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From: Dlw1el2 AT aol DOT com
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:55:38 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Writing up the Glass Plates.
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When you have been taking slides for over 40 years, you never know what
your going to find when you go looking through them. Usually it's not what
your searching for, but a lot of other things pop up. That was the case
this past week. It was the first time, I had seen these three slides since
1983. That Sept myself, John Willever, and three retire's went up to Syracuse
for a week, to catalog what we could of the huge, mostly un cataloged,
glass plate collection. John and I gave a week of are vacation time towards
the project. The other three gentleman were all retired off the Lackawanna.
The Tri State Railway Historical Soc, supported us, in that I believe they
paid for are gas, and a small amount for food each day. The Syracuse
Chapter NRHS graciously provided lodging at several individuals homes, for those
that didn't want to stay at a hotel. Let me take this time, to once again
thank both those groups for their support. Pre arrangements with the
University allowed all five of us to be locked in first thing every morning and
that's where we stayed till closing time, when we were let out. Lunch was
simply the sandwiches and soda were bought each morning before we arrived at
the large annex building, where the collection was housed. I had gotten us
two slide viewers, and two drop lights with round cones that I taped paper
over to give a better overall even light. We used a form I made up, that
had an area on if for the plate No, the plates condition, how positive we
were of the identity, a date on the plate if given, and a description.
Unfortunately back then we were working with out any reference material that's
available today.

That entire week we worked on the C series for no other reason other than a
small section ( C240 - C1499 ) had all ready been done. Tom T Taber
the 3d or his dad. We did C001-C239 and C1500 -C3119 thus completing almost
50% of the C Series. Not sure why, when there are many thousands of plates
that no one has seen or done anything with, that these exact same plates,
that have already been written up, are the ones being RE reviewed everyday?

The first attached photo here shows myself, with the next person past me
being Angelo Verrone, who was a track man for close to 50 years. Angelo
claimed to have walked every inch of the Lackawanna. Although that knowledge
didn't present itself quite as well as I had hoped, Angelo was so proud to
have participated in the project. Next to Angelo was George Brill, who
started work on the Lackawanna in the East Dover Frog and Switch Shops, and
when they closed traveled to many locations via the track dept. I remember
George saying one day at Syracuse, you might want to make a copy of this
plate. When I looked at it, it was a very mundane, dirt road crossing with
absolutely nothing of apparent interest what so ever. When I asked George why,
he said cause it was the crossing that use to be right outside of the
building we were in. We set it aside. :) Next to George was Fred Hall a long
time Road Forman of Engines out of Scranton, who obviously knew a very large
portion of the RR very well. I remember one lunch time him telling a story
of several BAD days in a row, where the circus train traveling the
Syracuse line froze up some where between Binghamton and Syracuse. I can't
remember all the details, but I remember him stating the amount of time, and
everything they tried to do, to get that train moving and off the RR. It was
during the diesel era, so obviously the boilers didn't work as intended on
that trip. The fifth person at the very end of the two tables is John
Willever who I will simply say is one, if not the most knowledgeable Lackawanna
historian living today. I wish I had gotten a better photo of us, but if was
simply an after thought, the building was very dark, and the slides are on
K64 film. The high ISO digitals of today sure would have come in handy.

All three retire's are long departed. I'm so sorry I didn't meet with them
and record them separately after wards. I didn't start doing that till
about 15 years later. They all were apart of what once was and will never be
again.
The 1848 plates we wrote up were far more than any other person or group
had accomplished in the 60 years that they resided at Syracuse University.
Sad to say the deterioration of each plate is continuing big time. As you
can all see on a daily basis, almost every plate now has some deterioration.
That was not the case in 1983. Its all the more reason why each plate
should be cleaned, and ONE, one high resolution, proper exposed, scan done.
That way the plate doesn't have to be touched again, and it's FINALLY
captured at its remaining best, for tomorrow it will be in worse shape than it is
today. Myself and others are dismayed that this is not the practice at
Steamtown now, but that's circumstances beyond my control.

I think many of you are seeing for the first time, what gems these plates
are. As I stated in the Diamond Vol 17 No 2 in my article on the Company
Photographers, " if a photo is worth a thousand words, then these three
photographers have given us untold volumes." I'll simply put these three
slides back in Kodak box 8, with in the 1983 shoe box.

Bob Bahrs


Syracuse_Cataloging002.jpg

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