Product Description

Between 1955 and 1959, Link traveled up and down the Norfolk & Western's divisions, taking pictures of the trains, towns, and people who worked on the railroad and lived beside it. Published here for the first time are photographs he made in daylight, as well as at night and on the branches of the railroad not covered in his first book, Steam, Steel & Stars. 124 photos, 100 in duotone, 24 in full color.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #779104 in Books
• Published on: 1995-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

From Booklist
From 1955 to 1960, commercial photographer Link devoted all the time he could to the Norfolk and Western Railway, which ran four lines in the upper South from its hub in Roanoke, Virginia. With the company's cooperation, he recorded what made it special--it was the last U.S. railway to operate with steam engines. Moreover, as Thomas H. Garvey imparts in the generous accompanying text here, Link worked in ways then as rare as steam locomotives--with large, tripod-mounted view cameras and, because he preferred working at night when he could exert more control over lighting, he used scores of flashbulbs that were set off precisely at the time calculated to allow for a particular exposure. One album of those night images, Steam, Steel & Stars (1987), has appeared, and more of them are here, along with many daytime views and a little sampling of the few color pictures he made (including the only two color shots taken at night). Technical marvels, they are also aesthetic miracles, charged with human feeling because Link cared for the communities that lived along the NW and for the railroad's employees more than for its gigantic machinery and buildings and because he is a master of natural-looking dramatic lighting. His pictures are as lyrical as they are powerful, as numinous as they are romantically materialist: masterpieces. Ray Olson

Customer Reviews

excellent photography of a by-gone era of steam railroading
This might be the finest book I have ever read on the subjects of B&W photography, steam railroading and the history of a railroad . The photographs are excellent and the descriptions of the technique used to create them is first rate. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to remeber the days of the great steam locomotive and a time in America that, unfortunately, is long gone.

Outstanding-Renews many memories from that era.
This book not only depicts outstanding photography, but helps one to understand something about the author and the people involved with the railroad and surrounding communities. Some of the color photographs are more like paintings than photographs.

An excellent followup to Steam Steel and Stars.
This book includes some of Link's color photos which were not in the original book, and more information on how the night photos were taken. It also includes updates on some of the subjects in the early book.