In the winter of 1942–3, photographer Jack Delano was assigned by the Office of War Information (successor of the Farm Security Administration) to tell the story of the American railroad system and its essential role in keeping the nation’s troops armed, fed, and housed, in addition to normal homefront railroad work. Delano’s boss was Roy E. Stryker, the visionary leader of FSA photography projects during Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, documenting social conditions during the Great Depression. The best of Delano’s photographs compare favorably with images made by such other famed FSA photographers as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. Delano’s photographs of railroaders in Chicago, the nation’s railroad hub, captured life in the yards, shops, and environments of the freight lines. He concentrated on the men and women who made the railroads tick: those employed directly in train service as well as many working behind-the-scenes in repair, maintenance, and bookkeeping. These superb portraits and their subjects’ milieus have never before been published as a collection, and they are reproduced here magnificently. Extraordinary documentary text complements the images. Editor John Gruber and others at the Center for Railroad Photography &amp; Art researched the railroaders’ lives and wrote their biographies. Delano’s son Pablo, himself a professional photographer, made new portraits of many of the railroaders’ families and wrote a reflection on his father’s career. The book also includes essays by historian Jeremi Suri on the railroad and modern America and by editor John Gruber on Delano’s railroad assignment. Railroaders breaks new ground for the genres of railroad books and historical photography books. These workers’ compelling, universal stories create a composite history not only of railroad work but of labor in the first half of the twentieth century. Winner, George W. and Constance M. Hilton Book Award, Railway &amp; Locomotive Historical Society

Railroaders: Jack Delano's Homefront Photography

Arts & Photography

Holzhueter, Mr. Jack

Lothes, Mr. Scott

Photography & Video

Center for Railroad Photography & Art

In Railroads and the Art of Place: An Anthology, a team of thirty contemporary and historical photographers--whose work is displayed across eighteen portfolios--visually contemplate the visible and philosophical imprint of the railroad on the American landscape. Combined with lucid, literary essays by Kevin P. Keefe, former editor of Trains magazine, noted transportation historian Alexander B. Craghead, industrial historian Matt Kierstead, and the late Michael Flanagan (author of Stations: An Imaginary Journey) the book, conceived by David Kahler, is sure to set a new benchmark in the field of railroad photography and transportation studies. Produced to the highest standards and featuring 230 color and black-and-white photographs, this deluxe 372-page book printed on heavy stock portrays a storied industrial culture in an entirely new context. Produced by the Center for Railroad Photography & Art and generously funded by the Kahler Family Charitable Fund.

The Railroad and the Art of Place: An Anthology

The Railroad Photography of Donald W. Furler showcases the black-and-white imagery of a master of the craft. Furler (1917-1994) grew up in New Jersey and helped pioneer the "action shot" to show trains at speed. He faithfully and dramatically documented the final decade of steam operations in the northeastern United States with technically-superior and often creative images portraying the trains in their environments. While his work appeared frequently in early issues of Trains magazine in the 1940s and 1950s, it has rarely been seen since. As someone who helped write the rules for railroad action photography, an examination of Furler's photography is long overdue.

The Railroad Photography of Donald W. Furler

Lothes, Scott

Railroads and photography came of age together in the nineteenth century and share a dynamic relationship in the twenty-first. That relationship flows from the traditions of both commercial photography and photojournalism, and it is defined today by the paradox of continuity and change. 
This landmark publication explores that paradox―and the contemporary nature of the North American railroad―in more than 230 photographs and thirteen essays. They delve into a wide range of topics: railroads and nature, pathways of commerce, passenger railroading, heritage activities, workers, international connections, the allure of continent-crossing networks, and how the passage of time marks both railroads and photography. That last notion is at the heart of this book. Railroads invented standardized time, time came to govern railroads, and photography records moments in time. 
The nature of visible changes on the railroad is often that of great steps followed by long plateaus, and this nature can imbue the railroad with a false sense of continuity. Yet more changes always come. Photographers portray these changes over time, capturing visual records of the present before it becomes the past. They seek the bold, new innovations as well as the relics of anachronism. Although recent changes to the railroad have made its equipment more homogenous, its landscape more sterile, and its impact more hidden, these photographs show that the modern railroad is still dramatic, bold, diverse, evocative, and utterly vital to the global economy. 
Drawing from the Center for Railroad Photography & Art's talented community of image-makers and from their own lifelong interests in railroads and the visual arts, editors Alexander Craghead and Scott Lothes present a stunning body of work. It commemorates the Center's 25th anniversary while making a compelling case that the union of railroads and photography is as rich and potent as ever.

Continuity & Change: The Lure of North American Railroads

The Denver & Rio Grande Western's spectacular narrow gauge lines in Colorado and New Mexico provided the stage for the last great steam locomotive show in North America. Railroad photographers from all over the country came to document, portray, and interpret these lines in their final decades of the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing from its rich collections, the Center for Railroad Photography & Art showcases the best of their work in this deluxe, hardcover volume. Essays by noted authors Don Hofsommer and Karl Zimmermann, both of whom experienced the narrow gauge lines first-hand in the 1960s, provide context and personal insights. The 10x10 book includes a map and nearly 200 photographs in both black-and-white and color.

Rio Grande Steam Finale: Narrow Gauge Railroad Photography in Colorado and New Mexico

Zimmermann, Mr. Karl

Hofsommer, Prof. Donovan