{"id":1113,"date":"2013-01-14T07:26:20","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T12:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=1113"},"modified":"2013-07-17T11:39:33","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T15:39:33","slug":"chicago-north-western-station-chicago-august-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/chicago-north-western-station-chicago-august-1984\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago & North Western Station, Chicago August 1984"},"content":{"rendered":"

In August 1984, I made a ten-day adventure of riding Amtrak. I visited Montreal via the Montrealer, <\/i>then to Washington D.C., where I boarded the Cardinal<\/i> for Chicago. It was my first visit to America\u2019s \u2018Railroad Capital\u2019; 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<\/sup> birthday. In addition to this Leica, for this trip, my dad gave me loan of its clone, which he\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

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\"Chicago,<\/a>
Chicago, August 19, 1984. Exposed with Lecia IIIA and 50mm Elmar lens using Kodak Safety Film 5063 (bulk loaded Tri-x 400) rated at ISO 400, processed in Microdol-X.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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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, \u2018wasn\u2019t allowed to stay at the hotel, because I was a minor<\/i>\u2019. She then began to admonish me for traveling alone! I was 17. I was incensed! \u201cLady, I\u2019ve been traveling for weeks by myself<\/em>, and you\u2019re the first<\/i> to cause me a problem because of my age<\/i>! So! You’d rather have me on the street<\/i>\u00a0than in your hotel?\u201d I walked out. Not one to waste time, I resorted to staying in the Evanston YMCA, which was primitive, but adequate, cheap, and didn\u2019t interfere with my travel because of age.<\/p>\n

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