Category Archives: Updates

Book orders and shipping delays

We have recently learned that our book distributor has not been able to fulfill any recent orders for our books including The Railroad and the Art of Place: An Anthology owing to insufficient workers at their warehouse. Their managers and sales representatives have been going onto the shop floor to pack and ship books, but they cannot keep up with their current volume.

We have asked them to ship the unopened cartons of our books to the Center’s office, where our staff members and myself will personally package and ship the books to you. We anticipate delivery of the bulk shipment during the week of November 29, and we will get them on their way to you as quickly as possible.

The publication date for The Railroad and the Art of Place: An Anthology was November 1, and we had planned to begin shipping books then. We did not learn the extent of the challenges at our distributor’s warehouse until November 22; had we known earlier we would have stepped in sooner. If you would like a refund, send an email to “info [at] railphoto-art.org” (replace [at] with @ to send us email); please direct any questions to this same address. We will post any updates here as we receive them.

(Note that this applies only to orders placed directly with us through our website or using one of our mail-in forms. If you ordered from Amazon or elsewhere, you will need to work with them to resolve any delays.)

Thank you so much for your interest in our publications as well as your ongoing patience as we work to resolve our own supply chain challenges—an unfortunate theme of this holiday season.

Sincerely yours,

Scott Lothes
President and Executive Director

David P. Morgan’s Milwaukee, presented by Kevin P. Keefe

Tuesday, December 7, 2021
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom
Registration closes on Monday, December 6 at 4:30 p.m. (CDT)

Now Available on YouTube

In a program centered around the late 1940s through the early 1960s, we take a tour of the Milwaukee area as famed Trains Magazine Editor David P. Morgan might have experienced it, from the early days of his career as a junior staff member to his prime years as editor-in-chief. We’ll start at Morgan’s place of employment — the celebrated Kalmbach building at 1027 N. Seventh Street — and work our way around town, witnessing freight and passenger action on the Milwaukee Road, the North Shore Line, the Chicago & North Western, as well as some operations of the Milwaukee Electric.

The presentation will include images from a number of iconic Milwaukee photographers of the era, including Wallace W. Abbey, Jim Scribbins, and W.A. Akin, Jr., as well as some often bittersweet before-and-after comparisons. It’s easy to see why Morgan, a Southerner by birth, fell in love with the city where he spent most of his life.

 

Kevin Keefe recently retired as vice-president-editorial for Kalmbach Publishing Co. and is a board member of the CRP&A. He served as editor of Trains from 1992 to 2000. As a student at Michigan State, he worked on Pere Marquette steam locomotive no. 1225, and he later authored a book about it.

This event is free.

 

 

 

One of Milwaukee Road’s Fairbanks-Morse switchers works the Beer Line branch beneath the Holton Street bridge. Wallace W. Abbey, The Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Abbey-01-148-10.

Holiday Book Sale

Celebrate the holiday season with the Center for Railroad Photography & Art. Take advantage of attractive prices on attractive books while supplies last!

Most items 40% off or more!

Check out sales here!

Eat Steel & Spit Rivets: Norfolk Southern Employees Reflect on 30 Years of Change, Challenge, and Achievement Author (s): Norfolk Southern Employees Publisher: Norfolk Southern Corporate Communications Department Paperback Original price $17, now $10

 

Above, Aboard, and Beyond: Unique Perspectives by Rail

Saturday, November 13, 2021, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm (U.S. Central Time)

Join the CRP&A for an upcoming weekend event on Zoom featuring three fantastic photographers exploring unique perspectives by rail.

Download the program HERE

Jennifer Al-Beik

Finding My Track: Rail Photography as a Creative Outlet

Jennifer Al-Beik shares perspectives as a newcomer to the hobby of railroad photography.

Jennifer Al-Beik is a veterinarian by trade and took up a passion for railroad photography after her son became interested in railroads. As a newcomer to the hobby, Jen now enjoys rail photography as a creative outlet and takes images from both the ground and from the air by drone.

Stacey Evans

Passengers
Glimpse the American landscape from the seat of Amtrak passenger Stacey Evans. Using the train as a moving studio tethered to the earth gliding on a predetermined path, Stacey makes photographs focused on regional similarities and differences while composing how we occupy, shape, and transform the land. Her archive has over 29 train trips in America, plus a few in Scandinavia and France. Over the years, she’s collected various themes ranging from swimming pools, to power supplies, agriculture, intersections, and fading light, to name a few. She will share her unique perspective not accessible by foot, plane, or car.

Stacey Evans grew up in Waynesboro, Virginia, a small town made diverse by its variety and combination of different landscapes – rural, urban, industrial and suburban. Over the years, she has worked to translate her formative visual experiences and demonstrate the role landscapes play within culture. She studied photography at Virginia Commonwealth University and received a BFA in photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She works as an artist, educator, and photographer. She is the Imaging Specialist and Project Coordinator at the University of Virginia Library, a Statewide Educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and a resident artist at the McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville. Her artwork is exhibited regionally and nationally.

Scott Lothes

John Gruber: B&W Photography, 1960-1964
Scott Lothes, the executive director and president of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, will share selections and highlights from the illustrious collection of our co-founder John Gruber (1936-2018). John was not only a great rail photographer, but also an author, scholar, grandfather, and staunch champion of other artists as well as the field of railroad photography itself. We have the privileged opportunity to preserve and provide access to his legacy. John’s collection contains over 108,000 images as well as boxes of manuscript materials related to his publishing projects and the founding of the Center. Digitization of John’s collection began in 2020.

 

This event is free.

 

The WJNP (White River Junction to Newport, Vermont) of the Vermont Rail Systems at Norwich, Vermont seen by drone in April 2021. Photograph by Jennifer Al-Beik.
 

Schedule, U.S. Central Time

Weather Effects: 2022 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program

Theme

Theme: Weather Effects 

Predawn Pikes Peak State Park, Iowa 2017. Photograph by Todd Halamka.
 

The 2022 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program theme is Weather Effects. When one takes a moment to think about what it takes to run a railroad anywhere in the world, chances are in one form or another, weather influences nearly every aspect of the enterprise. The theme may be taken literally, figuratively and/or metaphorically.  

Participants are welcome to submit up 3 images in either color and/or black and white format. Digital and film images are acceptable. However, film images should be submitted as scans in JPG format with one side of the image at least 1500 pixels. Digital manipulation of the images is acceptable but not required.  

 

Theme introduction: September 30, 2021

Submission deadline: May 1, 2022

Awards notification: August 1, 2022

Submission Process

Submission Process

Applicants must submit:

  • Up to three images in either color and/or black-and-white, must include location, date, and basic caption information
  • Mailing Address
  • Email Address
  • Phone number

 

Images should be submitted as high-resolution jpegs with a pixel dimension of at least 3000 on one side.

Electronic submissions only. No watermarks.

Files can be sent via email, Dropbox, WeTransfer, etc.

The Center reserves the right to retain electronic copies for future publication, use on website, Facebook, and other social media, or for public exhibition. In all cases, the photographer retains the copyright to the image.

Please send all submissions to award@railphoto-art.org

Disclaimer: Trespassing along railroad rights-of-ways is illegal and the leading cause of rail-related deaths in the United States. The CRP&A discourages trespassing for this contest and retains the right to disqualify any photographs deemed dangerous in content.

Prizes

Prizes:

  • First place, $750
  • Second place, $500
  • Third place, $250
  • Judges Also Liked, one-year subscription to Railroad Heritage

 

The Center will publish the winners in the Fall 2022 issue of Railroad Heritage, and Railfan & Railroad magazine will publish the winners in a fall issue.

About the Program

Noted photographer, author, editor, and preservationist of railroads, John E. Gruber (1936-2018) of Madison, Wisconsin, was honored on April 14, 2012, by the board of directors of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art—an organization of which he was the principal founder—by having the Center’s awards program named for him.

Now the John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program, the competitive program started in 2002. It is devoted exclusively to contemporary railroad photography and attracts hundreds of entrants annually from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Winning photographs are published in the Center’s journal, Railroad Heritage® and in Railfan & Railroad magazine, and appear on this website.

Gruber was a photography and preservation activist in the railroad community since 1960. His own photography was published widely, especially in Trains Magazine. In 1994, the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society presented Gruber with its Fred A. and Jane R. Stindt Photography Award. From 1995-99, Gruber edited Vintage Rails. In 1997 his intense interest in both photography and preservation, and his concern about the welfare and longevity of amateur and professional photographers’ work, led him to organize the founding of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art.

As an author Gruber wrote Classic Steam, edited Railroaders: Jack Delano’s Homefront Photography (published by the Center in 2014), and co-authored several other volumes of railroad-related images. His final publication was Beebe & Clegg: Their Enduring Photographic Legacy, published by the Center in 2018. The book serves as an enduring testament to Gruber’s detailed research, passion, and lasting significance in the field of railroad photography.

John Gruber, founder of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art. Photograph by Henry A. Koshollek