CRP&A Member Exclusive: Inside the David Mainey Collection

Tuesday, September 19, 2023
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom
Registration closes at 4 pm CT on Monday, September 18

Registration Closed
CRP&A members can request the recording link at info@railphoto-art.org

Step into the world of David Mainey as we take you on a journey through his life and work in our fall members-only program. Join Erin Rose as she sits down with David for an insightful interview, giving you a glimpse into the person behind the art. Explore decades of creativity, from his very first photograph in 1947 to his more recent works in the 1980s. The presentation concludes with a Q&A session, inviting all attendees to join the conversation and learn more about David’s unique experiences and artistic endeavors.

David Mainey has been photographing trains for as long as he’s had a camera. As a youth, he became friends with photographers such as Donald Furler and Bob Collins, where he really began to learn the ropes of rail photography. Inspired and encouraged by these legends, David not only mastered the standard “roster shot,” but he went on to define his own work with a variety of styles – from a classic wedge shot to a stunning landscape, his work spans decades and reflects his views of United States east coast rail history in a spectacular fashion.

Erin Rose joined the Center in 2017 as an intern, and she returned in 2021 to the new role of reference and digital projects archivist. She answers image requests, processes collections, and has managed the migration of files for the Center’s adoption of a new collections management system.

Join us on Tuesday, September 19, at 7 pm Central (5 pm PT / 6 pm MT / 8 pm ET) for this exciting program! This program will be recorded and will be made available to members by request.

This event is open to members of the CRP&A

Join Today! Become a member here

DH 1529 on Cascade Wye at Lanesboro, Pennsylvania, on November 9, 1951. Photograph by David Mainey

An Evening with the Winners of the 2023 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards

Tuesday, August 22, 2023
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom

YouTube Link

The 2023 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program brought in contestants from across the globe. With this year’s theme “The Role of Technology,” the judges reviewed and selected six winning photographs in a fascinating and interpretive competition. In “An Evening with the Winners…” you’ll hear the insights and artistic approaches of the photographers behind this year’s winning images.

First Prize
Chris Walters, black-and-white
Blair Kooistra, color

Second Prize
Richard Koenig, black-and-white
John Troxler, color

Third Prize
Frank Barry, black-and-white
George Hiotis, color

This event is free.
This presentation will be recorded and be made available on our YouTube page, www.youtube.com/railphotoart

Chris Walters, First Prize, black-and-white

Taken with a drone, this view looks straight down upon precise lines of Alstom Metropolis EMU sets – driverless passenger trains awaiting a turn in service on the Northwest Metro line between Tallawong, where this scene was captured, and Chatswood in New South Wales, Australia, on February 5, 2022.

Blair Kooistra, First Prize, color

Paul “Piglet” Middleton enjoys a tea break after running a London North Eastern Railway B-1 Thompson Class 4-6-0 locomotive at North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s Grosmont Motive Power Depot in North Yorkshire, England. The same law of thermodynamics that made it possible for the locomotive to move also help Paul heat his tea.

Ask the Archivist: Q&A for the Center’s new collections management system ‘Odyssey’

Tuesday, August 15, 2023
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom

YouTube Link

The online portal houses digitized images from the Center’s collection and was just recently launched in June 2023. Odyssey allows users to explore all of the Center’s collections in a dynamic and user-friendly format. Join our director of archives and collections, Adrienne Evans, and our reference and digital projects archivist, Erin Rose, in a tutorial of the site. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask our archives team any questions you may have regarding the functionality of the search portal.

Explore Odyssey: https://railphoto.odyssey.historyit.com/

This event is free.
This presentation will be recorded and be made available on our YouTube page, www.youtube.com/railphotoart

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

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

Linn Westcott’s Wildly Diverse Railroad Photography

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom

Registration Closed

Ask any model railroader to name the icons of the hobby, and certainly, Linn H. Westcott (1913-1980) will be mentioned somewhere. The longtime editor of Kalmbach’s Model Railroader magazine pioneered and even invented many of the techniques that continue to drive the hobby. Throughout his career, he also authored nearly a dozen books on model railroading, which sold more than two million copies in total. But Westcott loved the real thing too, and he definitely qualified as a railfan, as his early tenure at Trains magazine demonstrates. During those early years, he often carried a camera. Although he wouldn’t have described himself as a photographer, his images of trains and the railroad environment exhibit immense talent, especially when he was shooting with Kodachrome slides in the 1940s and ’50s.

Join former Trains editor and publisher Kevin P. Keefe for an extended look at Westcott’s wildly diverse railroad photography.

This event is free.
This presentation will be recorded and be made available on our YouTube page, www.youtube.com/railphotoart

Images credit: Kalmbach Media