Enjoy an afternoon of high-quality railroad photography mulit-media shows in the comfortable confines of the Theatre at Steamtown. The schedule of presentations follows (subject to change):
Session 1: 12:00 Noon - 1:00
George Hamlin: "1970's Northeast"
Shot principally in the New York City tri-state (Connecticut, New Jersey, New York) region between 1970 and 1978, this show covers a period of significant change, on both the freight and passenger fronts. The Penn Central dominated this region for most of this time period, but a number of other now "fallen flags" are shown as well, culminating in early Conrail operations. Early Amtrak and the area's extensive commuter operations are also included.
George Hamlin has been taking railroad photographs since 1956. Beginning with a Kodak "Brownie," he progressed to 35mm shooting in 1964, with an Argus C-3 "Brick." His work has been published in a number of rail-oriented periodicals and books. He also has been photographing airliners since the late 1960s, and contributes to both the trade and hobby press in this field, as well. George is an aviation/transportation consultant, and lives in Northern Virginia.
Andrew Blaszczyk: Shortlines
"Shortlines" covers 13 different railroads from the mountains of New England to the flatlands of Illinois and Iowa. The show is broken down into six different segments and features a carefully selected soundtrack to support the best photos of each road. All photos were taken between 2006 and 2010.
Andrew currently lives in central New Jersey, between the ex-CNJ Freehold Branch and ex-PRR Freehold Secondary about 10 minutes from Conrail’s Browns Yard. He graduated from Berkeley College in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Administration. You can see more of Andrew’s photographic work on his web site www.AB2Photography.com.
Session 2: 1:10 - 2:00
Frank Etzel: "Reflections of the Susquehanna"
The majority of the program is a digitized conversion of a 1998 multimedia show featuring the history of the "Susie-Q" in the Delaware Otsego years, plus an epiloque from 1998 to the present is added with both digital conversions and original digital images. Join us as we tour the famed New York, Susquehanna & Western!
Frank Etzel lives in Highland Lakes, New Jersey with his wife Barbara. Frank is employed by Hewlett Packard and happily works from home. He has two sons, Jordan and Jason. Frank loves machines of all types, and is a proud contrabass player of the New York Skyliners Alumni Drum & Bugle Corps.
Bob Eisthen: "Southern Belle"
“Southern Belle” looks at the Kansas City Southern Lines from 1987 to 2010. We’ll examine the railroad’s passage through the bayous of Louisiana, the cotton fields and pulpwood forests of Mississippi, the forbidding desert along the Mexican border, over the Ozark and Ouachita mountain ranges of Arkansas and Oklahoma and across the cornfields of Illinois and Missouri.
Bob is a stock market analyst who has lived in Cincinnati, Ohio for the past 17 years. His articles and photographs have appeared in Trains, Railfan & Railroad, CTC Board Railroads Illustrated, The Railroad Photographer and Rail News magazines, and he has presented at Summerail, Winterail and EastRail. His wife Anita breeds, trains and handles champion Labrador retrievers.
Session 3: 2:20 - 3:30
Steve Barry: "Eastern Pennsylvania"
Between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers there is a lot of railroad action in the Keystone State. This show starts in Scranton with a look at the Delaware-Lackawanna and Steamtown National Historic Site. Next, we move along the Northeast Corridor where Amtrak moves thousands of people every day. In Philadelphia we take a look at the sprawling transit system of SEPTA. Finally, we head to Lancaster County where the Strasburg Rail Road and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania provide a look at the past.
Steve Barry of Newton, New Jersey, has been taking railroad photos for over 30 years. As a lifelong resident of New Jersey, he has always enjoyed crossing the Delaware River to visit Pennsylvania. He has presented programs at EastRail, Summerail and Winterail, and has served as editor of Railfan & Railroad magazine since 1998.
Jeff Smith: "An Alternate View"
“An Alternate View” will take some railfans outside their comfort zone as it pushes railfan photography away from tradition and embraces photographic techniques found in the fine art world. Most of what you see here was shot using a Lensbaby with one of about a dozen swappable optics allowing for a range of image styles. You will see photographic styles including: selective focus, sepia, ambrotype, cynotype, holga, pinhole, tin type, infrared and solarizations. Hopefully this provides some insight into to a different way of vizualizing railroads and how a photographer can take a unique view on a subject heavily steeped in tradition.
Jeff Smith has been extensively photographing railroads for the past 15 years covering a wide variety of subjects including steam, traction, modern freight operations, abandoned lines and tourist operations. He has been editing the NRHS Bulletin for the past 10 years and also serves as Vice President of the NRHS. His photography has been shown at previous Eastrail events, published in numerous rail magazines including Railfan & Railroad and Railpace.
A Tribute to Former R&R Editor Jim Boyd by Steve Barry
Jim Boyd documented the eastern railroad scene like no one else. This program features photos Jim took in the 1970s and 1980s on the Illinois Central, Delaware & Hudson, Erie Lackawanna, Rock Island and more. Enjoy this sampling of classic 'chromes as we pay tribute to our friend.
Jim Boyd (1941-2010) served as editor of Railfan & Railroad magazine from 1974-1998. In that role, he may have been the most influential railfan in the country, educating a generation of up and coming photographers through his monthly Camera Bag column. This is a sampling of the thousands of slides Jim took beginning in the 1960s
Session 4: 3:40 - 4:30
Jerry Jordak: "Postcards from the P&LE"
Perhaps the most famous legacy of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad is the series of Howard Fogg watercolor paintings commissioned by P&LE president John Barriger. Fogg painted scenes of the leading industries and various railroad facilities along the P&LE between 1956 and 1963. This show revisits many of the locations Fogg captured in his paintings and shows how they have changed after five decades.
Jerry Jordak developed his interest in trains growing up in Middlefield, Ohio, along the Baltimore & Ohio’s Lake Branch. Today, he lives in Macedonia, Ohio, next to Norfolk Southern’s former PRR Cleveland Line, and works as an IT systems engineer for a major bank in Cleveland. Jerry also enjoys railroad photography, the outdoors, working on his HO scale model railroad, and serving as a trustee of the Penn Central Railroad Historical Society.
Chris Blaszczyk: "STS: Shuttles, Trains and Scrubs"
Since the beginning of 2010, Christopher Blaszczyk and his brother Andrew have made five trips to Florida to photograph four of the final launches of NASA’s Space Shuttle. Each trip also included railfanning elements, such as documenting shortlines in Florida and other states along the Atlantic Coast, visiting well-known hotspots and checking off must-photograph locations. "STS" is a chronological look at Christopher’s best photographs from each trip.
Christopher Blaszczyk has lived in central New Jersey his entire life and has visited Florida over 20 times. He is an editor and senior designer for a group of monthly newspapers and magazines serving Monmouth County. He has had photos appear in Railfan & Railroad and Railpace magazines and is part of the Lerro Productions’ photo charter crew.
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