Fall 2023: Iconic railroad portraits, Gruber gallery, San Joaquin Valley, and more

The Fall issue of Railroad Heritage, our quarterly magazine for members, is highlighted by great feature articles, news, exhibition and collection updates, and more. Our top stories include:

An interview with artist Santiago Michalek, who paints striking portraits of “well used” iconic locomotives;
Adrienne Evans’ tips and tricks for using Odyssey, our online collection archive that debuted in June;
A gallery of classic John Gruber photos showcases the West Rail Corridor of Madison, Wis.;
See the winning images of the John Gruber Creative Photography Awards (plus images liked by the judges);
Tom Taylor’s photographic essay covers five decades of railfanning in California’s San Joaquin Valley;
Betsy Fahlman’s profile of the haunting 1977 lithograph “Subway Tunnel” by August Mosca;
Inga Velten’s interview of Sharon Hill, retired CRP&A bookkeeper, about her ongoing support of the Center and train adventures.

Summer 2023: The railroad vanishing point, Alaska RR art, Acela life, collection news, and more

A landmark feature story on the vanishing point of railroad photography headlines the summer issue of Railroad Heritage, our quarterly magazine for Center members. Highlights include:

In his cover story about the foundational element of railroad imagery, Gregory P. Ames gives the “railroad vanishing point” a major spotlight with engaging and insightful research and writing.
Justin Franz writes about Lesley Lynch, Amtrak’s first Acela conductor, with photos by Leo King and other Acela images from our collections.
Our regular “Out of the Archives” column by Adrienne Evans, with collection updates and an interview with Gil Taylor, processing archivist, about the lessons we’ve learned while processing moving-image films.
As the Alaska Railroad celebrates its centennial year, we look back on the art print program it began in 1979, with an article by Justin Franz.
Coverage of the exciting announcement that Peter and Christine Mosse have pledged their world-class railroad art collection to the Center.
“Fellowship and Awe,” an essay about Conversations 2023 by Rick Malo with photography by Elrond Lawrence
The IMAX film Train Time, a new documentary about James J. Hill, and more!

If you don’t receive it already, join the Center and have four issues delivered to your mailbox each year.

Spring 2023: Ronald C. Hill, finishing paintings, stations & stamps, steam and more

A heartfelt tribute to Ronald C. Hill by Jeff Brouws headlines the spring issue of Railroad Heritage, our magazine for Center members, complete with a classic Hill cover of the Rio Grande Zephyr. Highlights include:

Our cover story tribute to Ronald C. Hill, who passed away in January 2023, written by Jeff Brouws and illustrated with Ron’s great photography.
Artist Gil Bennett’s story about his work completing Howard Fogg’s last painting and others.
An interview with Adrienne Evans, director of archives and collections, with updates on the processing of various collections such as Richard Steinheimer’s.
Exploring the development of the Post Office’s new line of railroad depot stamps, by Justin Franz.
“Writes of Passage,” an outstanding photo essay by photographer and writer Rick Malo.
The esthetics of steam locomotive design: drawings, photographs, and a 1948 term paper by Robert A. Witbeck.
The railroad family of Tom Hoback, 2022 donors, and more!

If you don’t receive it already, join the Center and have four issues delivered to your mailbox each year.

Center unveils Odyssey, our new digital archive of railroad imagery

The sky’s the limit for fans of railroads and photography who can happily immerse themselves in Odyssey, the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s new collections management system. Odyssey is live and available to explore at this link.

The online portal was selected in June 2022 by CRP&A staff members to house digitized images from its collections. Over the past year, our archives team has worked closely with the platform’s developers to customize and implement the software. Dynamic and user-friendly, Odyssey will facilitate higher cataloging standards among Center staff and greater public searchability of collection materials. Users can explore all of the Center’s images that are available in its Flickr galleries, but now collected in a single location — as well as new offerings from John Gruber, Stan Kistler, David Mainey, and Jim Shaughnessy, with more to come from Richard Steinheimer and many others.

“The Center’s archives and digitization efforts have grown tremendously over the past few years, and Odyssey’s large storage capacity limit offers opportunities for even further collection development,” said Adrienne Evans, director of archives and collections. “We recently finished migrating all of our digital collections from Flickr to Odyssey and we’re excited to introduce everybody to the new portal. Being a new system, we’ll constantly make improvements as we expand the galleries to include more images from our growing collections.”

“After a lengthy search and implementation process, we’re excited to begin sharing more of our collections through Odyssey,” said Scott Lothes, president and executive director. “Our collections team has digitized tens of thousands of photographs in the past couple of years alone. We have so much to share with you.”

We’re deeply grateful for the generosity of donors and members who have made it possible to reach this milestone, and we encourage everyone to make their own odyssey! A search guide is available here.

Please direct any questions or comments to info@railphoto-art.org; follow the Center on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for updates.

PHOTO: Sunset on Santa Fe’s Needles District in the Mojave Desert, summer 1976, looking west to Amboy, Calif. Richard Steinheimer photo, Steinheimer-Burman-AG-Temp005

All-star photographers to headline Rio Grande narrow gauge book

We’re thrilled to announce the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s next hardcover book, Rio Grande Steam Finale, to be released October 1, 2023.

In the 1950s and 1960s, many of the nation’s greatest railroad photographers journeyed to southwestern Colorado and northern New Mexico to document the final years of the Denver & Rio Grande Western’s spectacular narrow-gauge railway. They were driven by a fever for which there was no cure: the chance to photograph half-century-old trains operating on rails spaced three feet apart, the last remnants of an empire.

Drawing from thousands of images of the Rio Grande narrow gauge in the Center’s archive, this book gathers the finest work on this rich subject by Tom Gildersleeve, John Gruber, Victor Hand, Don Hofsommer, Jim Shaughnessy, Fred Springer, Richard Steinheimer, and Karl Zimmermann. Inside Rio Grande Steam Finale you’ll find a stunning gallery of black & white and color images, lavishly presented and many published for the first time, covering the narrow gauge from Alamosa to Chama, Durango, Farmington, and Silverton.

The trains are captured in furious action, climbing steep mountain grades, crossing high trestles, winding beside rivers, and traveling vast flatlands. Thundering steam locomotives billow plumes of smoke, some doubled together at the head end and some assisted by rear helpers placed ahead of timeworn cabooses; they’re seen from trackside, from hilltops, from pacing cars, and from inside the cab. Exquisite scenes at day, night, and dusk capture the railroad people, engine houses, rolling stock, lineside structures, and magnificent scenery that shaped the Rio Grande’s legendary narrow gauge system.

Engaging essays by Hofsommer and Zimmermann, both of whom experienced the narrow gauge first-hand in the 1960s, provide context and personal insights. Extensive captions add context to the stories of the photographs, which trace the pattern of typical train operations of the era. The book concludes with a chapter of color images of today’s Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.

Edited by Scott Lothes and Elrond Lawrence, the 10×10 book includes a map by David Styffe and nearly 200 outstanding photographs. The book will sell for $60. Pre-order information will be announced in August on our website and on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.

Cover photo: Denver & Rio Grande Western locomotives 497 and 487 hammer up the four percent grade to Cumbres, Colorado, under a dramatic sky at Windy Point on October 3, 1967. Photograph by Victor Hand