|
|
RailPictures.Net Photo Articles
"The stories behind the photographs."
'Photo Articles,' the stories and insights of select railroad photographs, are provided by RailPictures.Net photographers and contributors.
 |
|
The Henderson Mine Railroad
By: Chris Nuthall
May 29, 2009 : 17961 Views : 13 Comments
The Henderson Mine Railroad, high up in the mountains west of Denver, Colorado, was unique when compared with regular railroads in the US - it was narrow gauge, electrified, used two axle locomotives in push-pull formation and, at the time, boasted the longest railroad tunnel in the US... |
 |
|
So.......It Was You!
By: Gary Knapp
October 28, 2008 : 14460 Views : 15 Comments
It's 2 A.M. March 17, 2004. We are in Port Henry, NY on CP Rails' Delaware & Hudson "North End", relaxin'.....waiting for a train. Very quiet, as the fair size town sleeps away the night, stretching away up into the overlooking hills from the lakeside railroad. After much tweaking and test firings, the lighting system "appears" to be working to perfection... |
 |
|
The Genuine Article
By: George W. Hamlin
July 17, 2008 : 6774 Views : 5 Comments
In early 1971, Amtrak’s arrival became more and more definite. Finally, the date for transitioning most of the U.S.’s private intercity trains to the new government-sponsored service was set: May 1. Since a number of routes and services weren’t going to survive the changeover... |
 |
|
When I Was Younger
By: Craig Walker
May 12, 2008 : 7335 Views : 11 Comments
When I was younger, friends and relatives, when they discover my passion for railroading, often asked why I didn’t hire out with the railroad. (These days, unfortunately, the question is always in the past tense.) After all, isn’t railroading an exciting job?... |
 |
|
The Human Element
By: John Witthaus
January 11, 2008 : 7933 Views : 12 Comments
When someone says “train” or “railroad,” what’s the first thing you think of? A brand new EMD ACe, or GE GEVO, or how about Union Pacific’s shiny, flashy heritage units? Maybe a big black steam engine charging down the tracks, with a little red caboose at the end? That’s generally the reaction you’ll get from most people when you mention those words... |
 |
|
Listen for the Whistle
By: Kelly Lynch
November 27, 2007 : 5898 Views : 15 Comments
What is it about 400 tons of steel that constantly strikes such precise notes on the heartstrings like the locomotive does? It must be a myriad of things. I've been content being unable to find the reason why, but the search for the reasons varies with everyone who stands in the shadow of these whistling, breathing, clanking, marching machines... |
 |
|
Getting the Shot
By: Michael Derrick
September 27, 2007 : 6904 Views : 4 Comments
December 5, 2003: it’s 2 a.m., dark, very cold. I should probably be asleep, but I am currently trekking eastbound on Interstate 70 in western Kansas. My only company is the occasional over the road truck, working to reach a far off destination... |
 |
|
Extreme Steam
By: Michael Rhodes
July 15, 2007 : 10775 Views : 10 Comments
Having photographed railways all over the world since 1972, I never imagined what adventures this hobby would lead me into. When in 1992, I saw the pictures of Peter Skelton taken in Zhongwei, China, I decided I would try and visit China just once... |
 |
|
Nary a Train in Sight
By: Chris Kilroy
May 24, 2007 : 6844 Views : 5 Comments
All too often, many of us get caught up in the one-sided experience of railfanning -- that is, focusing 110% of our effort on finding a train, setting up a shot, and executing it. I am certainly guilty of this more often than I'd like to admit... |
 |
|
Bonding with the High Iron
By: Andrew Blasczcyk
May 2, 2007 : 7228 Views : 18 Comments
I, like every railfan have been asked, “Why do you do it?” at least half a dozen times regarding why I like to stand by railroad tracks for countless hours waiting for a train that may never show up. Some people have witty remarks or turn the question back around on the person doing the questioning... |
 |
|
When is One Greater Than Three?
By: Dick Hovey
April 17, 2007 : 7847 Views : 8 Comments
February 1979 turned out to be very snowy in the upper Midwest. Our little Burlington, Iowa railfan group, The three Ewininger brother and I set out to find out how the railroads were coping with the snow. Our first encounter was with Santa Fe’s rotary 199361 in Ft. Madison... |
 |
|
A Home For Us
By: M. Ross Valentine
February 28, 2007 : 7423 Views : 8 Comments
For many of us railroad photography is not just a hobby, it is a passion. Some of us have been taking pictures of railroad subjects our whole lives, while others are just starting out. This activity is certainly not new: documenting railways is as old as photography itself, over 150 years... |
 |
|
A Perfect Train
By: George W. Hamlin
January 24, 2007 : 5803 Views : 5 Comments
So, what’s your idea of a perfect train? One with a great locomotive consist, say all of the UP’s Heritage units, freshly scrubbed, one behind the other? Or maybe something that has more of a consistent appearance? Would it be powered by classic diesels or perhaps, steam... |
 |
|
In Search of the Super C and a "Bicentennial"
By: Ralph Back
January 10, 2006 : 7400 Views : 5 Comments
During 1975 the Nation's railroads were painting locomotives in paint schemes to honor our Nation's 200th anniversary. At this time some of the most notable "Bicentennial" locomotives were Santa Fe's SD45-2s 5700-5704 painted red/white/blue between 1975 and 1976, with five-foot U.S. Presidential seals bolted-on the hand railings... |
 |
|
Don’t just stand there and watch – Ride!
By: Chris Starnes
December 6, 2006 : 11493 Views : 15 Comments
As railfans we typically are content to stand by the tracks and watch a train roll by. Many of us, myself included, have stood somewhere to photograph a passing passenger train not fully appreciating the opportunity that is passing us by. Limiting the railroad experience to just standing out by the tracks... |
 |
|
It Doesn’t Get Any Better…
By: Bob Avery
November 16, 2006 : 5278 Views : 6 Comments
The scanner crackled. “Extra 949 West, we’re leaving Roseville…”
It doesn’t get any better for two Brits, tired of gray skies and two-car passenger units on tracksides hemmed in by unchecked vegetation. It’s May ’99. We’d flown to San Francisco, rented a 4WD and driven to Cheyenne... |
 |
|
Mixed train to Victor
By: John B. West
November 5, 2006 : 5396 Views : 5 Comments
With Amtrak only five years away, the April 24, 1966 issue of the Union Pacific public passenger timetable was still a fairly thick publication. The fleet of “City’s” was reasonably intact (even if trains were often consolidated), and a few other name trains like the Portland Rose and Butte Special remained... |
 |
|
THANK YOU FRANS!!
By: Gary Knapp
October 18, 2006 : 9118 Views : 15 Comments
It's a curse! It's a curse! These were my thoughts on living near CP Rails' wildly scenic D&H "North End" in the '90's. To say the D&H was a nocturnal railroad back then is a gross understatement at best. During the day, the dispatcher was kept busy handing out "Form D's" to MOW crews, and then... |
 |
|
Just Another Dash 9
By: Craig Walker
October 7, 2006 : 7642 Views : 12 Comments
Today's railroads tend to operate large numbers of look-alike diesels, as the builders no longer offer the variety they once did. For some railfans, this presents an opportunity to get more creative with their photography, as documenting every engine in these large fleets is not as interesting as showing them in their environment... |
 |
|
A Six Pack and a Prayer
By: Dave Schauer
September 24, 2006 : 6842 Views : 11 Comments
For railfans in northeastern Minnesota the year 1998 brought smiles to the faces of everyone. It was during late 1998 that LTV Steel Mining Company (the former Erie Mining) assembled an A-B-B-B-A set of veteran F9s for use in hauling pelletized iron ore from their mine near Hoyt Lakes on Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range to the company ore dock at Taconite Harbor... |
 |
|
Splendor in the Grass
By: George W. Hamlin
September 6, 2006 : 5411 Views : 5 Comments
No, this has nothing to do with Wordsworth’s poetry, nor to a 1960’s movie starring Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood that used the same title. Instead, think the Canadian Prairies, and a search for some of the few remaining wooden grain elevators along Canadian Pacific’s Aldersyde Subdivision... |
 |
|
More Than Just the Train
By: Chris Starnes
August 16, 2006 : 10235 Views : 12 Comments
When I first started railroad photography I was like any other young railfan in the fact that the train meant more to me than the overall photograph. Once I started shooting slide film in 2001 and taking note of other photographers’ work, I gradually progressed into a more serious side of the railroad photography hobby... |
 |
|
Night Class
By: J.E. Landrum
August 2, 2006 : 6471 Views : 11 Comments
“R303 by KC at 2213.” Moments later, the wire crackles to life as the dispatcher replied with a curt “OK 303” and silence returns, save for the occasional moan from the heat register, clank or ring from the interlocking machine, and sputter on the radio. The smell of stale coffee, cigarettes, paper, metal, oil, wood, and ink fill the air... |
 |
|
Bee Rock Homecoming
By: Ron Flanary
July 18, 2006 : 8441 Views : 10 Comments
The residents of my hometown of Appalachia, Virginia always laid claim to having the “world’s shortest railroad tunnel.” None other than Ripley’s Believe It or Not (hardly an authoritative source) had proclaimed 47 foot, 7-inch Bee Rock Tunnel, on the L&N’s Cumberland Valley Division... |
|
| | |
|
