Fred M. Springer Collection – Center for Railroad Photography & Art

Biography

Fred Springer (1928–2012), who started making railroad photographs in the 1940s in Colorado and New Mexico, gave his photographs to the Center along with a substantial donation to catalog and preserve them. His geographic reach of railroads continually expanded until he had covered most areas of the world. The gift included about 50,000 color slides and 7,500 black-and-white negatives.

“We cannot thank Fred Springer enough for the confidence he has placed in the Center,” said John Gruber, president at the time of the gift. “The funds he has generously provided not only will preserve his collection but will also help us develop a system for dealing efficiently with large collections in the future.”

The city of Temple, Texas, named a park in his honor in 2011, recognizing his contributions to the development of its Railroad and Heritage Museum. The park is next to the Santa Fe depot, where the museum is located. Springer and his wife, Dale, moved to Salado, near Temple, in 1980. Today, they live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They have three children–Kathryn Kuddes of Allen, Texas, Paul Springer of Jackson, Wyoming, and Carol Luttrell of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and three Luttrell grandchildren.

When he donated his library and sizeable timetable and pass collection to the Temple museum, he personally funded an archivist for several years to ensure the proper cataloging and preservation of the material. He recognizes not everyone has the capability to provide such funding but to the extent possible he hopes all donors of collections would attempt to provide some funding to support their donation.

Springer’s favorite railroads, represented in the collection, were narrow gauge: Rio Grande Southern, a 3-foot gauge line in southwestern Colorado, and the 2-foot, 6-inch Patagonia Express in southern Argentina. He and Dale rode the Express four or five times. “It is an unbelievable railroad, 402 kilometers long, the closest thing still running that is a replica of Southern Pacific’s narrow gauge in California. Both are in quasi-desert areas and parallel mountain ranges, the Andes in Argentina versus the Sierras in California. Only the gauge is different, 3 feet versus 2 feet 6 inches,” he said.

Springer easily recalled details of his family’s first trip on the RGS Galloping Goose out of Ridgway, Colorado. His negative envelopes confirm the date: August 19, 1950. “My family, five people, drove up. ‘That is not enough,’ said Ed Randow, superintendent of RGS. Bob Christian, a professor at Wichita State and family, arrived, bringing the total to nine people. That was enough to run Goose no. 4 that day. Off we went to Lizard Head Pass.” Springer adds that Henry Wolford operated the Goose on this and other trips the family made on the RGS.

George Springer, Fred’s father, leans out the window of Rio Grande Southern’s Gallloping Goose no. 4 on the lower curved trestle of the Ophir Loop in 1950.

As a member of Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic, he was rear brakeman on Goose no. 5 when it operated out of Chama, New Mexico, beginning in 1998.

Springer was proud of a form, signed by A. E. Perlman, giving him permission to ride D&RGW diesel/steam locomotives of main and narrow gauge freight trains, except the Silverton branch, effective August 15-25, 1950. He never used it, because he never found a narrow gauge train to ride. He was “not interested in the standard gauge—not in those days.”

Springer was a native of Washington, D.C., who grew up in Houston, Texas. He graduated in 1949 in engineering from Missouri School of Mines in Rolla, Missouri, and worked for Mobil Oil Corporation and subsidiary companies. “As a result my rail photography from the early 1940s until 1963 was largely Texas, the Southwest U.S. including New Mexico, and Colorado. I had three tours of duty in the New York headquarters 1963-67, 1968-1976, and 1983-85 at which time I retired and moved back to Texas.

“Those New York years resulted in photography of the Erie Lackawanna, Central of New Jersey, and various railroads in the northeast from West Virginia to the Maritimes provinces of Canada. We lived in Lake Bluff, Illinois, 1976-83, and my children all graduated from Lake Forest High school so that period got rail photography in the Midwest.”

After retirement he and Dale traveled the world by train, visiting almost every country in South America and Europe plus South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Jordan, Syria, Australia, and New Zealand. When they lived in Texas he made many trips to Mexico when steam was still alive in the 1960s and ‘70s.

His photography has been published in books by Mallory H. Ferrell on the Rio Grande Southern, West Side Lumber, and mixed trains down South; Richard Dorman on Colorado/New Mexico narrow gauge lines; James Ehrenberger on narrow gauge in Colorado; Steve Goen on the Santa Fe, Katy, Frisco, and Southern Pacific; plus Trains and Railroad magazines.

Railroad magazine profiled Springer in its May 1973 issue as Interesting Railfan No. 125. Freeman Hubbard, editor, wrote about Springer’s travels with friends for photography, especially Everett L. De Golyer, Jr., Dallas, Texas, who suggested to Springer that locomotives and trains are dramatic, but do not tell the full story of railroad transportation. “At Everett’s suggestion he rolled back his horizon, emerged from the parish into the empire, and begin clicking his shutter at other phases of railroading,” Hubbard wrote.

Hubbard chronicled, before Springer’s extensive overseas travel, his experiences with friends in the U.S. and Mexico. He and a teen-aged neighbor, Francis Winters, rode the narrow gauge out of Alamosa, Colorado, and camped near Cumbres Pass. Springer took long train trips with Bill Schaeffer of Houston. In 1961, a rush of business prompted three Texas shortlines to operate steam again, a happening Springer, Joe R. Thompson, and George Werner recorded on film. The three also went to Mexico and across the South to photograph steam. In New Jersey, he joined a live steam group.

Hubbard quoted Springer as saying, “I like to cover a short line’s typical work day, shooting the daily conduct of business, both road and yard operations, as well as equipment, depots, and other structures. Also crumbling old enginehouses and stations on abandoned routes overgrown with weeds, and the now-rare mixed trains, doodlebugs, and branch lines.”

Springer’s remarkable experiences have resulted in a remarkable collection, which the Center is proud to preserve. —John Gruber

Also see our related feature about Springer and the Rio Grande Southern on Trains Magazine’s website.

Fred Springer leaning out of the cab of an electric locomotive in Mexico, 1963

Springer Collection Overview

Gift of Fred and Dale Springer
8,000 B&W negatives
50,000 color slides
1940s to 2000s
Coverage includes six inhabited continents, and especially the southwestern United States, Mexico, and South America

Reproduction Requests

High resolution scans from the Springer Collection are available for print and electronic reproduction
To make requests, visit the collections page or send an email to info@railphoto-art.org

Highlights

Wood-burning steam locomotive no. 59 crossing a low trestle as it departs Encarnación, Paraguay, on October 21, 1991. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-ARG-PA-CHI-BO2-04-28

Railbus M-323 crossing a fog-bound mountain pass on the Arica–La Paz Railway connecting Chile and Bolivia on September 29, 1992. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-ARG-PA-CHI-BO2-10-27

Two men on horseback greet the Old Patagonian Express (known locally as La Trochita) as it arrives at the remote station of Fitalancao, near the halfway point of the 250-mile line, on October 29, 1995. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-CHI-ARG1-09-13

Two steam locomotives lead a train through the Andean foothills near Esquel, Argentina, on October 30, 1995. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-CHI-ARG1-10-10

An eastbound Santa Fe Railway freight train at the Mojave Desert ghost town of Siberia, California, at sunset on March 27, 1990. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-CO-CAL4-14-03

Colorado & Southern steam locomotive no. 608 switching freight cars in the rail yard in Denver, Colorado, on a clear September day in 1958. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-CO1-08-18

Santa Fe Railway passenger train no. 124, the eastbound <i>Grand Canyon Limited</i>, arriving in Lamy, New Mexico, on May 26, 1961. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-CO1-15-02

Santa Fe Railway passenger train no. 124, the eastbound Grand Canyon Limited, arriving in Lamy, New Mexico, on May 26, 1961. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-CO1-15-02

Smoke from the Union Pacific Railroad’s famous steam locomotive no. 844 (temporarily renumbered to 8444 at the time of this photograph) mingles with the clouds that sweep through a dramatic western sky in the high plains of Colorado. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-CO2-10-32

Three narrow-gauge steam locomotives power a chartered freight train on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad in July 1996. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-CO6-18-19

Baltimore & Ohio diesel-electric locomotive no. 6708 at Camden Station in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 15, 1964. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-East1-16-12

Guayaquil & Quito locomotive no. 11, built by Philadelphia’s Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1900, steams right through the middle of Milagro, Ecuador, on July 22, 1988. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-ECU1-02-20

On the most spectacular part of Ecuador’s superlative Guayaquil & Quito Railway, locomotive no. 44 leads a short train up the Devil’s Nose in 1988. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-ECU1-06-19

Train on Line 5 of the Paris Métro crossing the Austerlitz Viaduct over the Seine River on February 28, 1999. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-FRA-SD&AE-C&TS(1)-01-04

On the Hedjaz Jordan Railway, steam locomotive no. 71 leads a three-car passenger train across a stone arch viaduct, which carries an aqueduct on its lower level. The view is from the outskirts of Amman on July 15, 1991. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-Hedjaz-ZimZam(1)-02-20

Engineer and fireman peer out from the cab of Garratt locomotive no. 737 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on August 1, 1991. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-Hedjaz-ZimZam(1)-18-36

In 1963, after it had met train no. 110 at Cañales, National Railways of Mexico train no. 257, pulled by locomotive no. 288, starts out of the siding to continue its journey on the three-foot-gauge line. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-Mexico1-05-02

FC Mineral steam locomotive no. 4 throws a thick cloud of smoke over the barren landscape near Avalos, Mexico, on April 26, 1967. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-Mexico1-13-31

Burros cross the tracks at the village of Atlixco along the National Railways of Mexico narrow-gauge line between Puebla and Mexico City in May 1968. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-Mexico1-24-14

Two South African Railways steam locomotives lead a special passenger train through the village of Artois on April 2, 1995, as a few local children watch from an adjacent soccer field. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-So.Africa-NOR-SWE-06-24

Tracks of New Zealand’s Kingston Branch railway on the South Island on January 22, 1994. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-NZ(1)-19-01

South African Railways steam locomotive no. 3410 rounding a broad curve near Ficksburg, South Africa, with a special passenger train on March 26, 1995. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-So.Africa(1)-21-16

Two South African Railways steam locomotives lead a special passenger train along the Indian Ocean on March 22, 1995 © 2015, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-So.Africa(1)-14-13

Steam locomotives are the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow in Camfer, South Africa, on March 23, 1995. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-So.Africa(1)-16-10

The Avontuur Railways’ Apple Express passenger train crossing the spectacular Van Stadens Railway Bridge near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on March 25, 1995. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-So.Africa(1)-19-21

The six-man crew of a Guayaquil & Quito Railway train stands proudly in front of their locomotive at Azogues, Ecuador, on July 12, 1990. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-SOAM1-04-23

Against the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, steam locomotive no. 3511 and its four-car train appear as little more than a smudge on the landscape. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-SOAM1-08-34

An electric passenger train of the one-meter-gauge Rhaetian Railway crossing Switzerland’s Langwieser Viaduct on August 29, 1998. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-Swiss(1)-21-16

Three trains (the third is barely visible in the far distance) on the Brienz-Rothorn Railway on October 21, 2000. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-Swiss(2)-02-18

Fort Worth & Denver Railway train no. 7 stopping at Quanah, Texas, on December 27, 1958. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-TX1-03-27

Cable car of the San Francisco Municipal Railway on the California Street Line near Stockton Street in May 1959. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-TX1-12-24

An Alco RS3 diesel-electric locomotive leads a string of hopper cars over a steel trestle on the copper-hauling San Manuel Arizona Railroad in May 1959. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-TX1-14-03

A four-unit set of Santa Fe Railway FT locomotives taking a freight train past a grain elevator in Happy, Texas, in September 1960. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-TX1-24-22

Angelina & Neches River Railroad steam locomotive no. 208 switching freight cars in Lufkin, Texas, on December 22, 1961. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-TX2-07-24

Texas Transportation Company electric “motor” no. 1 switching boxcars at its largest customer, the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio, Texas, on April 18, 1977. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-TX3-15-19

Five modern diesel-electric locomotives pull a Santa Fe freight train across a bridge in Abo Canyon, New Mexico, on June 29, 1995. Photograph by Fred M. Springer, © 2016, Center for Railroad Photography and Art. Springer-TX6-20-04