Shawangunk Barrier By H. H. Gross

Shawangunk Barrier
Railroad Magazine – September 1946 – Pages 10 – 43.
©1946 Carstens Publications.
Used By Permission.

Special Thanks goes out to the following:

Marty Swartz for scanning this article.
Paul Lubliner for restoring and enhancing the cover.
Doug Barberio for replacement photos on pages 26 and 42.
And last but not least Ken Hojnacki for tracking this article down for me.

Cover Artwork Information From Paul Lubliner:

Original Image Number 1: I started with the September 1946 “Railroad” magazine cover. (which was in pretty bad shape).

Cover Image Number 2: Then I gave it a full restoration to replicate exactly how it appeared at the end of the 1946 summer season on all of those old greyish-green painted news stands in N.Y.C.

Now for the fun part;

It becomes pretty obvious after seeing the following, that when Editor/Publisher Freeman Hubbard had the color separations made of this Frederick Blakeslee painting, the painting was formatted too wide to suit the editors taste. So the color-separations camera which had “swings and tilts” was arranged to somewhat squeeze the image horizontally. This is most evident when comparing the 245’s boiler front in both images as well as the FT nose. Also, the extreme edges of the painting were further cropped leaving still a bit claustrophobic.

Cover Image Number 3: And then, for some unknown reason, I went much further and did all of this. Removed the banner and copy, lowered the 245’s classification lamps while raising its headlight, completely finishing the tender and correcting the FT’s nose as well as horizontally extending the entire image to eliminate that “claustrophobic” feeling, and changing the red/yellow derail switch lamp lens colors to the O&W’s purple and green.

Editors Note: Paul then took the cover and mirrored the painting and then added in all of the necessary pieces that would have been on the opposite side of the 245. Talk about amazing Photoshop work!

Shawangunk Barrier By H. H. Gross

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