Some may have noticed by now that I'm a bit of a history nut. If you haven't noticed, well, I'm a bit of a history nut. Anyway, there are two back-to-back villages in nearby Smithfield -- Esmond and Georgiaville - that used to have train stations. Being old mill districts, there was quite naturally heavy rail going to each of the mills, but there was also passenger traffic on the old NYNHH (New York, New Haven, and Hartford) line. Rumor has it that the old train stations still exist, although they'd been recommissioned for other use now that the rail lines have been long since abandoned. Today I went in search of the one in Georgiaville. A number of leads brought me to this building on Higgins Street. It met most of the criteria including age, architecture, and proximity to the old tracks as well as to the mill. It's also a pretty attractive looking building, so I took some shots and went off to do my validation research. Well, as you may have guessed from the caption, this one's a false lead. This building was originally associated with the old Stillwater Mill, but not the train lines. It's now been refurbished as an office for the condos that utilize the old mill buildings. It's a nice little building, and certainly of historical value, however it's not the train depot I'd hoped to photograph.
For post processing, I decided to go back to the cartoonish look. The spicefy filter in Topaz Adjust brought out an amazing range of colors. I used a poster lines filter to deepen all the edges, and then used an inverted photocopy filter with a soft light blend mode to finalize the cartoon look. The saturation was reduced and a slight levels adjustment added to finish the tone.
