Do you knowyour history? You’ll need it to in order to solve this one! But the short answer is more about today than long ago.
Here are three photographs with a common theme.
There’s two levels, but I’ll accept the basic answer as correct.
For those of you who really know the history, you can give me the more detailed answer.
Think simple: this is not overly complicated, but what isn’t written in two of the photos are keys to the conundrum.
To save you some time and rule out some lines of thought, the answer(s):
Have nothing to do with propulsion;
Or signals; Or Personalities.
And are not overtly relevant to my Irish travels.
Also: There’s no relevance to the puzzle regarding dates the photos were exposed, or the lighting, or film versus digital. It’s not about weather or lenses.
I exposed all photographs at different times on different days, but don’t be watching clocks. The correct answer has a lot to do with something that doesn’t appear in ANY of the three photos, but is often featured on Tracking the Light.
Post your ‘correct’ answers in the Tracking the Light comments, on Facebook, via email, etc.
I’ll reveal my solution(s) in a few days.
Yes!
I should have added of course that Pan Am Railways has figured fairly frequently in Tracking the Light.
So – have I “seen the light”?
Congratulations Micheal Walsh! You are correct. I had several close answers, but you hit the nail on the head. Brian Solomon
I reckon the theme may be Pan Am Railways.
The first picture shows the Pan Am building on Park Avenue in New York, which stands behind Grand Central Station. The name, colours and logo of the defunct Pan American World Airways were purchased by Guilford Rail System in 1998 and applied to their rail New England operations in 2006.
The third picture is of exceptional interest. It shows 1926-built combination car 16 of the Springfield Electric Railway, now preserved at the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor CT. The 6.5 mile long Springfield line became a subsidiary of the Boston and Maine and was later de-electrified. In 1983, it became part of Guilford, along with the B&M.
The second picture is of North Conway station, on the Conway Scenic Railway. North Conway was near the north end of a lengthy B&M branch from Rochester NH, which connected with the Mountain Division of the Maine Central at Intervale, 7 miles beyond North Conway. The B&M branch and the MC Mountain Division were abandoned by Guilford, but some 50 miles, comprising portions of both lines, survive as the Conway Scenic Railroad.
It’s all about Death and Transfiguration (apologies to Richard Strauss). The rise and fall of Pan Am airline transfigured into a glorious railroad. The great GCT almost met death but has been transformed into something glorious, albeit without its original great railroads. North Conway station has been transformed into better than new, with a railroad management who knows what they’re doing. And the restored Springfield Terminal (NH-VT) trolley at the CT Trolley Museum no longer has to worry about falling into the CT river or being mismanaged by a, shall we say predecessor, of Pan Am. However, what I think what you are getting at is that each of the 3 photos show a something with a relationship to B&M and its successors.
They are all about preservation.
…there is no destination signage?