Tag Archives: Warsaw

Kodachrome File: Crazy Weather in Warsaw . . .

New York.

On the old Erie Railroad.

On May 7, 1989, I awoke to find more than 6 inches of snow on the ground at Scottsville, New York. The previous day, people had been mowing lawns.

By 11:42 am, I’d caught up with Delaware & Hudson’s DHT-4, a double stack train that was working its way east from Buffalo on Conrail’s former Erie Railroad mainline

At the time New York, Susquehanna & Western was D&H’s designated operator.

 NYS&W SD45 3614 (former Burlington Northern) leads Delaware & Hudson DHT-4 on Conrail’s former Erie Railroad mainline to Buffalo near milepost 374 (measured from Jersey City).

NYS&W SD45 3614 (former Burlington Northern) leads Delaware & Hudson DHT-4 on Conrail’s former Erie Railroad mainline to Buffalo near milepost 374 (measured from Jersey City).

More to the point, the late season snow had contributed to a signal failure, and the freight was stopped at red signal near Warsaw, and awaiting instructions from the dispatcher. I made this photograph using my Leica M2 loaded with Kodachrome 25. I had the camera fitted with a Visoflex and 200mm Telyt (which was a combination I was using a lot back then).

Since DHT-4 wasn’t moving, I opted to play around with some non-standard compositions. This slide was in my ‘Seconds box’ (not to be projected to an audience) for 25 years. I also have some more conventional views as well.

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Warsaw—Today in History.

Tracking the Light Special Post.

On August 23, 1989, twenty five years ago today in Warsaw, Poland, Tadeusz Mazowiecki became the first non-communist prime minister of a Warsaw pact nation. This symbolic event is credited as a landmark moment in the crumbling of the post World War II totalitarian grip on Eastern Europe.

On several occasions, more than decade after the momentous events of 1989, I traveled to Poland to photograph railways.

If Poland had remained under the old regime, I think it would have been far less likely that I would made these trips. The freedom to cross borders and wander around unhindered remains an important consideration in my travels.

Warsaw Central Station. Exposed on Fujichrome slide film using a Nikon F3T with 24mm Nikkon lens.
Warsaw Central Station. Exposed on Fujichrome slide film using a Nikon F3T with 24mm Nikkon lens.

I made this view of Warsaw Central Station on May 1, 2002, having arrived by overnight sleeper from Dresden, Germany.

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