5 thoughts on “Coal train going through center of mining town. Davey, West Virginia”

  1. What a nostalgic and atmospheric image, Andy. I have recently bought a couple of books about US steam, but they are rather generic; are there any that you could recommend? I so enjoy these LoC finds of yours.

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    1. Thanks Iain. I’ve got a few books on American steam, but not many as they’re only really available mail order in the UK. Requiem For Steam by David Plowden is good, as are most of his books of photographs for that matter. The other obvious one is O.Winston Link as there are a number of his books available. Interestingly, although Link is most associated with the dramatic night photography, he did a lot of regular daytime photography as well. Life Along The Line is the most recent compendium of his work, but the older ones (Steam Steel and Stars, and The Last Steam Railroad in America) are also favourites of mine. There are also a couple of books of Jack Delano’s railway photographs although I haven’t yet bought them as they are a touch pricey – The Railroad Photographs of Jack Delano, and Railroaders. Thing is I’ve seen so many of his Library of Congress photographs, that I’m not sure I’d be looking at anything new!!!

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      1. Thank you, Andy, that is very useful. I hadn’t heard the name David Plowden, so I will look him up. I was wondering about buying one of the Winston Link volumes…now I think I will go for an earlier one. I didn’t know that he did daylight photography as well. All the US titles are ( understandably ) so pricey that I wanted to be sure before parting with the hard-earned 🙂

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      2. David Plowden isn’t really known on this side of the pond, but has published a number of volumes of photographs over the past 50 years on trains, steamboats and the industrial landscape. He’s made a career of staying ‘one step ahead of the wrecking ball’ – a man after my own heart! And you can’t go wrong with any of Link’s books although there. Jim Shaughnessy is also well regarded although I don’t have any of his books, probably because I have little interest in diesel traction.

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      3. Thanks, Andy. Is see that David Plowden is indeed a man out of the same mould as you! Quite amazing the range of fascinating subjects that he has studied. If I am not careful I will spend all my money on his books 🙂 Finding out about steam across the pond is proving to be a very rewarding study, thank you so much for the pointers.

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