WRP_RailsBeyondRutland_Jul15_3v_Layout 1 7/2/15
Beyond the Rutland
Rails
PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
Railfan Atlas: Putting Photography on the Map GUEST COLUMNIST: NICK BENSON
Now operated under the Vermont Rail System banner, you’ll see the early operations of the Vermont Railway, Clarendon & Pittford, and the Green Mountain Railroad! From the marble quarry pits to piggyback trailers, from steam excursions to heavy freight!
The Railfan Atlas project not only connects great railfan photos to their actual locations on the map, but also documents “hot” areas for railroad photography. The data for this project comes from other photographers who choose to share their photos through Flickr and add the proper location geotags. COURTESY NICK BENSON
From the Rutland’s last gasp to the Vermont Railway’s modest start, you’ll enjoy great black and white photography documenting this picturesque New England shortline from end to end. A detailed locomotive roster and diverse equipment photos round out this look back at Vermont Railway’s early years. LIMITED SUPPLY, order your copy today!
VERMONT CLASSIC
$12.95
Plus shipping & handling Order Item #CRS-RBTR
(877) 787-2467
WHITERIVERPRODUCTIONS.COM P.O. BOX 48, BUCKLIN, MO 64631
54 AUGUST 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
WE LIVE IN AN AGE OF INFORMATION. The internet has been both a blessing and a curse as it seems we are caught up in a never-ending quest to organize and file the deluge of data we encounter every day. Our railfan hobby has definitely benefited with the proliferation of digital photography, making nearly-instant information transfers a reality. Railfan Atlas (
www.railfanatlas.com) is
a beautiful map interface for exploring the world of railroad photography shared on Flickr (
www.flickr.com). As this column goes to press it features over 600,000 images from more than 13,000 contributors, which makes it one of the largest databases of railfan photography on the internet. As its developer, I suppose I’m somewhat biased, but I can’t imagine planning a trip without it. During the early spring of 2014, I was in the fortunate position of having two railfanning trips to plan, both to completely unfamiliar territory. The first was for a few days of shooting ahead of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art conference, which I’d spend in and around southern Illinois; the other would be a few days to explore the area around Sioux Falls, S.D. I knew there were a few neat shortlines operating in both of those areas, although I knew precious little about them, other than that they had interesting liveries and were in places I’d never heard of before. Off to the web I went, doing what I could to
find information about the railroads in those areas. Dozens of browser tabs later, bits and pieces of operational trivia began congealing in my mind, but the picture was still pretty cloudy. City names from captions were
entered in Google Maps, and potential photo spots were scouted via satellite view. A few times I found what looked to be good spots, only to discover they were along the right-of- way of one of the less interesting operators in town. There had to be a better way to pinpoint and evaluate great photo locations. Flickr has been my preferred outlet for
sharing photography online for several years now, and the railroad photographer community there is outstanding. Launched in 2004 as a free online photo sharing service, by 2014 the site had more than 92 million members sharing their work. The ability to add descriptive titles, captions, and tags to photos makes specific content easy to find. With no shortage of people to leave comments and feedback, it’s almost as good as an old-fashioned slideshow with friends. In fact, many of my railfanning buddies use Flickr, and I’ve met dozens more as a result of exploring other people’s work through self- appointed “groups” that share collections of relevant images. In addition to the foamer-friendly atmosphere, Flickr’s also very accommodating to computer geeks; the service makes available an “application programming interface” (API), which allows anyone to write a computer program that can get information about the photos posted there. After a few frustrating evenings of research
for my trips, I got to thinking, why not write a program to use Flickr’s API to fetch train photos and plot them on a map? After a few evenings hacking code together, an early version of “Railfan Atlas” was ready to share. Insofar as nuts and bolts go, Railfan Atlas
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