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West From Omaha A railroader's odyssey by Jack A. Pfeifer w/ dust jacket
West From Omaha A railroader's odyssey by Jack A. Pfeifer
Hardcover with Dustjacket Some fading on back
208 pages
Copyright 1990
CONTENTS
PREFACE 7
IOWA 11
NEBRASKA 45
COLORADO77
WYOMING121
POTPOURRI 165
"WEST FROM OMAHA" is more than just a book of pretty-colored pictures. It is, in fact, an odyssey . . . a journey, if you will, following one man's life on the railroad.
Like his father before him, Jack Pfeifer was a career railroad man with over forty years service on the Union Pacific. Being born and raised in a railroad atmosphere in Council Bluffs, Iowa it was only natural he follow in the family footsteps. Sixty days out of high school he fulfilled his boyhood dream by going to work for the UP at the road's Omaha, Nebraska headquarters.
Jack's interest in photography began at age 12 when his father presented him with an inexpensive box camera. By the time he was 16 he had accompanied his dad on several rail photography related trips, including one to Los Angeles on his own. In 1938 he was the youngest of 42 fans on the famous "6000 mile railfan tour," a two-week trip through 15 states and over eight railroads ranging from Colorado's Manitou & Pike's Peak cog railway to the historic Virginia & Truckee and western giants like the Milwaukee Road and Southern Pacific. It was on this trip, which included such notables as Edgar T. Mead and Rogers Whitaker (aka/"E. M. Frimbo"), that he was first exposed to the Colorado narrow gauge; thus beginning a love affair with that unique brand of railroading that has not abated over the years.
After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II he returned to his railroad career and his picture taking. Early on in his photography the box camera gave way to a 616-size camera and later a folding Kodak. But the turning point came at Christmas in 1949 when his wife gave him a 35mm Eastman Kodak Retina. The Retina, manufactured in West Germany, was an outstanding camera and, for serious photographers like Jack, there could be no finer present. It cost about $95, which was expensive in those days, yet because of its excellent Schneider lens, and the fact it was easy to handle and small enough to fit into a coat pocket, it soon found favor with amateur and professional photographers alike. Noted rail photographer Dick Kindig used a neat trick in mounting a Retina on top of his series "D" Graflex so he could shoot color and black-and-white photos at the same time. Jack still has his Retina and, after forty years service, it's still going strong. (See Mike Pearsall's still life photograph on page 8 of the Preface.)
Equipped with this camera and Kodak's excellent Kodachrome film, Jack began shooting slides in earnest. First around his hometown of Council Bluffs and later the places he was transferred to in the course of his position as Senior Claim Agent with the UP - Green River, Wyoming, Salt Lake City, then Portland, Oregon. His sidetrips and vacations also took him to California, Minnesota, Kansas and even exotic locales like Cuba (before Castro!). As a member of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club he made several trips to Colorado. This included the well-known and oft-photograhed last fan trip on the fabled Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge in 1951. On another trip to Colorado the following year Jack's Retina recorded in color the Denver & Rio Grande Western's remaining three-foot-gauge lines as well as the scrapping of the Rio Grande Southern.
Jack Pfeifer's photographs cover a span of time that is a favorite with fans and modelers - the transitional period of the 1950's right down to the present. While steam, and the Union Pacific, have always been his favorite subjects he realized that the diesel was here to stay and thereafter turned his attention to photographing in color the first-generation units of not only the Union Pacific but "fallen flags" such as the Burlington, Rock Island and Milwaukee Road as well.
This book is divided into chapters of the places Jack either worked or visited. Iowa and the area around Council Bluffs is first, followed by Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming, with particular emphasis on the UP's main line over Sherman Hill. Finally, there is a catch-all chapter - "Potpourri" - of various railroads, trains and places he traveled to during his long career. Each photograph in "WEST FROM OMAHA" was carefully chosen by the author for its interest and quality from a collection of over 2500 slides.
What makes his photographs so unique is not just the color or subject matter. These factors alone might be enough; yet there is something more . .. each picture appears as fresh and vivid as the day it was taken, with a feeling and composition that truly captures the spirit and drama of railroading.
Although Jack Pfeifer retired from the Union Pacific as Senior Claims Agent in 1982, he has remained active in a variety of railroad-related organizations. Besides the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club and the Camerail Club, which he helped organize in 1950 to preserve on film the rail activities of the Council Bluffs/Omaha area, he is a member of several historical societies, including the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. In 1984 he was a crewmember on the historic NRHS-sponsored run of the famous Southern Pacific GS-4 "Daylight" engine to the Louisiana World's Fair and return. He is also an active HO-scale model railroader and has one of the largest home layouts in the Northwest. Jack makes his home in Beaverton, Oregon with his wife, Betty, and family.
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