Winter 2025: Western Maryland, Chicago’s Field Museum, John Signor, and more

The Winter 2025 issue of Railroad Heritage, our quarterly magazine, is filled with plenty of gifts just in time for the holidays. Inside you’ll find inspiring photography, art, and stories:

  • A stunning photo essay by Roger Cook and Karl Zimmermann about their 1970s Western Maryland experiences in Williamsport, Maryland;
  • The surprising connections between railroads and Chicago’s Field Museum, examined by Fred Ash, illustrated by historic photography and beautiful color Illinois Central posters;
  • Archivist Heather Sonntag interviews John Signor, artist, railroader, and author of western railroading books such as Tehachapi, Donner Pass, and more, and we include eight of his great oil paintings;
  • The winning images of the 2024 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards;
  • Learn about requesting images from the Center in the “Out of the Archives” column by director of archives & collections Adrienne Evans and reference & processing archivist Gil Taylor;
  • The 60th anniversary of Japan’s bullet trains, with photos by Victor Hand;
  • News of exhibitions and events – we’ve already planned several Zoom topics for 2025!

Spring 2024: Women railroaders, Benson in New Mexico, Boyd tribute & more

The Spring 2024 issue features an all-star lineup of feature articles and photography, just in time to get you fired up for a summer road trip. Highlights include:

  • A photographic gallery that spotlights Shirley Burman’s forty-five year project to document women in railroading, which led to her book Sisters of the Iron Road;
  • Read about Jim Boyd, the legendary Railfan & Railroad magazine editor, and 50 years of his influential “Camera Bag” column in a lively story by Justin Franz;
  • Ted Benson, one of railroading’s finest photojournalists, searches for the “Soul of the Santa Fe” in a photo essay that explores northern New Mexico and reveals far more than surviving semaphore signals;
  • Adrienne Evans’ “Out of the Archives” column covers our recent digitizing work on Henry Posner III’s one-of-a-kind photography collection, which covers railroading in fifty-four countries;
  • Elrond Lawrence and Inga Velten interview Peter Hasler, who has pledged his unparalleled postcard collection (more than 30,000!) to the Center;
  • Our four-page honor roll thanking all of you who supported the Center in 2024.

Shooting the Diesel That Did it, presented by Kevin Keefe

Tuesday, October 25, 2022
7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom

Now Available on YouTube

The debut of Electro-Motive Division’s FT freight locomotive in 1939 and 1940 was a watershed for the railroad industry – the steam locomotive was on its way out. The FT’s first public appearances gave both EMD and the Santa Fe Railway a chance to show off their promotional muscle, and photographs would tell the tale. In a presentation inspired by Wallace W. Abbey’s upcoming Indiana University Press book “The Diesel That Did It,” we’ll look back on that moment when photographers recorded the start of a revolution. Presented by Kevin P. Keefe, co-editor of Abbey’s book along with Martha Abbey Miller. 

Kevin Keefe is the retired 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.

During its 1941 debut run, Santa Fe FT 100 poses at Topeka with historic 2-8-0 No. 2414. Credit: Santa Fe Railway, Kalmbach Media Library.