Trains That Passed in the Night

In early 1955, New York industrial photographer O. Winston Link discovered the Norfolk and Western Railway, the last large railroad in America to be operating exclusively with steam power. The image of these great engines was so powerful, and the realization that they would soon disappear so strong, that Link decided to document their last years in operation as a personal task of commitment and love.

Early on, Link developed a unique technique of photographing steam locomotives at night and at speed, using huge flashbulb arrays. Not satisfied to work only at night, however, Link also documented the railroad during the day, and even made recordings that are now preserved in the Library of Congress.

Thomas Garver worked with Link for a year as an assistant, making three trips with him to make photos and recordings. Later, he was Link’s business agent and wrote the text for the second book of Link’s railroad photos. Following Link’s death in 2001, Garver became the organizing curator for the O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Virginia.

In this slide-lecture, Garver reveals how Link developed his signature style and applied it to a massive project to create a visual record of a quickly vanishing technology and way of life.

Admission: $6 adults, $4 seniors, $3 students, free for BMAC members and children under 6