North Carolina Branch (Pulaski to Galax/Fries)

[NW Mailing List]

Mike:  The railfan photography community has two issues, is it easy to
photograph and are there a lot of trains to photograph?  

If the area is hard to get to and access to the line difficult.....

If the track has only one or two trains a day and half of the time the train
is in poor light or low light.........

Cincinnati had and has many railfan photographers.  In the old days, few
photographers went over to the N&W Clare yard on the east side of town, or
for that matter PRR's Undercliff Yard, because it was far easier to go to
Winton Place station about eight miles north of Cincinnati Union Depot and
photograph all of the B&O, NYC , N&W and PRR trains going through there in
abundance.  Daylight , too.  

Other issues are that relatively few photographers really are skilled in
taking good photographs or could afford good lenses and cameras that would
take a quality photo.  Today's 35mm's and film compensate for MANY issues
that required real skill and knowledge in older folding or box type cameras
to overcome.  Older lenses could be very disappointing in sharpness
especially when wide open.  So, in remote areas, there may have been some
photos taken that weren't up to publication quality. 

(If you figure you are a pretty good photographer with 35mm equipment,
borrow some medium or large format equipment as see how well you do.  This
will give you a good idea what the old timers were up against.) 

Frankly, the line from Cincinnati to Portsmouth saw about 20 trains a day
but was so difficult to get to because the road net in southeastern Ohio was
poor until Ohio 32 was built in the 1980's.  One couldn't chance any trains
so one had to sit and wait for the trains.  Of the 20 trains, many were
evening, early morning or night trains. 

It is all return on investment. Guess where the photographer went?  

Gary Rolih
Cincinnati 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 4:32 PM
To: 'NW Mailing List'
Subject: North Carolina Branch (Pulaski to Galax/Fries)

Why does there seem (at least to me) to be such a dearth of photos and other
information of the North Carolina branch (which the roadbed is now the New
River Trail). Winston Link never seemed to have visited the area, or anybody
else that I know of. Munsey Webb's Norfolk and Western Railway Company North
Carolina Branch (1995) is a great source of info., but I'm surprised that it
appears to be the only source of such photos and other info. This is such a
beautiful and interesting branch line, I'm surprised it wasn't visited and
photographed more as we neared the end of steam. Any thoughts about this?
Are there any other sources of good info regarding the North Carolina
Branch?

Thanks,

Mike Weeks
Charlotte NC


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