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"Pennsylvania Avenue Subway" Tunnel, Former Reading Railroad, Philadelphia, 2004 (fedia.io)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/photography@fedia.io
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"Pennsylvania Avenue Subway" Tunnel, Former Reading Railroad, Philadelphia, 2004.

#photography

Interior of abandoned railroad tunnel with arched ceilings and grates admitting light at intervals. A stack of railroad ties is in foreground left.

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[–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (15 children)

Captured with a Fuji GX680 camera, 80mm lens, T-Max 100 film. Some tilt was applied to control focus. It was very dark in there, and focusing required the use of a flashlight.

The Pennsylvania Avenue Subway was built to provide a sub-grade freight connection between the Reading Railroad's main line and its "City Branch". It served the Baldwin Locomotive Works' Callowhill plant and, later, the Philadelphia Inquirer's printing plant, among other Center City industries. Abandoned in the 1980's.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (14 children)

    The GX680 was a fun but very unusual camera that couldn't quite decide what it wanted to be. It was a truly gigantic beast of a medium format SLR camera providing (limited) view camera movements. It used 120-format roll film with a 6x8cm frame (so a 3:4 aspect ratio), with a built-in autowinder. It's sort of what you'd get if you somehow merged a Nikon F4, a Hasselblad, and a Crown Graphic. Definitely not a point & shoot camera.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (10 children)

    Fun fact: the Reading was a major northeastern US railroad (made famous internationally by its place on the Monopoly gameboard), which ceded its rail business in 1976 to the newly formed Conrail consortium. But the company kept most of its non-railroad real estate holdings, and today mostly operates cinemas (including NYC's Angelika) in several countries.

    (The Reading Company was named for the Pennsylvania city, and so is pronounced with the past tense of what you do with words on a page).

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    @mattblaze@federate.social Reading is pronounced red-ing. I've lived near the city for 45 years. If you say read-ing that is incorrect.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    @spyker@infosec.exchange Didn't I say that?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    @mattblaze@federate.social Yes you did. I just misinterpreted.

    Maybe use what wikipedia has - (/ˈrɛdɪŋ/ RED-ing; Pennsylvania German: Reddin).

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    @mattblaze@federate.social First, it would be great to have access to these places, I assume you weren't out for a leisurely walk underneath Philadelphia. Second, the Angelika? That seems random, did they purposely invest in art house theaters?

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    @Star12Mt Apparently when they got out of the railroad business, they were left with a bunch of real estate holdings (offices, train stations, etc). Then they got bought by a real estate investor, who added movie theaters to the mix.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    @mattblaze@federate.social
    I got really really close to buy a used one, some years ago. I've always been fascinated by that camera.

    The day I met the seller, we were in a bar, he pulled up a suitcase on the table, opened it and took out that monster of a camera. People around looked at us, not figuring out what they were seeing.

    A Star Wars scene came to my mind: "an elegant weapon for a more civilized age".

    Some day, I'll buy one.

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    • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Really like the pic! Can this place be visited and explored?

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    [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    @mattblaze@federate.social Very moody and mysterious. :)

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