Nostalgia & History > S.P. Rotary action at Norden, February, 1977, My first shots.

I have be doing some scanning of some old black and white prints with mixed results. Richard Steinheimer, Dick Dorn and myself befriended the Norden operators in the mid to late 1970's; Harry Hanns and Shorty Teil. We would regularly stay overnight either in the Woolworth Building at Norden or with Harry or Shorty in their residences. We also kept in touch by phone and they would let us know when the rotaries would run. So going up to catch them was not a wasted trip up the Hill. we just waited for them to show up and we would call the "public Pacific Bell phone" they had in the operators office to get the latest times and location. They were very friendly and despite the fact that we were trespassing, they let us have the run of the place. Here are three photos from various trips in the 1970's. These three shots are from February, 1977. I am shooting from the top of the signal bridge at west Norden as the rotaries heads east towards the snowshed. What is interesting is the I have shot hundredths of rotary images over the years right up through this winter and these are some of my best shots with a Canon AE-1 , Kodak Tri-X F-11 at 250th of a second. Copyright, 2017, "All Rights Reserved." Text and Photos by Mike Pechner



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/17 22:44 by weather.

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This one turned out a lot sharper than the others despite the fact the 2 1/4" prints were also sharp.

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AWESOME.

~RGDave

Great stuff! Thank you for sharing.

MILW86A

Nice shots and thanks for sharing.

However, IMO, there is no such thing, just some trips that are better than others.

weather Wrote:
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> ...So going up to catch them was not a wasted
> trip up the Hill...

Excellent, Mike!
I suspect you are hoarding all these great old photos in the manner of Photobob!

We love them all.

Great shots! I had the opportunity to meet Shorty several times on visits at Norden. He was a real hoot to visit with...

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Thanks, James, feel free to expand on that and your Norden experience right here!

weather Wrote:
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> Thanks, James, feel free to expand on that and
> your Norden experience right here!

You guys got real brave in the post RRR era. When 1974 rolled around and there was the LGS era with his helpers HDF, RLB, and later MLB days Norden became a real winter playground for train nuts.

Mike, just to clarify, my statement was merely to give you a hard time, based on your commentary about a "wasted trip" on the Hill if the rotaries were not running. It was purely a joke on my end and I will add to everyone's comments that I too appreciate these shots and hope you are willing to share more.

As to adding my "Norden experience" to this thread, thanks, but I wasn't born until late 1983, so any snow shots I have to add will have to be placed on the western forum, given that they all have big yellow engines pushing/pulling snow-fighting equipment.



weather Wrote:
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> Thanks, James, feel free to expand on that and
> your Norden experience right here!