When I was working on the video “Hopper and the Railroad,” I ordered Hopper’s Places, by Gail Levin. The book did not come until earlier this week, too late to reference for the video but it is worth a mention if you are interested in Hopper’s work.
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Last fall I shared some ideas with my friend Rick Selva about what I thought was needed at the SONO Switch Tower Museum in South Norwalk, Connecticut. (From this point on I will refer to it as Old Tower 44 like it was called on the New Haven RR. Later on it was called Berk then after it closed and controlled from NYC at the control center, CP 240 & 241.) Rick’s background when he hired out on Conrail was as lineman on the B&A and Maybrook line. His hobby is old communication equipment, and he knows it very well. Rick and I threw around some ideas and I ran them by John Garofalo, who is one of the most dedicated volunteers you could ever meet at the tower. He and his friend Bob Gambling are there almost every weekend from May till October, when we close. Garf, as he likes to be called, was very excited about our ideas and gave us the OK to do it. Rick’s excitement when I told him we could do our project of hooking up the scissor phone and other phones you see in the pictures throughout our three floors was just what I wanted to see and hear. So Rick, Bob Eb and I spent eight hours working to run wires while Rick hooked these antique phones up. His attention to detail was really something to see, even running wire across the back wall to hide a modern-day wire and he used the insulators you see and affixed the wire to it like it was done 100 years ago.
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The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station in Madeira, Ohio, was a great place to be in 1967. It had five active telegraph wires. One was for Division use among operators and the dispatcher in Chillicothe, Ohio. A few operators and the DS were old ‘lightning slingers’ so the wire did get some use. Two more were long distance company lines.
Read moreGreat photographs help us see things in new ways, and reveal things that might otherwise remain hidden, or escape our notice. This is, of course true of all art.
Edward Hopper was an American painter who lived from 1882 until 1967. and his work has had a profound influence on the visual arts over the years. Photographers often cite him as an inspiration for their own work.
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I joined the Association of American Railroads’ (AAR) Research & Test Department in Washington, D.C. just after Christmas, 1977, as an Environmental Specialist. I was thrilled to be there. I grew up in southern New England watching trains on the New Haven and the Boston & Albany, hanging around stations, towers, shops; anywhere there were railroaders working. Back in the late ‘50’s and early 60’s, railroads were wearing out everything: the employees, the track, the equipment, and as fascinating as it was to me, I couldn’t see myself working there. Having chosen to work on environmental problems, I studied water and air pollution in school and worked for a consulting firm for several years. But, after realizing that railroads would need people who could help to deal with their pollution problems, I was fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time.
Read moreWinter was on its way and it was chilly and grey, but the cars were warm and the coffee hot.