NEW LEHIGH VALLEY BOOK DUE OUT, SOON!!!

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:I would say, what's the point of having a "super-awesome" shot of four C-628's, belching thick black smoke, roaring out of Charmin, if nobody ever sees it, but the owner, and then, maybe only occasionaly? There are ways to dupe a slide, and if it's done at a reputable facility, the dupe could be loaned, or given, towards a project. I'm going to swap copies, and/or prints from my collection, with anyone else, who will do the same, with theirs. I prefer prints, for ease in viewing, but slides were cheaper back then. (maybe now, as well?) Gotta have lots of full color shots, to duplicate the roster, in HO, unit for unit........

You make a good point. But the responsiblity of producing the duplicate for publication shouldn't fall solely on the owner of the slide as it will appear to the owner as a hassle and the material won't get shared anyway.

In my opinion, if we really want all these rare and hidden goodies to appear for the masses, someone needs to come up with a way of making it a painless process to the holder of the material and instill some trust in the processing of the irreplaceable media. Otherwise, there may be valuable history and culture lost.

My 2 cents.

This seems to have taken a right turn off topic, but the subject of how to protect our irreplaceable slide images during the publication process is certainly important, and worthy of discussion.

TB: Sorry to hear of your bad experience in loaning slides for publication. Your warning regarding potential damage to slides during the unmounting process moved me to contact a local publisher friend whose company has put out about a dozen high-quality railroad picture books over the past 5 or 6 years. Here's a portion of his response:

"You DO NOT have to remove slides from their mounts. We publish thousands of images that are never unmounted or damaged in any way. In fact, our scanning equipment is far gentler on the slides that the bright lamps used by projectors. Several manufacturers produce slide scanners that bulk load like a projector. They can be left operating over night and will produce 50+ scans in about three hours. The Nikon 5000ED is one of these devices and is used by just about every publisher (including myself) out there!

Do not send your slides to anyone who will unmount them!"

Possibly the ideal situation would be one in which you could have the publisher do high-quality scans of your slides while you are present such that you don't let the slides out of your possession. I've got to believe that a reputable publisher would not have a problem with doing that. (In fact, the publisher mentioned about practically insisted on that approach when he recently scanned about 50 LV slides that were graciously loaned to me by the original photographer!
Doug Elder

Doug, sorry for getting off topic. I certainly don't want to hi-jack this great thread. I was just responding to another reply.

Back to your regularly scheduled topic.

JJP

JJP: no apology necessary. I'm as guilty as any for the topic change here, but as I stated, I believe that the slide damage issue is certainly worthy of discussion. Would hate to see folks reluctant to consider having their images published based on these types of concerns, which may or may not be justified when one considers today's high-quality scanning capabilities.
Doug

I think since the thread was started by me, and as long as we are discussing ANYTHING LV or LV related, it's all good. Whatever it takes, to bring the hidden treasures to light, is fine by me. As mentioned, there are ways to make dupes, and use them while saving your precious(?) originals. If you don't share them, what's the point? Even mediocre shots, of rare equipment, or rare locations, are better than no pictures at all. Think of all the undocumented "last-runs" on branch lines that are lost forever. While there's much debate over the "last run" of the mainline west of Sayre, we still see no pictures of trains after the supposed last run. I bet someone has a picture of something out there.

G-A:
Well, here we go again, at the risk of getting way off the thread, but you did mention photos of the "debated" last run on the mainline west of Sayre or of photos of trains after this last run:

There were no trains operated on the former Lehigh Valley Railroad MT west of Van Etten Jct. on sections not taken over by ConRail or subsidized under the NYS LDL program after the early morning hours of 01 April 1976.

Have a copy of the Buffalo Division dispatcher sheet for March 31, 1976 which gives the following information:

The last east bound LVRR train was COJ-32, units 322, 321 and 323, which departed Suspension Bridge at 6:28 P.M. on March 31, 1976. This train cleared Van Etten Jct. at 3:40 A.M. on April 1, 1976.

The last west bound LVRR train was ME-1, units 501, 511 and 508 which cleared Van Etten Jct. at 6:22 P.M. on March 31, 1976. This train arrived at Tifft Jct. at 6:50 A.M. on April 1, 1976. ME-1 was delayed enroute for a total of 2'35" account stuck brakes. The train cleared Quaker Int. at 12:52 A.M. but did not clear Rush Int. until 4:38 A.M. The cause for delay at Rush was for a relief crew.

A note in my files relates:

COJ-32 Not to operate over property not covered by Conrail after 12:01 AM.

Haddick
VP
(7:35 P.M.)

It did, anyway. The point is CR, it seems, would have been very opposed to any through trains Sayre-Buffalo.

At the time ConRail took over I crossed the LVRR MT at Mendon, NY twice a day on my way to work and back. In addition, just for something to do, I walked the old LV tracks quite a bit after April 1, 1976. The rust on the ex-LV rails was never broken by other than mow hirailer equipment.

CAR_FLOATER wrote:8222 -

I wouldn't expect another LV Morning Sun book anytime soon, considering the gap of time between the last book and this one (about 7 years).
If anything, in two years we MIGHT be lucky to see an LV Facilities book, but I am not holding my breath. I think a new B&W, maybe with some color release from a smaller publisher (Andover Pub, or a historical society) is a better bet.

Regarding slides - Morning Sun is known for not only destroying slides, but also not retuning them prompty, if at all. There are pictures in the first two books from a friend that came back runined, and this prolific photographer's photos will never be in another MS LV book because of it.

Like a lot of us, we have things in our collections that deserve to be published for the greater "good", but I think my above suggested publishing outlets are a better suggestion than what the hobby industry insiders here in New Jersey refer to as the "Book Of The Month Club".

CF

The three they didn't use from the four that I loaned out came back with my comp copy, which has a nice thank you-note from the owner.

Looks like they ran out of room for the caption to state the photo I loaned is from my collection; when it was taken I was barely managing bottle-feeding.... If anyone asks I'll tell them I have a time machine.

Anyhow, Mitchell wrote that it would come back under seperate cover, so I'm sure sooner or later I'll see it.

[quote="lvrr325"]The three they didn't use from the four that I loaned out came back with my comp copy, which has a nice thank you-note from the owner.

Looks like they ran out of room for the caption to state the photo I loaned is from my collection; when it was taken I was barely managing bottle-feeding.... If anyone asks I'll tell them I have a time machine.

Anyhow, Mitchell wrote that it would come back under seperate cover, so I'm sure sooner or later I'll see it.[/quote]

LVRR325 -

That's good to hear, I guess maybe my friend just had a bad experience......

In semi-related news, I have been informed that my assumtion of the next LV offering from MS Books will be sooner rather than later, as it's already at the printers and we should expect to see it at the top of '08.

The book? LV Facilities, Vol. 1 (of 3 volumes!) The author? Mike Bednar.
Yes this is fact, not hearsay, it comes from a good friend that was told this by Bob Yanosey himself.

Start saving your pennies, and make room on your bookshelves now!

CF