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 New England Central train NERWNE heads south along Smith Cove in Waterford, CT on a foggy morning.
Providence & Worcester train NR-2 passes through the US Navy's Submarine Base in Groton, CT with a variety of submarines in the background.
Self portrait while riding along with the crew of Connecticut Southern Railroad train CSO-1. Taken at the Springfield, MA Amtrak station while waiting to head south on the Springfield Line to New Haven, CT
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Photography is something that has been a passion of mine since Christmas in the mid-1980s when my parents gave me a basic darkroom kit as my gift. This, along with my father lending me his Minolta XE-5 SLR, sparked my interest in photography. In the decades since then, my dedication to the art had ebbed and flowed until late 2001 when I began photographing railroad operations. Mixing my passion for photography with my childhood love of railroads has proved to be the right formula to sustain my interest in the photographic arts – after nearly 20 years I finally put the peanut butter and chocolate together, so to speak.
I primarily photograph railroading in and around southern New England, in particular focusing on southeastern Connecticut. While shooting, I usually try to intertwine some of the sights around this end of the state into my photos, giving things a sense of place. Those elements can include simply a station sign where one once stood, or a state-of-the-art US Navy attack submarine, or even literally the elements – the varying New England weather. As that last part alluded to, I shoot in all conditions – day, night, sun, rain or snow. Basically, if the trains are running, so are my cameras.
And this is what my show will feature – railroading around the Thames River in southeastern Connecticut. I’ve titled the presentation “Steel Wheels and Submarines” – which describes the area around the river very nicely. The Thames hosts not only four railroads, but also the US Navy’s Submarine Base, the Electric Boat shipyard, and the US Coast Guard Academy. I’ll be intertwining all of the rail and nautical subjects together into a virtual tour around the river, covering each town. Those towns are Norwich, Preston, Ledyard, Groton, New London, Waterford, Montville and Uncasville.
In “real life” I’m a husband and father of two daughters and live in eastern Connecticut, and am a senior systems analyst/software developer at a major pharmaceutical company in the southeastern area of the state. Those two facts should explain my focus on railroading in this end of the Nutmeg State.
-Tom Nanos
Tom's website is: http://www.nanosphoto.com/
