Railfan for Life
Enjoy a rich journey across the American railroading landscape through the lens of our founder Hal Carstens!
In this new book from Carstens, you’ll enjoy more than 100 pages of color photos selected by our editors spanning Hal’s trackside adventures from the last sixty years. From coast to coast, from steam to diesel (and trolleys, too), from main lines to short lines and everything in between!
white have much to offer, but consider that most of the steam era in North America coincided with the maturing and development of black and white pho- tography. They developed as parallel technologies and photography came into is own as an art form contemporary with steam railroads. Of course there was also art in the railroads themselves, in- cluding industrial design and architec- ture. They do go well together. Moreover, traditionally, most of the great railroad photography that so many of us admire was done in black and white. Just think, for example, of the work of William Hen- ry Jackson, and more recently Richard Steinheimer, Jim Shaughnessy, Richard Kindig, Robert Richardson, Ted Benson, Phil Hastings, O. Winston Link, Robert Hale, and David Plowden to name a few well respected and appreciated photog- raphers. This is not to discount the at- tractiveness, or the artistic merit of good color work, and certainly not to under rate its immense value to modelers, but black and white certainly has a great ap- peal and beauty. All of the photos in this book have
been taken of surviving steam opera- tions on such railroads as the Nevada Northern, Mount Rainier, Durango & Silverton, Cumbres & Toltec or the Sumpter Valley, and on mainline steam runs on the Union Pacific and BNSF. There is a surprising diversity. I’ve been to many of the locations inter- preted in the book, and have been there when some of the pictures were taken. It is fun to see how someone else saw the same moments, like the Cumbres & Toltec’s rotary train of 1997, or viewed places we’d both been to, and it also presents food for thought... Why didn’t I see that possibility?
Steam is obviously gone from day-to-
day railroading, and in practice has been gone for at least half a century. However, it really is surprizing just how much survives and how evocative and interesting the preserved steam can be. Of course, it is impossible for any book of photos with images taken in the last two decades to bring the Pennsy and huge roundhouses back to center stage, or recapture SP cab for- wards on Donner Pass. But there is still so much there to see and savor. In oth- er words, it is not too late to experience at least some of the key elements of steam railroading. If you needed a rea- son to go out to see steam, in all kinds of weather, this book provides a good incentive for visiting steam operations at railroad museums, tourist and her- itage railroads. In North America we usually use the term tourist railroad but I like the European term heritage railway more. Heritage it seems to me emphasizes the value of places like the Nevada Northern or the Cumbres & Toltec that preserve so much railroad heritage as well as catering to tourism. Besides the photos of Joel Jensen,
there are other contributors to this book. John Gruber, himself a talented photog- rapher, speaks clearly and informative- ly about the importance of railroad her- itage in the essay he contributed to the book. He outlines the development of railroad preservation, and of railroad photography and the widespread recog- nition of the importance of railroads to American history. Jeff Brouws adds an afterword that looks closely at Joel Jensen’s style and approach to photog- raphy. I found both well worthy of con- sidered attention. Jeff Brouws notes tellingly that “Jensen’s motivation is to
SPRING
You won’t want to miss this special collection, order your copy today!
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CARSTENSBOOKSTORE.COM (888) 526-5365
Carstens PUBLICATIONS, INC. 30 MARCH 2012
MARCH 18, 2012
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