O. Winston Link Photography

O. Winston Link’s photographs of the final years of steam railroading on the Norfolk & Western Railway, the last major railroad in America to operate exclusively with steam power, are regarded as one of the best records of this long vanished type of locomotion. Yet the broad appeal of these photographs comes not from the images of the steam locomotives themselves, but from the way in which the photographer used them to express his deeply felt respect for the quality of life that the steam railroad reflected and supported. In fact, the emphasis in Winston Link’s photographs is often placed more directly on the life along the line than on the machinery of the railroad itself. For Link, the steam railroad was a vital ingredient to the good life of America, an essential part of the fabric of our lives, and it is this quality—of life not of machinery—which he captures so tellingly in his photographs.