A Streetcar named Desire



The rusty pull leaver of a street car
designed to clear snow off the tracks.

 More and more as I being to enjoy my photograpgy I find that I want to bring my camera equipment with me everywhere. I find that some days I even consider taking it to work "just in case". Halloween was no exception this year. As the wife and I have been really looking to get a dog and we were headed into Baltimore to go to a few dog pounds. I honestly cannot explain why  I took my camera with me that day, all I know is that the bare essentials, Camera and one lens. That day I took my T2i and my 50mm f1.8 "Nifty Fifty" and as we drove to the first shelter I drove by the Baltimore Street Car Museum. I had never really seen it and its really out of the way and looked like an interesting place. I didn't stop to take pictures then as we were headed to look at dogs, but I made a point to attempt to get back there before the day was through.

The Rusted Body of a Baltimore Street Car.

After going to a few shelters and getting some lunch in Federal Hill I asked the wife if we could just go back and take a few pictures before we lost the sun. While the museum had many street cards in amazing condition I was really interested in the two broken down trains they had sitting down the track from the museum. Not wanting to get into any trouble I go into the musem and ask the manager if I can go crawl through them and take some pictures. The owner, slightly confused and amazing that anyone would want to crawl through those heaps but he obliged and we headed down away from the station to take the pictures.

The Trains were rusted and had a "steam punk" feel as switches and gauges were all over the place. I took alot of pictures and really enjoyed the museum. It represents (much like its location) a lost part of Baltimore from the Hampden area of a time when Baltimore had street cars. The lesson that I learned here is to always have your camera on you as you never know when you may encounter a situation where the perfect light, perfect sun, perfect rust covered street car named Desire.