Argus Day! Argust 15th, 2015

[DWThomas]

"That time" is only a couple of weeks away, dig out that Argus C-3 or other Argus camera, shoot some film on Saturday, Argust (uh August!) 15th, and send your two best shots to the Argus Collector Group folks. See the ACG Argus Day page for the official word. Yers Trooly anticipates putting his C-3 to work shooting another chunk of a bulk roll of 1987 vintage Panatomic-X!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Please merge threads.

 

[EdColorado]

I think I should have the day free so I'm going to dig out an old C3. I have my dads (that I used extensively when I was a kid) and my Grandfathers C3 too. Perhaps I'll get out my Grandfathers old kit and maybe even burn a flash bulb or two.

 

[DWThomas]

Flashbulbs -- cool -- don't see them in use much any more! I do have some squirreled away, mayhaps I should give some thought to what I'm saving them for.

 

[DWThomas]

Well, it's happened. I have to admit these special days with ancient or unusual gear have an alarming tendency to turn into a comedy of errors, but I did get some images. I apparently hit the end of roll too hard for my home-spooled Pan-X and the tape let go, else I would have loaded another roll and shot another 15 or 20 exposures at the site I went to. As it was, the knob felt like the film was rewound but when opening the back, "FILM!!!" I slapped the back shut and said something uncouth. So I finished off a few shots on a roll Delta 100 in the Minox B, took a few iPhone shots "for color" and went home. As it turns out, only the last four or five shots were unusable, otherwise I might have gone back for more.

I only learned last Friday that the Colebrookdale Railroad had just received an 0-6-0T steam switcher, so that quickly became a target for this connoisseur of old rust. It looks as though only the rust is holding it together, and some pretty serious cosmetic damage happened loading and unloading it with a not too well rigged crane. A volunteer there told me the basic stuff is solid and they do expect to get it to running condition. The engine in question, or a twin sister, participated in a "whistle exchange" with double-headed 400 ton 4-8-4s on an excursion I rode circa 1960!

Hopefully the submissions from the participants will appear on the ACG site Real Soon Now.

 

[Hatchetman]

Very cool. Never seen a crane like that? Who would've operated it? Someone on the train crew?

 

[DWThomas]

Very cool. Never seen a crane like that? Who would've operated it? Someone on the train crew?

Thanks! I thought they were called "jib" cranes, but modern equivalents by that name are only functionally similar. It might be considered a variety of derrick (but we are wa-a-ay out of my area here!) It may have been run by train crew, or maybe when it was active there was freight handling "staff" or teamster/rigger type folks there. Much rail and some old platforms have been pulled up from that yard, but at one time Boyertown was home to a carriage works and then an auto and truck body operation, as well as a casket company! So there was probably a fair amount of freight traffic.

The body works is now a museum, and they have in early September an event called Duryea Day with antique and classic cars all over a town park. Duryea built cars in Reading, about 15 or 20 miles to the southwest "back in the day." (Please pardon the alternate technology, although there is some output from my Ercona II in the Duryea stuff.)

I visited the crane in the past, prior to the recent de-rusting and painting. Then it really appealed to my interest in old rust, though I realize the paint job was necessary if it's to survive for a long time to come. The crane was a product of the Phoenix Iron Company in Phoenixville, another nearby town in the Schuylkill River "rust belt." The firm's signature product was a ribbed tubular column made by riveting a bunch of rolled sections together (as in the center column of that crane. Phoenix products were used in the Washington Monument among other places. They also had a foundry and a bridge building division. I encountered a Phoenix Iron bridge in Seneca Falls NY on a trip last year. The whole 100+ acres sat as a brownfield for a couple of decades, but the former foundry is now an "event space" with catering kitchens that still has an iron and wood crane considerably larger than that one as a decorative centerpiece. An old office building is a restaurant. (The Phoenix rises again ...) More of Phoenixville here (warning "mixed media" )

 

[Hatchetman]

A lot of old time Americana there. times sure do change!

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Very nice - love it. Thanks for doing that and sharing your photos!

 

[DWThomas]

Ah yes, change -- the only thing constant is change! Also in this area is Mill Grove, the John James Audubon estate, associated of course with his marvelous paintings of birds. In a visit, one learns that in the 1700s the property was the center of the family's copper mining enterprises! The whole Schuylkill River valley (Philadelphia, Reading and up into the anthracite coal region) was an industrial corridor of great significance in colonial times, and well into the 20th century. No wonder I like rust!

Thank you Mr. Sulphate (love that name!) and you are most welcome. Backing up in the PBase hierarchy at those links will show more than you may want to know of this area. (But brace yourself, as I confess to being ecumenical in my use of photon-related technology! :munch: )

 

[Sirius Glass]

I only learned last Friday that the Colebrookdale Railroad had just received an 0-6-0T steam switcher, so that quickly became a target for this connoisseur of old rust. It looks as though only the rust is holding it together, and some pretty serious cosmetic damage happened loading and unloading it with a not too well rigged crane. A volunteer there told me the basic stuff is solid and they do expect to get it to running condition. The engine in question, or a twin sister, participated in a "whistle exchange" with double-headed 400 ton 4-8-4s on an excursion I rode circa 1960!

Hopefully the submissions from the participants will appear on the ACG site Real Soon Now.

Did you shoot any wedgies?