Train’s Eye View

I recently traveled to Philadelphia by train, and was reminded of what a unique view one gets of the world from the tracks. There are ramshackle rear porches, long-forgotten business signs from an age when the facade facing the tracks mattered, and patches of wilderness just out of sight of city and sprawl. Back when I was taking the train to Bridgeport three or more days a week for work, I had the idea to walk stretches of track and take pictures of everything I saw, but I never got around to it (probably because of the demands of a job that required two and a half hours of commuting on most days). The trip to Philly reminded me of this forgotten project, and being as I’m now self-employed and in more control of my time, I vowed to try again. Today was the first attempt, with a five-and-a-half-mile walk from the waterfront in Hartford, along railroad tracks parallel to the river, up into Windsor. I had the good fortune to run into a friend on the way downtown, who was happy to join me, so we got to catch up as we wandered. Here’s some of what we saw:

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