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From: mdelvec952 AT aol DOT com
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2014 12:05:37 -0500 (EST)
Subject: John Barriger on the Lackawanna
"DLW_Dansville_1930s_John_Barriger_photo.jpg" - image/jpeg, 2321x1444 (256c)






The Lackawanna faithful have had a great couple of years, with the glass plate negative collection and now the Barriger files. I've always wondered if Barriger got to the Lackawanna, and a couple of times on business trips to the St. Louis area I tried to arrange a way to see what was there and to have prints made if so. That he covered the Erie so well is a great resource as well.


Just like the Steamtown collection, the Barriger images are gems. We are grateful for both.


Some notes: While Barriger was a man of means who could afford anything he wanted, he carried a small camera for that era and he did the best he could with it. He used 120 roll film, and the lenses and film speed at the time weren't of the quality we're used to today.


These pictures so far appear to have been taken in the 1930s through about 1940 or so, probably until his Monon presidency (1942).


Since he was often shooting from the back platforms of observation cars during the steam era, the blotchy skies are for the most part the remaining clouds and steam from the locomotive.


At some point some of these original negatives were duplicated on Kodak positive copy film, and what we're looking at on a lot of them are the copy negatives. Ideally, when negatives are copied the two films are paired emulsion side to emulsion side and flattened under glass, then exposed to light, This produces the least amount of generation loss and preserves the greatest amount of sharpness in the copy. The thickness of the copy film is quite a bit greater than that of roll film, and as such does add its own contrast tendencies, which combined with the contrast of the original negative give these images a little "grayer" look in the unedited viewing we're getting on the website.


This copy film has a barely detectible emulsion side when handling it in the dark, which is why Kodaks puts a notch near one corner of its films. If I recall correctly on the copy film (haven't used it since the mid-1990s), the notch should be the right side to have the emulsion side up, left side for emulsion side down, which was the opposite of the notches negative sheet film. In the light, once processed, the emulsion side of the copy film is also barely detectible. The folks scanning these images likely couldn't determine which side was the emulsion side when they made the scans, thus many images are "flopped." Depending on the scanner, if the copy negative was placed emulsion side up when it should be down, or vice versa, some of the images could be slightly out of focus.


Some of the Lackawanna images are flopped just as those on the Erie. Some of those on the Lackawanna are well-known locations, but some the gems that aren't include:


DL&W 13: Curve at Lake Estling in Denville, four tracks then.
DL&W 14: East Dover at Rockaway Road
DL&W 17: Chester Junction Tower, four tracks going to two, the branch to the right.


There are some views on the cutoff and crossing Paulins Kill, then nothing until Nay Aug (Winton Branch with hoppers on it), Roaring Brook with the E&WV bridge overhead entering and leaving Scranton. I wonder if lunch had been served during the trip over the Poconos.


Some great west-end stuff, including Mount Morris Tower at the PRR crossing and the station in DL&W 62 and 63, and a great one at Dansville in DL&W 65, images in and around Buffalo including one at the station. Mount Morris Tower looks quite a bit like Chester Junction Tower, both built before the Truesdale era.


Attached is the image form Dansville, flopped to its proper orientation and some of the scratches and stains corrected.


The DL&W section of the collection is at:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/sets/72157640562976253/




....Mike Del Vecchio








DLW_Dansville_1930s_John_Barriger_photo.jpg

Image EXIF Data:
Image Creation Date   2014:02:08 01:19:41
Software Version   Adobe Photoshop Elements 9.0 Windows
X Resolution   600 Pixels/Inch
Y Resolution   600 Pixels/Inch
Exif Image Width   2321 pixels
Exif Image Height   1444 pixels
ColorSpace   Uncalibrated


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