Since the timeline of Trains & Railroads of the Past goes back to an era before we could use drones to get some elevation for our photos, I thought it would be a good idea to celebrate the ingenuity of railfans who found a way to position their camera more than six feet above track level. We used bridges (concrete drones), hillsides, stairways and yes, we climbed signal bridges (as Carl Graves pointed out in his article), climbed trees and even climbed on top of parked railcars, among other things. I still don’t own a drone, but I’ve seen some really good work by people who have mastered it. Publisher Kevin EuDaly showed me the value of keeping the altitude of the drones low in order to get some really interesting photo angles. For now, I’m remaining on terra firma, but I still find myself wheezing after scrambling up a hillside to clear an obstruction in the foreground. These photos will show that you can still be very creative without using modern technology! —Editor
ABOVE: This is the first photo in this article that was taken by someone leaning out of a skyscraper. I left the foreground intact because I didn’t want to crop those vintage automobiles — and each one of them is blue! A Pittsburgh Railways Company PCC trolley is stopped at in intersection in downtown Pittsburgh in the summer of 1963, the year before the transition from PRC to the Port Authority. One of the more interesting details I noticed is the pattern of the grime on the roof where the grease and/or dirt from the trolley wire falls onto the roof of the car. I am not sure of the exact location, though I found a similar photo that I believe was taken in the same location. If so, this trolley route crosses another one with a diamond in the street and there is a connection in the “southwest” quadrant. Also, I can read “Tambellini’s” on the building on the street catty-corner to where this photographer is standing (leaning). —Collection of J. Serensits.
ABOVE: Here’s a nice down-on shot of two Chessie System trains passing each other on twin girder bridges belonging to the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad in Richmond, Va., on April 25, 1983. The bridges carry trains across the Powhite Parkway. Baltimore & Ohio GP40 4050 is on the point of a southbound train of coal hoppers that will soon cross the James River and the yellow Chessie caboose is on a northbound train just about to roll beneath Douglasdale Road. The train will head north in the middle of the Parkway, then the center of Interstate 195 on its way to AY Tower. This was part of Atlantic Coast Line’s “A” Line, but the track was owned by RF&P. It appears that the overpass the pho-tographer utilized has since been removed, meaning that if you want to repeat this view today, you will either have to climb a tree or use a drone. —Kodachrome by Bill McClure, courtesy of Bob’s Photos
ABOVE: On September 11, 1980, drone photography was not even heard of to most mortal railfans, so how was this photo taken? I happened to be in Chicago for work and staying in what I think was at the time was a Holiday Inn. Fortunately, they assigned me a room on the west side of the building that gave a great view of the Clinton Street interlocking tower and the north end of the Chicago & North Western’s Chicago depot. I really can’t remember now, but I think either the window was really clean or it opened just enough that I could get my “antique” film camera out enough to capture a few images. Judging by the activity in the scene, I probably took the photo during the morning rush hour when hordes of commuter trains came in and out of the depot. The tower was the division point for CNW’s Wisconsin (heading to the right) and Illinois (toward the top) Divisions. The large plant in the center of the photo is the Blommer Chocolate factory and I believe the yard to the left of it may have belonged to Pennsylvania Railroad at one time and the Milwaukee Road may have snuck in around there somewhere. Blommer received cocoa beans by rail that were brought in to the port of Norfolk by ship and hauled in boxcars by Norfolk & Western (and later Norfolk Southern) to Chicago until about 1990, when Conrail picked up that traffic… but that’s another story for another issue. The tower was closed in 2001. —Kodachrome by David P. Oroszi.
ABOVE: This photo, taken from the “old” Coplay Bridge (the “Northampton Bridge” to those who lived in Coplay) in May 1964 brings back a lot of memories and tells quite a story of the area railroads. Central Railroad of New Jersey SW1 1011 is handling the Northampton Drill on the connection from their main line to the Northampton & Bath Railroad, who primarily served cement mills. The white rock is gypsum from Annville, Pa., in the Reading hoppers and from Delaware in the PRR gondola. The large yard is left over from the Lehigh Car Manufacturing Co, (later Lehigh Valley Car Co.), who built railroad cars from 1871-1896 here at Stemton, which would later be incorporated into Northampton. The American House hotel is at the crossing with Main Street and the small shack was used by the car knockers and drums of car oil were stored inside. Notice the empty barrels lying around! The stacks for the Dragon Cement mill can be seen in the distance down the main line and as you move closer, you can see the footbridge just east of 17th Street and on the right side of the main is Northampton station. Across the tracks is the Tru-Blu Brewery, whose switch is still in place at this time. Notice also the crossover for the eastbound and westbound main tracks, plus the center siding. The short wooden planks are for the bridge over West Laubach Avenue and the nearer bridge crosses the Hokendauqua Creek. When I (Editor) was two years old, my dad took me on a walk from the apartment we lived in and we visited the employees in the larger shack (Jack Hager, the agent, whose Plymouth is parked there, and a car knocker) located at the junction of the main line and the spur to the N&B. I believe he knew them since they were kids. They told us to wait around for about a half an hour because they had held up traffic to run an army special train with an oversize load. While waiting, I remember seeing the coal stove, the mounds of paperwork on the desk and an ad for the Union Pacific tacked up on the wall. Sure enough, the train showed up with some really big army tanks. It was fun for me and I believe the railroaders liked the company of my dad. Oh, and just to tie one more thing together — they used 8 mil-lion barrels of cement from the town’s mills to build the Panama Canal, mentioned in the Illinois Central caption earlier. And I also know there is big chunk of Northampton missing that is holding back Lake Mead just outside of Las Vegas. This image is a good lead-in for Mike’s story in the next issue of TRP. —Photo by Dave Augsburger, collection of Kevin EuDaly.