The Life of a Steam Railway Photographer


Book Description

The Reverend Alan Newman is a unique railway enthusiast. Starting with a love for the GWR, as a young lad he moved to a house with an ex-MR line at the bottom of his garden, so changed his allegiance. Unlike most lads, he delighted in aged locomotives with character, rather than the latest express engines.




Wallace W. Abbey


Book Description

From the late 1940s onward, Wallace W. Abbey masterfully combined journalistic and artistic vision to transform everyday transportation moments into magical photographs. Abbey, a photographer, journalist, historian, and railroad industry executive, helped people from many different backgrounds understand and appreciate what was taken for granted: a world of locomotives, passenger trains, big-city terminals, small-town depots, and railroaders. During his lifetime he witnessed and photographed sweeping changes in the railroading industry from the steam era to the era of diesel locomotives and electronic communication. Wallace W. Abbey: A Life in Railroad Photography profiles the life and work of this legendary photographer and showcases the transformation of transportation and photography after World War II. Featuring more than 175 exquisite photographs in an oversized format, Wallace W. Abbey is an outstanding tribute to a gifted artist and the railroads he loved.




The Railroad Photography of Donald W. Furler


Book Description

The Railroad Photography of Donald W. Furler showcases the black-and-white imagery of a master of the craft. Furler (1917-1994) grew up in New Jersey and helped pioneer the "action shot" to show trains at speed. He faithfully and dramatically documented the final decade of steam operations in the northeastern United States with technically-superior and often creative images portraying the trains in their environments. While his work appeared frequently in early issues of Trains magazine in the 1940s and 1950s, it has rarely been seen since. As someone who helped write the rules for railroad action photography, an examination of Furler's photography is long overdue.




Wallace W. Abbey


Book Description

With over 175 images, this volume profiles the life and work of the legendary railroad photographer and the transformation of transportation after WWII. From the late 1940s onward, Wallace W. Abbey masterfully combined journalistic and artistic vision to transform everyday transportation moments into magical photographs. Through these images, Abbey helped people understand and appreciate what was often taken for granted: a world of locomotives, passenger trains, big-city terminals, small-town depots, and railroaders. A photographer, journalist, historian, and railroad industry executive, Abbey witnessed and photographed sweeping changes in the railroading industry from the steam era to the era of diesel locomotives and electronic communication. Featuring more than 175 exquisite photographs, Wallace W. Abbey is an outstanding tribute to a gifted artist and the railroads he loved.




The Railroad and the Art of Place


Book Description

In the late 1980s, David Kahler was deeply inspired by seeing an exhibition of O. Winston Link photographs. He soon began making annual trips to the West Virginia and eastern Kentucky coalfields, destinations that strongly resonated with his own aesthetic of "place." Armed with a used Leica M6 and gritty Tri-X film, he and his wife made six week-long trips in the dead of winter to photograph trains along the Pocahontas Division of the Norfolk Southern Railway. Nearly one hundred images edited from this body of work form the core of The Railroad and the Art of Place, along with a selection of earlier Pennsylvania Railroad steam-era photographs that reflect Kahler's interest in the railroad landscape from an early age. Also included are three essays by Kahler, Scott Lothes, and Jeff Brouws, discussing the personal motivations, historical context, and aesthetic development behind the photography. With funding for printing provided by the Kahler Family Charitable Fund, all sales will go to support the Center's work.




Steam Trains


Book Description

For train enthusiasts, model railroaders, and history buffs, hop aboard this tour of North American railroads, both great and obscure. Few images speak as clearly of a time and a place as a dramatic black-and-white photograph of an American steam locomotive powering through that storied era of railroad history. All the new photographs in this beautiful book meticulously recreate that original style, capturing the bygone age of steam rail against the settings of its heyday, including period architecture and other details. The result is the crisp, stunning quality of contemporary photography of the iconic locomotives of yesteryear. Featured trains include the Milwaukee Road; the Cumbres and Toltec snowplow runs; the Cotton Belt 819 in Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois; the Savannah and Atlanta No. 750; the Frisco 1522 in Missouri; the Norfolk and Western 611 and 1218 in Georgia and Tennessee; the Union Pacific 3985 in Wyoming, Nebraska and Arkansas—these are just some of the historic runs and routes Steam Trains brings this era to life with its evocative photographs and accompanying narrative accounts of the locomotives that are still cherished today. This fantastic photographic gallery features twenty-three preserved steam railroad lines and events covering a twenty-five year period. Perfect for train enthusiasts, model railroaders, and history buffs alike, North American railroads, both great and obscure, are highlighted in Steam Trains.




Requiem for Steam


Book Description

Stunning photographs by a master photographer documenting the last of the steam locomotives. As a child, David Plowden was given a box camera, and before long he began to photograph railroad trains. As he matured and started on what would become a lifetime in photography, trains—specifically steam locomotives—became one of his passions, and then they were eclipsed by modern diesel locomotives. It is our good fortune that Plowden was on the scene at the end, documenting what would become this book, his reverent tribute to the steam era.




Railway Photography


Book Description

A guide to photographing trains, railroads, and stations. Topics covered include how to capture motion, how to anticipate action, understanding changing light sources, and the history of railway photography.




A Steam Odyssey


Book Description

Stunning photographs of steam locomotives on all six continents. Steam Odyssey: The Railroad Photographs of Victor Hand is the latest in our celebrated publications on railroad photography. Unlike previous volumes, this book has an international bent: Hand has taken photographs in more than fifty countries over the past fifty-five years. These 162 black-and-white photographs present a sampling of his best work from around the world and show how the railway is a compelling subject no matter the locale. An introduction by well-known transportation reporter and railroad columnist Don Phillips explains how Hand got interested in railways and how his approach to the subject developed; extended captions provide historical context. The book includes an afterword by rail and photography historian Jeff Brouws.




O. Winston Link: Life Along the Line


Book Description

The renowned photographer’s stirring tribute to the last steam locomotive railway and the end of an American way of life. O. Winston Link photographed the Norfolk and Western, the last major steam railroad in the United States, when it was converting its operations from steam to diesel in the 1950s. Link’s N&W project captured the industry at a moment of transition, before the triumph of the automobile and the airplane that ended an era of passenger rail service. His work also revealed a small-town way of life that was about to experience seismic shifts and, in many cases, vanish completely. Including a collection of more than 180 of Link’s most famous works and rare images that have never before been published, O. Winston Link: Life Along the Line offers a moving account of the people and communities surrounding the last steam railroad.