Nostalgia & History > in the wayback machine...found my first color shot!

In mid 1964 I was still using my junk 620 camera due mainly to lack of funds. I was even at 13 printing my own black and white prints, but was afraid of tackling color, because of the complexity of processing and printing it. During the Summer of 64 I boldly put a roll of color film in the camera. I got it processed at a local photo lab, but never remember printing any of the images. The 620 film was a weird size, but fortunately, I was given film by a photographer who did not use it anymore. At this point I was getting my first rides on the local called the Oak Street job out of Bay View Yard in Northeast Baltimore. I've mentioned this in several threads, so I'm just setting up the photo you are looking at...

This Shot was taken from under the Sisson Street Bridge on my "home turf" on the Belt Line. The half mile from NA tower featured in yesterday's thread, and, Huntingdon Ave. was my entire rail world from 63 to 67. This shot is the only known survivor of that first roll of color film. The H-12 44 was working Huntingdon Ave yard. This was my "ride" of the day. That beauty on the right was an eastbound train I knew just as 88. The yard crew told me that it came from Saint Louis, so that is all I remember. I do remember that this train, and another called the Advance Hudson out of Potomac Yard south of DC were almost guaranteed trains on those summer evenings. Again quality lacking is made up for by the quality scene.

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/19 04:02 by Roadjob.

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Let's see .... a consist with a rare B&O GP30 sunburst scheme leading, a GP with the older spelled out B&O scheme, another GP without dynamics an F unit, and an FM waiting ... I'd say that's heck of a 'first color shot'.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/19 04:50 by valmont.

A little bit of nothing in those days now represents a lot of something these days.  Good assortment of power thanks to B&O and to Bill for capturing and sharing.

Very interesting set of power. Not a bad one in that bunch.

Randy

For the first color shot of a thirteen year old given the camera and film you had, I'd give this an "A+". You certainly have a good eye for the whole scene.
Bob

It may be grainy, but it's a treasure!

Cheers, Jim

Really nice.  The consist just can't be any better and it is so nice to have all the units the same paint.
Brian Stevens

I did my first roll of color around the same year ('64 or '65), then had to save allowance up for quite some time to get it developed!

TJY

It's great you kept this so long. And now we can all appreciate it. Thanks.

Roadjob Bill, that is one outstanding shot of a train that was very common on the B&O during that time, a mixture of road power, just about anything to get the freight over the road.  Thank you so much for sharing your photos with all of us as they bring back so many pleasant memories for sure.  I only wish now that I had invested in a camera and taken photos back then.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Priceless...

Beats my first shot.

This would be an excellent shot in any case much less your first color one.
What a lineup - perfect on the curve.
Gary

Great shot and back story !

Great job for a first shot. Thanks very much for posting. Pls share more.

Regards,

Clif Linton

My first photos were also using a 620. A Kodak Brownie on slide film. I got a blurry brand new Reading green and yellow GP30 and a blurry red Reading caboose on the same freight followed by a very blurry 2 car RDC. I was so dissappointed that I didn't try rail photography again for over 10 years. Then it was an Instamatic, argh! Then again in the 70s with a fixed lens full manual Kodak 35 mm using print film. So around the time NS and CSX sliced and diced Conrail I finally started getting some decent photos with a Pentax K-1000 and videos on 8mm camcorder.
Waht did Club Car say abopt 20-20?
Gonut