of my first attempt at using the rapid-fire ability of the Lomo 135BC, although actually I didn't plan it this way. I just clicked away two shots quickly without thinking about it, and then realised what I was doing as I shot the third. I then decided that I had to upload this as soon as possible to please all the people who wanted to see the results of what the Lomo 135BC can do.

This was the second shot of my first attempt at using the rapid-fire ability of the Lomo 135BC, although actually I didn't plan it this way. I just clicked away two shots quickly without thinking about it, and then realised what I was doing as I shot the third. I then decided that I had to upload this as soon as possible to please all the people who wanted to see the results of what the Lomo 135BC can do.

This was my first attempt at using the rapid-fire ability of the Lomo 135BC, although actually I didn't plan it this way. I just clicked away two shots quickly without thinking about it, and then realised what I was doing as I shot the third. I then decided that I had to upload this as soon as possible to please all the people who wanted to see the results of what the Lomo 135BC can do.

#5002 is the second-oldest Tatra tram still in the DPP fleet, and it is now only used on the historic tram service, #91 from Depo Stresovice-Vystaviste. Even on this service, it usually doesn't work except for on November 17th, the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, which is also usually the last day of operations for #91 before the winter break. I was very, very lucky to be in the right place at the right time to get this, as I only have two other photos, both of them horrible, of this tram in service. This photo, also, was nearly a failure, as my Ikoflex was set wrong. I was in such a rush to get the shot that in my haste I pointed my light meter at the sky without even realising it, and as such I barely underexposed. I talked to a photo student, though, who was able to clean up the shot in the full version of Adobe Photoshop (on a high-end computer with a high-end 4000 dpi Nikon negative scanner), and I worked on it a little bit, too, and now I think it looks alright.

The Narodni Trida tram stop is actually not on Narodni Trida, but rather on Spalena next to Tesco's. A few meters behind me, the tracks curve west onto Narodni Trida at the corner of Spalena and Narodni Trida. The tram pictured is a CKD-built Tatra T6A5, similar to the T6A4 trams used in Portland, Oregon. They were some of the first new trams built after the fall of Communism, being built mostly in the mid-1990s.

Actually, I'm making it sound much more impressive than it really is, at least as a photo. I saw what looked like just an ordinary Rychlik (express) train coming the other way as I was on a local out of Prague, and then all of a sudden I saw Wagons-Lits blue and cream!!! By the time I got my camera out and set it for day shooting (it had 800 speed film for night shooting in it, and it hadn't been reset yet), it was too late, although I did get the rear end. This train probably was a Eurocity from Wein (Vienna) or some other important city, as Wagons-Lits don't normally provide equipment for minor more trains. I've also wondered a bit if this was not a Wagons-Lits service at all, but perhaps someone's private collection at the rear end of a Rhyklik. It makes an interesting story, anyway.

Here's my second-ever shot of the Prague Metro, and my first ever on Flickr!! Hlavni Nadrazi, the main station for Ceske Drahy, or Czech Railways, is served by Metro Line C, which is not only the oldest line (opened in 1972), but oddly the one with the newest trains. Most of these trains are Seimens-built, although some of the earlier ones were built by a consortium of Seimens, Bombardier, and CKD.

Here's a grainy, but I think good shot of DPP#8016 working tram service #23 (arguably the most historic AND scenic of the regular routes, along with #22) at night. The photo is grainy because I shot it with 800 speed film so that I could shoot handheld at night.

This is another black and white conversion from my Fujicolor 100 in my Lomo 135. I saw this scene and thought of how it perfectly represented the Communist ugliness of much of Prague's outskirts, although in honesty American capitalists are at least as good at making suburbs look repulsive. Actually, though, Nadrazi Holesovice, Prague's international train station (it's bus and Metro terminal is in the foreground, dedicated, appropriately, in 1984), is one of the best-run in Prague, and maybe the very best. Although, not being Czech, and can't speak for all Czechs, I do know that people come from other parts of Prague just to make reservations and get railcards here because it's less of a nuisance than at the other Prague stations.

This shot was one of the less wild ones from my first cross-processed Fujichrome. The original had a strong Magenta cast, just like the rest, but the more interesting feature was the way in which all electric lights (as on the whole roll), streaked to the right. Originally, I wasn't sure if this was the camera or the cross processing, but I'm now aware that this is the film transport being out of sync with the shutter. If anybody knows how to fix this please help!! It does create the feel of motion, though, even though it wasn't the motion of the tram which created the trails. Also, of course, I'll state the obvious and point out that I converted the photo to black and white.

Here's one of my most alternative rail shots of all time. I'm not sure if you'll like it, but I figured I'd give it a try. This is, of course, again from my cross-processed roll of Fujichrome, but this time with the reds cranked up so high in Photoshop that it resembles a painting.

This is my oldest photo on Flickr!! I scanned it with my black and white Caere Omniscan, but it was originally in color, and I have every intention of eventually getting a color scan. I think I already one somewhere, if the drive it was on hasn't been wiped by one thing or another. This was my first National Railway Historical Society excursion while actually a member, and it was sometime in the summer of 1990. We went from Utica, NY to Sherburne, and had a really good time. Notice the dome cars on the train! The locomotive was at that time the last operating ALCO C430, but in reality a few have been bouncing in and out of service, including this one, and they're heavily rebuilt by now, especially this one!!

This is another shot from the Selkirk tour. We had an exceptionally good view of these side tracks, the reasons for which weren't clear to me. I really like the dual-use tunnel on the left for both trains and trucks, made out of a culvert pipe!!!