Poor Captions

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sun May 27 13:02:45 EDT 2007


I too find poor, inaccurate journalism and doctored photos objectionable.
One has only to read almost any newspaper article dealing with railroads to
realize how woefully misinformed even newspaper writers and editors are
about a subject which for most of us is merely an avocation. For one thing,
I don't think papers have reporters who specialize in transportation issues
anymore, even in a town like Roanoke. The errors are so numerous and
egregious that I no longer even entertain dashing off a letter or email to
the editor to set the record straight.

That being said, don't forget that promoters and publicists having been
doing this for decades. They may not have had tools as sophisticated as
Photo Shop, but it's always been easy to doctor photos to make them more
attractive or to highlight a feature. Or even to combine features that
could never be viewed together in the manner shown in the photo.

Cases in point: Have you ever gone to Bedford County and tried to find the
location of those beautiful shots of the Powhatan Arrow curving toward you
with the Peaks of Otter looming majestically in the background? The scene
doesn't exist. Or did you ever wonder how that N&W freight could be
crossing a creek on a deck girder bridge while the topography all around
suggests that the train is high in the mountains with the land falling away
to all sides. That violates the laws of physics and geology. Oh, and how
come all those latter-day releases of "copies" of N&W company photos showing
the Powhatan Arrow feature the 611 in the lead? Hmmm, do you think maybe
the photos were altered to help promote the 611 as star performer in the NS
steam excursion program.

I could go on, but you get the point. I'm not trying to excuse the latter
day practitioners of deception or inaccuracy, but to stress that healthy
skepticism has always been a wise attitude.

Sam Putney


Original Message -----
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: Poor Captions



>I think that the Arcadia books are kind of a paper version of Wikipedia -

>they rely entirely on the skill of the authors. Many of the Arcadia books

>on transit and RRs in the SF Bay area (where I live) are well done, but

>they have been done by respected local names. I doubt very seriously if

>the economics of publishing the small runs of such a wide range of books

>allows for much more than spell-checking. However, without an outfit like

>Arcadia, many of the subjects of their books would never see print.

>

> pete groom

> On May 26, 2007, at 9:55 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>

> Gordon

>

> This seems to be the consistent method of all of that Arcadia (I think)

> books, horribly researched, inaccurate information, etc. etc. I never

> bought the first one, but have glanced through them. There is one on

> Blacksburg, if I recall correctly, that has a photo of a Class J in the

> snow, at Christiansburg, with a caption not far from saying it is coming

> up Main Street in Blacksburg!

>

> It immediately turned me against a purchase of any of their books.

>

> Ken Miller

>

> On May 25, 2007, at 9:15 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>

>> What has to take the cake for one of the worst railroad photo captions

>> ever appears on Page 68 of the Images of America book on Bluefield, WV

>> under a familiar publicity picture of the N & W's Powhatan Arrow. The

>> second sentence of the caption reads:

>>

>> The Powhatan Arrow, the eastbound train, and Pocahontas, the westbound

>> train, ran day trips between Norfolk, Virginia, and Cincinnati, passing

>> the half-way point at Tip Top in Tazewell County, Virginia.

>> I don't have to tell Mailing Listers that the Powhatan Arrow and

>> Pocahontas were separate trains that each operated daily in both

>> directions, but I'll point out that Tip Top is on the Clinch Valley

>> branch, quite a ways from the mainline used by both trains.

>>

>> What is disturbing about such careless writing is that some day this

>> information may be taken as gospel by some historical researcher

>> perusing this book.

>>

>> Gordon Hamilton

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