On March 24, 1997, Mike Gardner and I spent the afternoon photographing around New London, Connecticut. This was shortly before Amtrak began electrification.
I made this view of a pair of F40PHs leading train 175 west of the New London station.
Who would have thought the omnipresent Amtrak F40 would be the subject of a classic photo?
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On an evening in 1978 my father and I visited South Station, Boston.
It was very different then; much quieter, low level platforms, no electrification, mechanical semaphores controlled movements on the approach to platforms.
I’d fitted my dad’s 21mm Super Angulon to my Leica 3A. I exposed several Kodachrome slides by resting the camera on something solid and making a 1 second exposure (or so).
I didn’t understand the concept of reciprocity failure, and so even though I’d taken the light reading of the hand-held Weston Master V literally, most of the slides were underexposed (too dark).
This one was the best of the lot, and in my early years was among my favorite railway photos.
In the interval since I made this image, I’ve perfected my night photography technique.
On my 1984 visit to Chicago I’d made photos and traveled to/from the old North Western Station.
Wow, have things changed.
Yes, I’ve made some visits between then and now, but it’s been a long time.
The old station was torn down not long after my first visit and replaced with an epic glass box. Today, this is known as the Ogilvie Transportation Center.
In the mid-1990s, about the time that Chicago & North Western was folded into Union Pacific, the station’s Bush train sheds were demolished and replaced with more modern platform coverings. I made a few photos during that transition.
Still, it seems a bit strange for me to see the former North Western Station in this modern format. My impressions from 32 years ago remain only in my memory and few photos that I made with my Leicas.
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So often I hear the following excuse:
“I don’t photograph trains anymore because I don’t like [fill in the blank here]”
In the 1980s, I thought Amtrak F40PHs were just about as dull as it got.
I didn’t mind the F40 per se, but the platinum mist livery with narrow stripes, black cab and black trucks didn’t do it for me. And these engines were everywhere!
They were the ubiquitous face of Amtrak: found on the Lake Shore, the Zephyr, the Broadway, etc.
I photographed them anyway. In black & white and in color.
Looking back, some of the photos have aged well.
Yet, the other day at when I was at Claremont Junction, New Hampshire to visit the traveling Amtrak Exhibit train, I still found it hard to get overly enthusiastic about an Amtrak F40!
None-the-less, I made this view on Fuji Neopan Across 100 using my old Leica fitted with a 21mm Super Angulon.
You know, it doesn’t look so bad now.
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In August 1984, I made a ten-day adventure of riding Amtrak. I visited Montreal via the Montrealer, then to Washington D.C., where I boarded the Cardinal for Chicago. It was my first visit to America’s ‘Railroad Capital’; I spent three days wandering around, riding trains and transit, exposing every frame of film I brought with me. At that time, my standard camera was a 1937-built Leica IIIA that my father gave me for my 10th birthday. In addition to this Leica, for this trip, my dad gave me loan of its clone, which he’d bought years before complete with wind-up mechanical drive. Since the drive was weighty, I left it at home. Fitted to this camera was an obsolete collapsible Leitz 50mm Elmar with non-standard f-stops (f3.5, f4.5, f6.3, f9 & etc). While a remarkably sharp piece of glass, this lens suffered from antique coatings that made it inadequate for my color photography and made it susceptible to excessive flare. As a result, I relegated this lens to my B&W work, while using my 50mm f2.0 Summitar for color slides. Among the B&W photos I made was this image of Chicago Regional Transportation Authority F40PH 161 at Chicago & North Western Station.
What I remember best from this solo trip was arriving in Evanston, Illinois, where I had a pre-booked and pre-paid hotel room waiting for me, only to be told in a sneering manner by the woman at the desk that I, ‘wasn’t allowed to stay at the hotel, because I was a minor’. She then began to admonish me for traveling alone! I was 17. I was incensed! “Lady, I’ve been traveling for weeks by myself, and you’re the first to cause me a problem because of my age! So! You’d rather have me on the street than in your hotel?” I walked out. Not one to waste time, I resorted to staying in the Evanston YMCA, which was primitive, but adequate, cheap, and didn’t interfere with my travel because of age.
