FULL SCREEN Photo by Bryan Bechtold Runner-up: To appreciate the daunting task of the transcontinental railroad builders, you need only go west to Wyoming. The modern Union Pacific Railroad remains tested by the same vast landscape that challenged the pioneers. In a scene repeated for 150 years, a manifest train climbs out of Rock River, […]
2019 Grand Prize: Ben Duncan This photograph captures my perceptions of American westward expansion. It creates a tension between ideas of East and West, past and future, static and dynamic, confinement and freedom. Taken on my first visit to the western United States, it depicts the Sumpter Valley Railroad, which runs close to one of […]
2018 Grand Prize: Todd Halamka Having lived and worked in Chicago for nearly my entire adult life, the city continues to nurture two passions — buildings and trains. The Chicago River and the Loop elevated rail are two key components that define the urban core. The newly opened Chicago Riverwalk invites residents and visitors to […]
FULL SCREEN Runner-up: Before I was of driving age, I railfanned Tacoma, Wash., using my father’s small boat: buzzing up and down the Tacoma Narrows and other waterways, gathering knowledge of photography and railroad operations. After getting my license, I continued to photograph trains from the water. From my boat, May 5, 2013, in Tacoma, beachgoers […]
2017 Grand prize winner: I have been a Manhattanite for decades therefore I abhor leaving my island and crossing water. But I will for the No. 7. Opened in 1915, this 22-station New York City subway line carries more than 800,000 daily riders on its mostly elevated route. With a little Lucky 7 luck, I […]
FULL SCREEN Brandon Townley A Loram crew sprays water to prevent fires from forming, following the rail-grinding process on Norfolk Southern’s Sandusky District in Chatfield, Ohio. FULL SCREEN David Honan Westbound manifest train M-LAUPAS passes through this dramatic scene on Montana Rail Link’s 4th Subdivision at Hope, Idaho, on Aug. 31, 2014. FULL SCREEN Mitch […]
FULL SCREEN Victor Hand Erie Lackawanna E units lead a passenger train through fall foliage at Pond Eddy, Pa., on Oct. 11, 1964. FULL SCREEN Victor Hand Four Central Railroad of New Jersey locomotives lead a freight train along the Lehigh River at Leslie Run, Pa., in fall 1964. FULL SCREEN Victor Hand Erie Lackawanna […]
Grand Prize winner: A reflection of a BNSF Railway engine in water droplets near Old Monroe, Mo., on the BNSF K-Line. Barry Gaston This year we are publishing our 77th volume, so it seemed fitting to call the 2017 Trains Photo Contest “Lucky 7.” As always, you can interpret our theme in any way you […]
