Nostalgia & History > Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company/East Troy Electric RR

This is video motion using combined and matched 1930's USDA aerial photos from the UW/M collection, tracing the ROW of The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company from East Troy to Mukwonago (still in service and operated by the East Troy Electric RR as a trolly/tourist line). The video continues of the now abandoned section to Big Bend.  Captions use modern place names combined with some historic identifiers. I've used this technique to trace dozens of routes in my native N Illinois/S Wisconsin area. Anyone who has searched the USDA or Historic Aerials frames to trace a rail line (or road or waterway; I've completed a trace of Route 66 across S California in similar fashion), knows that only about a 5 mile square or rectangle of the ground shot from 20,000 feet can be seen in each frame. Using this method, each frame is matched with the next sequential image and with the ROW being the center feature onto a long canvas, scaled in, and set to a slow "pan". Subtle sound of cars on jointed rail add an audio element. Most of my other finished traces are on this website- https://historicaerialphotosinmotion.webs.com/. If quotas allow, I'll post the continuation of the TMER&L with a video from Big Bend to Muskego and north to Hales Corners, WI

Mark Baker
La Salle, IL
Historic ROWs trace w/ USDA Aerials



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/20 10:21 by MWBaker.

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