Vicksburg's Railroad Bridges and Crossings (More Snow)

Vicksburg, Mississippi, has been an important railroad town since before the Civil War. One of the reasons that General Grant considered this to be a crucial strategic objective in the Civil War was the railroad infrastructure. The railroad from the western Confederate states (Texas and Louisiana) came through Vicksburg on the way to Jackson, Meridian, and other eastern Confederate cities. Once Vicksburg surrendered, the Union Navy totally controlled the Mississippi River and the Confederacy was split. This meant food and other crucial supplies could not move east from the western states.

The train still comes through Vicksburg. Let us take a quick tour of the railroad bridges in town. I suspect many motorists just rush over and do not pay any attention to the tracks below.

Mississippi River from Vicksburg, view west towards Louisiana, 1996, Kodachrome slide, Nikon F3 camera

Before the construction of the old bridge, rail cars were ferried across the Mississippi River by barges. This must have been dangerous work considering currents and changing water levels. The Vicksburg Bridge & Terminal Co. built the first bridge first bridge across the river (on the right in the photograph above) during 1928-1930. It uses three cantilevered truss spans and three Parker truss spans (from National Park Service). It formerly carried US 80 (the Dixie Overland Highway) but has been closed to car traffic since 1998. The bridge on the left was built in 1972 to carry Interstate 20.

KCS tracks from North Frontage Road, view NW towards Washington Street, Jan. 16, 2018, Fomapan 100 film

After emerging from the bridge on the Vicksburg side of the river, the track makes a long turn to the north under the interstate off ramp. The photograph above is from North Frontage Road looking to the northwest. North Washington Street runs on the hill in the snow in the distance.

View underneath North Frontage Road bridge (Tri-X film, Hasselblad 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

This is the view from underneath the North Frontage Road bridge, which crosses Stouts Bayou and the railroad (no snow in this 2020 photograph).

KCS tracks from North Washington Street, view SE, Jan 16, 2018, Fomapan 100 film

The tracks run underneath South Washington Street and head north to the Kansas City Southern rail yard. The view above is to the south. I waited for a train, but it was cold, and snow was falling on the camera.

KCS tracks view north from S. Washington Street, Fomapan 100 classic film

From Washington Street, look north and you can see the KCS rail yard in the distance. The track in the distance to the right makes a turn and runs under Washington Street again to the cut between Belmont and West Pine Streets.

Long-closed Fairground Street Keystone bridge from under KCS tracks, Hasselblad, 80mm Planar-CB lens, Kodak Panatomic-X film

The Fairground Street Bridge has been closed to cars and pedestrians for decades. It crossed the KCS rail yard. This photograph is from under the rail line that follows Pearl Street and eventually turns under Washington Street.

Washington Street railroad tunnel, April 2015, Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm lens

Railroad cut between Belmont and West Pine Streets

This valley between Belmont and West Pine Streets must have been cut by the railroad before the Civil War. It is a rather convoluted route but may have followed natural gullies that required minimal dirt removal. The photograph above is from the Monroe Street bridge.

KCS tracks from Mission 66, view west, Hasselblad, 250mm Sonnar lens

KCS tracks from Mission 66, view east with Baldwin Ferry bridge in distance, Fomapan 100 film, Hasselblad, 250mm Sonnar lens

KCS tracks from Baldwin Ferry Road bridge, view east towards Vicksburg National Military Park, Hasselblad, 250mm Sonnar lens

As the Kansas City Southern rail moves inland, it passes under the bridges at Mission 66 and Baldwin Ferry Road. I expect most people drive over and barely pay any attention to the tracks below. In summer, the view is rather dull, but the snow made the scene interesting by outlining the topography.

KCS tracks from Old Highway 27, view towards 2-Mile Bridge, Vicksburg National Military Park

From here, the tracks head east towards Bovina, cross the Big Black River, and continue on to Edwards and Jackson. Back to the Vicksburg waterfront, the Vicksburg Southern Railroad runs along North Washington Street and on to Redwood and just north of the International Paper Company mill.

Vicksburg Southern Railroad tracks view south from Haining Road, Tri-X 400 film

Vicksburg Southern Railroad tracks passing through Vicksburg Forest Products lumber processing yard, Tri-X 400 film, Hasselblad, 250mm Sonnar lens 

Vicksburg Southern Railroad from Redwood, view south to International Paper Vicksburg Mill, Panatomic-X film, Rolleiflex 3.5E, 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens. 

This ends out short tour of railroad tracks and bridges. These were all film photographs. Thank you for reading.

Optical Treasure: 1960s Jupiter-8 Lens from the Soviet Union

This will be a short review of my new/old Jupiter-8 50mm ƒ/2 lens from the Soviet Union. It was made for use on Soviet thread-mount cameras, like the FED, but uses almost the same 39mm thread as the original Leica bodies as well as most Japanese post-war rangefinder cameras.

Jupiter-8 lens mounted on my 1949-vintage Leica IIIC camera

Coated front element of Jupiter-8, probably 1962 construction (note: scratch-free and clear)

Many film photographers love the rendition from the classic Zeiss Sonnar 50mm ƒ/2 lens. Dr. Ludwig Bertele at Zeiss Ikon, the German optical giant, first formulated this lens in 1929. The name comes from the word “Sonne,” meaning Sun. Zeiss sold it with their magnificent Contax rangefinder camera in the 1930s and later. This competed with Ernst Leitz's popular Leica thread-mount cameras when equipped with their 5cm ƒ/2 Summar lens or the later 7-element ƒ/2 Summitar lens. 

After WWII, the Soviets packed up and moved remnants of the Zeiss factories, tools, machinery, glass, and technicians to the Soviet Union and painfully began to rebuild their home optical industry. They largely copied the Zeiss optical designs but made minor changes over the years and coated the glass surfaces to reduce flare. They renamed these new lenses Jupiter (ЮПИТЕР). The 50mm ƒ/2 version is the ЮПИТЕР-8. They produced these lenses from the early 1950s until about 1991, when the Soviet economy collapsed. The Jupiter-8 was the standard lens on many Zorki, FED, and Kiev cameras, which were made in the millions. The Soviet lenses had aluminum mounts instead of the superior brass/chrome mounts of the older German production. The Internet is full of detailed reviews of the Jupiter-8, so I will not repeat the same material. 

Recently, the Lomo company reintroduced the Jupiter-3, which is the 50mm ƒ/1.5 model. Note that Zeiss still sells a modern ƒ/1.5 Sonnar lens, an amazing testament to a long-lasting design (but the current lens is significantly different then the original).

Eighty years after the original design, photographers still like the way the Sonnar reveals details on film. Original 1930s and 1940s German examples are seriously expensive. As an alternative, I decided to try a Jupiter-8 and found one from a seller from Arizona. He said he bought it decades ago along with a set of Soviet thread-mount cameras. Arizona - that suggests dry and no fungus. This one was a Version 2 (design PT3060) from 1962 production (earlier is better for Soviet optics). The lens was clean and the coating almost perfect, but it was need of re-lubricating, as do almost all of these old Soviet optics; after all, they are 50+ years old. 

This lens uses a filter mount thread of 40.5mm. This was common for German lenses in the post-war era. I already had a 40.5mm Series VI filter adapter, allowing me to use my Series VI filters. Note that some Japanese lens makers used a filter diameter of 40.0mm for their ƒ/2 or ƒ/2.8 rangefinder lenses. Why did they do that? Was it to sell brand new filters and accessories to buyers of Japanese lenses? Yes, of course!

Here are some Jupiter examples around town, both when mounted on a digital camera and when used with film on my Leica IIIC camera.

Digital

I attached the Jupiter-8 to my Fuji X-E1 digital camera using a Leica thread mount-Fuji-X adapter. On all of these scenes, I set the Jupiter at ƒ/5.6 and mounted the camera on a tripod to eliminate vibration. This digital camera has an APS-size sensor, so a 50mm lens provides a field of view similar to a 75mm lens on a 35mm camera. Click any frame to expand to 1600 pixels wide.

 

Approaching storm, Kansas City Southern rail yard, Levee Street, Vicksburg (ƒ/5.6)

After the storm, Levee Street, Vicksburg

Kansas City Southern rail yard from the Yazoo Canal levee, ƒ/5.6

Washington Street view north

Pine Street cottages photographed from Belmont Street

Work shed on Yazoo Canal levee (no longer extent)

Panatomic-X Film 

I loaded Kodak Panatomic-X film in my Leica IIIC. I thought it appropriate to expose an old-fashioned film in an old camera body mounting an old lens. The package proved to be compact and convenient to use, but I do wish the Jupiter had click-stops on the aperture control. I exposed the Panatomic-X at EI=20, so most photographs required a tripod. I used a Gossen Luna Pro Digital light meter in incident mode for most measurements.

Sondheimer, Louisiana (1/10 ƒ/11.5, medium yellow filter, tripod-mounted)

1101 N. Chestnut Street, Tallulah, Louisiana (1/10 ƒ/8.0)

PoBoy Don's, LA 602 east of Tallulah, Louisiana (1/100 ƒ/4.0, hand-held)

Footbridge from Avenue B over Stouts Bayou, Vicksburg, Feb. 15, 2021 (1/10 ƒ/11.5)

Acadia Place, Vicksburg, Feb. 15, 2021

Kansas City Southern rail tracks at Maloney Circle, Vicksburg National Military Park (1 sec. ƒ/16)

Fairground Street Bridge (¼ sec ƒ8; click to see 2400 pixels)

Fuji Acros 100 Film

Old bus, Moseley Gap Road, Vicksburg (¼ sec. ƒ/16)

Ford Fairlane, Mt. Alban Road, Vicksburg (1/10 sec. ƒ/11.5)

I also finished a roll of Fuji's superb Acros 100 film with the Jupiter-8 lens. Being an ISO 100 film, it is easier to use out in the field than the slow Panatomic-X film (but the examples above are tripod-mounted). 

Kodak BW400CN Film

Tripp's Store, Mount Carmel Road, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Barn off Greensboro-Chapel Hill Road, Snow Camp, North Carolina (1/100 ƒ/11.5, yellow filter)

Greensboro-Chapel Hill Road, near Snow Camp, North Carolina

I have mixed feelings about Kodak BW400CN film. For these scenes, it worked well. At other times, it looks grainy and gritty. Possibly it does not age well. Regardless, I have used up my last three rolls and will not search for any more.

Comments and Summary

 

This old Jupiter-8 is a nice lens, and I like the results on both a digital camera and on black and white film. I think it sings with film. I do not see any obvious barrel or pincushion distortion, and exposure is even across the frame. At apertures wider than ƒ/5.6, this lens is quite weak, and sharpness falls off at the corners. On the scale of web pictures, the falloff is barely visible. I do not see (or do not know what to look for) the unique Sonnar rendition in these examples, but my photography friend in the UK said the special magic is at ƒ/2. This Jupiter has less field curvature then my 1949 Leitz Summitar lens. 

The Jupiter has an aluminum body, which is conveniently light weight. The finish is not up to German or Japanese standards, but at least on my sample, the numbers are perfectly legible. No issues.

Many photographers have written about focus shift with Sonnar lenses. I have not seen it yet, but have not taken close-focus photographs at wide aperture. This lens and my Summitar both focus perfectly at infinity using the same Leica-Fuji X adapter on my Fuji X-E1. Therefore, I assume that the Jupiter-8 is correctly adjusted for infinity on a Leica thread-mount camera. Close-up, it may back focus a bit, but I will need to test some more (one day in my non-spare time). UPDATE: I sent it to Mr Brian Sweeney, a Soviet lens expert in the USA, for a cleaning and adjustment for correct focus on Leica cameras.

 

I have also used one of the superb 1960s Canon 50mm ƒ/1.4 lenses. The Canon was more uniform across the field and may have displayed marginally better resolution. The mechanical construction was much better, typical Japanese excellence and precision from the 1960s. Its downside for me was the size of the overall optic. It blocked too much of my viewfinder of my little Leica, and the auxiliary 50mm finder was clumsy. 

 

In summary, the Jupiter-8 lens works well and has a nice rendition on film and digital. It is conveniently compact. When I use my little IIIC camera, I just may end up taking both the Jupiter and Summitar 50mm lenses in my camera kit.

The Flood of 2019 (Part 3), the Yazoo Backwater near Onward and Yazoo City, Mississippi

We will continue our review of the flooding in the southern part of the Mississippi Delta, the area known as the Yazoo Backwater. The last article was about the area near the town of Redwood. Here we continue north a few miles to Onward and briefly jump east to Yazoo City.

Onward is an unincorporated farming community near US 61 south of Rolling Fork. Onward is known for two historical notes:

1. This is near the site where president Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a baby bear that had been tied to a tree as a target for the president. A toy company picked up on the refusal to shoot, started making stuffed bears, and the rest is history - one of the most successful children's toys ever. It became an international toy, as well; my Steiff bear was from Germany.
2. The Onward Country Store has been in business since 1913. It is (or was) a popular stop with European tourists who travel on US 61, the Blues Highway. But there is bad news: the Onward store may have closed as of April 2019, according to an article in The Vicksburg Daily News. I will write about the Onward Store soon. 

Onward Store, 1996, before removal of gasoline pump canopy (4×5" Tri-X film, 75mm ƒ/8 Supar-Angulon lens)

This is the front of the Onward Store as of 1996. The store faces US 61 (the Blues Highway) and is just south of the intersection with Rte 1. Residents of Eagle Lake need to drive on Rte 1, then turn south on 465 and access the mainline levee. The levee road eventually gets them to Eagle Lake.

Farm north of Rte 1, April 11, 2019 (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, yellow filter)

Farm fields north of Rte 1 near 465 junction, March 29, 2019 (Ektar 25 film, Hasselblad 501CM, 250mm Sonnar lens)

Some of the fields north of Rte 1 were semi-dry, but heading west and closer to the mainline levees, the road dipped down, and the surrounding fields were inundated.

Flooded woods, Hwy 465, March 29, 2019 (Fuji Acros film, Vito BL camera, 50mm ƒ/3.5 Color-Skopar lens, GGr filter)

Flooded woods, Rte 1 near levee, April 11, 2019 (Panatomic-X film, Fuji GW690II camera, 90mm lens, ½ sec ƒ/16½) 

Rte 465 takes off south from Rte 1. The day I drove on it, a short section was underwater, but people were driving through, so I did the same carefully. The road runs through forest, much of which was flooded. What struck me was the number of snakes. I saw numerous ones that were squashed and hit at least one when it slithered across the road just in time for my tires. It appears that they cross from the woods on one side of the highway to the other. Most looked like black water moccasins, but one nicely patterned fellow sitting quietly in the middle of the pavement looked like a rattlesnake. (I decided to not get out and check in person.)

Unoccupied house, US 61, Onward (Fuji acros film, Vito BL camera, GGr filter, 1/30 sec ƒ/11½) 

Back in Onward, the fields just east of 61 were dry. I saw this unused mid-century house slowly being engulfed with vines.

Dusk at Egremont, view west, March 29, 2019 (Vito BL camera, 50mm Color-Skopar lens, GGr filter) 

Egremont is a small community south of Rolling Fork. I have more Egremont photographs to share in the future.

Hwy 16 west of Yazoo City, March 13, 2019 (Ektar 25, Hasselblad 501CM, 250mm Sonnar lens)

Hwy 16 west of Yazoo City, March 13, 2019 (Ektar 25, Hasselblad 501CM, 250mm Sonnar lens)

To the east, Yazoo City (the "Gateway to the Delta") sits on the edge of the loess bluffs. But to the west lies the flat Mississippi Delta and the Yazoo River. The fields along Hwy 16 were inundated as of mid-March when I took these pictures with my Hasselblad camera.

This concludes a short look at the flooding in the Yazoo Backwater. As of mid-June, much of this area is still under water. Depending on water conditions, I may do some more exploring and photographing.

Click the link for Part 1 of this series.
Click the link for Part 2 of this series.

The Road South through Ranch Country, Texas (TX 06)

Heading south from Corpus Christi, two main roads lead through the lonely countryside to the Rio Grande Valley. You can drive US 281 south from Alice or US 77 from the western outskirts of Corpus Christi. We drove south on 281 and returned north via 77. They lead you through seemingly empty terrain with few towns and, from what I could see, not many cows. This was King Ranch country. What happened to the cows?

No gas here, Omega Mart, FM665, Petronila, Texas (50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens)

Farm on FM665 east of Alice, Texas (50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens, 1/60 ƒ/8, yellow filter)

The countryside becomes rather empty east and south of Corpus Christi, but there are gas plants, pipelines, and some pumping machines. 

The Spot, 281 Business, Alice, Texas. No coffee at this spot (Jupiter-8 lens, yellow filter)

Heading south out of Alice on 281, you drive and drive. One of the towns along the way is Falfurrias. No coffee shop there, either.

Christmas store, St. Mary's Street, Falfurrias, Texas (Jupiter-8 lens, yellow filter, 1/250 ƒ/5.6)

Duplex, St. Mary's Street, Falfurrias (Jupiter-8, yellow-green filter, 1/250 ƒ/5.6)

Felfurrias had some creative and very colorful artwork on some of the buildings. Here are a couple of examples from my Samsung phone.

Falfurrias Chamber of Commerce

Falfurrias Chamber of Commerce

I took the black and white frames on Fuji Acros film with my 1962 Jupiter-8 50mm ƒ/2 lens. It is a Soviet adaptation of the pre-war German Zeiss 50mm Sonnar lens. Mine is fully coated, and Brian Sweeney adjusted it to work correctly on Leica cameras. Leica lenses were based on a slightly different focal length standard than Soviet lenses, so most Soviet lenses need minor adjustment to focus properly on Leica thread-mount bodies. I like the results from this lens. Camera people write about the special magic of Sonnar lenses. For my type of documentation, I am not sure if I see any unique magic. But regardless, stopped down to ƒ/5.6 or so, it is high resolution and renders very well.

The Soviet Sonnar-type lenses were once incredibly cheap, but they have become coveted for their optical properties, and they are no longer cheap. Early 1950s examples use original Zeiss glass that was brought from Germany to the Soviet Union as war reparations. 

Next article: the Rio Grande Valley