Search for Engines

[cmherndon]

The following is an article my grandmother sent me.  It appeared in the January 18 edition of The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA).  It's just a darn shame that the online edition didn't include the photos, as they really added to it.  If anyone is interested, I will try and make a scan of the newspaper article and share it.

http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP/MGArticle/CDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192703011

Search for Engines
Time in Charlottesville put him on right track

One of the first things Jeremy F. Plant grabbed when he started postgraduate studies at the University of Virginia in 1967 wasn't a book.

What the young man wrapped his hands around after getting settled was a new Pentax 35 mm single-reflex camera. He had received the camera as a gift from his parents when he graduated from Colgate University that spring.

With his camera loaded with color film, he headed for the nearby railroad tracks to start taking pictures of trains coming and going. His passion for rail photography burns as bright today as it did nearly 40 years ago.

"Railroads weren't the reason I went to UVa, but it was a nice benefit," said Plant, professor

of public policy at Penn State University. "When I came down for an interview prior to my enrollment, I had taken a few shots and knew that it was a pretty lively place [for train traffic].

"My love for trains started well before I started taking pictures. When I was growing up we lived near Albany, New York, which was a big railroad center on the New York Central. My father used to travel a fair amount on the trains, and I remember being really excited about taking train rides down to Boston or New York City.

"I had dabbled a little bit in railroad photography with a cheap camera. What kick started the whole adventure that's still going on was receiving the good camera for a graduation present."

For the next several years Plant created a photographic record of the ebb and flow of railroad traffic in and around Charlottesville. After graduate school and a stint in the Army, he went to work at George Mason University, where he continued to pursue his hobby.

Fortunately, for railroad fans and armchair historians alike, some of Plant's best railroad photography can be seen in the all-color book "Trackside around Charlottesville, Virginia 1967-1984 with Jeremy F. Plant."

Although the book includes train pictures taken as far away as Richmond and western Maryland, the majority of the more than 200 color photographs that grace the book were taken in this area between the late 1960s and early 1970s.

"My book shows, in great detail, the operations of these various railroads in Virginia before the big merger craze," Plant said during a recent telephone interview from his home in Hershey, Pa. "None of these railroads are in existence any longer.

"All of them have been merged, so I was able to capture something that is gone and will never come back again. Looking back on it now, I was so fortunate to have had the opportunity to be in such a wonderful place as Charlottesville and to be there at a time when the railroads were still as interesting as they were.

"Charlottesville wasn't a classic railroad town, but it had the yard and the stations and a remarkable amount of variety for the photographer. The railroad workers got to know me very well and, for the most part, encouraged what I was doing."

From the standpoint of the rail enthusiast, Plant's time at UVa came during an ideal period. It was an era when the older diesels that had eliminated steam locomotives during the 1940s and '50s were being replaced by the second generation of diesels.

One of Plant's favorite photographs in the book is a shot he took in January 1974 of a southbound Southern train leaving Red Hill. The double-page photograph reveals the beautiful wintry colors of the area as well as the "bulldog nose" of the first generation of diesel engines.

"Charlottesville is great, because within an hour or two in any direction you could find some really interesting things going on," Plant said. "So I was able to maintain good academic standings and still feel as though I was able to shoot a lot of variety, and not just the same thing over and over again.

"I remember how exciting it was going over to the Richmond-Petersburg areas, because I didn't know what I would be seeing. There were different railroads over there, and they really ran fast.

"Another nice thing about Charlottesville was that it didn't have all that many trains, but they ran on pretty predictable schedules. So I could plan my setup in advance, and know what to expect in terms of light, photo angle and all that rather than just blundering my way out trackside and get whatever came."

During the 1950s, New York photographer O. Winston Link elevated rail photography to an art form of unprecedented power and beauty. The standard he set as he photographed the twilight years of the steam locomotives continues to be the mark other photographers aim for.

"Link did on a big scale what everyone needs to do even on their smaller scale," Plant said. "And that is, don't just say, 'I'm going to go out and watch trains and take pictures.'

"Say, 'I'm going to know exactly what it is I'm trying to do and show.' When a lot of people start out they're so interested in the trains, particularly the engines, that they get too close and the whole frame is taken up with the train.

"This doesn't allow them to really convey a sense of place or the particular operations they're trying to show. You want to put a lot of scenery in it to get a sense of the territory the railroad is going through."

Robert J. Yanosey is the owner of Morning Sun Books, which specializes in publishing all-color rail books, including the "Trackside" series. With about 300 different rail books in print, he has had a lot of experience taking and looking at railroad pictures.

"Having probably looked at more color railroad photos than anyone else on this planet, I believe what makes for a good picture is not so much the train, but what's on either side of it," Yanosey said from his office in Kutztown, Pa.

"It's the station, the signal tower, the baggage cart, the barn, the old automobile. And that's what makes Jeremy's photographs stand out.

"He thoroughly researches his material, and he tries not to just get into the nuts and bolts of the trains so much, but to bring out the flavor and the history of the territory he's covering. He does a very good, evenhanded job of bringing the local color out."

Many of Plant's photographs also captured background scenes of Charlottesville and the surrounding area that, like the trains themselves, have vanished into the past. A shot taken in the early 1970s of the railroad yard looking east from the Avon Street overpass shows a level of activity seldom seen these days.

Another picture taken in November 1973 of the eastbound George Washington passenger train also reveals the skyline of a portion of downtown Charlottesville that now looks much different.

"I once gave a talk called 'The Rail Photographer as Historian,' " Plant said. "I made the point that if all you're trying to do is shoot the train you'll appeal to the history of the railroads.

"But if you're trying to shoot the overall scene, you're being a social historian as well. Of course at the time I was living in Charlottesville I didn't realize how much it would change.

"I feel very blessed to have been in the right place at the right time."

The all-color book "Trackside around Charlottesville, Virginia 1967-1984 with Jeremy F. Plant" costs $59.95. It can be ordered by calling (610) 683-8566. For more information, visit the Web site www. morningsunbooks.com.