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

CRP&A Member Exclusive: The History and Development of Madison’s Railroads

Tuesday, June 20, 2023
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom
Registration closes at 4 pm CT on Monday, June 19

Registration Closed

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

Our summer members-only program features a detailed look at the Center’s hometown Madison, Wisconsin, by our executive director Scott Lothes, showcasing the photography of John Gruber. These presentations are open to members of the Center and are presented to express our gratitude for their support. If you’re not a member, consider joining today to see this program as well as previous members-only events.

Railroads played a tremendous role in building Madison and south-central Wisconsin, and they continue to play a critical role in the regional economy. At their zenith, nine different railroad lines radiated out of Madison. Seven of those routes remain in service today, although only four of them still extend to their original destinations. This program will largely draw from the collection of John Gruber, the Center’s principal founder, who grew up in Prairie du Sac and lived in Madison, covering the changing railroad scene of Milwaukee Road, Chicago & North Western, and others.

Before the 20th-century rise of car culture and the building of the interstate highway system, a town’s ability to attract a railroad was a significant marker of its growth and economic health. In 2023, as Madison is considering a possible return of passenger rail, it’s a perfect time to examine local railroad history.

Join us on Tuesday, June 20, at 7 pm Central (5 pm PT / 6 pm MT / 8 pm ET) for this exciting program! This program is being 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

 

 

 

In 1955, a Milwaukee Road train rests nearby the Chicago & North Western depot with the capitol building visible in the background. Photograph by John Gruber.

Railroads, Art, and American Life: An Artist’s Memoir by J. Craig Thorpe

Tuesday, May 23, 2023
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom

Available on YouTube

Collecting more than thirty years of paintings and renderings, Railroads, Art, and American Life tells the story of rail transportation in America through the life and works of artist J. Craig Thorpe. His artwork depicts not only the golden art of train travel but considers the present and looks forward to a potential future. Featuring more than 130 color illustrations and combining history, biography, ethics, and humor, Thorpe’s personal story joins with his paintings to invite the reader to relive the heyday of American rail and better understand the role of railroads in our society today.

J. Craig Thrope grew up in Pittsburgh where the Pennsylvania Railroad paintings of Grif Teller inspired his interests in art and railroading. A degree in design from Carnegie-Mellon University refined his skills, which he began to apply through volunteer work at the East Broad Top. After army service, jobs in architecture, and grad school, Thorpe moved to Seattle as a freelance illustrator. Amtrak’s 1993 calendar gave his work a national audience. Now, over the past thirty years, Thrope has completed more than fifty works for Amtrak, fifty-four for White Pass and Yukon, as well as numerous others for railroad suppliers and operators, excursion railways, and museums. The scope of his artwork falls into three general categories: paintings of the past, paintings of the present, and paintings of what is possible.

 

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

“Railroads, Art, and American Life: An Artist’s Memoir” is available now at Indiana University Press

 

 

 

Book Cover Art:
“The Mountains Still Call”
C. 2022 J Craig Thorpe
Oil on canvas 20×30 in

Collections from the UK’s National Railway Museum

Presented Ed Bartholomew 

Tuesday, April 25, 2023
12:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom

Available on YouTube

Ed Bartholomew is Lead Curator at the National Railway Museum in York, England, where he has worked since 1995, having joined as Curator of the Photographic Collections. His role at the NRM includes the curation of the museum’s collections, ranging from archives to objects. He is particularly interested in the impact of railways on the landscape, their visual representation in photography, art and posters, and the promotion of railways through publicity and marketing.  His publications include Railways in Focus (with Michael Blakemore) an account of the National Railway Museum photographic collections (Atlantic Transport, 1998).

Photography grew up alongside the mechanized railway, and Bartholomew’s talk will showcase the NRM’s photographic collections from their origins to the present day, encompassing 170 years of photography. It will illustrate the breadth of the collection, with examples of the official photographs that documented the work of railway companies and advertised their services, alongside images by many skilled enthusiasts, who spent hours at the lineside in search of the perfect shot.

 

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

 

 

 

 

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway’s steel foundry at Horwich works in 1919. Image by a Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway photographer. Credit: Science Museum Group