Nostalgia & History > Alternate History - MRHF 4070

Sometimes an image is nearly timeless. While this is a photo of MRHF 4070 taken from the Route 82 bridge in Brecksville, Ohio as 4070 heads south on what is now the CVSR, by converting the shot to black and white, the sense of time is taken from it. It is no longer August 1982 but anytime from the 1920's to the end of steam while withholding the location could put it on a multitude of railroads.
Bob

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I have no idea what "MRHF is ...nor CVSR.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/15 11:12 by CrudPunko.

CrudPunko Wrote:
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> I have no idea what "MRHF is ...nor CVSR.

MRHF stands for the Midwest Railway Historical Foundation, which is now the Midwest Railway Preservation Society (MRPS).  Midwest currently uses the reporting mark CTVX, for Cleveland Terminal & Valley RY Incorporated.  The MRHF/MRPS started as the equipment-owning arm of the Midwest Chapter NRHS, but the association between the 2 was dissolved years ago.  CVSR is the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

Posting from Estes Park, CO



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/15 15:36 by Rainier_Rails.

It's a very good photograph in black and white, but unless there was some brightly colored distraction that would scream "1982" at the top of its lungs, I guess I have a hard time accepting that the photo would suffer if it was presented in full blazing color.  It sounds like the goal of de-colorizing wasn't so much to make the photo "timeless" as it was to make it seem "old."  For people like me who grew up with color TV and a childhood preserved on color snapshots, black and white can lend a sense of "old" to an image all right, but it can also give it a sort of surreal or even vaguely fictitious quality.  There's some part of my subconscious mind that looks at a black and white photo of steam and says, "The world doesn't look like that.  Maybe that didn't really happen.  Maybe I didn't really miss anything."  When I see a good Kodachrome of steam in regular service from the 40's or 50's, with its "walk right into the scene" color rendition, my subconscious gets a bucket of cold water in the face with the realization, "Wow, that really did happen!  Dang, I wish I could have seen that in person!"

Thanks for the differing viewpoint. I appreciate it. Yes, I did change this to black and white because I wanted to appear "old" and to present an alternate view of history.
Bob