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Otto Perry’s Railroad Pilgrimage Hard Cover Oversize
Otto Perrys Railroad Pilgrimage
Hard Cover with plastic protective cover
164 pages Approx 16 x 11.25 inches
Copyright 1981
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I D&Rgw Narrow-Gauge Travels 9
Ii As The Eagle Flies-Rgs43
Iii Three Foot Narrow-Gauge Lines Of Colorado 75
Iv Standard-Gauge Railroads Of The Rocky Mountain Region 103
V Beyond The Rocky Mountains129
INTRODUCTION
Otto Perry was one of that rare breed of individuals who would prefer to chase trains and photograph them, rather than eat, sleep or work. Otto never married, having found satisfactory home-life with his parents and family as they took care of his daily needs. For nearly 25 years, Otto lived within shouting distance of the Denver & Rio Grande Western mainline, his house located at No. 3 Fox Street in Denver, Colorado.
Otto's love life with trains probably began in earnest once his parents, Frank and Clara moved to Denver in 1907, along with his younger brother and sisters, Elmer, Viola and Nellie. Otto started photographing with his father's box camera shortly after 1913, and in 1915 he purchased an Eastman 3A folding Kodak, that used postcard film. This size film produced excellent contact prints, making enlarging unneccessary, so common with today's 35mm cameras. Otto traveled sometimes 100 miles by bicycle, until 1920 when he purchased a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. For many long years Otto worked for the Post Office taking advantage of government holidays for lengthy excursions, and using his vacation time to advantage, traveling to all corners of the United States to record on film, the railroads of that day. One of Otto's outstanding achievements was his 16mm movies that are often shown at Rocky Mountain Railroad Club meetings. A majority of photos were probably obtained under extremely difficult conditions due to the lack of paved roads and slow automobile travel of that day.
On occasional visits to Otto's home, he would tell me many of his experiences while out photographing trains. These visits were especially enjoyable, while we sat beside the fireplace amid the clutter of railroadiana that represented years of Otto's collecting. Otto's pride and joy was his attic where he housed a large collection of railroad lanterns from such bygone railroads as the Colorado Midland, Colorado Central, Denver South Park & Pacific and many more. Running about on the attic floor, Otto had a lengthy miniature railroad made up of American Flyer equipment. The locomotives were in what is referred to "S" scale today, and ran very well. Otto's house was probably built sometime at the turn-of-the-century, with the kitchen still sporting the old coal fed stove, a time consuming device, to say the least. It was here that Otto based his lifestyle as one of America's leading railroad photographers. Over a period of 57 years he made more than 20,000 negatives of railroading all over the U.S.A., as well as in Canada, Mexico and Europe, but scenes on Colorado's railroads predominated. It was always a great joy to have Otto ride up to Sundance on his bicycle to show off great handfulls of postcard photos. As one could imagine, one of my greatest desires was to bring out a book on Otto Perry.
This pictorial shows but a glimpse of the incredible variety of photos Otto had taken. And naturally the subject material should start off with the D&RGW narrow-gauge, one of Otto's favorites. The photos of this pictorial came mainly from the collections of David S. Digerness, Richard A. Ronzio, Elmore Frederick, Bill Jones [formerly Morris W. Abbott], and Dell McCoy, they having obtained them personally from Otto's own darkroom work. Otto Perry's negative collection now resides with the Denver Public Library Western History Collection.
Otto Conrad Perry was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on December 21, 1894 and died December 23, 1970. A great many railfans miss you-Otto Perry.
Dell A. McCoy 1981
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