http://www.losttracksoftime.com/p47324941
Nicely done! You captured the spirit of steam railroading.
Did they just get a bonus and all buy new bibs? Mine are dirtier than that - and I'm just a freight guy.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
Great portraits Matthew, all of them!
My favorite is Jenny in her "Rosie the Riveter" outfit. That young lady's done her homework, it's spot-on, from the bandanna to the herringbone twill overalls.
zugmannDid they just get a bonus and all buy new bibs?
Precisely the problem I had seeing these. I was reminded of one of those stories of Hollywood where a star supposed to play a farm wife was put in custom-tailored costume plaid shirt and jeans for thousands of dollars (and those were Bretton Woods $35-an-ounce-of-gold dollars) instead of just finding worn or at least off-the-shelf clothes that sorta fit ... as a real farm wife would have worn. All these people look not as if they came from work but are wearing costumes or attending a steampunk cosplay convention - even after one day’s wear around working steam and subsequent washing they would not be so perfectly clean and straight looking. And if candidly shot on the job in ‘30s fashion their complexions wouldn’t be so scrubbed and neat — these look as posed and trim as school pictures.
At least the Trevithick Day girl had some smudging applied to her face to ‘get the feel’ a bit better...
This isn’t a nitpick (or really any kind of complaint against the Strasburg people, who really walk the walk as well as any historic railroaders did), just a note on believable verisimilitude.
McDonaldized railroading ... never seen Miners like that either.
Oh I've been pose-in' on the railroad.
Oh well, it's nice.
Now don't take it the wrong way - the guys and gals at Strasburg are real railroaders. I just chuckled at the super clean (and new) bibs. The same crap we give guys here when they get shiny and clean clothes. Kind of a tradition. I'll just place these photos in the same category as the "headlight polishing" one.
Overmod All these people look not as if they came from work but are wearing costumes or attending a steampunk cosplay convention
Nah, they'd need lots of gears superglued to their hats for that. Or huge goggles. Or a fursuit.
Going to have to find the time to visit soon.. haven't seen live steam since N&W 611 came to Buffalo in 1993.
Did I state in my original post that I was trying to accurately and/or historically recreate portraits from the 1930's? Or did I say they were portraits of current day railroaders?
FYI: image #2 is of the steam locomotive engineer that day, images #3 & #6 are of the mechanics on lunch break from performing heavy repairs on Great Western 90, #5 was the train's conductor.
Hey, if a true artist like Matthew was going to show up one day to take your picture, wouldn't you want to look your best?
Who wants to be immortalized looking like they crawled out from behind a dumpster?
Hey , I resemble that remark!
Shuts me up.
Yes, they're not quite as "out on the line" as the OWL's photos were, so you don't get the grime, but come on, they're spectacular photos! And I agree, you don't usually show up for a portrait wearing rags.
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Firelock76Who wants to be immortalized looking like they crawled out from behind a dumpster?
Raises hand.
mfmalkFYI: image #2 is of the steam locomotive engineer that day, images #3 & #6 are of the mechanics on lunch break from performing heavy repairs on Great Western 90, #5 was the train's conductor.
I'm still going to make fun of the clean bibs.
Portrates are fine. But even better are pictures at the actual work stations at work. Something you might consider for the future.
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