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SLM
35 Posts |
 Posted - 11/06/2009 : 17:21:45
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Thought I'd share these plus I'd like to know if you guys think I am crazy.
Last week an estate sale was advertised in the local newspaper with RR Items. The guy did alot of railfaning - there was a photo collection of easily 2000+ photos just stacked in boxes - N&W, RF&P, Southern, & others - photos from all up & down the eastern seaboard. Many still in the film development bags as if they were never opened. Most are 1960-80s but a few do date back as far as the 1940s.
They wanted a $100 for the photo collection, I got them for $75 - a friend of mine can't believe I paid $75 for someone else's old photographs. From my point of view they are great prototype reference and just from the time & travel involved in developing a collection like this I thought they were well worth it as well as they deserve to be properly preserved. Am I crazy?
I have only had the time to look threw a small portion of them, here are a few samples - the N&W 611 Photos are from the early 1980s when NS put it back in service on passenger trains. Would have scanned these in but my scanner is not hooked up to the new computer yet.
Steve
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up1950s
Madagascar
9297 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 17:38:11
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I think you did good , but I would digitize them on a scanner or take propped up shots . That is what I am doing with 3K or so family photos the last 2 months , and probably the next 2 as well because of needed captions that only I have a vague idea of .
Whats up with the fire in front of the J ? |
Richie Dost
Photos http://picasaweb.google.com/up1950s
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Edited by - up1950s on 11/06/2009 21:13:47 |
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joetrain59
USA
2875 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 17:57:41
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| Rich, looks like a reflection of overhead room lights. |
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traindork2
USA
712 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 18:33:01
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| Looks like you did really well. I would have paid a lot more. |
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand N scale. That makes us something very special." - Stephen Hawking |
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peteski
USA
709 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 18:39:12
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Steve,
I think that you did quite well!
Just go to any larger model train show and you'll see a photo dealer selling prints and getting some good money for them.
Old photos (railroad and non-railroad themed) are also sold on online auction sites.
Old railroad-themed photos are not only sought by RR modelers and railroad buffs but also by collectors of period scenes.
Remember, one's trash is someone else's treasure! |
Peteski |
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SLM
35 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 20:20:29
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I wasn't really looking at it from a collector standpoint. My layout in progress is reasonably based(I'm not a strict prototypical modeler) on N&W & Southern in Eastern VA from the late transition era and I thought many of the photos would be great references.
There are alot of photos of old stations, water towers, bridges, tunnels etc.
I do plan on scanning alot of them in when I get my scanner hooked up. You are correct, it is reflection from overhead kitchen lighting - the photos look fine - no fire in front of the J :)
Steve |
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peteski
USA
709 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 20:39:59
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You might not have looked at them from the collector standpoint but knowing that they are collectible you could sell ones you don't find useful and recoup some of the money you spend on them. Even if you decide to keep and scan them all then if you publish them you'll have lots of grateful people thanking you for your generosity.
As I said before, you did the right thing buying this collection. You're not crazy and your friend's opinion can be safely ignored. |
Peteski |
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Tim S
USA
24 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 20:58:59
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Steve,
You are not crazy. You preserved a piece of railroad history. You said that you picked them up for reference material. If nothing else it looks like they will serve that purpose. It looks like they may have more uses than that. Thanks for sharing.
Tim |
http://timsfeedback.home.comcast.net/ |
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PGE_Modeller
Canada
66 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2009 : 21:26:12
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Steve,
I would have to say that you definitely made a great choice when you decided to purchase that photograph collection. So many reference photographs get lost because they simply get thrown out during the settlement of an estate.
You never know what information is going to turn up in old photographs, particularly if you look beyond the primary subject. A lot of people print old negatives cropped to the primary subject. I always ask that, if at all possible, the entire negative be printed with no cropping, even if it means a lot of white space at the top and bottom of the print.
In January 2008, I was asked by a friend to help identify the locations of a group of colour slides he had purchased. One was of a Pacific Great Eastern mixed train on an embankment with a portable station on the left and a stock pen to the right. By the date on the slide (July 14, 1948), it should have been a photograph of a Southbound train but the only matching location I could find from all my reference material was Clinton, BC, which would imply that the train was Northbound and the date was out by one day.
Last November, at the 7th Division, PNR, NMRA(Canada)'s "Trains 2008", I purchased a group of 40 negatives in an envelope marked "PGE Trip, 1946". However, I quickly determined that the indicated date on the envelope had to be incorrect as some of the photographs showed equipment that had not been purchased until the end of October 1947 or, in one case, not even built until Decemebr 1947!
Imagine my surprise when I realized that one of the black and white negatives was exactly the same scene as the July 1948 colour slide! Same locomotive, same station to the left and stock pen to the right, same three freight cars ahead of the baggage-mail car, same line-up of automobiles on the road down the hill from the station! The real find, however, came as a result of the difference in the format of the two photos, 35 mm slide and 2 1/4 inch square negative. The black and white negative included more area to the left and there, just beyond the left edge of the 35 mm slide, was a building with a sign "Pavilion Store & Lodge"! None of my fairly extensive collection of PGE reference material had indicated a stock pen at Pavilion located in the position relative to the station shown in the photographs.
So, to sum up a long-winded story, the chance purchase of a group of negatives finally provided the correct answer to an earlier question.
Cheers,
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fifer
USA
637 Posts |
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Doug Gosha
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2009 : 02:44:28
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Rule #1:
You can never have too many pictures of railroad things in your collection.
Doug |
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Mike G
USA
754 Posts |
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fifer
USA
637 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2009 : 08:59:16
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quote:
Originally posted by Mike G
$75 for over 2,000 vintage train photos? I think you did very well! You're not crazy. Now for the person that sold them so cheaply - that's another story! 
I agree and Mike , I love this pic of yours of the NYC U25B. Another of my fav locos and railroads.
Mike |
"Las Cruces is not the end of the earth , but you can see it from here"
http://www.fiferhobby.com
Albuquerque Carnuel & Tijeras RR
http://www.fiferhobby.com/html/mike_fifer_s_albuquerque_carnu.html |
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Mike G
USA
754 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2009 : 12:24:43
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| Thanks, fifer! That was taken at the Lake Shore Railway Museum at North East, Pennsylvania. They have some very nice vintage equipment there. The museum is a former railroad depot and there is a busy railroad mainline that runs alongside the building. So you can check out the acquisitions while railfanning at the same time! |
http://photobucket.com/MikeG-Trains http://www.youtube.com/user/MrTraindude
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Doug Gosha
USA
196 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2009 : 15:27:36
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Those shorts are definitely NOT railroady though :^)
Doug |
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Old Photographs
