Posted on by admin

Railroad Street

The Heart of Community, Commerce and Connectivity

Railroad Street was at one time the center of commerce, and thus one of the most important and well-known places in each community that hosted the road. Whether the road was followed with the suffix of Street, Avenue, Place, Way or Circle, civic boosters took pride when they could add this name onto their local plat. It meant that their community, big or small, had access to that all-important connection to the outside world. For it was from Railroad Street, where people, goods, mail, parcels, and even telegrams could reach beyond the town limits to the outer world.

Here, one generally found the depot, and often a separate freight house. With a connection to markets beyond their own, businesses that depended on economical transportation bought land parcels here to gain access to the tracks. Grain elevators, warehouses, mills, lumber yards, coal and oil dealers, and manufacturers of everything imaginable moved onto Railroad Street.

Read more
Posted on by admin

Richard Steinheimer

Iconic photographer’s work joins North America’s largest archive of significant railroad photography and artwork

A Southern Pacific track worker walks the tracks near San Francisco’s Bayshore Yard in January 1950. Photograph by Richard Steinheimer

The Center for Railroad Photography & Art recently announced that it has acquired the majority of the photography collection of Richard Steinheimer, one of the world’s greatest rail photographers, who blazed a trail of creativity across California and the American West for six decades and inspired generations of photographers. The collection includes nearly all of Steinheimer’s color photography, a vast collection of his majestic black and white prints, plus black and white negatives and scans, exhibition prints, and more.

Read more
Posted on by admin

The Twin Bridges 
of Ridge Avenue

There’s a little mystery in Old Allegheny City—why did the Pennsylvania Railroad build parallel bridges, only a block apart, over their mainline and why are both on Ridge Avenue? Allegheny City was annexed by the City of Pittsburgh in 1907, so the answer is lost to history. These twin bridges mark the eastern end of what is known locally as “The Trench.”

Read more
Posted on by admin

Editor’s Notebook

Road Trip – Part Three

Limon Heritage Museum and Railroad Park

Colorado

I drove out of Kansas and into Colorado on an overcast afternoon. Later that day, I would arrive in Denver to spend a few days visiting my sister. Not much time for stops along the way, but while looking for a place to eat lunch, I came across the Limon Heritage Museum and Railroad Park in Limon, Colorado. The Museum is housed in the former Rock Island depot, which was built in 1910. Unfortunately, the Museum was closed the day I was there, but I was able to walk around the grounds and take pictures.

Read more
Posted on by admin

A Moment at Arcola

Arcola is a small town located in the vast prairies of central Illinois.  Like many small towns, much care has been taken in fixing up the downtown area.  In Arcola, this includes numerous murals painted on downtown buildings.

Arcola plays in the lore of the passenger trains of the Illinois Central Railroad.  So the story goes, a passenger stopped the conductor as he was walking through the train.

“Excuse me.  What is the next stop?”
“The next stop,” said the conductor, “is Arcola.”
“And what stop is after that?”
“The stop after that is Tuscola,” replied the conductor.
“Let me guess,” said the passenger.  “The stop after that is Pepsi Cola.”
The conductor shook his head.
“No sir.  Champaign.”

Whether or not this exchange ever actually happened is open to debate, but Arcola has not been a scheduled stop for a passenger train in decades.  It remains notable however, since one of the murals features an Illinois Central E-Unit in the original passenger colors from the forties with the reference to the famous song proclaiming “The train they call the City of New Orleans.”

Amtrak’s version of “The City” still passes through Arcola, one of three daily round trips, and this photo shows the northbound Illini passing with the mural in the background on a late September afternoon in 2015.

Mary McPherson – Photograph and text Copyright 2022

Posted on by admin

Tracks & Traces

Road Trip – Part Two

At the Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s Conversations 2022 in Chicago last month, I was talking with some friends about my planned trip westward after the conference. Bryan Bechtold recommended a route across northern Kansas, following the railroad through the small towns that still remain in this prairie landscape.

This video presents a collection of photographs from my time in Kansas.

Edd Fuller, Editor