Skip Navigation
Photography @fedia.io
Matt Blaze @federate.social

"Pennsylvania Avenue Subway" Tunnel, Former Reading Railroad, Philadelphia, 2004.

"Pennsylvania Avenue Subway" Tunnel, Former Reading Railroad, Philadelphia, 2004.

#photography

Photography @fedia.io
Matt Blaze @federate.social

"Pennsylvania Avenue Subway" Tunnel (Former Reading Railroad), Philadelphia, 2004.
Photography @fedia.io
Matt Blaze @federate.social

"Pennsylvania Avenue Subway" Tunnel (Former Reading Railroad), Philadelphia, 2004.
Photography @fedia.io
Matt Blaze @federate.social

Reading Railroad "Pennsylvania Avenue Subway" Tunnel, Philadelphia, 2004.
16 comments

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

  • 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.

    • 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.

      • 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).

      • @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.

      • @mattblaze@federate.social the first medium format slr i ever saw in person was my friend’s mamiya rb67, and i was shocked at how deep it was. i guess i didn’t realize how tiny 35mm mirror boxes are in comparison. rangefinder seems like a much more portable form factor for 120 film, if less accurate

16 comments