At the risk of posting something that might be more appropriate in Railfanning, I am placing this here, partially because I find some of the photos impressive, but also because while we are into preservation and historic accuracy, let us not forget the experience of what rail travel can be:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2015/ ... l_dt_tw_ru

I saw those photos also, and really enjoyed them. However, I was somewhat bemused by the accompanying article identifying O. Winston Link and David Plowden as "19th century railroad photographers" [since corrected, thank goodness]. (Plowden is still alive and taking pictures, so he's a 21st-century railroad photographer!)

The NYC Glenwood powerhouse in Yonkers, NY (first picture) is a simply gorgeous structure, certainly worthy of preservation, and that lonely stretch of single track at Napeague, NY (fourth picture) is a place that's dear to my heart. (There was formerly a LIRR flag stop there pre-WWII, complete with wooden shelter.)

However, the two photos on the old West Shore RR (now CSX River Subdivision) at Storm King gave me shivers. Yes it's beautiful, but he had no business being out there!

In the winter version you can just make out the famous NYC tunnel at Breakneck Ridge just across the river, however.

So what is the larger value of this work in terms of advocacy for railroads and railroad preservation? The comments from Slate readers are almost entirely negative, critical of the photographer's technique, of the landscape of the Northeast, and of trains and train travel in general. Reading them, I fear we have a long way to go before we can get much of the public interested and involved in our mission as rail preservationists.

-Philip Marshall