The Call of Trains: Railroad Photographs by Jim Shaughnessy

A majestic collection celebrating the life and work of one of the deans of railroad photography. Jim Shaughnessy is a revered name among railroad photographers. This collection, the best of his work over a forty-year career, features 170 duotone photographs taken between 1946 and 1988, with an emphasis on the railroad culture of the fifties and sixties. Jeff Brouws—a railroad authority and photo historian—has contributed a biographical essay that traces Shaughnessy's beginnings photographing steam locomotives in his hometown of Troy, New York, to his documentation of the dramatic steam-to-diesel transition, with an emphasis on the northeastern United States and Canada, where the concentration of railroad action and often deep snow resulted in beautiful and unusual images. Not just a compendium of photographs of locomotives, this book covers the whole railroad world—the sheds, tunnels, viaducts, yard stations, and more. It is a wonderful document of what is arguably railroading's most compelling era. 170 duotone photographs.