2:42 P.M. At Claremont Station
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 29mm ISO 200 1/160 f/13 Lr4, TpzSim; PsCS6
Eastbound Metrolink train 859 rolls up to the platform.
To view in high resolution or to purchase prints please click here: http://goo.gl/yN321 .
Proud But Forlorn
PNikon D7000 18-135mm @ 26mm ISO 200 3-bkts f/11 Lr3, HEP!, TpzSim; PsCS5
The Amtrak station in Pomona, California, quietly standing as a monument to the heyday of long transcontinental rail travel. This station services the Sunset Limited (running between Los Angeles and New Orleans) which passes through three times a week in each direction. This was the most under utilized station in the Amtrak system in 2010, with an average of 4 passengers leaving or arriving per day.
Please click on the image to view in high resolution.
Transit Walkway
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 32mm ISOm200 3-bkts f/11 Lr3, HEP1, TpzSim; PsCS5
The structure is the pedestrian over crossing at the downtown Pomona, California rail station. The two towers, in adaddition to serving as structural supports for the bridge also house elevators; the two structures jutting out from the towers are stair wells. The dark objects discernable passing below the bridge on the tracks are black tank cars which made up a large part of a freight consist passing through.
In addition to my usual work with Lightroom, HDR Efex Pro and Topaz Simpify stylizing this image, I also used Photoshop to remove an automobile that was in the left foreground.
Please click on the image to view in high resolution.
The Departure
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 24mm ISO 1600 1/800 f/22 +2EV -2EV Lr3, HEP1, TpzSim; PsCS5 (background image)
A tableau that might have been real in the last century, or alive just in my mind. This is a composite of three images; the Buick is pink and white in real life.
Please click on the image to view in high resolution.
Roaring 20’s Excursion
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 24mm ISO 1600 3-bkts f/8 Lr3; HEP1
A typical baggage cart loaded with hand luggage and mail bags is on display at the San Bernardino Railroad & History Museum. The era represented could be the Roaring 20’s, the advertising card is for a rail excursion in 1923 from Venice, California to the 13th National Orange show in San Bernardino. The excursion was operated by the Pacific Electric Railway Company, which during its heyday had electric trolleys, popularly termed “red cars” criss crossing the greater Los Angeles area. The excursion from the beach at Venice inland to San Bernardino would have been roughly 100 miles if travelling by automobile, Pacific Electric offered a special excursion fare on Washington’s Birthday, February 18, 1928 for $3.25, round trip, via their electric trolleys
Pacific Electric’s operations began declining after the second world war, and most of the rail lines were eliminated throughout the 1950’s. The scandale that arose in the 1960’s was that it was widely thought that oil company and automotive manufacturing interests were responsible for the decision to replace the interurban rail transit system with freeways, cars and buses.
Ironically, local government and transportation authorities began championing interurban rail transit again in the 1980’s and the first Metro Blue Line rail transit (subway) line began operations in 1990 and later the Red, Green and Gold Lines were added, as was the Metrolink heavy rail system linking more distant exurbs. All of this work completed or still under construction in 2012, at considerable more cost to the taxpayers and environmental impact than would have accrued if the Pacific Electric Railway would never have been abandoned.
Please click on the image to view in high resolution.
Monument To A Bygone Era
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 24mm ISO 1600 4-sets/3-bkts f/22 Lr3, HEP1, TpzSim; PsCS5
The first Santa Fe depot in San Bernardino was a wood structure, built in 1886. A fire leveled the depot on the night of November 1, 1916. The depot was rebuilt of wood and masonry in the Mission Revival style and opened on July 15, 1918. The heyday of the depot was from the 1920’s to the 1950’s; a Santa Fe timetable published in June of 1938 listed 13 eastbound and 13 westbound passenger trains departing from the terminal every day. In 1972 Santa Fe’s passenger service was turned over to Amtrak, and in 1992 the Santa Fe Railroad moved almost their entire freight operations to Barstow, California and Topeka, Kansas.
In 1992 the San Bernardino Association of Governments acquired title to the depot and began a restoration. That same year Metrolink commuter rail operations began arriving and departing from the tracks adjacent to the depot. Today Metrolink continues to operate at the depot and one Amtrak train departs eastbound and one Amtrak train departs westbound per day, this is the Southwest Chief that operates between Chicago and Los Angeles.
The San Bernardino Railroad & History Museum occupies most of the center section in the image above on the first floor. There is no rolling stock in the museum’s collection except for some small maintenance apparatus, but there are quite a few railroad artifacts on display, and some early fire apparatus.
Del Mar Building Trio
Interpretive Digital Imaging
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 35mm ISO 2000 3-bkts f/13 Lr3, TpzSim; PsCS5
These buildings stand on the north side of Del Mar Boulevard between South Raymond Avenue in the foreground and South Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena, California. Coming up Raymond from where we parked I was attracted by the bold colors of the buildings which reflect the re-urbanization of Pasadena, they were constructed after the beginning of the new millenium and are primarily housing units with maybe some business activity on portions of the first floors; there is an interurban rail line that passes through the red building in the center. This block of buildings is situated on the southern edge of Old Town Pasadena, adjacent to many Pasadena historic structures.
I started with an HDR processed image, used Lightroom to flatten some of the detail, then went further with Topaz Simplify. Then masked back in some of the detail at varying opacity; then hand painted in all of the white building in order to get the color and texture where I wanted it.
Ready To Roll
Interpretive Digital Imaging
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 13mm ISO 200 3-bkts f/16 Lr3, HEP1, TpzSim; PsCS5
A final image from the Riverside, California Metrolink station, trackside looking north at two EMD F59PHI engines and the pedestrian bridge linking the west and east platforms. (There are actually three platforms at this station, the west in the left foreground, the middle, between the two trains, and the east, which is behind the train on the right. Passengers cross from the west to the middle platform at ground level, the crossing is in the right foreground of this image, and at the time the image was captured the ground level crossing was “roped” closed.)
This is my favorite image from the series this week
Wayne Frost's Photo Blog 