Point of Rocks Train Station

The train station at Point of Rocks in Maryland has been operating since 1873.  Today it services a whopping 140 passengers a day.  It's not a whole lot, but for those 140 passengers, it offers an easy and efficient way to live in rural Maryland and work in Washington, DC.

Back in the 1990s, I used to live "near" this part of Maryland.  (I realize I may be dating myself...)  I would park my car in the parking lot and take my bicycle about 100 yards to the C&O Canal towpath.  The towpath was a nice scenic path along the Potomac River that stretched from Washington, DC to Cumberland, MD (about 184 miles).  I only did about 20-miles of it, though.  I few times, I would bring my cameras and take a few shots of the train station.  This one is one of my favorites; I used it for a Photography class I was taking at the time.  It was a pleasant day during the winter months; you can see some snow along the right side of the tracks.

I took this image using a medium format, film camera back in the early 1990s.  The station looks a bit different today.  There are now new passenger platforms and platform shelters.  While that helps keep the passengers comfortable in bad weather, it takes away from the historic aesthetics. 

I used Kodak TMAX 100 film for this image.  I developed the film myself at a local community college photo lab.  More recently, I scanned it using an Epson V750 scanner.  After cleaning up the dust particles (i.e., from the film scan), I played with the contrast and brightness a little to make this final image.