The other day my music-guru Dennis LeBeau phoned from East Brookfield, Massachusetts.
“Come on down to the South Barre Rod & Gun Club on Sunday, my sons and I are playing a gig!”
Where?
“You know it, it’s just across the Mass-Central line south of the Barre/South Barre town line. We’ve got some great bands. Real talent. You’ll like it!”
[Click on the video clip (above) for an inspired interpretation of Johnny Cash.]
Mass-Central’s line from Palmer to South Barre passes right in front of the South Barre Rod & Gun Club (located off Route 32).
As it turned out, I was well familiar with the crossing. Over the years I’ve worked this location for photographs of Mass-Central freights.
Mass-Central is a weekday operations, so my Sunday visit was strictly about the music.
Country music has its railway influences, and in the end this tied together nicely.
Dave Pike and the Good Old Boys. That’s Dave in the cowboy hat, and music guru/railway photographer Dennis LeBeau on bass.
Dave Pike & the Good Old Boys, The Franklin County Sweethearts, and The Jays, were all playing. These bands have some crossover and were all helping each other out. You can find them on Facebook.
The audience was more lively than these stuffed beasts.
The Franklin County Sweethearts; Rosie Porter playing bass and singing with Tommy LeBeau.The Franklin County Sweethearts; Rosie Porter, Tommy LeBeau and Lexi Weege.
The Franklin County Sweethearts; Rosie Porter playing bass and singing with Tommy LeBeau, and Lexi Weege. (Here I’ve de-saturated the color for a period look).Rosie Porter steps in for a song or two with Dave Pike and the Good Old Boys.
Three LeBeaus (Dennis on bass, Tommy on drums, and Paul on guitar) backing Rosie Porter.
My recently published Railway Depots, Stations & Terminals highlights railway architecture around the world, including Helsinki, Tokyo, and London.
As an author, I always like to add a personal touch to my books, and when possible include items of local and special interest. If you scour my pages, you’ll often find photos made in Palmer, Massachusetts and Dublin, among other favorites.
Among the topics covered in the recent effort is a small section on the former Boston & Albany station at East Brookfield, Massachusetts. I’d photographed and researched this building over the years. Sadly, it was destroyed in an arsonist attack five years ago.
This photo of the East Brookfield station was one of the first images I made with my new Panasonic LX3 digital camera. I was testing the camera (which I’d bought to use as a light meter) on a bright October morning in 2009. There were two eastward CSXT freights coming and I was trying to gauge the light. CSXT had just recently put a new roof on the old building. Less than a year after I made this view it succumbed to fire. This photo is reproduced on page 83 of my book.
On Pages 82 and 83, I discuss East Brookfield and its demise as part of greater story on lost stations. In my text, I mention that a period photo of the old station still hangs in East Brookfield Pizza, a few blocks from CSXT’s former B&A mainline.
My friend Dennis LeBeau has helped preserve East Brookfield’s history, and has a collection of glass plate negatives exposed by William Bullard, a local photographer working from the 1890s through the World War I era. Several Bullard photos appear in the book.
The other day, I called into East Brookfield to give Dennis his contributor’s copy of Railway Depots, Stations & Terminals. We went down to East Brookfield Pizza to show the owners and staff the book, and I had Dennis and company pose with the Bullard photo of the station.
On October 30, 2015, Dennis LeBeau holds his signed copy of Railway Depots, Stations & Terminals at East Brookfield Pizza where the old William Bullard photo that he supplied to the restaurant hangs on the wall. The restaurant and the photo get a mention in my book.I exposed this view the other day. It shows the Keith Block and the site of the old station.
