Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: ny

Well, it's that time of year again. This year I decided it would be a good idea to post the poster for my NRHS show to Flickr and iPernity to see if I can drag anyone more out of the house to come. I'll try to promote the show a little bit more over the coming days on my website and on the boards, but right now I have other things to do so it will have to just be the poster for now. The show is going to be at the Kirkland Town Library in Clinton, NY, at 7:00p.m., on Thursday the 20th of December, as the poster says. NRHS members are high encouraged to attend, but you certainly don't have to be an NRHS member to come. It will NOT be a slide show this time, but a video show like last time. I hope to do a slide show next time, as by that time I'll be out of good video, I think. When will that be??? I don't know, but probably next December or whenever I can get back to the Utica & Mohawk Valley Chapter's territory next.

I took this one in 1993 (Note that the copyright date on the photo is wrong. I fixed it on my own website but on Flickr it's too much trouble.), waiting in Utica, New York for Amtrak's (actually Swedish Railways') X2000 tilt train to visit. It was hours late, and didn't arrive until after dark, so all of my best shots were taken during the day waiting for it, while I still had light. This locomotive, an EMD SD40-2 diesel, was leading a lashup of other locomotives pulling a garbage train. In those days, New York State had so much garbage that it was being shipped west by rail! I mainly like the impression of speed that this photo gives, with the blurred handrails and headlight, even if the train was only going about 50 m.p.h.!!!

I took this on the same day as the 6399 shot, scanned it in 1994, and uploaded it on Oct. 26, 2006, without a rescan!!! That's when I discovered the date on the 6399 shot was wrong. I've corrected it at least on the caption, although the photo remains wrong. In any case, I didn't used to like this photo so much, but looking at the other stuff on Flickr, this one holds up surprisingly well. It's not only, I think, a decent black and white scan, but a very old one. It's only a year newer than the original negative and print!!! I had an Omniscan black and white scanner then, and I haven't gotten around to rescanning this shot. It was originally color, shot with Kodacolor Gold 400, I think, but it's now, for obvious reasons, black and white, and it might be a better shot because of it. It was my first truly successful pan shot, so it's significant to me for that reason, too.

This is my oldest photo on Flickr!! I scanned it with my black and white Caere Omniscan, but it was originally in color, and I have every intention of eventually getting a color scan. I think I already one somewhere, if the drive it was on hasn't been wiped by one thing or another. This was my first National Railway Historical Society excursion while actually a member, and it was sometime in the summer of 1990. We went from Utica, NY to Sherburne, and had a really good time. Notice the dome cars on the train! The locomotive was at that time the last operating ALCO C430, but in reality a few have been bouncing in and out of service, including this one, and they're heavily rebuilt by now, especially this one!!

I'm sure that many of you will recognize this photo from a previous post. As you'll recall, I had always intended to rescan this, so I had a photo lab do it, and here's the result. I hope you all like it. :-)

I took this from Amtrak's Adirondack, as we followed Lake Champlain, and when I found this photo amongst my collection, I was struck by how weird it looks. Therefore, I uploaded it to Flickr solely for artistic merit. I hope you like it. :-)

I took this shot during the aftermath and cleanup of a major wreck in Utica, NY involving a loaded stack train headed by G.E. Dash 8s. The Dash 8s are gone by this point, with the smashed well cars and containers bulldozed to the side, and one track has been reopened, letting these GP40-2s through, rare even by 1993 standards. The wreck, according to the news reports, was deliberately caused by a group of teenagers, who were subsequently arrested for the crime, but the results of the case were kept secret because of their ages. One person, perhaps not the smartest person in the world, blamed it on the railroad, saying something along the lines of "I don't know why they put the railroad so close to the housing development." The housing development where the teenagers came from dated to the 1960s, the railroad to the 1830s.

Here's one of my favorite all-time shots on the Water Level Route, with Amtrak leading an Empire Service train out of the notorious Gulf Curve!! I've always though this was quite dramatic, even if some serious photographers consider it boring.

Mixed power was still a bit rare on the Water Level Route in 2000, but getting more common all the time with the Conrail sale and the subsequent explosion in traffic. This consist, though, was still something special, as it had a G.E. Dash 7 still in Family Lines colors!! I caught this in Little Falls, NY while out train chasing.

I shot this while out Christmas shopping with my Dad. This repulsively ugly strip mall is only a few years old, but already it's so scarred the landscape in Central New York that it is one of the many things that make the place useless for most pretty photography. This sunset, however, was an exception. The darkness below helps to hide the ugliness.

I took a lot of photos of Amtrak trains coming in and out of Plattsburgh when I studied there. This is one of my favorites, of an F40PH with some kind of wreck damage on the nose.

This is one of my only, and perhaps my only, good shot of an F40PH taken from above. This was a southbound, which could only be train 68, the "Adirondack" for New York Penn. It's slowing for Plattsburgh station, which is in the distance, around the curve and on the right side of the tracks.

Here's...another F40PH!! :-) This one is departing Plattsburgh, southbound with Train 68.

I never went to SU as a student, but when I attended a convention there I was astonished by how much better run the place was than Plattsburgh!! :-) The buildings were also older in many cases, and consequently much prettier. My favorite was the Hall of Languages, and I tried my best to get a good black and white of it, and this is what I got. :-) Built in 1873, it illustrates quite well, I think, how Americans could indeed build a beautiful building in those days if they were serious about it. SU has this to say about it: "Opened in 1873, the Hall of Languages is Syracuse University's oldest building and stood as its sole structure for 14 years. Constructed under the tenure of SU's first Chancellor, Alexander Winchell, the Hall of Languages was built of Onondaga limestone in the then-popular Second Empire style for $136,000. Originally, there were to be six more buildings erected in the same style, including the Hall of Science, the Hall of Philosophy, and the Hall of History. A harsh economic recession ended those plans, however, leaving the Hall of Languages as the sole monument to the University's earliest campus plan. Home of The College of Arts and Sciences, the building was renovated in 1978, but retained its elegant exterior architecture. The Hall of Languages now provides classrooms that can accommodate 2,235 students and offices for many departments, including English and textual studies, philosophy, and religion."

I took this during a photo runby while riding an NRHS Convention Special from Syracuse to Chanango Forks, New York in 1998. We never made it all the way to Binghamton, as the excursion ran so late that we lost our path, but a good time was had by all. Regrettably, I can't remember exactly where this runby was, so any info from other attendees would be welcome (it was probably the one at Tully depicted in another one of my photos on my website www.jonsearlesphoto.co.nr).

This is the official, as opposed to the unofficial, water of the Boilermaker 15K road race. Right....

The Hotel Utica is one of the best-known buildings in Utica, once being the most popular hotel with visiting celebrities. It's since done its time as a lower-end hotel and as public housing, but now it's a hotel again. The skyscraper on the rear left is the State Office Building, the tallest building in town.

That isn't fog, that's blowing snow during a storm.