{"id":9301,"date":"2014-12-18T02:13:48","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T07:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=9301"},"modified":"2014-12-08T21:50:16","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T02:50:16","slug":"oak-lane-revisited-55-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/oak-lane-revisited-55-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Oak Lane Revisited; 55 years later."},"content":{"rendered":"

Back on November 14, 1959, my dad photographed Reading Company T-1 2124 charging through Oak Lane station on Kodachrome.<\/p>\n

But where is Oak Lane? Obviously this is in suburban Philadelphia. However, when I consulted a modern day SEPTA rail map, I couldn\u2019t find it.<\/p>\n

A puzzle. I called my dad. But he didn\u2019t specifically remember making the photo, nor anything about the station. \u201cI chased a lot of the Reading trips. I don\u2019t know which one that was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Reading's<\/a>
Reading’s T-1 2124 charges through Oak Lane, near Philadelphia on November 14, 1959. Photo by Richard Jay Solomon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps the station had been closed?<\/p>\n

Finally, after a bit of research, I concluded that Oak Lane had been renamed Melrose Park. Armed with that knowledge, my brother Sean and I traveled to Melrose Park on SEPTA<\/a> on Friday December 5, 2014.<\/p>\n

\"SEPTA_Melrose_Park_P1100572\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the station isn\u2019t radically different. The old building still serves as a railway station, and the old canopy on the outbound side of the tracks still looks as it did in 1959.<\/p>\n

Two big changes were installation of high-level platforms and removal of the center track.<\/p>\n

I attempted to emulate the angle and perspective of the 1959 photo as closely as possible. My father was using a Kodak Retina 3C, probably fitted with a 50mm lens, although he also had a 35mm. So using my Lumix LX7, I adjusted the Vario Summilux to about the 45-50mm range. Both photos were made in late-autumn on overcast days.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Outbound<\/a>
Outbound SEPTA multiple unit at Melrose Park. December 5, 2014.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other big change is the equipment. Where in 1959, Reading\u2019s class T-1 4-8-4 number 2124 was the star attraction, on December 5, 2014 we had to settle for a 1970s-vintage Silverliner IV multiple unit.<\/p>\n

Keep in mind that at the time of the 1959 photo, the steam locomotive was only a dozen years old at the time. Happily, the 2124 is preserved at Steamtown<\/a> in Scranton.<\/p>\n

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Back on November 14, 1959, my dad photographed Reading Company T-1 2124 charging through Oak Lane station on Kodachrome. But where is Oak Lane? Obviously this is in suburban Philadelphia. However, when I consulted a modern day SEPTA rail map, I couldn\u2019t find it. A puzzle. I called my dad. But he didn\u2019t specifically remember … Continue reading Oak Lane Revisited; 55 years later.<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-2q1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301"}],"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=9301"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9306,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9301\/revisions\/9306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}