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RE: (erielack) May calendar photo

Great capture of what life was like before central air-conditioning and
cars with a/c.  One other thing I remember walking along railroad tracks
was a kind of periodic clanking sound which I attributed to heat
expansion as the sun heated the rails.  In the distance you could
usually hear cicadas filling in for the silence of a hot summer day.

Ed Montgomery

 

- -----Original Message-----
From: Schuyler Larrabee [mailto:schuyler.larrabee_@_verizon.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 10:00 PM
To: 'EL Mail List'
Subject: RE: (erielack) May calendar photo


 
I was finally in the office long enough and with enough time today to
turn the page to show this picture.  Oddly, to me, it is evocative, but
not necessarily in a positive way.  As a Binghamton native, I well
recall those HOT, humid days where the sun is high, like in this photo,
and there's no breeze, and the glare is a killer.  Mosquitoes aren't the
problem at this time of day, but as you walk around in the weeds,
there's the crickets and other bugs that can jump around ten feet,
flying all over, and a few bouncing off you.  You don't feel much like
moving around, the heat is just radiating up from that ballast, and
you're thinking about a milkshake (or an ice-cold beer, if of the right
age).  Photo's in the camera now, and you trudge back to the car.  When
you get in, the vinyl seat burns the back of your legs, and the air in
there, even though you left the windows down, is stifling.  Burned the
underside of your arm on the window sill, too.  The sweat collects on
your back as you head down toward Owego to see if there's anything
happening at the station, so you're sticking to everything.  The only
hope is that around six, six-thirty, there will be a one of those large,
noisy thunderstorms, with the huge raindrops that splatter all over,
steaming off the hot pavement.  With luck, it'll cool off from around
92-93 to maybe 80.  Won't be quite so bad to sleep tonight.

SGL
> 
> This is a great example of "what photo do I use when I don't have 
> anything else".  Actually there is a sort of redeeming quality to it.
> It does depict the state of economic affairs within the Lackawanna at 
> this time.  Fireproof, almost indestructable buildings shuttered with 
> the area around them used for storage.  At one time a train order 
> office, the semaphores were taken away a long time ago.
> Lackawanna was
> trying to get in the black with piggyback, but there was just too much

> regulation to permit that.  Pheobe really needed a partner at Buffalo,

> either NKP or Wabash would have been nice.
> 
> Ed Montgomery
> 
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul) [mailto:paultup_@_alcatel-lucent.com]
> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 1:48 PM
> To: EL Mail List
> Subject: (erielack) May calendar photo
> 
> Turning the EL calendar over...
> 
> This month's image is a little "blah" - it's the DL&W Apalachin, NY 
> station taken in 1959, not too long after the last passenger trains 
> stopped using it. This is the station that's still sitting there, 
> right next to NY State 17 (or whatever Interstate highway number it is

> now).
> No trains in this image, and sadly, since this appears to be a mid-day

> shot, there is no sun to highlight the station walls (everything below

> the roofline is in very dark shadow).
> 
> The details in the photo sre pretty interesting, though - the lumber 
> in the background (was there a lumberyard here?) and the industrial 
> building at the right. And the reinforced grade crossing in the 
> foreground is a nice - and seemingly modern-looking - touch.
> 
> The DL&W track standards around here are still pretty high, even at 
> this late date.
> 
> 	- Paul
> 
> 
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