ABOVE: No. 611 appears to be leading a night train into the station at Roanoke. On the bench are members of the Roanoke Valley Re- gion of the Antique Automobile Club of Amer- ica who not only brought out their vintage vehicles but posed for numerous other shots.


LEFT: Porter Charles Hardy helps passengers with their bags while conductor Charles “Skip” Salmon punches tickets. Charles is a retired Norfolk Southern dispatcher and the son of a Roanoke passenger station red cap; his uncle was a dining car waiter.


keep equipment moves to a minimum during any given shoot, participants who were there for


all four shoots


wound up with a tapestry of 1950s steam-era railroading, not only of the locomotives but of the entire surround- ing scenes. There were passengers ar- riving to meet the trains by bus and car, people waiting on the platform as the train arrived, passengers transfer- ring from bus to train. There were also


scenes inside the coaches of conductors and porters helping passengers. On the working side, plenty of scenes were set up featuring railroaders maintaining the massive locomotives. While photography most often con- centrates on the trains, we sometimes forget that the railroad is a part of a larger world around it. Many times we strive for “people free” shots, or pur- posely keep things like automobiles out


of the frame. Yet it is those vintage pho- tos that include passengers in period clothing with classic cars waiting at crossings that we seem to remember the most. As passenger trains have di- minished form public view over the last forty years, there has been renewed in- terest from a new generation of railfans to recreate the “passenger experience” from the postwar era. Having a number of appropriate actors and scenes to


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