28 March 2010. Philadelphia, PA. At Milepost 0 (QA-0, technically) of the CSX Railroad's Trenton Line, near Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. The location is known by the railroad as "Park Junction". I really like this location. It seems to exist in a parallel universe, completely unlike the manicured urban parkland to one side and the upscale residential neighborhood (with its back turned to us) on the other. Desolate as it might be, the tracks could lead anywhere, unconstrained by local geography. Places like this evoke precisely the lonely and mysterious feeling that attracts me to postindustrial subjects. In more down-to-earth terms, this humble section of railroad track is where the CSX's Baltimore line meets its Trenton line on the eastern side of the Schuylkill river, just north of the "Park Tunnel" under the Art Museum. It's of minor historical significance as the location where the former B&O Railroad to the south/west ends and the Reading Railroad to the north/east begins. There was once a connection to a second track here for a now abandoned Reading "City Branch" that served nearby industry via a "Pennsylvania Avenue Subway" (which shares its northern portal with the currently active Art Museum tunnel). A photo of the abandoned City Branch tunnel can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/2148915615/ . Nikkor 45mm/2.8 PC-E lens (@ f/7.1), Nikon D3x camera (@ ISO 100). No emulsions were harmed in the making of this image. 1065