Technical Genius: Behind the scenes with O. Winston Link’s famous photographs

Take an in-depth and behind-the-scenes look into technical aspects of several photographs of O. Winston Link, the famed 1950s railroad photographer who iconically captured some of the last steam trains in America, set against the picturesque backdrop of rural Appalachia. Ashley Webb, curator of collections and exhibitions for the O. Winston Link Museum, will present and examine the notebooks, letters, and installation images of some of the photographer’s more iconic and technically complex works.

Tuesday, July 9, at 7:00 p.m. Central Time

(5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, 6:00 p.m. Mountain, and 8:00 p.m. Eastern)

Click here to register.

This is a free Zoom event, open to everyone. This presentation will be recorded and later posted on our YouTube page.

Ashley Webb received her B.A. in History and Anthropology from Longwood University, in Farmville, Virginia, and her M.A. in Museum Studies from Bournemouth University, in Dorset, England. She is currently the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions and acting Executive Director with the Historical Society of Western Virginia, which operates both the Roanoke History and the O. Winston Link Museums. In addition to her job with the Historical Society, Ashley works with several local museums as a contract museum collections specialist. Her specialty is fashion history and she owns Bustle Textiles, a historic dress preservation company.

Based in Roanoke, Virginia, the O. Winston Link Museum collection comprises the striking photographic and auditory works developed by photographer-artist O. Winston Link between 1955 and 1960. A successful commercial photographer from New York, Link brought his studio outdoors to create carefully arranged images designed to convey the end of Norfolk & Western’s steam locomotives and the communities and countryside they passed through. The museum – which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year — is the repository for all of Link’s Norfolk & Western negatives, and contains both rotating and permanent exhibitions; learn more at: roanokehistory.org

Register here

Above: O. Winston Link’s masterpiece “Hot Shot Eastbound at the Drive-In, Iaeger, West Virginia, 1956.” Below: A behind-the-scenes view of Link in action, from the July 9 presentation.

Summer 2024: Burlington steam, Amtrak’s color evolution, Cimarron gold & more

The Summer 2024 issue of Railroad Heritage–the Center’s quarterly magazine–began mailing to members’ mailboxes in early June. Inside you’ll enjoy:

Norman Carlson writes about the 1950s-1960s Burlington steam program, accompanied by spectacular John Gruber photographs;
The art of creating Amtrak’s new Phase VII livery, by Justin Franz, with a photographic look at the passenger railroad’s paint scheme evolution;
Cimarron Gold: Rick Malo explores railroads and the art of place on the Kansas prairies;
A pause to manage growth: Adrienne Evans writes about the Center’s review of its photography collection policies and how members can share their thoughts;
A preview of The Art of Trains, a New York City exhibition showcasing highlights from the extraordinary collection of Peter and Christine Mosse, running July 11-August 23 at Hirschl & Adler;
Meet Lisa Hardy, the Center’s new program administrator;
Event and exhibition news, reviews, and more.

Plowden exhibition to appear at Illinois Railway Museum

Beginning mid-June, the Illinois Railway Museum will present Requiem for Steam: Railroad Photographs of David Plowden, produced in cooperation with the Center for Railroad Photography & Art. “Conversations” attendees who join our planned museum events on Friday, June 14, will enjoy a special reception from 5:00 to 7:00 pm celebrating the exhibition.

David Plowden and the Center produced this traveling exhibit of more than 50 black & white images. It traces the renowned photographer’s fascination with railway steam power, starting from a childhood spent watching steamboats on the East River, in New York City, and traveling behind steam-powered passenger trains in New England. His featured work includes the end of the steam era in the 1950s, and more recent examinations of steam’s lingering imprints on the American landscape.

The traveling exhibition will continue through late December. For more information, visit the Illinois Railway Museum’s web page.

The “Conversations” conference will continue for a full day on Saturday, June 15 and a half day on Sunday, June 16, at Lake Forest College near Chicago, headlined by an exciting lineup of photographers and artists. Visit our conference page for the schedule and listing of presenters.

David Plowden’s portrait of a Canadian Pacific 2-8-2 in Montreal, Quebec, in 1960.

An overview of the Requiem for Steam exhibition at Illinois Railway Museum.

Member Exclusive: Inside the Henry Posner III Collection

Join us Tuesday, May 14th, for an evening of globe-trotting railroad photography and great stories, when the Center hosts our next member-exclusive Zoom program, “Photographer of Last Resort: Inside the Henry Posner III Collection.”

Gil Taylor, reference and processing archivist, will present images from Henry Posner III, whose collection Gil has been processing since 2022. Henry is chairman of RDC, a global railway investment and management company, which he founded in 1987 with his partner Bob Pietrandrea. He also serves as chairman of Iowa Interstate Railroad, RDC-Deutschland, EuroRail, and family investment firm The Hawthorne Group. His leadership roles have taken him across the world and he has photographed railroads in fifty-four countries.

This program was recorded; the private link has been shared with registered members.

The Zoom program will be Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at 7:00 PM (U.S. Central Time)
5 pm Pacific / 6 pm Mountain / 8 pm Eastern
Henry will join Gil for the Zoom program to share anecdotes, behind-the-scenes tidbits, and fascinating details about his rail photographs, which range from spectacular to gritty and frequently spotlight railroad people across geography and cultures. Highlights will include:

The Iowa Interstate Railroad, including its Chinese QJ steam locomotives;
Henry’s involvement with and photography of Guatemala’s Ferrocarriles de Guatemala, and subsequently Ferrovías Guatemala … followed by his photographs of Peru’s Ferrocarril Central Andino, with a strong focus on the Andes Mountains;
Henry’s digital images of railroads that RDC works with in France and Germany, as well as eye-catching safety signs around the world.

Henry also serves as president of the EBT Foundation — a nonprofit organization formed to restore and operate the East Broad Top Railroad. He is Iowa Interstate’s alternate director at the Association of American Railroads, and a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Agriculture and Food Transport Subcommittee. He teaches undergraduate courses on rail deregulation and privatization and he’s lectured and published extensively about railways.

Not a member? Register Here.

Ferrocarril Central Andino no. 609 pulls a charter train somewhere northeast of Matucana, Peru, on July 25, 2000. Photograph by Henry Posner III, Posner-18-23-11.

Ferrocarriles de Guatemala workers gather around a motorcart as they follow a work train led by U10B 803, repairing tracks somewhere in Guatemala in 1998. Photograph by Henry Posner III, Posner-11-03-11.

Spring 2024: Women railroaders, Benson in New Mexico, Boyd tribute & more

The Spring 2024 issue features an all-star lineup of feature articles and photography, just in time to get you fired up for a summer road trip. Highlights include:

A photographic gallery that spotlights Shirley Burman’s forty-five year project to document women in railroading, which led to her book Sisters of the Iron Road;
Read about Jim Boyd, the legendary Railfan & Railroad magazine editor, and 50 years of his influential “Camera Bag” column in a lively story by Justin Franz;
Ted Benson, one of railroading’s finest photojournalists, searches for the “Soul of the Santa Fe” in a photo essay that explores northern New Mexico and reveals far more than surviving semaphore signals;
Adrienne Evans’ “Out of the Archives” column covers our recent digitizing work on Henry Posner III’s one-of-a-kind photography collection, which covers railroading in fifty-four countries;
Elrond Lawrence and Inga Velten interview Peter Hasler, who has pledged his unparalleled postcard collection (more than 30,000!) to the Center;
Our four-page honor roll thanking all of you who supported the Center in 2024.