Tag Archives: Quarto Group

The Twilight of Steam Reviewed in Classic TRAINS

Jpeg of the Classic Trains review.
Jpeg of the Classic Trains review.

Rob McGonigal has reviewed my book The Twilight of Steam in his magazine Classic Trains. He gives special kudos to John E. Pickett’s excellent photography, while mentioning many of the contributing photographers including George C. Corey, John Gruber, Jim Shaughnessy, Ron Wright, and my late friend Robert A. Buck.

If you haven’t seen the book, check it out! I think it is my finest effort to date. All black & white and superbly reproduced. I’d examined thousands of period black & white photos and selected a choice few for inclusion. Not to be overlooked are the skilled efforts of Fred Matthews, Gordon Roth, Bill Vigrass, and Phil Weibler, who were all in the enviable position of being there when steam worked the rails.

One of the premises for the book is that the majority of the photographs were made when steam was still in regular revenue service. While there’s a few views of special trips, all the photos were made in the steam era. I’ve let a few diesels in too, albeit often off in the distance.

It’s available from Voyageur Press.

Thanks for the great review Rob!

 

TRACKING THE LIGHT SPECIAL POST: Radio Interview with KSEN AM

The Jerry Puffer Show Interviews Brian Solomon.

Radio host, Jerry Puffer at KSEN 1150 AM (Shelby, Montana) will broadcast the interview on Wednesday June 18, 2014 in the 4:30 pm slot (4:30 pm Mountain Time/6:30pm standard time/11:30pm in Dublin and London). You can tune in via the internet.

On the KSEN webpage use the ‘Listen Live’ feature. See: http://ksenam.com/jerry-puffer/

or ksenam.com.

Brian spoke with Jerry for about 25 minutes, and discussed railroads, photography and Ireland, as well as his new book The Twilight of Steam, and Tracking the Light!

For anyone who wants to tune in, Jerry said that Brian will probably come on at about 4:36 pm mountain time (after introductory commentary, and other events).

Check it out!

Don’t forget, 6:30pm Eastern Standard Time Wednesday June 18th, Brian Solomon will be speaking on the Jerry Puffer Show KSEN 1150 AM!

Brian’s book, The Twilight of Steam was published by Voyageur Press.

http://www.voyageurpress.com/

Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.

Please share Tracking the Light!

http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/

 

Brian Solomon’s The Twilight of Steam, Behind the Scenes

John E. Pickett, Steam Hunter.

John_Pickett_with_his_Graflex_P1520078
John Pickett with his Graflex in July 2013. Photo by Brian Solomon

John E. Pickett is among the great photographers I featured in my book The Twilight of Steam. A life long friend of Jim Shaughnessy (also featured), John has had the opportunity to photograph steam locomotives all across North America.

In the 1940s, he was fortunate to grow up in Canajoharie, New York, located just across the Mohawk River from New York Central’s four-track mainline at Palentine Bridge. His early experiences watching the parade of Hudsons, Mohawks, and Niagaras working the Water Level Route inspired him to make wonderful photographs of locomotives at work before diesels took over.

John's early New York Central photos were exposed with 616 Kodak Monitor but he later bought a National Graflex that had a relatively fast Bausch & Lomb f3.5 lens and 1/500th of a second top shutter speed, and then a Series B Graflex with a top shutter speed of 1/1000th.
John’s early New York Central photos were exposed with 616 Kodak Monitor but he later bought a National Graflex that had a relatively fast Bausch & Lomb f3.5 lens and 1/500th of a second top shutter speed, and then a Series B Graflex with a top shutter speed of 1/1000th.

The Twilight of Steam features dozens of John’s images and tells of his experiences and techniques.

The Twilight of Steam was published by Voyageur Press and will be available from June 15, 2014.

I’ll be revealing more about the book over the next few days! Stay tuned.

Tracking the Light posts new material every morning.

Please share Tracking the Light!

http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/