In terms of transportation systems, the Northstar is relatively young, with passenger service starting at the end of 2009. Operating on an already-existing BNSF freight line, money was invested to purchase equipment, build stations, and to construct a maintenance facility near Big Lake. The line stretches from Target Field in Minneapolis, where it connects with the light rail, to Big Lake in the north. Although hopes were for the line to continue all the way to the city of St. Cloud, just north of Big Lake there is a several mile stretch of only single track, and it would be a significant expenditure to add another track so the line can continue to accommodate both freight and commuter traffic. Instead, bus service called the Northstar Link carries passengers from Big Lake to St. Cloud.

There are a lot of comparisons one could make with Metro-North – the most obvious being the overpasses used on the line. Along the Hudson Line there are severe limitations on the height of freight trains due to low bridges and overpasses. The line on which Northstar runs, being mostly freight, in contrast has very high overpasses to allow the plentiful freights to pass underneath. Another leg up the Northstar has over Metro-North is the fact that each passenger coach is equipped with wi-fi, something customers here have been wanting for years. On the other hand, service on the Northstar is very limited, focused around commuting hours with an occasional extra train for baseball games and concerts at Target Field. Much of this limitation is due to the frequent freight on the line, which can often delay trains (especially Amtrak’s Empire Builder).

All in all it was an interesting trip to see another one of the country’s commuter rail systems. Enjoy a collection of photos from Northstar:

  
 
  
 
  
   
 
 
  
 
   
  
   
  
   
  
 
 

The famous High Bridge, New York City’s oldest bridge.

The facility here is, of course, named after the Aqueduct Bridge, or better known as High Bridge. The bridge’s roots stretch all the way back to 1848, making it the oldest bridge in New York City. As one would gather from its original name, the bridge was an important part of the Croton Aqueduct, supplying New York City with fresh water. Originally a stone arch bridge, five of the arches were replaced with one steel arch in 1928 to allow easier water navigation under the bridge. By this time the bridge was largely obsolete, and no longer carrying water – however it did serve a secondary purpose as a pedestrian crossing. That crossing was closed in the 1970s, until it was recently reopened last month after many years of restoration. From the newly reopened pedestrian crossing, one can get quite a good view of what is now a Metro-North railroad facility below.

  
 
  
   
  

The view from the newly reopened High Bridge

Today, Highbridge is where you will find Metro-North’s Car Appearance Facility, where both interior and exteriors of train cars are cleaned. Highbridge is one of three Metro-North washing facilities, and it possesses state-of-the-art brushes and sprayers that use 280 gallons of water per minute – 200 gallons of which are recycled, making it more environmentally friendly. 20 cars can be cleaned every shift, and each car gets this full treatment about every 60 days. The washing is completely computerized, and does not require an operator.

Heading into the Highbridge car wash. Photo by Paul Pesante.

In addition to the appearance facility, Highbridge provides storage tracks for trains that is close to the city. While in days gone past, the New York Central used Mott Haven for this purpose, most of Mott Haven’s tracks were ripped out long ago. Highbridge has stepped up to fill that gap, which will especially be needed due to the East Side Access project, where Metro-North needed to give up quite a few storage tracks in Grand Central in order to bring Long Island Rail Road trains to the east side.

The original passenger station at High Bridge in 1961. Photo by Ed Davis, Sr., from the collection of David Pirmann. By the 1970s the station had some scheduled trains, while on others it was listed as a flag stop.

Other noteworthy details about Highbridge are that you can see some old remnants of the New York Central’s Putnam Division here – Highbridge was a point of transfer between the Hudson and Putnam Divisions. It is also where the Oak Point Link joins with the Hudson Line, permitting freights to avoid the bottleneck of Mott Haven to get to Oak Point Yard.

The evening CSX garbage train waits at Highbridge after coming on to the Hudson Line from the Oak Point Link

Anyway, let’s take a quick behind-the-scenes glimpse of Metro-North’s official employee station at Highbridge… the only place we neglected on our original tour of the Hudson Line.

If this is a technique you’ve always been interested in trying out, or you’re just curious to see how exactly one makes a panorama (especially one featuring a train) – from camera to computer – read on.

Making a panorama

Taking the shots

The first part of any panorama is getting the shots that you need to blend later on. As a beginner looking to do a railroad panorama, I would suggest you try to capture a train that is not moving. Whether it is tied up for the night or just stopped at a station, having everything stationary is best – moving objects can cause issues and anomalies in the stitching process.

These days, programs are usually good enough to accommodate photos not taken on a tripod. But you’ll want to remain in the same spot, and most importantly, keep the camera at the same angle within each shot. Rotate your body to get a wide field of view across multiple shots. Make sure to overlap – 40% overlap is usually the rule of thumb – so the stitching program will have room to blend the images together. It doesn’t matter if you shoot horizontally or vertically, but if you want to get the highest resolution image, shoot vertically (it will likely require more shots to capture the full field of view, however).

   
   
Here’s an example of seven shots I took of an M7 making a station stop at Harlem-125th Street. Note how I’ve rotated along the field of view, while allowing some overlap between the photos. Since the train was not moving, I was able to capture it across multiple shots.

Things that move

If you’ve tried the stationary panoramas out, or your feeling a bit bold, you can go for a moving object. If you’d like to capture a moving train, for example, what you need to do is capture the ENTIRE train in one photograph (unless you want the train extending off the side of the image). For this reason, it is better to capture your photos in a horizontal format, so you can better capture the entire train. If you capture the train using multiple shots, because it was moving it will appear in different places each time, and thus impossible to stitch properly.

If you’re shooting a passenger train, after the train has passed, then capture the rest of the shots of your field of view. If you’re capturing a long freight (where in this case you probably would have the train extending off the edge of the image) it is probably best to get your other shots before the train arrives, since it may take so long for the train to fully pass that the sunlight has changed, making it very hard to stitch those images together.

 
  
  

Here’s an example of five shots I took of a P32AC-DM on the Hudson Line, passing West Point. Note how in the first shot I capture the moving train, and then in the subsequent shots capture the field of view after the train has passed.

This is what those photos look like stitched together in a final panorama.

What program to use?

In order to make a panorama from multiple shots, you’ll need some program to stitch the images together. There are various free options out there, like AutoStitch, which I used regularly years ago (and was what I used for all of the original panoramas for the entire Harlem Line in the Metro-North Panorama Project), but these days I use Photoshop’s Photomerge tool. If you’re serious about photography, Photoshop and Lightroom really are the best programs for you to be using to make your images better. They’re the industry standards.

Using Photoshop’s Photomerge tool

Photomerge is relatively basic, from the File menu, go to Automate and choose Photomerge. In the window that pops up, select the images you’d like to stitch together using browse. For almost all instances you don’t need to change any of the default preferences. Auto layout usually does the trick, and you want to keep Blend Images Together on, as it blends any color discrepancies between the images, to make it look like one complete image in the end. Depending on your lens and camera, your photos may have some Vignetting, or a darker ring around the edge of your photo. If that is the case, you can check off Vignette Removal (I prefer to remove any vignetting in Lightroom prior, and if you use both programs that is what I’d suggest).

The menu showing where Photomerge is, and the Photomerge window.

Now you have a stitched image…

Your photos may now be blended together, but it isn’t quite yet perfect or how you imagined it. You’ll need to crop unwanted jagged edges, and make minor adjustments with the warp tool in order to get that perfect panorama.

The stitched image that Photoshop spits out from the seven Harlem-125th photos. Note that each individual photo is a layer, which allows you to fix errors in stitching if there are any. Provided that everything looks good, you should merge all your layers before proceeding.

Working on the image – cropping and minor edits with the warp tool make the final image.

The completed panorama.

Questions about the process

Why make a panorama out of multiple pictures using stitching, when many new cameras and phones have a dedicated panorama feature?
The panorama feature you’ll find in newer cameras or phones requires you to pan the camera across the field of view, and it will automatically assemble the panorama for you. While this is, of course, easier, it doesn’t necessarily yield the highest quality result. If you’ve ever wanted to print out your photos, you’ll find that the resolution of an in-camera panorama job is low. In contrast, the West Point panorama above has a final pixel size of 14329×4000 – sufficient resolution to print the final image at a width of nearly six FEET. Now I’m not saying you’ll ever have to do such a thing, but you’ll get a higher quality, more detailed image that is croppable if you desire by stitching.

What are some fun things you can do with panoramas?
Once you get the whole “moving train” thing down, you can try this funky technique, which I’ve always liked. Capture the train entering your field of view on the left side, and then capture it yet again as it leaves your field of view on the right side. It looks something like this:

What other methods can you use to capture wide fields of view?
Besides panoramas and stitching, you can capture wide fields of view with very wide angle lenses, and fish-eye lenses. A wide angle does capture a wider field than a normal lens, but it can never capture as much of the field of view as a stitched image could. Fish-eyes are nice (and I enjoy them very much!) but the distortion they cause is a little too much for most people.

But sometimes there is distortion in panoramic images. How do you minimize that?
From an artistic perspective, I tend to enjoy the distortion you can get in a fish-eye or panoramic shot. It is almost like a visual cue that what you’re seeing is something beyond the capability of your own two eyes. In terms of railroad photography, it also introduces a break in the abundance of long, straight lines from railroad tracks and platforms. However, it isn’t for everyone. In a stitched image, you’ll get more distortion the closer you are to the subject you’re photographing. If you’re capturing a train that is on a platform (like the Harlem-125th panorama above), it is very difficult to achieve no distortion. In the Hudson Line panorama, however, there is no noticeable distortion, as I was far away from my subject.

What is your favorite panorama from the Panorama Project?
Although I definitely consider the photos I initially took of the Harlem Line to be subpar considered to my work today, I’ve always liked this photo of Harlem-125th Street for some reason. I have a printed version hanging on my cubicle wall at work.

That just about wraps up today’s post – have more questions about panoramas? Have a panorama you’d like to share? Want to make a suggestion for a future Trains & Modern Photography post? Drop a line in the comments!

In some ways, Devon Transfer is not a true station – it is inaccessible to passengers in any form other than exiting a select main line train, or Waterbury Branch train. One cannot wait at Devon Transfer for any extended period of time – conductors, along with train masters and/or MTAPD are usually present to herd passengers from one side of the platform to the other and get on the connecting train, nor can one purchase tickets there. It does, however, have the typical trash bins one finds at Metro-North stations, lights for after hours, a public address system if ever necessary, as well as station name signs (I wonder who gets to keep these once work is done) on the platform. Utilizing the same wooden-style temporary platforms we’ve seen at other New Haven Line stations during track work, Devon Transfer is a decent substitute for keeping the Waterbury Branch running during the bridgework. In fact, it is arguably nicer than some of the permanent stations on the Branch (Ansonia‘s low-level platform comes to mind).

The Devon Bridge, currently undergoing work, with a six month expected outage on Track 3 (the one closest to the photographer in this picture). Aerial photographs of the Devon Bridge via the Historic American Engineering Record, Jack E. Boucher, photographer, taken April 1977.

For most passengers, the transfer at Devon is relatively convenient, with the exception of anyone coming from/going in the direction of New Haven, who would have to make an additional transfer at Bridgeport for their journeys. Additionally, all New Haven Line trains stopping at Devon will have an increased running time of about a minute, due to the extra stop. However, all of the work here is necessary to address one of the banes of the New Haven Line – its ancient movable bridges. Crossing the Housatonic River, the Devon Bridge (also known as the Housatonic River Railroad Bridge) is a 110 year old, 1,067-foot long rolling lift bascule bridge. It was prefabricated by the American Bridge Company in Trenton, New Jersey, and installed in 1905. Although less problematic as the notorious swing bridges on the New Haven Line (namely WALK), it is well in need of some attention. Suffering from the same lack of standardization found on many of the line’s movable bridges – each one being unique, with its own exclusive mechanical components – it requires custom created parts to fix.

Why is Devon Transfer needed? Looking from the Milford side of the river toward Stratford, an aerial overhead view of the Devon Bridge. Track 3, which is currently out of service, is the track on the far right. Note the diverging track on the bottom right of the photo – this leads into the Waterbury Branch. Because of the track outage, this lead-in is inaccessible, necessitating the Devon Transfer station on the other side of the wye.

Diagram showing Devon Transfer, and how it bridges the gap between the out-of-service Track 3.

While Track 3 is out of service, the timber decking on that section of the Devon Bridge will be removed, the underlying steel will be repaired and replaced as necessary, and then new deck timbers will be installed, with the running rail reinstalled atop. The miter rails, which are integral to movable bridges, allowing the rails to connect and disconnect for movement, will be replaced. Once work on Track 3 is complete, it will return to service, and Track 1 will be taken out of service for repair, with the same process repeating itself. At that point, however, direct access to the Waterbury Branch from the main line will be restored, and Devon Transfer station will become obsolete.

                         

In the northeast, Romanesque style train stations were mostly associated with the Boston and Albany Railroad, which designed most of their main line stations in the style (for example, Chatham, which was a joint Harlem Division station), and many by pioneer architect Henry Hobson Richardson. However, the New York Central did have a few – Richardson proteges Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge designed the Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, and Tarrytown stations located on the Hudson Line. The railroad also hired Robert Henderson Robertson to design stations at Canandaigua (extant, but heavily modified), Schenectady (demolished), and most notably, 138th Street.

R.H. Robertson was born in Philadelphia in 1849, and graduated Rutgers College in 1869. He started his architecture career working in the office of Henry Sims in Philadelphia, later moving to New York and working in the office of George B. Post. By 1871 he established his own architecture firm in New York City, designing a wide array of buildings from libraries to churches, as well as banks, train stations and private homes. Over the years he worked in various styles, including Queen Anne and Victorian Gothic, but by 1880 became heavily influenced by Richardson’s Romanesque revival style. Robertson was, however, described as “[taking] up the style in his own way.” His prolific New York City career led him to design various buildings that are today designated landmarks, including the Lincoln Building at Union Square, and Fire Engine Company 55‘s firehouse in Little Italy.

    
138th Street Station shortly after construction. Original photos from the Andrew Dickson White Architectural Photograph Collection, Cornell University Library. Photo restoration work by HarlemLine.com

Constructed in 1886, Robertson’s design for 138th Street was a 2 story brick building with peak tile roof, at a cost of $65,000 (about $1.6 million today). Typical of the Richardsonian Romanesque revival style, the building featured various arches, squat columns, cylindrical towers, and rusticated stone. Adding to the character of the building was a large clock tower, 80 feet high, and catching the eyes of all who passed by. Originally the station was at grade level, with two tracks crossing 138th Street, however upgrades were soon needed.

With the railroad’s steadily-growing service, and new requirements set forth by the US Army in regards to clearance for ships around New York City, significant upgrades were made to the right of way in the south Bronx and northern Manhattan in the 1890s. Primary among the changes was a viaduct raising the tracks above 106th Street to 149th Street, a new bridge crossing the Harlem River, expanding the tracks from two to four across the river and allowing better clearance for ships passing below, and adjusting the track curvature in the Bronx. The 138th Street Station was unfortunately in the way of these plans, and dealing with the station became an additional part of the project. Then was, of course, a rosy time, with railroads at their height and what appeared to be a never ending stream of profits. New York Central brass gave the go-ahead to draw up plans for the nearly insurmountable task of moving the large station without harming its delicate brickwork and intricate terra-cotta designs.

 
The moving of the great station, images published by the Scientific American in 1894.

Diagram of the station after moving, with new platforms.

The railroad hired B. C. Miller, who was no stranger to moving the near impossible – having relocated the 5000 ton Brighton Beach Hotel a few years previously. Despite being lighter than the hotel, the station posed more difficulty as its weight was very unevenly distributed. The tower alone – 19 feet square and 80 feet high – was estimated at 500 tons, and the entire station about 1200 tons. Using a series of fourteen jack screws, nineteen men gradually turned them in unison, timed by the sound of a bell. With each turn the station very gradually moved, taking an entire week to be situated in its new location. Not everyone was impressed with the move, however. In an article discussing the work of Robertson, the author described the changes as “[having] been carried out with a quite ruthless disregard of or insensibility to the merits of the work, and have destroyed or mutilated the dependencies that were integral parts of the composition.” Likely the author refers to the new porches and walkways erected around the building, allowing passengers to access the newly elevated track platforms from the second story of the structure.

 
 

New York City’s staff photographer Percy Sperr captured these images of the station, circa 1935. From the collection of the New York Public Library.

By the late 1950s, the cash-strapped New York Central looked to sell many of its passenger stations, and 138th Street station was one of several on the Harlem Line to be put up for sale (most prominently, Mount Vernon was sold in 1959). By 1964 a buyer – Golden Eagle Inc – had materialized. A real estate development company run by John A. Dilliard, Golden Eagle found value in the 56,517 square feet of land attached to the sale, but not the station itself. (Dilliard attempted to buy land on both sides of 138th Street near the station, which later led to legal battles with the bankrupt Penn Central and the City of New York) New York Central’s employee magazine Headlight paints a rosy picture of the sale of the “historic landmark” in its June 1964 edition, calling the depot “the finest and most complete way station in the country” upon construction. The more realistic depiction, however, made the front page of the New York Times on Sunday, April 26, 1964: “Picturesque Depot to Be Razed in Bronx.” For reportedly $170,000 (approximately $1.3 million in today’s dollars) the New York Central parted with the old station, and it was torn down shortly thereafter.

 

Trains at 138th Street in 1958.

 
138th Street in photo and in paint – Alfred D Crimi painted this rendition of the station circa 1950.

 
Alfred C Loonam photographs of 138th Street, circa 1955. Photos from the Museum of the City of New York.

Whether anyone mourned the loss of this great station is unknown. Its destruction came right on the heels of the loss of the great Pennsylvania Station, though it was a year shy of the establishment of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Though there is no doubt that had the Commission existed they would have bestowed this noteworthy station with a Landmark title, it is uncertain if anyone would have truly fought the railroad if it pressed for sale and demolition, as many did for Grand Central. Even with the loss of its grand depot, 138th Street remained a stop on the line, with a small replacement station constructed by the Central. Eventually all stations were to receive high-level platforms to accommodate the line’s new “Metropolitan” MU cars, and the station’s curvature and tight space deemed it not worthy of such an upgrade. The November 28, 1972 timetable is the last to list the 138th Street, and shortly after even the small replacement station was demolished. With a subsequent track realignment, little trace of a station ever being here remains. It seems that although 138th Street could survive one major landscape change, it couldn’t survive a second.

Other than among the biggest rail buffs, 138th Street station has been largely forgotten, with information about it hard to come by. Several name changes over the years no doubt adds to the confusion and enigma surrounding this place. Although the architect always knew it at 138th Street (it was this name that was designed in terra cotta on the station’s front), many (including the railroad) referred to the station in the 1800s and early 1900s by the surrounding neighborhood’s name, Mott Haven. The IRT established a subway station across the street which also went by the name Mott Haven, but a local businessman petitioned the subway in 1921 to change the station name due to confusion between it and the next stop of Mott Avenue (today’s 149th – Grand Concourse station). Following suit, the name Mott Haven fell out of favor for even the New York Central’s station, but the railroad was also known to simply call it The Bronx. After spending long hours searching all three names of this station (including examining rolls of microfilm for property records at the Bronx Business Center) and slowly gathering an array of tidbits, I was able to weave what seems to be the most complete history to date of this lost station. Although the station itself might be gone, there is still a story to be told – one of 138th Street’s current state and future.

In Bill Volkmer’s widely-forwarded slideshows of NH locomotives, you’ll find this shot at 138th Street

Over its 184-year history, the New York and Harlem Railroad has certainly seen stations come and go. Much of the railroad’s abandoned former right of way in Columbia County, for example, has reverted back to wilderness. However, it is hard to imagine any part of New York City proper reverting back to the wilds. In some ways, though, 138th Street did return to that state. After the great depot was knocked down in 1964, nothing else was ever constructed on the land south of 138th Street. Once the station itself was finally eliminated in 1973, and the underpass covered up, the slices of land next to the tracks on both sides of 138th sat dormant. Abandoned, to become slowly reclaimed by nature (and at some point reclaimed in property ownership by the City of New York). Around 2008, however, various individuals and groups including For A Better Bronx and More Gardens! noticed the land on the south side and worked to create a community garden there. By the winter of 2009, La Finca del Sur was founded on the site of the former station platform and exit, and the garbage and high weeds were gradually removed from the lot. In their stead came planting beds and trees. Largely led by Latina and Black women, the farm has plots open for members to grow their own plants, and occasionally holds farmers markets and events for the community. Members have the ability to further their knowledge through practical applications in the garden, as well as taking classes at the NY Botanical Garden in subjects such as soil testing, composting, and pruning.

You’ll find a wide and varied amount of things growing in La Finca: sunflowers for phytoremediation, plums, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, marigolds for attracting insects, roses, strawberries, onions, mint, garlic, cilantro, lavender, basil, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and more. Metro-North trains rumble by every few minutes, and the ground underfoot vibrates with the passage of a subway train below. Among the planting beds are various grates that lead directly down to the subway tracks, and the occasional message from the platform’s PA speakers can be just barely heard. The grates serve as an emergency egress from the subway, but are old and rusted, and now surrounded by protective orange fencing erected by the MTA.

While the loss of such a monument as 138th Street is quite heartbreaking, from the ashes has slowly risen this farm – something that the people of the South Bronx can be proud of. Many of the people I met at La Finca were unaware of the grand station that once stood there, but perhaps now that the history of this place is known, the legacy of 138th Street will live on.

  
 
  
 
   
  

Special thanks to Marilyn Ibach from the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress and Nancy Ortiz-Surun, Gloria Weiss, and Wilfred Gonzalez at La Finca del Sur for their contributions to this post and my research.

La Finca del Sur is always looking for donations and volunteers – if you can spare a hand, drop them a line at infosbufc@gmail.com.

I had been planning to photograph the railway in the snow, but the lack of trains cancelled those plans. Instead I visited in April, catching the Spring thaw along the line, with just a few bits of snow remaining along the banks of the Hudson. Although minimal freight operates on the line, I didn’t see any, only capturing the two passenger trains that operate each day.

Tourist trains have operated on this line since 1999, but the Saratoga and North Creek has only been running since 2011, operated by Iowa Pacific Holdings. They’ve only been carrying freight since 2013, a business they’d like to expand, as they’re losing money on their tourist trains (no doubt the harsh winter and cancelled trains did not help). Historically, the Delaware and Hudson Railway acquired this line in 1871, and ran on it until 1989 (an abandoned portion of the line, including a bridge, can be seen in a few of my photos).

                       

Since I’ve mentioned EXIF data, it is certainly worth mentioning this other wonderful part of modern photo. EXIF stands for EXchangeable Image File format, which is basically a way that a photo’s metadata is saved. Each photo taken with your camera has this data, which usually records the date and time the photo was taken (provided you have this set correctly in your camera), the camera make and model, and the settings used to capture the photo – usually the mode setting, ISO, aperture, and exposure. In some cameras you can set specific copyrights (my camera adds my full name and website address to the EXIF data) or other messages. If you have a GPS device linked to your camera, GPS coordinates for when the shot was taken (including the altitude in some instances) are also recorded.

Getting GPS data on your camera

So how do you go about getting your camera hooked up to a GPS device? Many new cameras are coming out with GPSes built right in. One of the reasons why I fell in love with my main camera, the Canon 6D, is the built in GPS. The Sony SLT-A99, Nikon D5300, Canon 7D Mark II, Pentax K-5 IIs, and Pentax K-S1 are all examples of DSLRs with built-in GPSes. If you don’t have one of those, however, that does not mean you are out of luck. Most manufacturers make external GPS loggers that connect to your camera. The good thing about these devices is that they add the GPS coordinates directly to the photo’s EXIF data. However, they cost about $200 dollars for one actually made by Nikon or Canon.

If you’re not looking to spend a lot of money, a good alternative is a cell phone GPS logger. Provided you have a smartphone, you should be able to download a few free or low-cost apps that use your phone’s built-in GPS to record your location. The difficulty with this option is that you’ll have to add the GPS data to your photos as a secondary step later on. The app’s software should make this easy, however, you just need to ensure that your phone and your camera’s time info are set the same way – it will link the GPS points it has saved with the info about when each photo was taken and match them up. You can search your respective app store and find a geotagging app for you, or try out Geotag Photos Pro, which I have used in the past and it worked well.

Photo map through Lightroom of my geotagged photos.

Using Geotagged Photos

So now that you have some geotagged photos, what can you do with them? If you use Lightroom to track and edit your photos, there is a map option where you can see all of your photos overlaid on a map, which is quite useful. You can also upload your photos to a site called Panoramio, a site run by Google meant only for geotagged images (this is where the photos overlaid onto Google Maps come from). You can keep track of the places you’ve taken photos on a map, but also what photos others have taken in that area. In a way, you’re helping to build a database of “where to get cool shots” – as I generally use the site to scout out cool places to get photos from.

“One of my photos uploaded to Panoramio, showing the location it was taken from

A map search showing all the photos taken of Tehachapi Loop in California, showing where each photographer was standing

If you want to use Panoramio for scouting locations, sometimes the built-in search is a bit clunky. The trick is to use Google’s search itself, find photos that interest you, and then go to the site to find out where the photo was taken. For example, here’s a search for good spots to get photos of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise:

All you have to do is go to images.google.com, in the search box type site:panoramio.com, which means that you’ll only be searching the panoramio.com site, then type your keywords, with phrases in quotes. Here’s what I searched for:
site:panoramio.com “golden gate bridge” sunrise

Though Panoramio is the best example of a site for geotagged photos, as it was designed exclusively for them, various other photo sites are compatible and will show maps for your geotagged photos. Flickr, and even RailPictures.net can show map info for any geotagged photos uploaded there.

Other GPS tools

It is also worth mentioning that railroad companies generally know where their trains are by GPS as well. A few have made that information publicly available. There are both fan-made and official live train trackers, but few beat the well-designed system yielded by an Amtrak and Google partnership. If you’re out in the field, nothing works better than being able to see where exactly the trains are on a map.

Amtrak’s live train tracker

To access the Amtrak live train tracker, go here, then click on the “Track your Train, Check Train Status” graphic.

So who out there also geotags their photos? Anyone else have a Panoramio account? Have an idea you’d love to see covered in our new series “Trains and Modern Photography”? Drop a line in the comments!

A daguerrotype considered one of the earliest known railroad photographs, circa 1850. Via the Center for Railroad Photography and Art.

I consider my upbringing to be on the very bridge of old-school photography and the “modern” technology world. I grew up shooting film, and in art school was expected to develop my own negatives and prints (admittedly, I hated it). Likewise, I remember getting my hands on my very first digital camera as a freshman in high school – it was a clunky beast, taking a 3.5″ floppy disk to save just a few photos. It wasn’t until I was in college that I got my very own digital camera (a simple point-and-shoot), and I didn’t get a digital DSLR until after I had graduated. I never fully enjoyed photography much until I had gone full digital, and since then I’ve attempted to embrace all the newest tech that I can get my hands on.

Image from a glass plate negative of Grand Central Terminal’s construction. From the Library of Congress.

Because of my love of photographic technology, and a suggestion by a reader, I’m going to be starting a new feature project on this blog – namely a column entitled “Trains and Modern Photography.” The column will feature both modern photographic technology, like the aforementioned drones, to GoPros, as well as modern techniques, like panoramic, high dynamic range, and timelapses – all from the perspective of a railfan. Though it will be of most interest to the photographer, I hope that everyone will be able to enjoy it, essentially seeing the “behind the scenes” of how great photos are made.

Modern tech in a classic setting at Grand Central Terminal

So that is about it for this introduction… look for the first “Trains and Modern Photography” post tomorrow, represented by a light green dot, which you’ll see now added to the category list on the right bar of the site. If you happen to have any suggestions or ideas of technology or topics we should cover, shoot me a message or just comment below!

Grade crossing incidents have been at the forefront of railroad safety recently, after three high-profile incidents caused major derailments, many injuries, and seven deaths. The three incidents occurred in New York, California, and North Carolina, proving that this is not merely a local problem, but a national problem.

Describing the new pilot program, Metro-North president Joseph Giulietti explained:

Although our program comes up with a solution that is light-hearted, the goal is not to trivialize the problem, or the incidents that have happened at grade crossings. People’s eyes are drawn to things like this – which is the same reason why a fast food place might have a guy dancing around in a hot-dog costume, or a tax prep place might have a lady liberty standing around outside. Sadly, we need to get people’s attention. It seems in our world full of the distractions of loud music, cell phones and other electronic devices, ringing bells, flashing lights, moving gates, pavement markings, and plenty of signage simply does not get anyone’s attention. Even several high-profile grade crossing incidents, and increased police presence at crossings has not stopped drivers from waiting on the tracks, or driving around lowered gates to beat the train.

I find myself agreeing the concept of distracted driving – some have mentioned that Ellen Brody, the woman who caused the Valhalla crash that killed six people, may not have been familiar with the crossing and intersection because of a crash on the Taconic and a detour that evening. Meanwhile, Deborah Molodofsky, who has mentioned she was familiar with the grade crossing in Chappaqua where she had a “close call,” still waited on the railroad tracks and was surprised when the gates came down around her car. Even afterward, she was quoted as saying “I did everything right and I still got caught” – completely oblivious to the fact that she did nothing right – one should never stop on railroad tracks – apparently Ms. Molodofsky never noticed the signs that say as much on the many times she passed that crossing.

Adding to Mr. Giulietti’s comments, Metro-North spokesperson Marjorie Anders said:

On our New Haven main Line, where there are no grade crossings, there are still many incidents with overheight vehicles striking the bridges that carry the tracks. On the Hudson Line, one of our 100+ year-old historical stations had a gorgeous pedestrian walkway into the station – it was completely destroyed by a dump truck striking it. This is clearly a complex problem that will not just have one solution. But if we only look at the grade crossings themselves, we’re missing an important part of the equation – driver distraction.

Anders’ point is a good one – even the NTSB has spent a good amount of time talking about driver distraction in transportation recently, holding a round-table discussion called “Disconnect from Deadly Distractions,” which was live-tweeted by the NTSB’s twitter account.

Note: The Hudson Line station Ms. Anders mentioned where the pedestrian crossing was destroyed was Ardsley-on-Hudson.

President Giulietti made sure to add one more note on the subject:

If for some reason you do happen to get stuck on the railroad tracks, each crossing has a sign with a telephone number and a description of the location. If you call that number and report a vehicle stuck, we can halt trains on the line and prevent a dangerous incident from occurring.

We were lucky enough to capture a video of one of the new hirees working on the Harlem Line, at the Cleveland Street crossing in Valhalla. The town of Mount Pleasant has recently revealed that they would like to close this crossing, to the detriment of the people that live in the neighborhood just over the tracks.

Hopefully such measures will capture the attention of the many drivers that make poor decisions around railroad tracks every day.

My article in the April issue of Railfan & Railroad

If you haven’t heard already, I have a pretty big article in April’s Railfan & Railroad Magazine, featuring my explorations of the railway in Chornobyl’s Exclusion Zone. On April 26th, the 29th anniversary of the Chornobyl Disaster, I’ll be showing my photos from that adventure at Whippany, along with some copies of the magazine. So be sure to check out the April edition of Railfan & Railroad (which if you’re a subscriber, started mailing last week), and come out and visit Whippany for their 50th anniversary, and my showing of photos on Sunday, April 26th!

       
Photos from Saturday’s Easter Bunny Trains at Whippany