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American Steam Vol 1 Ben F Cutler By Robert Le Massena Signed #695 Damage
American Steam Vol 1 Ben F Cutler By Robert Le Massena Signed #695 1987 FIRST Printing 256 Pages
NOTICE THE PAGES are not flat,see the photos.
As long ago, at least to 1890, the steam locomotive has intrigued, fascinated and awed America's people. They have admired, hated and loved these mobile mechanical machines, which wrought universal effect on every aspect of the nation's activity. By 1921 there was enough amateur interest in steam locomotives for the formation of an organization, the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. Before that decade had ended photographs of steam locomotives were being made available to collectors through an informal group, which became known as Rail Photo Service. Anyone who took photos of locomotives and trains could deposit his negatives at headquarters in Boston, MA, and the group would prepare lists, make prints and handle correspondence. The photographer received a print for his files, and a portion of the proceeds from the sale of prints. Whoever made the prints was a master of photographic darkroom technique, as is abundantly evident in the originals. The enlarged prints demonstrate expert "dodging" to bring out shadow-detail in the locomotive's obscure elements, as well as to reveal the beauty of smoke and steam on a rainy day or the magnificent cloud formations illuminated by brilliant sunshine. Truly, he was an artist, just as talented as the photographers who took the original photographs, in which subject, background, lighting, aspect and timing were combined for only an instant of time to produce a memorable panorama.
The Rail Photo Service group, never a coherent organization, existed over a period of about fifty years, and handled the photographs of perhaps twenty amateurs and professionals who contributed their negatives. Unfortunately, those thousands of negatives have become-for all practical purposes-lost, excepting a few which somehow escaped that all-too-common fate. Ben Cutler's files contained about 2000 prints, very few of which have ever been seen since the day Ben filed them. From that remarkable and unknown treasury 400 of the very best photographs have been selected for this book, the only one devoted entirely to the work of a single Rail Photo Service contributor. However, among Ben Cutler's photos were several others taken by contemporaries-George Corey, Jack Pontin, Paul Stringham, Bernard Corbin, L.E. Griffith, and some who were unidentified. This selection depicts the steam locomotives of 50 North American railroads, very large to very small, during a twenty-year period which began with the onset of World War II and ended with the displacement of steam locomotives by standardized diesel-electric units. Whether the locomotives were out on the road working hard, or reposing in a dormant storage line, these portrayals of steam locomotives provide us with a remarkably intimate insight into their customary, and also unusual, activities.
Ben Cutler left very few notes regarding his photographs, but the author, a devoted student of the iron horse, was able to determine the essential data pertaining to the pictures, and then add his interpretations of the subjects: locomotives, trains, railroads and locations. Together, the photos and captions provide the reader with an exceptionally lucid panorama of American steam locomotives during their greatest years of service.
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