An Old Railway

Something I have been working on for ages but tryingtoget information has proved difficult, conflicting stories, sometimes people saying "what railway?".

Hopefully I have got enough to perhaps awaken the interest of one or two around he that might have more information, I have something that I can translate and send off to people in order to ask for more information.

Not one of the photos I used but just to show there is a railway, my mind is not going yet !

The story, as far as I have got, I have put on my blog which can be read here.

Apologies, the article is too long to put here in its' entirety.

Hello Helene,

This is a treat! It is very clear that your investigation of the railroad is a labor of love. The photo in this post, as well as those in your linked website, work very well to illustrate what the area looks like today. I especially enjoyed "Looking West From Platform at Civray" and "Diesel Shunter at St. Savoil".

I have uncovered a curiosity about the history of the Midwest as a result of photography trips through the years. Did you become interested in the history of the railroad as a result of photography, or did photography become important to illustrate the history of the railroad? If you prefer not to say, that is OK. I simply wonder if your experience is similar to mine.

Good luck with your continued investigations. I am confident you will eventually learn enough of the details to weave an entire story of the place.

I'll give you the trick. It is very easy to find where the old railways are. You go to the town hall and ask for the register ("cadastre") or go to this site (but the interface is a disgrace). All the old lines are marked as separate pieces of land. Most of them still belong to the SNCF.

Hello Tom, Thank you,
I am not specifically into railways but am interested in the history of some places and sometimes those places have a station. Trains stations, airports, ports have a lot of people passing through them (or did have once) so there is (or was) life in the history. I wanted to get this together for two reasons, to use it to get more information about the old line and hopefully by putting something that might interest local people (I now have to do a version in French for a local paper) get free publicity for me and access to other sites in the area. I find it very hard to take a photo unless there is a story. Perhaps the story is of now, or last week or a hundred years ago but my photos must tell a story. So, to answer your question I used my photography to try and piece together and illustrate some local history which was otherwise incoherrent.

Jerome, Bonsoir,
Donc . . . . . Finding the old lines, stations etc is not a problem. Finding the information is sometimes a problem, about any aspect of life here. I did ask at the town hall of Civray about the old station but no one knew anything about it. You're right, the interface for that site is not easy butthanks for passing it on to me. Google maps - pretty good, the shadows of various things from the past can still be seen in the landscapes from the satellite pictures.


I am not going to do a series of photos of former railway lines in France but I hope that by doing just this one (and hopefully filling in any gaps in the story) it will do my local street cred a bit of good.

An update. I was back there today (Civray - 86) to photo one last thing, the old goods shed which is now on private property. I was alowed a few minutes to get photos.



Not easy, someone was with me so I didn't feel I had total freedom to explore but considering that it is now on a site that is quite industrial and I suppose potentially dngerous I am grateful to the company for giving me a few minutes there.



The door in the above picture is original. While the site is rented fromthe SNCF (French Railways) the SNCF so nothing towards the upkeep of the building. In turn the company that now rents the site is not allowed to do anything to maintain the building. Catch 22.

What is that single rail on the north side of the shed?

Hi, Jerome,

Doug

Jerome Marot said:

What is that single rail on the north side of the shed?

Click to expand...

Looks to be one rail of a set of gantry (portal) crane rails (note part of crane, yellow, at left distance in pic).

Best regards,

Doug

You have guessed correctly Doug. I thought, leave it in, show more, take it out or . . . . I left what there is to make people look and asked "what is thatsingle rail" or "what is that yellow thing"

Hélène Anderson said:

Something I have been working on for ages but tryingtoget information has proved difficult, conflicting stories, sometimes people saying "what railway?".

Click to expand...

This is a remarkable picture. It's of a disused section of a rail depot or yard yet it shows a sense of being dynamic as if there's action today. Interestingly is worth considering that the brain goes to its vast library of previous images and does comparisons to get meaning. So this painting came to mind.



The title,"Time Transfixed", is a perfect match for your photograph too taken some 75 years later. This picture evokes similar experience for me.

Kudos, Magritte must walk besides you.

Asher

Doug Kerr said:

Looks to be one rail of a set of gantry (portal) crane rails (note part of crane, yellow, at left distance in pic).

Click to expand...

I see. That yellow thing extends as a portal to the left and there onto another rail. Thanks.

Asher Kelman said:

This is a remarkable picture. It's of a disused section of a rail depot or yard yet it shows a sense of being dynamic as if there's action today. Interestingly is worth considering that the brain goes to its vast library of previous images and does comparisons to get meaning. So this painting came to mind.

Click to expand...

Thank you Asher. One day a while ago I went to the station, the one that doesn't exist according to some people, and saw these wagons. The are not on the line by the station but on a private section of line that serves the silos. Once on this section of line that are pushed or pulled by a tractor, like one might find on a far, that has adapted with a railway type coupling. The picture I took while standing on the old platform of the station.

As an aside, a mayor from near by called me this afternoon. Having heard of my work he wanted to know about me, my work and said if I go to his office on a Wednesday he can tell me of a couple of other places of architectural interest along the former line, one item being a bridge that is a bit unusual.

Oh, I liked the René Magritte: "Time Transfixed".

Hélène,

I keep coming back to this picture and wonder how you made it? It seems to have a flat soft pastel quality.


Is this a jpg out of the camera, or is this from Raw with no increase in contrast or a very shallow gamma?

I wonder whether you have chosen or designed this look as opposed to "That how it came out of my camera!"?

Asher

Taken in RAW and then a bit of contrast, curves adjusted a bit until the image was as I remembered it. I do very little to my images.

Hélène Anderson said:

Taken in RAW and then a bit of contrast, curves adjusted a bit until the image was as I remembered it. I do very little to my images.

Click to expand...

Hi again!

Still, the result is the very pale sun-bleached colors that occur after 75 years of neglect. So you are a reporter. Your pictures work for me superbly as I would never otherwise have been so taken with the picture that I think is evocative of the train moving out of the fireplace in Magritte's famous picture.


While respecting your job as a recorder of these scenes, I also cannot help realize you are creating art in your own right, far beyond mere;y recording. I see the places like this when I was hitchhiking around France and sleeping in the fields, coming on villages in the morning looking like they were painted the same way, and the sky is dull and overcast too!

Despite that honest you have, I also think that one can me informed by the more vibrant style of the painter. So, (and thanks for your permission), here's my own take on the scene:



This, to me at least, being not so soft, is perhaps a tad closer to Magritte's, "Time Transfixed" with more snap that simplifies the path to metaphor and comparison with the painting. Yours is truthful as needed by your goal of straightforward honest.

Amitiés!

Asher