Can I share my strange hobby with you?

[Anonymous]

I don't take photos, but old ROW's fascinate me. Nothing like walking back into history and seeing what hasn't been seen for years. There are some abandoned ROW's around my city (Lynchburg, VA) that were used during the Civil War and were closed at the turn of the twentieth century. A tunnel on one of Lynchburg's rails-to-trails was completed in the 1850's. Check out this great resource that I've used to discover this history.
www.retroweb.com/lynchburg/rails.html

[FJ and G]

Thanks for encouragement and advice, esp. the emails I received. I used to use a nice Cannon F1, A1 and AE1 but since digital is free, I've been using a Nikon Coolpix 4MB. I know that 4MB is good for 300dpi (or ppi) at about 5X7 but don't know if the enlargement resolution would be quite good enough for a book. Perhaps someone could comment (never thought to put them in a picture book).

[DBMitchell]

Wonderful pictures, I vote for a book also!!!
I enjoy looking for right-of-way indicators as I travel. One of my favorites is the Auburn and Northern, a trolley line from Auburn NY to Port Byron on the mainline of the NYC. The line was only in use for about 25 years, and was abandoned before 1930, but you can still see the grade where it went through swamps and along the Owasco River. Also, houses were built across the R-O-W and finding where the grade starts on the other side is another challenge.

[fuzzybroken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

Thanks for encouragement and advice, esp. the emails I received. I used to use a nice Cannon F1, A1 and AE1 but since digital is free, I've been using a Nikon Coolpix 4MB. I know that 4MB is good for 300dpi (or ppi) at about 5X7 but don't know if the enlargement resolution would be quite good enough for a book. Perhaps someone could comment (never thought to put them in a picture book).

Dave,

Is that 4MB or 4 megapixel? 4 megapixel should be good enough for a full-page photo, my Olympus does 3.1 MP and I've had some great 7.5x10 prints made from them. If you want to do a "test-book", check out some of the offerings from the following companies:
www.snapfish.com (a HP company)
www.imagestation.com (a Sony company)
www.cafepress.com
www.fedexkinkos.com

I've got a few similar photos on my website, one page that comes to mind is UP Photo Albums. I also enjoy following old r-o-w, though I primarily bike those that are now bike trails:
www.fuzzyworld3.com/bicycling3.html

[FJ and G]

Thanks; yes, megapixel. My bust. By "test-book" do you mean a website?

[fuzzybroken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

By "test-book" do you mean a website?

Well, that would work too... The companies whose websites I posted can print some kind of photo book, and some of them would allow you to add captions as well, so you could see what a book of your photographs would look like! CafePress even offers a venue for you to offer them for sale.

[buckeyee]

Loved the photos. I almost felt I was walking through the woods in some secluded area. The most wonderful thing about railroads, they usually blend in with nature, not destroying,like our highways.

[JimValle]

It's not so strange. One variant you might try is to do some archaeological trekking along lines that are still in service. There are a lot of old coal trestles, signal tower foundations, spurs to abandoned industrial sites and equipment shoved into the weeds and forgotten. My best discovery was the terminal of an abandoned narrow guage line in Caldera, Costa Rica. All the locomotives and rolling stock was still there as well as maintenance equipment and facilities. Fascinating stuff. Another time I got into an abandoned Reading Co. roundhouse in wilmington, DE and came out with some collectable hardware and a 1948 employees operating timetable. Ah the thrill of discovery! Just watch out for the post 7/11 security aparatus.

[gacuster]

Great photos. I also enjoy hiking along old railroad grades in northern Wisconsin which had many shortline logging railroads in the early 1900's. Some of the old government quadrangle maps I have show the tracks which gives a good reference point. Sometimes you can still find a rotting tie, rusting spike or lump of coal.

[Railroadgun]

I don't think its so strange. Many times in my life(I am now 70) I have come across old tracks and in some cases followed them. It's always fun to wonder what their original
purpose was and imagine them as having trains on them. Try surfing the web, searching "abandoned railroads". You will like what you find. Some stuff in the New York City area is very interesting, also spots like Hawaii. You are not as strangeas you think you are. Just have fun and if possible, share it with others. Also check the book dealers, you would be pleasantly surprised to see how many titles have the word "abandoned" in them.
Marvin Cohen

[PBenham]

Dave, Marv may be on to something![:D] There may be only one (two?) operating railroads in Hawaii, but an excuse is an excuse! As to the opinion that today's youth would rather sit on their[censored] I 100% agree! When "kids" come in to my workplace, we old [censored]s run rings around them. They have no stamina. What are they going to do when they are 40,worse,50, or even worse 60?[xx(]

[germanium]

PB - makes me think of "rose-tinted glasses" (I'm in my 60's and retired). We helped make the world these youths grew up in. Perhaps if we were to show them how interesting things can be, they'd leave their (implied) Xboxes and Playstations and venture out into this interesting world !!
This hobby isn't strange - unusual (possibly) - I've followed old railway tracks and found much of interest, rather saddening really to see the remains of a once busy junction or terminal, and wonder what it must have been like at its height.

[Anonymous]

Really fine, artful photos.

Brings new meaning to "boulevard of steel".

Is there someone out there who can capture the many positive nuances of railroading, bring them to life as if a theatrical production (not a museum) and offer them as something new to the many who do not know? Model railroading 1:1.

[FJ and G]

Well, I guess I will also share with you some other aspects of my strange hobby, although I hesitated to do so earlier b/c this is a 1:1 forum. I also have built a number of abandoned model railroads or portions thereof, all in O scale; and am building an outdoor layout now in O scale that will have some abandoned branchlines. I’m including a couple of photos of the indoor/outdoor work.

I’m also writing some novels and screenplays that involve same, but that work has been delayed pending completion of the outside layout, which, incidentally uses trains that I modified to be powered by a remote control boat transmitter/receiver, so I can make rusty rails for the trains to ride on, since the active track will be lightly used and the rest, of course, abandoned.

[Zwingle]

NICE!
I also enjoyed constructing abandoned lines when I modeled in HO. They were especially good for heading away from the central layout. Way up on one abandoned line I placed an old forgotten steam locomotive almost completely overgrown. Would have been missed by anyone not paying close attention to the ROW.

Great idea for remote control. By the time I got done rusting my rails I could never run anything on them. Placed small trains on them stationary, though, for "display.."

[Anonymous]

This could have interest beyond the railfan perpective. I would call these photos conceptual art. The composition would merit much asthetic tastes. You could find much symbolism in the photgraphs.

[egmurphy]

Really nice shots of the rail, Dave. I agree with several of the other posters that they go way beyond simple railfan shots.

Wish you had posted this a week ago. I was out walking some abandoned r-o-w this weekend and would have loved to try copying your technique.

Out of curiosity, I suppose that you're not hand holding the camera for shots like these? Do you just flop the tripod head over 90º and shoot straight down, or do you flip the tripod center post over and have the camera mounted down between the tripod legs?

Best regards

Ed

[FJ and G]

Ed,

I do have a tripod but must admit these are handheld shots.

I think I enjoy the hiking and fresh air sometimes as much as I enjoy the photos. Also, I try to imagine what it must have been like...

[SALfan]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. I don't think your hobby is strange. There's an abandoned RR near where I grew up, and I've wanted to try to walk its ROW. It's really grown up now, and obliterated in places - it was abandoned in 1919.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

I’ll just get right to the point and admit that I have a highly unusual interest. I am a ferroequinarchaeologist, who loves to hike along abandoned or torn out tracks or ROWs; even through the woods, using topo maps.

Do you collect souvenirs such as spikes while you are out there ?

[wccobb]

"Ferroequinarchaeologist":

"Ferro" translates roughly to "iron"
"Equin" translates roughly to "horse"
"Archaeology" can be defined as: "the sceintific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other remains.
"Archaeologist" is one who practises archaeology.

Thus, "Ferroequinarchaeologist" is one who practices the sceintific study ...(etc., etc.) of things related to the iron horse.

And, FJ&G, your photos & research should qualify you for at least a Master's degree, if not a full Doctorate in Ferroequinarchaeology. Many thanks for sharing what is also one of my favorite pastimes (ever visited the ex-B&O & ex-PRR street trackage along the Baltimore waterfront?)

[Poppa_Zit]

QUOTE: Originally posted by wccobb

"Ferroequinarchaeologist":

"Ferro" translates roughly to "iron"
"Equin" translates roughly to "horse"
"Archaeology" can be defined as: "the sceintific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other remains.
"Archaeologist" is one who practises archaeology.

Thus, "Ferroequinarchaeologist" is one who practices the sceintific study ...(etc., etc.) of things related to the iron horse.

And, FJ&G, your photos & research should qualify you for at least a Master's degree, if not a full Doctorate in Ferroequinarchaeology. Many thanks for sharing what is also one of my favorite pastimes (ever visited the ex-B&O & ex-PRR street trackage along the Baltimore waterfront?)

Not to rain on your parade, but simply stitching words using such loose interpretations together to manufacture another word to connote a slang term -- "ironhorse" -- and then attempting to create yet another word by attaching it to the suffix "archaeologist" really is quite a stretch. Seeing a word that big reminds me of reading a column by George Will, an acknowledged American Flyer nut.

However, most of what we discuss here fits the same category of serendipity so I think you should start a cottage industry and print diplomas and sell degrees. A buck's a buck, right? Personally, I'll take a FeEqAD or whatever you'll call it. Do you accept PayPal? Can I wear an engineer's cap and gown?

[espeefoamer]

This guy is obviously taking the term "RAIL"fan to the extreme[}:)]!
FJ&G. GREAT PHOTOS[:p]!!!

[Anonymous]

The photos are excellent. I bought a 11x14 photo in San Antonio of flowering bluebonnets on an abandoned line near Kingsland, Texas. I don't know how much of his traipsing is ferroeqinarchiological, but the pic I bought is superb. I'd pay for some of yours. He was getting up his new website at www.harrybowdenphoto.com.
Dan

[james saunders]

very very nice

[edblysard]

I particularly like, from the top, #s 11, 19 and 23...all three use the slight overcast to create a soft and even light that pops the colors, not only of the ballast, but the plants too...besides, all three are visually interesting...

Really don’t get what’s so odd about your hobby.
I to, like to explore old rail lines, and old buildings, particularly turn of the century era and earlier…and let my imagination run on as to what it was like back then, how the people acted and what they did, what went on there...great exercise for the imagination, which, as was pointed out by germanium, our children seem incapable of doing without some form of "game".

wccoob...your snipe at the "made up word" is rather funny, considering the rail industry if full of odd phrases that do not express what is really happening.

Take kicking cars...which would hurt like the devil if we really "kicked" them...or running over a frog, which should make a mess, not guide a wheel flange.

We "tie down" locomotives and cars, which would take a lot of rope, if that’s what we were really doing.

How about dropping cars, does that mean someone is strong enough to pick one up?

There are track bumpers, but if you actually bump into one, you usually get fired, so why isn’t it called a get fired post instead?

Ed

[wccobb]

In more complete reply to CMSTPP's question: "...what is a ferroequinarchaeologist"

In the beginning there were horses. And the Latin word: "equine", which means horse. And there are those who admire horses. And the Latin word: "equinologist", which means (broadly) lover of horses. Some 40 years ago someone added the prefix "ferro". "Ferro" is Latin for iron (and the symbol for the element iron is "Fe".) Thus, the new word "ferroequinologist" was brought into the English language. It saw frequent usage in the Kalmbach (and other) publications and was generally accepted as meaning: "lover of the iron horse". Today's Wikipedia uses the word: "study" in its definition of ferroequinology. Run "ferroequinology" thru a good search engine and you'll find a multitude of respectable railfan websites. Bottom line: "ferroequinology" and "ferroequinologist" have come into widely accepted usage, and are accepted by thousands and thousand of railfans around the world. (read that: competent railfans.)

Both "ferroequinology" and "ferroequinologist" pertain to railfanning across the entire spectra of the railroad industry, from the very first thru today and on into the foreseeable (predictable?) future. However, it does appear that FJ&G intends to limit the scope of his "time frame" of efforts to that which is now in the past. This is, of course, the scope of "archaeology", a long established and well recognized science. Run "archaeology" thru a good search engine and you'll find many established colleges and universities offering courses and awarding degrees in archaeology. (Read that: I'm gonna stay retired !!!)

FJ&G's generation of a new word for the English language and its application are completely correct. As I stated previously, "ferroequinarchaeologist" is a perfectly good English word whose derivation is obvious. It means:"lover of the iron horse of antiquity" or "he who studies the ironhorse of antiquity". The creation of this new word obviously comes from a superior command of the English language and a good working knowledge of the ancient Latin from which so much of our English language is derived.

And, I stand by my opinion that the work done by FJ&G is comparable to that required for a Master's Degree or for a Doctoral thesis. Most excellent photos, and many, many thanks for sharing them.

[trainfan1221]

One of the aspects of this hobby is to see what was. Its part of the history of our favorite pastime. I am personally glad that I recently solved a 30 year mystery by figuring out where an abandoned line I remember from my youth went, by following the old ROW to where it connected. There are so many abandoned lines, unfortunately, that its hard not to show some interest in what once existed. We certainly have our share in New Jersey.

[Anonymous]

Beautiful work. Doesn't seem too strange to me

[catpoppa]

thought your photos and slant on our hobby were very good.I also like to take pictures of abandon right -of ways.I took two pictures looking along the rails in Machias,Maine about two years ago and wondered if any of the local people thought I was a little weird.Just out of curiosity do you know or keep track (no pun intended) of who's line it is?