The latest installment of our biweekly photo contest, Trackside with Trains.com, is live. Six photographers submitted images for vol. 137's theme: Stations.
View the selection and vote for your favorite image here.
Thanks!
-Matt Quandt Online Content Editor Kalmbach Publishing Co.
I can't vote for a favorite as each is a perfect defnition of what a station is or could be; also each is part of a whole picture.
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
.....Oh my. Which one.....? Steeve...? Jim.....? Or David....? Thought I would narrow it down to those three. But not to dismiss the others, as all we're on target this week and nice thoughtful photos.
So close.....but picked Jim's. It certainly is a station, and not people and other views in the photo....So to stick with the theme.....and in my eyes, a very nice, kind of different {lighting, etc...}, photo than most, that became my selection. Again, we're picking just one.
Quentin
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Again - liked them all - and all different reasons. But this week, I think I saw a person move on one of the photos and I know I saw a polka dot move!
Alex gets my vote this time. I am so disappointed tho' that his didn't come with sound! Would love to hear the whistle just one more time....
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Just a quick correction: the 3751 excursion to San Diego is taking place this coming weekend, May 1-2, not May 8-9. Visit www.sbrhs.org for details. One May 8-9, she is supposed to lead a small PV train to San Bernardino, Cal., and be on display for the city's bicentennial RR days.
-Elrond L.
www.66rails.com
The appeal of a photograph is often about impressions and memories, and stations are no exception. My memory, my sense of what a station is, is people on the platform, hence David Lustig gets my vote this month. Much as I love the look of that SR FP7, the train must share the stage this time.
George in Lynden
Mostly pretty good this time. I went with Jim's as well, although I see Alex is again running away with the voting. There seems to be a pattern there...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
For me, it's usually Santa Fe, All the Way, except when I got to Alex's total nostalgic shot of the FP7 at a period station, so had to opt away from the Santa Fe steam and go with the 1940's-50's Southern EMD.
My vote goes to Steve, in spite of his "Rolls Royce" advantage. It's a nicely composed view that says it all.
Matt: Virgil C. Staff of the old "Railroad" Magazine would have been proud, but no one else is really interested in your Swiss girlfriend...
Alex: Too touristy for me (actually LOOKS like a static display), but I guess it's going to be a winner.
Jim: Great lighting, but the composition did nothing for me.
Andy and Dave: Too similar. Andy's was overexposed where it counted; Dave: clean your lens! What's that thing in the sky? Is it dust on the lens or the digital screen???
Jim's picture really did it for me. I look at the three little windows on the end and the single larger near window trackside on the second floor, and have only four words to say: been there, done that. The railway may be different, but a rose by any other name...
"Same as it ever was."
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
If I were to adhere strictly to the topic, I probably would have chosen Steve's shot of the Santa Fe station in San Diego. It's a classic...I've been there...and I love it.
BUT...rules were made to be broken (or at least bent a little) and the sheer beauty of Alex Mayes Southern scene got my vote.
TJB -- Nashville, TN
This is a rather strange subject for the photographers. I was surprised that we didn’t get pix of older run-down stations reminiscent of the glory days of railroad. (Like the picture of my hometown station in Hardin, Missouri, that was razed not long after this picture I use for my avatar was taken. On a good note however, the Southern rail station in my present community of Cleveland, Tennessee, is in line for restoration because of grants recently acquired. Good news for rail buffs in the area!!!) One can’t help but see all the crowds in Steve’s, Andy’s and David’s pictures and wish this was a typical day all over the United States, but alas for us in the rural areas, we’ll never see this kind of passenger activity ever again.Andy ought to get an award for his opening paragraph. A nice bit of writing about the railroad world we lost here in America so many decades ago.However, back to the pictures - and regardless of the pretty girl in Matt’s pictures and his glib writing trying to suck us with his relaxing, “isn’t the world a better place because the 5:25 was on time” recourse . . . heck, it’s 5:30 in the morning as I write this and I’m ready to order a glass of wine and while away the afternoon in a station side bistro . . Nevertheless, I was torn between Steve’s San Diego arial shot and Alex’s Southern Railway shot. I know that Alex’s shot is basically a “recreation” shot and Steve’s is the “real thing”, but my heart belongs to the F-unit . . . the train engine I remember most from my childhood . . . so I guess I’m going with Alex this week.
A mile from the tracks, but I still hear the whistle! Cleveland, Tennessee
Wow! Who to vote for? All very good photos depicting the station theme. I wanted to vote for both old and new but alas could only pick one. I ended up voting for the modern station and chose Andy's. Well done all.
I liked all of the shots, each had their own merits. As for my vote, though, I was thinking about what a station is about. I would expect platforms with lots of people boarding or debarking trains. Or perhaps just a few lonely travellers waiting for the next train to show up, staring down the empty track or having a cup of coffee in the station diner. Something like that, but the point being, a station is where travellers access the trains.
From a photographic composition standpoint, Steve's and Alex's were my favorites, but they were both of tourist/railfan events rather than the experience I described above.
So for me it came down to a choice between Dave and Andy. I suppose I could have gone with either one, but I chose Andy's this time, I guess because it seemed to best capture the "buzz" of the place from the travelling public.
Being a rail commuter of some seniority, I went with Andy's photo. It conveys the anticipation of the riders on the platform for what is an ordinary everyday occurence.
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