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The Attic is a personal
museum,
drawing on the stash of items I've collected -- and am still
collecting -- in my railway and other travels. I'm
including visits to museums and shortlines, profiles of
American and foreign carriers, timetables, tickets,
menus, advertisements, brochures and
special
trip reports. The subject is passenger railroading and my hope is
that the site's content will constitute a glimpse into the past and
present for those less able to enjoy as much travel as I have over the
past 45 or so years. I want to communicate some of the
color of the trains, stations and their owners, as well as what
can,
uniquely I think, be seen through the window. My main love is
photography
and so ultimately photos will come to constitute the mainstay of the
collection.
Thanks to the Internet we
can
share
our interests in exciting new ways. That old timetable we picked up 25
years ago, thinking someone might enjoy seeing some day, can now be
shown
to thousands of fellow travelers over the web, not just on the kitchen
table
or in a display case at a collector show. And, even better, that
crumpled
piece of paper we saved can be put through the ringer of a modern
editing
program and restored to some of its former glory.
I will start fairly simply
with
basic items in several categories. As my scanner warms up and I find
more boxes of paper, slides and prints tucked away somewhere the
collection will grow. And, it will keep growing as I continue to enjoy
passenger trains in my travels, knowing that the odd pamphlet or piece
of advertising will find
a willing audience, perhaps tomorrow, if not today. Once the first
tasks of
presenting visual content are accomplished I will spend more time
adding page
narrations, relevant links and other things to fill out your knowledge
of
my subjects. So, check pages often.
Because this is a personal
site
--
and for purposes of doing first things first -- I cannot post anything
that is not in my own collection, so please don't request that I add
your photos or scans to the site. Once I've emptied my attic onto it
perhaps we can expand our horizons and have a contributor page, but for
now I have my work cut out for me.
Finally, as debate rages
about
the
future of American passenger railroading -- a debate which is truly
national
and reflects a growing consensus -- save among a new generation of bean
counters -- that we need all kinds of trains -- it
is important to see where we in the USA have come from and what is
happening elsewhere in the world. There are many wonderful web
resources -- many of
which are here on TrainWeb -- which do just that. Hopefully my
Attic
will consitute another page or two in the history of this best of all
modes
of transport. And it will be an enjoyable site to visit. Please,
if you find any technical or historical errors please don't hesitate to
drop me a note.
For
additional
photographs as well as commentary on my travels and passenger
railroading be sure to visit the Friends of Amtrak
site and its Friends of
Amtrak Photo Gallery. I want to
thank Craig O'Connell, FOA editor, for encouraging me and for being
such a passionate advocate of preserving and expanding America's passenger rail network.
For photographers visiting the Attic, most photos taken since the winter
of 2000 are from Olympus digital cameras -
first a 340, then a 2020z and D-560 and now E-300,
E-330 and E-510 dslrs.
I am also using a Lumix ZS1 25-300mm pocket camera and as of the
summer of 2013 a brilliant little Olympus XZ-1 with super fast and brilliant
lens and full manual capability. I use Adobe
and FastStone products
for photo editing and scanning. Some of the photos are in pretty
rough
shape after years of storage and the result of some poor original
processing. I've
tried to fix them up as best I can. Oh, and I learn as I go along!
I enjoy questions and
comments. I do own these pics and ask that you contact me for
permission if you wish to use them for anything other than
educational purposes.
Drop me a line any time at ron.goodenow@gmail.com
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Ron
Goodenow's Attic