Yard Goat Images Vintage Transport. Today.


Steam in the Mountains


2-Volume DVD set–8 Mountain Railways!


Sold separately or money-saving combo


www.yardgoatimages.com Or request a free catalog


YGI, 112 3rd AV NE, Minneapolis MN 55413 DAKOTAS RAILROAD MAPS BNSF, Canadian Pacific, Shortlines


Concise, clear maps of today’s railroading presented by subdivision for ease in following your favorite line.


Station index


Mainline Radio frequencies Detectors, major sidings & yards Major highways, rivers Sized to pocket or camera bag 4.25x11”, 62 pages


At your dealer, or direct: $12


Plus $2.50 S&H to US


Sonrisa Publications, PO Box 334, Raymond, WA 98577 www.djcooley.com


MORNING SUN BOOKS


These all-color 128-page hardcover books will be available January 5, 2014


STEELMILL RAILROADS


SOUTHERN STYLE


By Thomas Lawson, Jr. and Stephen M. Timko Item# 1494


PENN CENTRAL POWER VOLUME 3: 6000-7499


SIX AXLE DIESELS & GP9’S


By Robert J. Yanosey Item# 1495


VOLUME 6 – This 1960 image of a West Side Lumber Co. Shayin T uolumne, Calif., by Dr . Stan Blevins,


taken with a Zeiss Contaflex Super with selenium light meter and a 50mm ƒ2.8 fixed lens on Ansco slide film, has faded to a sickly magenta, typical of early color films that first became popular with railfans beginning in the 1930s.


changeable lenses were screw mount, which took longer to change compared to the quick twist off and on bayonet mount. There were no in-camera exposure meters until the Contaflex TLR (a “twin-lens reflex” with the top lens for composing and focusing; the bottom lens takes the picture) in 1938. The first 35mm SLR with an automatic di- aphragm for stop-down metering, the Minol- ta SR-2, came out in 1958. The first with TTL (through the lens) metering, the Topcon RE Super, in 1963; and the Konica Auto S in 1963 was the first with autoexposure. The 1976 to 1984 Canon AE-1 was popular with railfans, although it had only shutter pre- ferred autoexposure plus manual exposure, and manual focus. The first autofocus cam- era was the Konica C35AF in 1978. Throughout the 1970s into the 2000s, many railfans favored basic all manual, bat- tery independent (except for the match nee- dle light meter) 35mm cameras that could “take a licking and keep on clicking.” The late Bob Karsten used a Pentax K1000 along with his great railroad paintings to illus- trate his articles in RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN and R&R back in the 1970s and ’80s. Jaime Serensits, publisher of The Rail- road Press is a Nikon FM user. And I once shared the rear platform of a caboose on a steam excursion trip with our editor Steve Barry, each of us with a brace of FM’s hang- ing around our shoulders.


TRACKSIDE


AROUND NORFOLK WITH


KURT REISWEBER


By Kurt Reisweber Item# 1496


Order today at price of $59.95 apiece plus $7 shipping (add $2 for each add’l book) Canada-$12; foreign-$21, each. All books are shipped via U.S. Mail.


PA (6%) and NJ (7%) residents add Sales Tax


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Visa/MC accepted – 9am-5pm Call (610) 683-8566


Morning Sun Books, Inc.


PO Box 326 ~ Kutztown, PA 19530-0326 www.morningsunbooks.com


14 JANUARY 2014 • RAILFAN.COM Film


Whereas most railroad photography up to the 1930s had been black & white, new 35mm color films like Kodacolor in 1928 and Lumicolor in 1933 for color prints were available. But the small 35mm b&w film im- ages tended to be grainy when enlarged. Ex- cept for Kodachrome, which came out in 1935, the slide films of the day —Agfacolor (later named Agfachrome) in 1936, Ek- tachrome in 1942, and Anscochrome in 1956 — soon started fading or turning a sickly looking magenta, even in dark stor- age. However, early Kodachromes (that have not been exposed to much light from a pro- jector, enlarger or scanner) are still vibrant


in color today.


Railfans in the 1970s into the 2000s rou- tinely used Kodachrome 64 and later ISO 50 Velvia at ƒ/5.6 and ¹⁄₅₀₀ of a second. If you think ISO 64 is slow, the first Kodachrome was ASA 6, later bumped to ASA 10 (ASA is the old time term for today’s ISO), requiring ƒ/2 to maintain ¹⁄₅₀₀, which, if you did not have this wide an aperture, meant ¹⁄₂₅₀ or ¹⁄₁₂₅, somewhat problematic for sharp photos of speeding trains. Lose full sunlight and you had to slow down the shutter speed even more. Faster ASA 50 Agfachrome had rich color, but it was somewhat grainy, and Super Anscochrome ASA 100 and Ektachrome ASA 160 were not introduced until 1957 and 1959 respectively.


Before the convenience of easy digital col-


or conversion to black & white, railfans working in both b&w and color had to juggle two cameras slung around the neck. A few used a double camera bracket, with one cam- era loaded with black & white, the other with color, both cameras fired simultaneous- ly using a double ended cable release.


Larger Formats As a way to avoid grain in big enlargements for better b&w print quality than small 35mm format allowed, many railfans in the 1930s through the 1960s stayed with single shot large format 4×5 inch cameras, or used medium format cameras that produce a negative three to five times larger than 35mm. Hand held Graflex 4×5 Speed and Crown Graphics of 1912 to 1973 were the camera for newspaper press photographers shooting fast paced news situations (the 1942-1954 Pulitzer Prizes for photography were taken with Speed Graphics), making action railfan photography with one seem a snap by comparison! Using a 4×5 camera, you have only a one shot capability, as it takes a few seconds to pull out and turn over the two-sided film holder, while re- membering to also put in and pull out the dark slide! Rangefinder focusing while turning a knob was slow, compared even to a manual focus 35mm camera. And you did all this while trying to get a good shot while


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