Category Archives: Rail transit marathon

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Six Years Ago: Ponte Dom Luis 1

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The Ponte Dom Luis 1 is one of two magnificent Eiffel bridges spanning the Douro in Porto, Portugal.

On this day (April 5th), 2014, I worked with my Canon EOS 7D to make this photograph of a Eurotram crossing the bridge.

Porto is a remarkable and extraordinarily picturesque city.

Fellow photographer Denis McCabe and I were exploring Porto during a week-long photographic journey around Portugal. While the weather was good in the south of the country, it was foggy, raining and overcast in the north.

Portugal is among the countries prominently features in my book; Brian Solomon’s Railway Guide to Europe by Kalmbach Books see:

https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/search?q=brian+solomon+Railway+guide+to+Europe

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Budapest-July 19 2007.

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The Hungarian capital has a wonderfully complex transit system mixing heavy railways, with metro lines, funicular railways, urban street trams, and interurban trams.

On a visit in July 2007, I exposed this Fujichrome of a route 49 tram passing below a MAV (Hungarian state railways) arched bridge.

It was extraordinarily warm that day.

This was one of the last rolls I exposed using my Contax G2 rangefinder. Not long after returning to Dublin, the camera developed a serious fault and I stopped using it.

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Zagreb August 2003.

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Yesterday, when I read about the Magnitude 5.4 earthquake that shook Croatia, I thought back to the pleasant few days I spent on my first trip to the Croatian capital Zagreb in August 2003.

During that trip, I exposed this Fujichrome slide of a tram in Whirlpool a advertising livery near the Zagreb main railway station.

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Geneva Street Car House—SF MUNI.

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I liked the old Boeing-Vertol LRVs. (Light Rail Vehicles).

The shape of the cars lent well to photography.

The San Francisco cars reminded me a the old orange creamsicle frozen treats.

Back in December 1990, I made this view of a Boeing car leaving the Geneva Street car house for a run on the M-Ocean line. I was working with my old Nikkor f4.0 200mm lens on my F3T loaded with Kodachrome 25.

I made great use of that lens, but sold it in 1996 when I bought my 80-200mm zoom. In retrospect, I made better photos with the fixed 200mm.

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Amtsterdam May 26, 1996.

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My father and I traveled from Brussels to Amsterdam by train on May 26, 1996. Shortly after arriving at Amsterdam Centraal, I exposed this color slide of a tram paused in front of the station.

On the front of the tramcar is a bit of graffiti which annoyed me at the time. This bit of marker seemed to spoil the scene.

Later in the day, we traveled by tram to the end one of the lines, just to see what was there. It was like Legoland.

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December 31, 1994—Chicago.

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I made this view at the CTA’s Clark-Lake Station on the rarely photographed Chicago subway.

The Loop is often pictured, but not the lines underground.

My brother and I had spent the day exploring Chicago and it was nice to get out of the cold.

I used an FLW color-correction filter to compensate for the green cast produced by the artificial lighting underground.

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Bytom Four-wheeler.

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On a trip to Poland in August 2006, I made a few photos of the four-wheel trams at Bytom.

At the time these were some of the last traditional four-wheel trams in regular revenue service and represented a carry-over from an earlier era.

For me, it was an opportunity to photograph one of Europe’s most obscure transit lines. Thanks to Michael Walsh of the Irish Railway Record Society for recommending this location.

I made this view using a Nikon F3 loaded with Fujichrome Sensia II (100 ISO).

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Elegant Paint at Okayama.

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On April 24, 1997, my father and I paid a brief visit to Okayama, Japan, arriving and departing the same day by Shinkansen.

Okayama had a compact two-prong streetcar system with colorfully painted street cars (it seemed that each car was in a different livery).

Traditional colors on this modern boxy car.

Kodachrome in Fuji-land!

I made these photos with my Nikon N90S.

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Chrome at Bad Schandau

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It was on a misty May 2009 morning that I exposed this Fujichrome slide of a tram in the village of Bad Schandau in Germany’s Elbe River Valley.

This was just a few months before I purchased my first digital camera and when I still exposing lots of color slide film.

Yesterday I scanned this slide using an Epson V750 scanner and then processed the file using Lightroom.

Below are two Lightroom Jpgs. The top is uncorrected, the bottom reflects digital tidying up for internet presentation.

Specifically, I adjusted the gamma for better contrast by putting the darkest regions at the toe of the curve (far left) and moving the highlights to the top of the curve (far right) while increasing contrast in the middle range. I reduced the amount of magenta and increased the yellow for better color balance, and applied a small degree of digital sharpening for edge effect. (This doesn’t actually make the photo sharper, but it looks sharper on screen). Lastly, I made a nominal correction for level by slightly rotating the image (which crops it).

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Paris Metro Line 6

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In March 1999, I made a day trip to Paris from Brussels on the Thalys.

Among my visions for the day was to duplicate views of Metro Line 6 with the Eiffel Tower similar to those that my father made back in 1960.

Working with my Nikon N90S, I exposed this wideangle view from above the banks of the Seine.

While the sun was out, dark clouds would soon pelt hail across the Parisian landscape.

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Hudson-Bergen Light Rail on Film

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On January 13, 2015, Jack May and I explored NJ Transit’s Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system to make photographs.

Fujichrome slide scanned using a Nikon Coolscan 5000 scanner.

I made this view on Fujichrome Provia100F using my Canon EOS 3 with a 40mm pancake lens—a winning combination for contemporary Transit photos with historical format continuity. (A fancy way of saying, I exposed photos of streetcars on film back in the day, and I still do!).

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Port Authority-Trans Hudson

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Exchange Place—1982.

As a teenager living in rural Monson, Massachusetts, I thought Jersey City was a fascinating urban wonderland.

It was gritty, dirty, decayed and very urban with lots of  history.

A virtual playground!

I made this photo at Exchange Place station on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson former Pennsylvania Railroad controlled Hudson & Manhattan rapid transit route between New York City and New Jersey terminals.

As a photograph it isn’t my finest, but I feel I captured my sense of wonder about PATH.

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Toronto Transit Commission—Two Photos from Ten Years Ago.

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In February 2010, I visited Toronto, Ontario with photographers Pat Yough and Chris Guss.

It was extra cold, but we made some stunning photos in the clear frosty light.

These view of TTC CLRVs (Canadian Light Rail Vehicles) were exposed using a Canon EOS-3 and Fujichrome slide film.

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Boeings on Duboce.

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In 1990, this was just around the corner.

One October evening I set up on Duboce Avenue in San Francisco with my then new F3T and 35mm PC lens (perspective control lens, which allows for movement of the front element) and made this view using Kodachrome 25 color slide film.

Difficult to believe that was nearly 30 years ago!

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    Vintage Green Line.

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    I had about five hours before I needed to catch a flight from Logan, so I checked my bags and went into Boston.

    My goal was to photograph the old MBTA Green Line elevated near North Station before it was closed and removed.

    This was way back in June 1999—More than 20 years ago.

    Today this portion of the old elevated is just a memory.

    Exposed with a Nikon on Fujichrome.

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    Slovakian Beer Tram at Dusk.

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    Occasionally I aim for theme convergence.

    I’ve been running a series featuring 100 transit cities and a few days back I features a tram in Berlin advertising beer. Yesterday, I discussed photography at dusk. So today, I’m featuring a beer advertizing tram at dusk in the eastern Slovakian city of Kosice.

    A purist might call me out on the fact that this tram is preserved and inactive in the photo, therefore might not qualify as a legitimate transit image. I do, however, have slides of Tatra trams working Kosice streets. I’ll need to locate and scan them.

    This photo was exposed on Fujichrome with conventional daylight balance. I made no color correction or alterations in scanning or post processing.

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    Sacramento Light Rail; Two Chromes.

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    I’ve made numerous photos of Sacramento California’s Regional Transit District light rail system, all of them on film.

    Here are two scans from color slides that were exposed nearly 19 years apart.

    In November 1989,I exposed this pan of a light rail car near the California State Capitol building.
    This elevated view of a light rail train at Florin Road, south of downtown Sacramento was made on Fujichrome using a Canon EOS3 with a 24mm lens.

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    Tokyo Trolley.

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    In a city laced with railway lines, perhaps one of the most obscure is the light rail line that I call ‘the Tokyo Trolley’.

    So here in the land of Fuji, I exposed this Kodachrome view on April 22, 1997, of the trolley leaving a private right of way and beginning a section of street trackage.

    While I only have a few photos of the Tokyo Trolley, I’m quite pleased to have taken the time to seek out this unusual Japanese railway operation.

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