N&W photos

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Ken,
I believe being able to date, however roughly, those photos would be a
tremendous help to those of us trying to piece together various aspects of
N&W history.  I would heartily encourage your continued efforts on your
book.
Thanks,
Jim Cochran

On Sat, Feb 29, 2020 at 11:03 PM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> Jim
>
> I’ve been studying the N&W photos since I interned in the Photo Lab in
> college. I have been writing what can become a book of that history of the
> photographers (who mostly remain unsung or unknown) and the work they did.
>
> The photo work began in the latter half of 1916 as part of the Motive
> Power Department. The original photographer, who’s name is now lost to
> history, was apparently charged with recording property and the condition
> of it prior to the takeover of the railroads by the federal government. It
> was also deemed necessary towards the valuation study of the railroad’s
> property that the government had decreed a few years prior.
>
> One of the results of that were the valuation maps as we know them, with a
> “V” section and number, most of those originally dated to 1916 if you study
> them, this also applies to the Virginian.
>
> The original photographer went out with his view camera and a number of
> glass plate 8x10 film, and recorded locations. I believe initially it was
> thought to record every depot and other important buildings. Negatives were
> processed and labeled with india ink directly on the plate with the
> negative number, and in some cases with the V section and name of the
> place. Those negative numbers began with 1000. At some point, perhaps about
> a year or so in, someone higher up in the company decided that not every
> depot was to be recorded on film. It is a bit of a puzzle, coverage of some
> places (the Shenandoah Division north of Roanoke) has a large number of
> images of virtually every important company structure (and some others).
> Some other locations, such as branch lines, got no coverage, even with
> depots in place.
>
> The N&W was unusual in this coverage, as they probably did the broadest
> job of coverage of the railroad that I have seen. Like the Virginian,
> virtually nothing for valuation other than standard forms, sketches, etc.
> But coverage on some locations was poorer than others. Most tended to made
> on one or two trips, so they tended to be in the same year.
>
> So probably about 2,000 or so glass plates later, the railroad had decided
> that some of the work could also be advertising work, documentation of
> equipment or conditions. Somewhere about this time, the glass plates truly
> became more cumbersome, and sheet film became accepted. That number series
> of 8x10 negatives (and some 5x7) continued on. About this time, with the
> staff expanded, they also began shooting some other material on smaller
> format negatives, mostly for the Magazine which began in June 1923, those
> tended to be numbered from 1-999, with lots of sub letters or numbers with
> multiple pieces of film under the same file number.
>
> Then in June of 1939, they began to standardize on either 4x5 film or 8x10
> film, the 4x5 film began to be numbered in the 500000 series, again, some
> with sub letters or numbers. The 8x10 film continued to be used for more
> important things, numbered sequentially eventually reaching the 35000
> series. It was later that anything shot, be it 35mm, 120 film or 4x5 film
> hit the 500000 series. The color transparencies, which began about 1940
> with the advent of Kodachrome, was almost exclusively 4x5 film, but I have
> never managed (or spent the time) to understand the numbering system.
>
> So, to sum up, yes, it is possible to come up with a date, sometimes very
> specific, sometimes a year or year and month, if you have enough detailed
> data to work with (i.e. enough dated prints or negatives).
>
> Sorry for the overlong and detailed answer. If there is enough interest,
> I’ll continue with the book.
>
> Best
> Ken
>
> > On Feb 29, 2020, at 4:25 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > Many of the N&W corporate photographs have numbers on them.  Are these
> some form of serialization?  Is there any way to relate these numbers to
> the date that the photo was taken?  Also, some have a notation "V.S.- #
> VA".  Does this indicate that the photo was made for a "valuation survey"?
> If so, were all photos from a particular survey made in the same year and
> further are the years known for particular surveys?
> > Thanks,
> > Jim Cochran
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