End of the Line.
Literally, this heavy metal, rusted, painted, peeling pylon is (or was) the end of the line.
Whose line is it anyway? One of two parallel freight train cargo-loading tracks running down the middle of the u-shaped Phillips factory building in Stamford, CT, where Milk of Magnesia (“MOM”) was once made. If you dig in the dirt at the edges of concrete and asphalt layered up to the top of the track surface, you’ll find blue shards and crumbs from the MOM bottles that got away. My office is in this building, behind a studio I share with two photographers.
This particular pylon at the end of the Phillips MOM train line is a “safety bumper” put there to keep freight cars from slamming into the concrete platform behind it. A freight train car in motion — even empty and moving slowly — is a force to be reckoned with. I imagine there is a pylon like this one at the end of every train line, every track terminus, and every train yard where they go to rest and wait for their next load of freight or passengers.
It may be true that rust never sleeps, but it does seem to sleepwalk — advancing continuously, relentlessly, inexorably — very, very slowly. For 10+ years now, I’ve watched rust creep over this pylon, attempting to unseat and dethrone the tenacious, pernicious, peeling paint, as it cracks but defiantly refuses to fall off completely…
Enjoy the colors and textures of peeling paint and rust, on this “end of the line” pylon!
Camera: iPhone 13 Pro Max
Editing: Hipstamatic app
Photographer: Russ Murray aka “remages”
Location: The Phillips Factory Building, Stamford, CT
See you tomorrow…
russ murray 