#UrbanPixel | Our Urban Rail
SERIES: theurbn.com/category/feature/urbanpixel
#UrbanPixel – A feature series on Urban Times that documents the issues and scenes of the urban landscape through photography. By visually representing an interesting topic, concern or element of our cities, we hope to create a catalogue of solutions-based content that treats the eye. We are encouraging participation from everyone! So if you feel you have the adequate photography and backstory, send us a tweet @theurbantimes, include the #UrbanPixel hashtag, and a link to the photo piece so we can re-tweet our favorites, and include them in future #UrbanPixel posts. Read the full instructions at the end of the article.
Last week’s “Urban Art” looked great. We received a lot of awesome photos, and I suspect we’ll get a ton of great shots for this week’s theme – trains & railroads.
Though “railroad” as we know it today gained prominence in the early to mid 1800′s. Since then, the railways have become one of the main arteries through which people and commerce flow across the continents of the world. It been estimated that there are a total of 1,370,782 km of rails running throughout the entire world. That’s a lot of track! Many of the great cities of the world were built with the help of freight trains hauling in precious cargo and raw building materials. Chicago, my hometown, is one of them. By 1950, Chicago was at the height of its power as the railroad center of the United States. Boasting 37 long-distance railroad lines, operated by 21 independent railroad companies.
So tweet us some of your railroad photos and tell us a little bit about your railroads! Engines, boxcars, commuter trains, train stations, tracks, the list goes on… Just make sure you follow the directions at the bottom of the post. We look forward to seeing them!
About my photos: A majority of my train photos come straight from my balcony looking over the BNSF Railway Line on the South side of Chicago. I know, a backyard consisting of a major metropolitan railway seems annoying, and it was, but I got used to it. To me, the benefits far outweigh the costs. It’s definitely a wonderful landscape to photograph or just watch, and provides a wide, unobstructed view of the Southern sky. They were taken at all different times of day and year. Please read the captions for more information on each!
A Union Pacific freight engine waits to be loaded in the rail-yard.
A Metra commuter train heads out of the city during a summer sunset.
A Metra train heads into the fog.
As a Metra train heads out of the city, lightning strikes in a distant storm.
Looking North towards Chicago's Union Station.
A Metra train heads out on a cold snowy night.
A Union Pacific freight engine rumbles past my balcony no less than 15 feet away.
Multiple rails intersect near Chicago's Union Station.
Sunset over the BNSF rail-yard.
Full Instructions
If you’d like to have one of your urban photos featured in an upcoming #UrbanPixel post, check out the below instructions. We love being social, but a few rules helps us make sure we can feature your photos in an efficient manner!
1. Follow @theurbantimes on Twitter (so that we can direct message you if we wish to use your photo).
2. Tweet the photo(s) to us @theurbantimes, and make sure to include “#UrbanPixel” in the tweet. (The best way to get your photo seen on twitter is to make sure ‘@theurbantimes‘ is not at the start of your tweet but somewhere in the body – this will allow your tweet to become searchable to all and not private).
3. If we think your photo adequately meets the current #UrbanPixel theme, @theurbantimes will respond to you with an email address. When we do, please send us your photo(s) and a brief description or backstory. Note: The submitted photos must be at least 990 pixels wide to qualify.
While we can’t include all of the photo we receive in #UrbanPixel posts, we appreciate every tweet we get! Good luck, and happy urban-shooting.
These are wonderful! I take the train in to Chicago all the time and wonder who lives in the condos with balconies facing the railway. To me, it would be an awesome place to live (if maybe gritty?)
Thanks for the comment Midway. Yes, I am one of those people who live in the condos facing the railway. I really enjoy it. Sure the view isn't as pretty as the other side that faces the skyline, but being this close to trains is really awesome in it's own right. Sure its sometimes loud, but man is it fun to watch. I've seen more interesting railroad repair and maintenance vehicles than I ever knew existed. You can check out more of my photos from the BNSF Rail-yard here > http://www.flickr.com/photos/vexxed82/sets/721576...
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