A guide to photographing trains, railroads, and stations. Topics covered include how to capture motion, how to anticipate action, understanding changing light sources, and the history of railway photography.

Colin Boococks' railway photographs are already familiar as they have been featured in a variety of railway books and magazines. This book shows around 300 of his favorite images that illustrate the many different aspects of railway photography.The key seven chapters in this book each cover one decade from the 1940s up to the present day. Not only do they display the early improvement in his photography as he gained experience, they also bring into focus how much railways have changed over the last seventy years. Grimy steam locomotives in smoky surroundings persisted in ever-reducing pockets as more modern forms of traction spread across our railways. Working steam finally disappeared from UK main lines in 1968 and around coal mines in the mid–1980s.The later chapters benefit greatly from Colins' worldwide travels, in which he searched for more unfamiliar railways. The growth of heritage railways also features.Useful appendices add insights into Colins' experience of camera technologies and photographic techniques. These emphasize the changes that have faced him as his photography has moved from black-and-white to color, and from films and darkrooms to the computer and the digital age. Colin last used film in early 2004, having embraced digital photography with enthusiasm.

The Railroad Photography of J. Parker Lamb showcases the black-and-white imagery of a master of the craft. Parker Lamb came of age in the South and the Midwest during a time of great transition on railroads in the United States. New technology was replacing the steam locomotives and labor-intensive practices that had dominating railroading for more than a century. Cameras in hand, Lamb bore witness to the end of that era and continued to vividly portray all that followed. His lyrical photographs depict new diesels, waning passenger trains, blossoming freight business, and many of the people who worked in, and were captivated by, the great American institution of the railroad. A biographical essay by noted transportation journalist Fred W. Frailey explores Lamb's life and photographic contributions, while captions by former Trains magazine editor Kevin P. Keefe add context to Lamb's imagery.

In the late 1980s, David Kahler was deeply inspired by seeing an exhibition of O. Winston Link photographs. He soon began making annual trips to the West Virginia and eastern Kentucky coalfields, destinations that strongly resonated with his own aesthetic of "place." Armed with a used Leica M6 and gritty Tri-X film, he and his wife made six week-long trips in the dead of winter to photograph trains along the Pocahontas Division of the Norfolk Southern Railway. Nearly one hundred images edited from this body of work form the core of The Railroad and the Art of Place, along with a selection of earlier Pennsylvania Railroad steam-era photographs that reflect Kahler's interest in the railroad landscape from an early age. Also included are three essays by Kahler, Scott Lothes, and Jeff Brouws, discussing the personal motivations, historical context, and aesthetic development behind the photography. With funding for printing provided by the Kahler Family Charitable Fund, all sales will go to support the Center's work.

Celebrating the sesquicentennial anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States , After Promontory: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Transcontinental Railroading profiles the history and heritage of this historic event. Starting with the original Union Pacific—Central Pacific lines that met at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869, the book expands the narrative by considering all of the transcontinental routes in the United States and examining their impact on building this great nation. Exquisitely illustrated with full color photographs, After Promontory divides the western United States into three regions—central, southern, and northern—and offers a deep look at the transcontinental routes of each one. Renowned railroad historians Maury Klein, Keith Bryant, and Don Hofsommer offer their perspectives on these regions along with contributors H. Roger Grant and Rob Krebs.

The Reverend Alan Newman is a unique railway enthusiast. Starting with a love for the GWR, as a young lad he moved to a house with an ex-MR line at the bottom of his garden, so changed his allegiance. Unlike most lads, he delighted in aged locomotives with character, rather than the latest express engines.

"Jim Shaughnessy is one of the most revered names in railroad photography, yet until now there has not been a monograph devoted solely to his work. Photo-historian and railroad enthusiast Jeff Brouws (A Passion for Trains) has worked closely with Shaughnessy to select 170 evocative photographs from his sixty-year career to create The Call of Trains - the first comprehensive overview of his life and work." "Shaughnessy began photographing steam locomotives in his hometown of Troy, New York, in 1946. Over the next decade-and-a-half he made numerous trips in pursuit of steam throughout the eastern United States, the far West, the Canadian provinces, and Mexico. He would go on to document the dramatic steam-to-diesel transition, capturing the trains, depots, workers, roundhouses, and back shops that made up the American railroad landscape. In later decades he faithfully recorded the changing fortunes of railroading in the Northeast as merger and contraction affected the industry. He is still actively photographing the railroad scene in 2008"--BOOK JACKET.

“All aboard the streamlined, Vista-Dome North Coast Limited leaving on Track 1 for Minnesota’s Lake Region, the vast prairies of North Dakota, Montana’s magnificent Rockies, Idaho’s lakes and forests, the Inland Empire of Spokane to Puget Sound country, and the great seaports of Seattle-Tacoma and Portland.” The Northern Pacific was always a progressive leader in railroading, and was the first to offer sleeping and dining car service from St. Paul to the Pacific Northwest. Covering the 30s through the '60s, this book's outstanding vintage photography highlights the North Coast Limited (the finest passenger train in North America), the faster Vista-Dome passenger trains, NP's team and diesel locomotives, and NP's Freight cars, Maintenance-of-way and Cabooses.

From the late 1940s onward, Wallace W. Abbey masterfully combined journalistic and artistic vision to transform everyday transportation moments into magical photographs. Abbey, a photographer, journalist, historian, and railroad industry executive, helped people from many different backgrounds understand and appreciate what was taken for granted: a world of locomotives, passenger trains, big-city terminals, small-town depots, and railroaders. During his lifetime he witnessed and photographed sweeping changes in the railroading industry from the steam era to the era of diesel locomotives and electronic communication. Wallace W. Abbey: A Life in Railroad Photography profiles the life and work of this legendary photographer and showcases the transformation of transportation and photography after World War II. Featuring more than 175 exquisite photographs in an oversized format, Wallace W. Abbey is an outstanding tribute to a gifted artist and the railroads he loved.