Checking Out the Rails in Olympia (Oly 07)

Western Washington was once criss-crossed by hundreds of miles of rail lines. Many mountain valleys had regular or narrow gauge lines to serve the lumber industry. Many of them were abandoned in the 1970s as the lumber industry wound down, but some remnants remain. BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) operates its main line from Longview, on the Colombia River, north to Vader, Chehalis, Centralia, Tenino, East Olympia, and then on to Tacoma. This carries mostly cargo, but Amtrak uses the tracks for its passenger service. 

Olympia was once served by two railroads, the Northern Pacific and the Union Pacific. The tracks still exist, and Olympia & Belmore Railroad, Inc., operates the occasional freight cars. I sometimes hear a locomotive horn but have never see a train trundling down Jefferson Street. Amtrak's station is on the Yelm Highway in Lacey, the town southeast of Olympia. The Amtrak does not go into downtown Olympia.

7th Avenue Tunnel

The "Subway" (Fuji Acros film, Leica M2, 90mm ƒ/4 Elmar lens)

When the Northern Pacific first brought service into downtown Olympia in 1891, the tracks came down the Deschutes River valley, past the brewery complex, and along the tide flats. The track turned east and went through a tunnel to emerge near Jefferson Street. It is ugly and dirty now. A homeless man was badly injured in the tunnel years ago.

Jefferson Street

Jefferson Street view north. Where is the train? (Fuji Acros film, Pentax Spotmatic F camera, 55mm ƒ/1.8 SMC Takumar lens)

Jefferson Street view north

Steps on Jefferson Street (55mm ƒ/1.8 SMC Takumar lens)

The track in the foreground emerges from the subway (to the right out of the picture).

Jefferson Street view south

View north from Olympia Avenue NE (Kodak T400CN film, Leica IIIC camera, 5 cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens)

Rainbow Rails

Rainbow Rails view north (not very colorful any more; Kodak Tri-X, 100mm ƒ/3.5 lens)

Rainbow Rails with State Capitol in the distance and 4th Avenue bridge (Kodak Tri-X, Hasselblad, 100mm ƒ/3.5 lens)

Rainbow rails, view north, with West Bay to the right

The Rainbow Rails ran along West Bay to a wood processing facility a short distance south of Tugboat Annie's restaurant. The name came from the colorful paint that artists painted on the ties near the 4th Avenue bridge. Much of the paint has faded, so you do not see much rainbow any more. The track is a somewhat difficult walk, but you are next to West Bay and can sometimes see a freighter across the water at the Port of Olympia. Water birds occupy a pond just to the west. 

Port of Olympia

View south from Market Street NE (adjacent to the Olympia Farmers' Market)

This track comes in from the south along Jefferson Street (see above). It diverges, and two lines enter the port area (off-limits to visitors). Most of the timber now comes to the port by truck, but I hear an occasional train, usually at night. 

This ends our short railroad tour of Olympia. Later, I will post some pictures of the rail line near the unused Olympia Brewery complex in Tumwater. Thank you for riding along.

Trachte buildings in Madison, WI

[Guest post by morangm]

The Trachte company pioneered the manufacture of metal buildings, starting around 1917.  The company initially started out manufacturing metal tanks and tubs for agricultural use and invented a machine for efficiently creating corrugated steel panels for this purpose.  After using this material to build a garage for the owner's car and wowing the neighbors, the company shifted to primarily building flexible, modular metal buildings, which were often used for garages and industrial purposes.  A very nice history of the company and some examples of their work can be found here on the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation's website.  The company is actually still around and these days focuses mostly on self-storage buildings.

The old Trachte buildings have a distinct look: Long and skinny with straight corrugated metal walls and a circularly arched roof.  A lot of these buildings are still around in Madison, particularly on the formerly industrial east side.  Some of them appear to be abandoned, but others are being used in a variety of interesting ways.  Please enjoy a few examples!

Unknown industrial structure, E. Johnson St.

Unclear what this little red Trachte building is used for, if anything.

This Trachte building hosts an artist residency program in Thurber Park.

This one's been done up super nicely as someone's house.

This one is somebody's furniture workshop and has a matching Little Free Library out front.

Here's a very typical Madison East Side scene: Trachte building, 100-year-old houses, and a large new apartment building, all superimposed.

The old Trachte building factory was also located on the east side of Madison.  The factory itself is built of Trachte buildings.  It's still there but appears to be sitting mostly abandoned or partly used for storage.

Old Trachte building factory off Dickinson St.

Some impressive trees have grown up between these factory buildings.

Because Kodachromeguy always does this: All photos were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S10e mobile phone.

From the Archives: Belmont Center in 1969

One upon a time, several lives ago, I lived in Belmont, Massachusetts, USA. Belmont is a quiet bedroom community in Middlesex County west of Cambridge, also bordered by Arlington, Waltham, and Watertown. Belmont's commercial nexus was the Center, where Leonard Street emerged from under the railroad tracks and ran past a fire station and a cluster of stores. 

I bought my first "serious" camera in late 1968, a Nikkormat FTn. Here are some frames from my early attempts to use Tri-X film. I did not know what I was doing, but the built-in light meter was reasonably reliable in the hands of a total novice, and the Nikkor lenses were very good optically. I do not remember who developed the film, possibly a small camera shop in Arlington, where my dad knew the proprietor. 

Leonard Street

Leonard Street from railroad bridge 

Leonard Street passed through the Center and often had heavy traffic, even back in the 1960s. Note how the Volkswagen Beetle on the right is dwarfed by the Chevrolet behind it. 

1908 Belmont Station

Rail side of the Belmont Station

The Fitchburg Railroad (later the Boston and Maine Railroad) built the Craftsman-stye railroad station in 1908 after they raised the rail line to eliminate a grade crossing for the busy Concord Avenue. According to Wikipedia, a farmer quarried the stone used in the station from nearby Belmont Hill. 

Train service to Belmont ended in 1958, but the Boston and Maine ran commuter trains from Concord to North Station on these tracks using Budd Rail Diesel Cars (Buddliners). I recall when we occupied the new Belmont High School at its new Clay Pit Pond site in 1970, we occasionally mooned the commuter train as long as the teacher was not present. The MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) resumed service to Belmont in 1974 during the first energy crisis. 

When I moved to Belmont in 1966, the Lions Club owned the station, and the platforms were fenced off. If you look at Google Maps, the porch in the picture above has been filled in with ugly cinder block. 

Fire station hose tower

This is the Belmont Center fire station tower, where the firemen dried canvas hoses. The fire station is now a restaurant. The new fire station is a beautiful brick complex at the corner of Alexander Avenue and Leonard Street. This was formerly a parking lot for Filenes clothing store (sto-wah). The boring moderne building that was once Filenes is gone, replaced with a CVS and craft beer cellar. During one of my life interludes, I sold men's clothing at Filenes in 1979-1980 while job hunting. It was rather dull but paid a bit ($2.90 and then $3.10/ hour??). I had to wear a suit or jacket every day. But the suits came from a tailor in Athens, not Filenes.

Construction of Belmont Savings Bank

Demolition of Tudor-style commercial building (Kodak Instamatic 500 photograph)

Demolition detail

Belmont Savings Bank demolished an elegant 1920s Tudor style building to build a pseudo-colonial style bank and parking lot. Back in that era, banks invited new depositors to open savings accounts, no matter how little they could deposit. The idea was to encourage a habit of saving and demonstrate the benefits of interest. The bank employee typed your deposit and the accumulated interest in a passbook using a machine that resembled a big typewriter. I assume that it was connected to a mainframe computer somewhere, but I do not know what technology they used. Today, banks rarely accept customers with minimal funds, thereby driving the poor to pay day loan shops and other unsavory or illegal financial services. 

Clay Pit Pond from Concord Avenue

Clay Pit Pond was the site of a blue clay that was mined for brick production between 1888 and 1926. When I lived in Belmont in the 1960s, the pond was polluted and may only be marginally better now. The city needed a site for a new high school and chose the land between the pond and the Boston and Maine railroad tracks. The photograph above shows some initial dirt work in the distance. 

The town selected this site to replace an older high school on Orchard Street. In 1968, a disgruntled student torched the building. After the fire, we still used part of the old building. A temporary wall closed off the burned section. 

The 1971 school was quite luxurious in a mid-century manner, with earth tones as the color scheme. I even lifeguarded at the pool. Today, a spectacular new school occupies the site, a gorgeous brick complex that resembles a corporate headquarters (demonstrating an advantage of living in a rich town with a strong education ethic).

The author measuring cedar shingles. The house and shingles are still extant. The black underlayment is tar paper.

The famous February 1969 snow storm

This ends our short time warp trip to Belmont. Thank you for riding along.

Most of these photographs are Kodak Tri-X film. I scanned the negatives on a Nikon Coolscan 5000 scanner operated with NikonScan 4.03 software. I cleaned splotches and scratches with Photoshop CS6 software.

More Fun in South Shreveport, Louisiana

In previous articles, we looked around Olympia, Washington. Let us take a quick diversion back to the US South. 

On our way from Vicksburg to Houston, we overnighted in Shreveport, Louisiana. I wanted to do a last documentation in a southern neighborhood that shows elements of traditional wood architecture, decay, and neglect. In the morning, we drove west on 70th street in south Shreveport and looked at some of the side streets. The light was soft and even, quite suitable for architecture. 

Click any picture to see it at 1600 pixels on the long dimension.

Quiet times on Bates Street (Fuji Acros film, Spotmatic F camera, 28mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens)

Cottage on Bates Street (24mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens)

Bates Street house

Bates Street was quiet, with empty lots and houses that were boarded up. I could not tell if they were going to be repaired. If they were to be demolished, no one would have bothered to secure the window with plywood, so possibly there was a plan to restore some of them. Still, it is not a pretty scene. 

Bethany Street

Bethany Street house (24mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens)

Bethany Street had many empty lots, meaning the former houses had been razed and the lots graded. 

Time for some crawfish at 925 E. 70th Street

7020 Line Avenue - not much happening now

The Little Shanty art store on Line Avenue, also unfortunately closed

Line Avenue runs north south. It was more commercial than the side streets but was very quiet. The street just to the right of The Little Shanty was East 71st Street. It offered a bit more photographic material.

Shed on E. 71st Street

Fixer-upper shed on E. 71st Street (28mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens)

Asphalt shingle cottage, 569 E. 71st Street

Asphalt shingles were common mid-century for inexpensive housing. We look down on it now, but it was a practical building material because it was easy to install, inexpensive, long-lasting, and repelled bugs and vermin. It did not need repainting, as do shingles or clapboard.

 

Non-cottage, E. 71st Street

Duplex under renovation, E. 71st Street

Another duplex, E. 71st Street

Some of the houses on E. 71st Street were being renovated. That is a hopeful sign.

Muscle Therapy Center, 7101 Southern Avenue

This clinic is in a rather bunker-like brick building with burglar bars over the windows. It was unfortunate pragmatic (=cheap) architecture and looked unkept.

This finishes our quick tour on October 26, 2023, of a neighborhood in south Shreveport, Louisiana. Maybe I posted too many photographs. But, I may never return to this part of the world, although one never knows. 

I took these frames with my Pentax Spotmatic F camera and 24mm or 28mm SMC Takumar (thread-mount lenses) using Fuji Acros 100 film (exposed at EI=80). These lenses were multi-coated and among the best mid-price 1970s optics for SLR cameras. Praus Productions in Rochester, NY, developed the film. I scanned it with a Plustek 7600i film scanner operated by Silverfast Ai software. I made minor contrast adjustments with Photoshop CS6.  

Into the Woods Again: Squaxin Park in Monochrome (Oly 06)

Squaxin Park (formerly Priest Point Park) is a botanical wonder just north of downtown Olympia off East Bay Drive NE. I have photographed here in color with my little digital Fuji X-E1 camera. How about monochrome? (Warning, "pretty" pictures below; no urban decay.)

Ellis Cove and view west to East Bay (Fuji Acros film, Pentax Spotmatic F camera, 28mm ƒ/3.5 SMC Takumar lens)

Ellis Cove (Fuji Acros film, 28mm SMC Takumar lens)

The temperature plummeted on January 11 (2024) and some snow fell. That was too good to resist. I walked to Squaxin Park but was surprised that not much snow had made it through the dense canopy down to the ground.

Samarkand Rose Garden (Kodak Panatomic-X film, Hasselblad 501CM camera, 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar lens, yellow-green filter)

Near Ellis Cove (Panatomic-X film, 100mm ƒ3.5 Planar lens)

Near Ellis Cove (Panatomic-X film, 100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens, yellow-green filter)

On East Bay Drive, a dense multi-trunk tree often catches my eye.

East Bay Drive NE (Kodak Tri-X 400 film, Hasselblad 501CM, 100 mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens, 1/125 ƒ/4)

Another snow fell on February 14, and I returned to Squaxin Park with the Hasselblad. Maybe I will show those frames in mid-summer..... 

Thank you all for exploring Squaxin Park with me.

From the Archives: Pike Place Market (Seattle) in 1973

Once upon a time, when I was young and energetic, I lived in Seattle, Washington, while attending the University of Washington (the 'Dub). I liked to go downtown with my friends to explore or eat at interesting restaurants. I found some March 1973 negatives from that previous life. 

My dad had been visiting from out of state. We took the ferry boat to Bremerton and later explored Pike Place Market. He liked Pike Place, but that was expected. He was an old hand at exploring markets, such as the famous Flea Market in Athens or the Scott's Market in Rangoon.

My dad checking out the scene

The fish fellow looked crabby

Candles were such a thing in the 1970s

Mellow time, 1973-style

Chopping the cows.

Stacking the crabs neatly. It reminds me of the Central Market in Athens. 

I took these photographs on Kodak Tri-X 400 film with my Nikkormat FTn camera and 28mm ƒ/3.5 or 50mm ƒ/2 Nikkor lenses. I vaguely recall developing the film in the darkroom in McMahon Hall with Microdox-X developer. I did not know what I was doing, but still, the negatives have survived a half century (just as our digital files will, right?). They were scratched and had dirt and lint issues, so I cleaned the examples you see here with the heal tool in Photoshop CS6. 

We will look at more Seattle pictures in future articles. Please type "Seattle" in the search box to see older entries.