Webinars

Our monthly online webinars showcase a range of voices from across our community, featuring engaging presentations by artists, photographers, archivists, and historians. Each event offers a unique opportunity to explore creative practices, uncover historical insights, and gain new perspectives on railroad imagery and archival practice.

Zoom program: Linn Westcott’s Wildly Diverse Railroad Photography

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…
Zoom member-exclusive: The History and Development of Madison’s Railroads

Our summer 2023 members-only program features a detailed look at the Center’s hometown Madison, Wisconsin, by 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…
Zoom program: Railroads, Art, and American Life, by J. Craig Thorpe

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…
Zoom program: Collections from the UK’s National Railway Museum

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…
Zoom program: Inside the Ronald C. Hill Collection

After spending nearly 15 months processing the Ronald C. Hill Collection of approximately 27,000 items including color transparencies, negatives, and prints, Heather Sonntag sees Ron Hill as “the whole rail-fan package.” Join us to hear how Heather first learned about railroad photography through Ron’s impeccable camera work that spans 60 years from 1957 to 2018.…
Zoom program: A Passion for Color – The Railroad Paintings of John R. Signor

In our next free online program, John Signor will showcase his spectacular paintings of the American rail industry, with a focus on western lines. Best known for his books and bird’s-eye view maps; John will relate his journey from a high school student through various attempts to depict his passion for trains. He started by…
Zoom program: The Lady Engineer and the Train – Remembering Olive W. Dennis and The Cincinnatian

Join Sharon Harwood in an immersive experience aboard the first run of the B&O’s Cincinnatian passenger train in January 1947. City officials, press, and railroad executives gathered for ribbon-cutting ceremonies in Cincinnati’s Union Terminal and the Washington, D.C., Union Station as the B&O Railroad presented its new daylight luxury streamliner. The Cincinnatian would become one of the most admired trains of…
Zoom program: Shooting the Diesel That Did it, presented by Kevin Keefe

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…
An Evening with the Winners of the 2022 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards

The 2022 John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards was one of the most competitive contests we’ve had to date. With over 540 submissions for this year’s theme of Weather Effects, our panel of judges had a difficult job ahead of them to narrow down the entries to six placed photographs. In “An Evening with the…
Virtual Launch Party: Preview Continuity & Change, our newest book

[three_fifth] Tuesday, August 16, 2022 7:00 p.m. (U.S. Central Time), on Zoom Registration closes on Monday, August 15 at 4:30 p.m. (CST) Now Available on YouTube Join editors Alexander Craghead and Scott Lothes for a virtual launch of the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s new publication, Continuity & Change: The Lure of North American…