Author: Jim Pearson

Early in the 20th century (and before the various “Safety First” campaigns that we still see today),  a dozen railroaders — on average died on the job each day .   On any given day, tens of thousands more were injured or maimed.

That was often brought home by the fact that few conventional insurance companies would write policies for railroaders — their jobs were considered too risky.   So railroaders set up their own group insurance plans and mutual benefit associations.

An industrial pension program so that employees could expect to retire (rather than work until they died) was largely a railroad innovation.  The first plans emerged in the early 1880s and led to the creation of the Railroad Retirement Board in 1934, which was the model for the Social Security Act a year later.

Hundred of thousands of railroaders worked in jobs that took them away from their homes and families.  Sometimes they enjoyed networks of boarding houses, railroad YMCA’s, beaneries, and places of entertainment and commercial affection.  At other locations, the away-from-home accommodations could be threadbare or downright inhospitable.

And then, the names.  For everyone from the president on down, official railroad documents generally identified the employees by a sterile two initials and surname,  (J. T. Blow).   Yet no group of industrial workers embraced nicknames more than railroaders.   There was always a few Butches, a Nookie, Boogie, Shotgun, Skeeter, Barney, Screwdriver, Speedy, and all sorts of fellows who, for one reason or another, went by some alternate version of their given names.

All of which speaks to a larger truth.  Despite the hazards and demands, railroaders were proud of their work.   You would hear variations of this theme many times:   “I hate the company but love the work.”  Or, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this.”  – submitted by Gary Ostlund

Credits:  Pix by H. Armstrong Roberts and excerpts from Kalmbach’s 2011 Working on the Railroad

Our Chapter Christmas party will be at Steve and Marilyn miller’s home, Saturday, December 3, 1pm, 1420 Billy Goat Hill Rd, Hopkinsville, KY.

Yates Center Kansas boasts “more hay shipped from this point then any other town in the United States!

“Buffalo Kansas, more ancient fire arms and implements of war here then anyplace west of Chicago; and, one of the largest brick plants in the west”!

Next is “Neodesha Kansas, the one time home of the Notorious Bender Family” and 3500 other people in 1914. 2486 residents in 2010!  Neodesha was also “the largest oil refinery in the west, using 60,000 barrels crude petroleum per day”!

There are two accounts of the name. One is the Osage Indian meaning “where waters meet” another meaning “muddy waters”!

“Cherokee Indians” tells about the Cherokee Indians being the only Native Americans to have “an alphabet of their own and a printed language “! As well as the only Indian Newspaper ever printed!

I will continue this’s synopsis next month.

If you are interested in reading the book, It is available as an electronic file for purchase via Amazon.

Rick Bivins.    

10 Tips for photographing trains by Jim Pearson

While this is by no means a compressive list of ways to photograph trains, these ten tips will help get you started. I hope these will provide you with some inspiration. If you just shoot a photo carelessly you’ll get a careless snapshot. You need to bring something of yourself to photo for it to be successful.

¨ Capture Movement: Railroads are a moving industry. While at times it’s a hurry-up and wait industry, you often will find trains in motion. If you capture that movement in your photo it will add drama to your photographs. To capture movement or motion in your photos you’ll need a slow shutter speed and probably a tripod. Shooting just before sunrise or after sunset will give you the low light you’ll need to capture motion blur.

¨ The Light: Usually the hour just after sunset or sunset are great to photograph in, but great light can be found anytime day or night, but these two hours are considered the best and predictable.

¨ Photograph the cars:  Of course everyone photographs the engines and cabooses, which are loud and often colorful, however, most of the train consists of cars that can be colorful and large. Trains are rolling canvases and many punks and malcontents, and the graffiti they leave behind can often be interesting. Finding creative visuals among the spray paint can be rewarding.

¨ Change your angle: Look for moments where you can photograph trains from different angles. Get high, low and move around when shooting. Look for high vantage points such as overpasses, tunnels and curves. This will add impact to your photos.

¨ Be Contextual: Railroads provide a service for other industries. By capturing the industries, they serve, you tell a much bigger story of what trains are about. While they’re big, they’re actually pretty small compared to the large refineries, plants, etc., that generate the freight.

¨ Photograph the infrastructure: Railroads need rails, signals and a host of other infrastructures in order to operate. You can add interest to your pictures be capturing photos of these things such as switches, bolts, couplers or rails.

¨ Add human interest: People like seeing photos of people so look for opportunities to include them in your pictures. This includes spectators and workers.

¨ Sometimes less is more: Don’t think you always need trains in your photos! Tracks leading off into the sunrise or sunset make for some great photos. Don’t pass on a good photo just because there’s no train.

¨ Edit Creatively: Try inverting your photos, use creative filters, create multiple exposures and just play around with your software to come up with creative compositions.

¨ Use a different camera: It seems like everyone has a DSLR these days. They become better, cheaper and smarter every year. However, sometimes they’re too clean and bland. Spend $20 and buy a Holga film camera. Buy some camera apps for your phone that provide creative options, such as Hipstamatic, Painteresque or Plastic Bullet, just to name a few.

¨ Remember, you have to be creative. You have to think about what you’re creating and somehow give that a voice. There are really no rules and the camera really makes no difference. There’s only you, the one that does the creating! It the person behind the camera that “Makes’ the photo and that’s you!

Opinions and Stories by Bill Thomas, Editor

My middle child, Liam, is fast approaching the date he can take his driving test and have his own driver’s license – on the road!  It reminds me of the day I turned 16!  In the great state of Georgia, you got your learners license at 15, then you could take your driving test upon your 16th birthday or soon thereafter since the GA State Patrol Examiner was in Ellijay only on Wednesdays. 

      Most 16-year-olds made their first trips “alone” to a friend’s house, the Dairy Queen, or other spot where his peers would be impressed.  Not this one!  Nope!  Off to the “new line” I went.  About 30 miles west of my house was L&N’s flat and straight route that replaced the Hook & Eye line in 1916. 

Still full of U-boats and a few Grey/Yellow L&N paint schemes, the Family Lines’ more-level route paralleling US 411 was a great stretch to chase with a new Yashica SLR in a 1974 Pontiac Bonneville.

First was the drive straight to Etowah, TN, division point, yard, and engine facility.  Long I had passed this huge wood-frame station and facility in my parents car (now my car) on the way to Gatlinburg, hoping for glimpses of anything moving.  Now, I could visit as long as I wanted. 

Keep in mind, this was 1979, when most RR workers welcomed you in for a tour if you showed interest.  The tour never materialized, but, crews loved having their pictures made.  After walking around and getting some shots, it was time to head back south.  I caught a couple of freights on the south ready tracks and for the next 60 miles or so, got ahead of them, shot them in pre-determined locations, then repeated the process.

If I can ever find the photo, I’ll scan and post the one that almost got away.  In a foolish attempt to get one last shot on an overpass just south of Chatsworth, GA, I climbed the north side embankment, crossed the RR overpass on foot, turned just in time to catch the southbound in low throttle, gliding downhill, rounding the curve and giving me short blasts as a warning.  I got the shot but probably gave the crew an anxious moment.  By then they’d seen me trackside 3 or 4 times.  They gave me a congratulatory thumbs up as they rolled by.  Sure miss those days.