{"id":387,"date":"2012-09-14T21:00:45","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T21:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=387"},"modified":"2016-06-03T13:20:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T17:20:13","slug":"american-gallery-southern-pacific-siskiyou-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/american-gallery-southern-pacific-siskiyou-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"American Gallery: Southern Pacific Siskiyou Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between 1990 and 1992, I made a series of trips to Southern Pacific\u2019s Siskiyou Line in northern California and south-central Oregon. This fantastic stretch of railroad was\u00a0characterized by exceptionally steep grades, sinuous alignments, stunning scenery and\u00a0ancient lower-quadrant semaphore signaling. As a signal enthusiast, I was fascinated by the large\u00a0numbers of active Union Switch & Signal two-position semaphores used in automatic\u00a0block service. While these vintage signals could be found elsewhere on SP\u2019s system,\u00a0there was no greater concentration than on the Siskiyou in Oregon. Another attraction\u00a0were SP\u2019s collection of classic Electro-Motive diesels, including 1950s-era SD9s (technically SD9E after overhaul) and my favorite 1960s\/1970s-era SD45\/SD45T-2s famed for their powerful 20 cylinder 645 engine.<\/p>\n

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Afternoon sun backlights classic Union Switch & Signal lower quadrant semaphores on Southern Pacific’s Siskiyou Line in Oregon’s Rogue River Valley, in May 1990. Photo exposed with a Nikon F3, 35mm PC (‘shift’) lens on K25 slide film. Photo by Brian Solomon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time I was in a photographic transition: I had just discovered the virtues of\u00a0the Nikon F3, while still working with my old staple tool, a classic Leica M2 range-finder.\u00a0This moment of transition and discovery of Nikon\u2019s single lens reflex (SLR) system\u00a0made my early Siskiyou trips especially exciting. There\u2019s nothing better than have a new tool\u00a0in a new place! The flexibility, functionality, and ease of use of the F3 SLR was a\u00a0revelation. Everywhere I turned I saw new photo possibilities! Among the lenses I played with was a Nikkor 35mm PC ‘shift’ lens that allowed adjustments with the front element to correct for linear distortion often associated with wide angle lenses\u2014a tool valuable for keeping semaphore masts parallel to the film plane, and thus avoiding the effect of them visually ‘falling away’ when photographed relatively close. And fun for making skies more dramatic.<\/p>\n

More than twenty years\u00a0later, I still work with my F3T occasionally, as I find it\u2019s strengths are not afforded in any\u00a0other system. With more than 2,000 rolls through its body, and working on shutter\u00a0number 3, this old work horse owes me nothing. Like SP\u2019s SD9s, the F3 is tool that\u00a0has its place, long after more modern and more powerful machines have been acquired\u00a0to supplant it!<\/p>\n

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Southern Pacific SD9Es lead a local freight near Phoenix, Oregon in April, 1990. Photo exposed with a Nikon F3, 35mm PC (‘shift’) lens on K25 slide film\u00a0Photo by Brian Solomon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My visits were well-timed too! SP\u2019s operations of the Siskiyou route were about\u00a0to wind down. I caught the last gasp of big-time railroading on what had once been SP\u2019s\u00a0primary route to Oregon, but which had been supplanted more than 60-years earlier by\u00a0the Cascade route\u2019s Natron Cutoff via Klamath Falls and Cascade Summit.\u00a0All of my images were exposed with Kodachrome film, primarily K25 (ISO 25).\u00a0I\u2019ve scanned my images using a Epson V600 flatbed and scaled and optimized the scans\u00a0for digital display using Adobe Photoshop.<\/p>\n

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Feel the ground shake! Southern Pacific’s ‘West Ashland’ (symbol MERV-M; Medford to Rosevile) led by SD45 7481 on the ascent of Siskiyou Summit in May 1990; Nikkor 105mm lens on K25 slide film. Photo by Brian Solomon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between 1990 and 1992, I made a series of trips to Southern Pacific\u2019s Siskiyou Line in northern California and south-central Oregon. This fantastic stretch of railroad was\u00a0characterized by exceptionally steep grades, sinuous alignments, stunning scenery and\u00a0ancient lower-quadrant semaphore signaling. As a signal enthusiast, I was fascinated by the large\u00a0numbers of active Union Switch & Signal … Continue reading American Gallery: Southern Pacific Siskiyou Memories<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[4537,43,7535,9,45,46,7,32,33,47,42,44],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-6f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15613,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/15613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}