The Center’s September 15th Zoom presentation is a long-awaited look at the California desert photography of the great Richard Steinheimer! We’ve dived into “Stein’s” collection to show you his photographs of the Santa Fe Railway during the 1970s and ’80s across the AT&SF Needles District, with an additional look at nearby Cajon Pass … all made famous in his books and Trains Magazine articles. It’s presented by the Center’s Elrond Lawrence, author-photographer and a Stein superfan.
This program originally aired on Tuesday, September 15, 2026.
While Stein was no stranger to the desert by the early 1970s, a job with Ford Aerospace led him to the desert town of Twentynine Palms, which placed him closer than ever before to the Mojave Desert and Cajon. This new photographic playground inspired him to cover desert railroading in all its action, grittiness, and beauty. While the presentation focuses mainly on his color photography, you’ll enjoy some stunning black and white images, too … plus behind-the-scenes gems from his photo safaris and a few surprises.
Richard Steinheimer (1929-2011) was one of the world’s greatest railroad photographers, who blazed a trail of creativity across California and the American West for six decades and inspired generations of photographers. In 2022 and 2023, the Center received nearly all of Steinheimer’s color photography, which comprises about 43,000 slides, several thousand of his black and white prints, digital scans spanning his entire career, black and white negatives circa 1973 and later, plus contact sheets, manuscripts, correspondence, and more. Read about the Richard Steinheimer and Shirley Burman collection here.
Elrond Lawrence has served as the Center’s Acquisitions and Marketing Manager since 2022. A lifelong Californian, he authored the book Route 66 Railway and his work appears regularly in Trains, Railfan & Railroad, Railroad Heritage, and many more publications. Read his recent CRP&A blog post, matching Steinheimer’s “Mojave Crossing” photographs with newer images.
