Poor Captions

[NW Mailing List]

I too find poor, inaccurate journalism and doctored photos objectionable. 
One has only to read almost any newspaper article dealing with railroads to 
realize how woefully misinformed even newspaper writers and editors are 
about a subject which for most of us is merely an avocation.  For one thing, 
I don't think papers have reporters who specialize in transportation issues 
anymore, even in a town like Roanoke.  The errors are so numerous and 
egregious that I no longer even entertain dashing off a letter or email to 
the editor to set the record straight.

That being said, don't forget that promoters and publicists having been 
doing this for decades.  They may not have had tools as sophisticated as 
Photo Shop, but it's always been easy to doctor photos to make them more 
attractive or to highlight a feature.  Or even to combine features that 
could never be viewed together in the manner shown in the photo.

Cases in point:  Have you ever gone to Bedford County and tried to find the 
location of those beautiful shots of the Powhatan Arrow curving toward you 
with the Peaks of Otter looming majestically in the background?  The scene 
doesn't exist.  Or did you ever wonder how that N&W freight could be 
crossing a creek on a deck girder bridge while the topography all around 
suggests that the train is high in the mountains with the land falling away 
to all sides.  That violates the laws of physics and geology.  Oh, and how 
come all those latter-day releases of "copies" of N&W company photos showing 
the Powhatan Arrow feature the 611 in the lead?  Hmmm, do you think maybe 
the photos were altered to help promote the 611 as star performer in the NS 
steam excursion program.

I could go on, but you get the point.  I'm not trying to excuse the latter 
day practitioners of deception or inaccuracy, but to stress that healthy 
skepticism has always been a wise attitude.

Sam Putney


Original Message ----- 
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: Poor Captions



>I think that the Arcadia books are kind of a paper version of  Wikipedia - 

>they rely entirely on the skill of the authors.  Many of  the Arcadia books 

>on transit and RRs in the SF Bay area (where I  live) are well done, but 

>they have been done by respected local  names.  I doubt very seriously if 

>the economics of publishing the  small runs of such a wide range of books 

>allows for much more than  spell-checking.  However, without an outfit like 

>Arcadia, many of the  subjects of their books would never see print.

>

> pete groom

> On May 26, 2007, at 9:55 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>

> Gordon

>

> This seems to be the consistent method of all of that Arcadia (I  think) 

> books, horribly researched, inaccurate information, etc. etc.  I never 

> bought the first one, but have glanced through them. There is  one on 

> Blacksburg, if I recall correctly, that has a photo of a Class  J in the 

> snow, at Christiansburg, with a caption not far from saying  it is coming 

> up Main Street in Blacksburg!

>

> It immediately turned me against a purchase of any of their books.

>

> Ken Miller

>

> On May 25, 2007, at 9:15 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>

>> What has to take the cake for one of the worst railroad photo  captions 

>> ever appears on Page 68 of the Images of America book on  Bluefield, WV 

>> under a familiar publicity picture of the N & W's  Powhatan Arrow.  The 

>> second sentence of the caption reads:

>>

>> The Powhatan Arrow, the eastbound train, and Pocahontas, the  westbound 

>> train, ran day trips between Norfolk, Virginia, and  Cincinnati, passing 

>> the half-way point at Tip Top in Tazewell  County, Virginia.

>> I don't have to tell Mailing Listers that the Powhatan Arrow and 

>> Pocahontas were separate trains that each operated daily in both 

>> directions, but I'll point out that Tip Top is on the Clinch Valley 

>> branch, quite a ways from the mainline used by both trains.

>>

>> What is disturbing about such careless writing is that some day  this 

>> information may be taken as gospel by some historical  researcher 

>> perusing this book.

>>

>> Gordon Hamilton

>> ________________________________________

>> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

>> To change your subscription go to

>> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

>> Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at

>> http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

>

> ________________________________________

> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

> To change your subscription go to

> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

> Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at

> http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

>

> ________________________________________

> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

> To change your subscription go to

> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

> Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at

> http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

>