I found out earlier this week that David Plowden has announced a new book, Requiem for Steam, to be published by W.W. Norton this fall (2010). I also just bought the Spring 2010 issue of Classic Trains magazine, and it included a lengthy excerpt from the upcoming book.
Even if you are not a railroad enthusiast, Plowden is one of the outstanding photographers of 20th Century America whose work has focused on recording the once commonplace things that are vanishing from the American scene. In the article in Classic Trains, Plowden describes a photo excursion that he undertook in March, 1960, to document the last day of regular-service steam operation on the Canadian Pacific Railway.
By the early 1960s, steam locomotives had all but disappeared from North America. When I was in Germany in the early 1970s, steam was still alive, and I was able to take pictures of working steam locomotives. The picture above was taken by me in the early Spring of 1972, near Heidleberg, Germany.
I've looked at David Plowden's online galleries and they are superb. This shot reminds me of when I was about 8 years old and one Sunday after dinner my dad and uncle and I walked over by the train yard and watched the last steam locomotive pull into that rail yard. Quite the spectacle for a small boy.
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