I sent some of the collection out to a "pro" shop to digitize them. The promise was 1 1/2 weeks. It's approaching 3 and I have heard nothing from them. I am getting worried. Still have not purchased a scanner, so I reverted to taping some to a window and shooting them with my Nikon D50. It seems to produce pretty good results. Need to photoshop them to crop, resize and correct the brightness, contrast. I should have titled this THOSE ELESCO FEEDWATER HEATERS 2-8-2 2113 at Chesterton 2-8-2 2318 at Evansville 2-8-2 2002 at Niles
Good question, and I wondered about that also. Named for G.K. Chesterton? It's in Indiana just south of Lake Michigan, east of Chicago. Here's another neat location, Valhalla. 4-6-2 4383 with a short train. Harlem division, New York.
Valhalla, about 15 miles south of my birthplace. This train definitely is NOT the Banker's Special commuter, only three coaches and no Bar Car...LOL Interesting side note...Valhalla is also "home" to Kensico Cemetery, New York City's major cemetery with its own platform and shelter a mile or so south of Valhalla, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla,_New_York. A lot of famous people buried at Kensico Cemetery. The Central would run an occasional funeral special to Kensico Cemetery from GCT, parking on a siding across from the shelter during the funeral. Now that I'm remembering this, I have no idea where, or if the steam engine was turned. Kensico Cemetery is only 3-4 miles out of North White Plains where steam was swapped for electric power, so maybe the steam engine was merely run around the few coaches and backed south into North White...dunno?
OOPS, my memory had confused the Mount Pleasant Cemetery platform and shelter with the elaborate Kensico Cemetery station.
Nice shots! Is Niles the Niles in Michigan? On using your camera..that is a perfect way to do it. A scanner is basically a camera inside a box that has a sheet of glass on top the you place the photo upon. The key thing in using your camera is making sure the film plane (back of the camera) is at the same angle (parallel) to the print. In olden fays I did copy camera work and we used two types-vertical and horizontal. Horizontal used a fixed camera and a moving easel, while the vertical unit had a table you placed the print on, and moved the camera up and down on a post. Both units were large (Horizontal was room sized) and aligned the two planes within a millimeter. Hence, expensive equipment and always in demand. So, if you sent these photos to a large lab, they can take several weeks to get to your order...we usually batched our print sizes and did several orders at once. If it was a mail order lab, plan on 4-6 weeks. If it is a local lab, start pounding the table. You can use your camera to get great results. I set up an unit to do this for a local customer years back that did not want their photos to leave their property. I used a scrap piece 3/4" MDF board, spray mounted a piece of high quality, 40% grey matt board to it and made sure it was pressed absolutely flat-cinder blocks on the back of the MDF and two days of curing. Set up a scrap wood frame on the back of the MDF so the board rested at a 20' angle from ground. I glued a thin grey string-about 6" worth, a few inches from the bottom of the matt board and made sure it was absolutely parallel to the bottom of the board. I used a piece of non-glare glass that was a little smaller than the MDF board to cover the board and flatten the print in place. I then set up my camera on a sturdy tri-pod and used an angle gauge-measuring the back of the camera-to match the 20' angle of the board. I was using a Nikon and my favorite 35-105mm lens set at 90mm. That is key for lenses-you have to use the lens at the 85-100mm range for copy work. Using a wider lens will cause edge distortion. I shot outside on an overcast day-it's almost impossible to use on camera flash for copy work-with a warming filter to correct for the high UV blue cast. These days Photoshop Elements fixes that issue. With this set up, I copied 200+ photos in a day, ranging in size from 2x2 to 11x14. First, I donned cotton gloves and thoroughly cleaned the glass and blew all the dust off the matt board, put the glass in place and would lift it slightly, lower a print down until it contacted and rested on the thread, lower the glass to press the print flat and hold it in place, and snapped the shutter. I grouped the images from smallest to largest and moved the camera-only adjusting the lens for fine tuning the size and to make sure there was a grey matt board border around all side of the print. Why? You use the matt board as your constant when making any print corrections. If you have a ton of photos to digitze, this may be an option for you. If your camera is 8MP or larger, your going to get as good USEABLE results as having it scanned. Scanners are going to get larger files, but that may not be useful unless you plan on wall sized prints. If you have any questions, please shoot my a PM. Can't wait to see more! Mark
Mark, I don't have any direct knowledge, but would guess that Niles is MI, based on the short tender which kind of suggests Michigan Central. I am tempted to build a "scanner" similar to the one you described for use with the camera. The D50 is only 6MP but so far I am pleased with the results. I have an 11" X 17" Mac screen and am using one of a Hudson for wallpaper. It is very clear and detailed. So far I have just been eyeballing the angle to keep the camera parallel with the film, which is also at an angle by using the tape extended at the top. Can't believe I don't see more distortion, as this is a crude setup.
Jim, I don't know if your D50 has a grid on its viewfinder or LCD screen, but an easy way to detect parallax distortion is to look for a keystone effect in the image. Of course your eyeball and tape methods may be more precise than trying to detect a miniscule keystone effect on a 2" LCD or 1" viewfinder. On the other hand I doubt if any of us NYC Steam-Heads would even notice a keystone effect on the circular boiler of a J-Class or L-Class, much less care. We're so happy just to see a Vollrath photo that if it were posted upside down, we'd just say "Wow, Look at that BEAUTIFUL XYZ-Class steaming at East Overshoe Yard"....LOL
Hank, I think you are right about us NYC steam folks. Funny. I attribute the "eyeball" of the angles to my fine "Erpi" edumacation. Here is a Pacific, and the info on it says Tupper Lake. There is another loco in the background and to me it doesn't look like the Adirondack lakes area. Hmm, I did this one from the "computer" source. Big difference.
Jim, I think the photo ID could be accurate having looked at various satellite and map views of the Tupper Lake area. If the photo was taken facing north or northeast towards Wolf Pond, there would be nothing significant in the background. Do you have any 70-80 year old maps that might show where this yard was located relative to town? Modern maps show only a single track running southwest - northeast. BTW, 4521 appears to be one of the lighter K-Class, thus might have been assigned to the Adirondack Division. IIRC, the Adirondack had lighter service than the Harlem, Hudson, or Mohawk Divisions.
Today I got 20 scans back from the "Pro" lab. Here is a Pacific that is sporting Boxpok drivers. I probably have books that would explain this, but in my haste to publish some more, here it is. The Pacific is 4915. And another Niagara, 6005
Jim, which line(s) own the first two head-end cars behind the odd-ball K-Class? Obviously not Central's cars. BTW, I think your D-50/window technique is equally as good, damn-site cheaper too. LOL
Hank, I have no idea. There is no info on any of these negative/positives. The "Pro" shop did send hi-res versions of these, so once I get done with tonight's honey-dos I will see if I can read any road names on them, and post a few more.
I tried to find any ID on those head end cars, but don't see any. This must have been just before the RRs were pulled from mail service, judging from the number of head end cars. I do have an answer for why 4915 has those fancy drivers--she and sister 4917 were streamlined, a la the Commodore Vanderbilt, I think for the Meteor service. This must be after the streamline jackets were removed. Here is another from the collection, Hudson 5292 in Chicago.
Jim,great photos. The 2118 was NYC and leased to the B4 in 1926 and kept the NYC number. The 2318 was B4 all the way. The K-5's 4915,4917 were also used on the James Whitcomb Riley and were stramlined .This was the train that Ed May was on when they were running 100 mph west of Indianapolis in his article in the NYC Headlight magazine. I never fired the 2002 but did fire the 2001 and the 2007 on the Benton Harbor Michigan to Niles and on to South Bend local.The B4 had a total of 105 H-10a and H-10b locomotives. LEW
Hi LEW, and thanks for sharing your personal experiences with some of these locos. I have been trying to answer a question from another gentleman on a different forum about some NYCS locos. LEW, did you ever run across Mikes 1423 or 1456 in your career?
Jim,will start out with corrections: should be 2113 instead of 2118 and the B4 had 110 H-10a,b instead of 105. Will check the engine #. LEW
