By about 1960, steam locomotives were a thing of the past here in the United States. But in 1971, when I was stationed in Germany, there was still active steam on the rails and I had the opportunity to photograph steam locomotives in everyday service (don't remember ever riding on one though).
I shot trains in Mannheim and Heidelberg, and I believe this picture was taken in the train station at Mannheim, although my record-keeping from that time is non-existent and my memory is cloudy on things that happened 40 years ago. For that matter, my memory is a little cloudy on what happened yesterday.
Notice the passenger cars behind the locomotive; they looked old-fashioned even in 1971.
The engineer looking back out the window at his train is a "decisive moment" that really adds to the photo.
ReplyDeleteThanks Robert--I wondered if anyone would even notice the engineer in this small web version of the picture.
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