|
Vanishing Steam a Photographer’s Odyssey Around the World by Eric Langhammer
Vanishing Steam a Photographers Odyssey Around the World by Eric Langhammer
Hard Cover w/ dust jacket
159 pages
Copyright 2002
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION8
The Allure of Steam10
A Machine Apart12
A Doomed Technology24
Endgame for the Steam Locomotive30
Chasing the Steam Trail38
Steam Meccas46
2 Photographing Steam52
Steam in the Landscape54
Steam on the Main Line66
Cross-Country Routes70
Stations74
Loco Sheds80
Ancient and Modern86
Elegance and Style 94
Rare Birds100
Drama and Mood106
Low Light and Night114
The Latter Days of Steam 122
India: Steam on Four Gauges124
China: End of the Steam Age132
Cuba: Tropical Time Warp138
G: The Jingpeng Pass144
Afterlife: Steam Beyond the Steam Age152
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS160
INTRODUCTION
FOR SOME FIFTY YEARS, THE STEAM locomotive has been in terminal decline. It was phased out in the United States during the 19505 and in Western Europe between the 1960s and 197os, while lingering on in Eastern Europe until the late 198os and in scattered other parts of the world to the present. No form of technology, however, has generated such emotion at its passing. In the West, steam continues to exercise a romantic appeal to laypeople as well as aficionados-particularly in Great Britain, where hundreds of privately restored engines in pristine, museum-quality condition can be found trundling up and down preserved branch lines on weekends, or out on the main lines for special rail tours.
While heartening that so much of the Steam Age has survived, to the committed photographer of the subject these inevitably somewhat artificial re-creations of an increasingly distant reality-regular steam operations having ceased in the United States and Canada as far back as 1960, and in Britain in 1968-can in no way compare to the thrill of authentic, workaday steam. The desire to see steam locomotives at work in a natural, everyday environment spawned one of the oddest latter-day tourism phenomena: extensive overseas itineraries undertaken for the exclusive purpose of photographing steam in action. During the last thirty years, thousands of people have traveled abroad to pursue this particular agenda.
Such, moreover, is the spell cast by steam that hard-core vapor addicts will go literally anywhere, no matter how remote, primitive, or nonexistent the local tourism infrastructure, or repressive prevailing police attitudes toward photography. They will put up with grueling climatic extremes, with often grim hotel and travel conditions-with virtually anything, in fact, just to get another fix of the steam drug.
I myself am a self-confessed incurable case, having spent some three years altogether backpacking around the world in pursuit of steam since my first trip to West Germany as a teenager in 1974, including a marathon yearlong stint in India, Pakistan, and Turkey in 1984-85 and a nine-month tour of China in 1995-96. In common with many other people, the photographic pursuit of the world's last working steam locomotives has become a major leitmotif of my life.
Ever since my first overseas trip, I have spent innumerable happy hours poring over atlases with eager anticipation, planning future itineraries. Over the years, the steam locomotive has become inextricably associated with adventure and the lure of exotic, faraway places. Amid life's many vicissitudes, the constant changes undergone while progressing through the dream of time, this at least has been one firm, familiar fixture: the imperative to travel for steam.
Although it covers much ground, this book is not intended to be a comprehensive, country-by-country, historical overview of world steam in its twilight years. Instead, it simply presents one particular photographer's vision of a spectacularly animated machine in those places that he has managed to visit. Pursuit of the last steam locomotives must rate as one of the most cash-intensive life interests, and regrettably there are omissions I would rather have included-South Africa and what was then East Germany, for example, two top spots that I did not get to in time.
This, too, is part of the wider story of chasing steam. For with so many places to go in so little time, only the very luckiest during the past three decades have been able to comprehensively cover the eclipse of this superlatively photogenic machine in all the countries in which it could still be found in operation
All pictures are of the actual item. There may be reflection from the lights in some photos. We try to take photos of any damage. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
Shipping charges
US Shipments: Ebay will add $1.25 each additional items, there are a few exceptions.
Ebay Global shipping charges are shown. These items are shipped to Kentucky and forwarded to you. Ebay collects the shipping and customs / import fees. Refunds may be issued if you add multiple items to your cart and pay with one payment. For direct postage rates to these countries, send me an email. Shipping varies by weight.
Payment options
Payment must be received within 7 days. Paypal is accepted.
Terms and conditions
All sales are final. Returns accepted if item is not as described. Contact us first. No warranty is stated or implied. Please e-mail us with any questions before bidding.
Thanks for looking at our items.
| 
