Visit Link’s Astonishing Railroad Photos

Check out the O. Winston Link railroad-related photography in our Link museum. The world-class photos not only document the end of the steam train era on the Norfolk ad Western (now Norfolk Southern) tracks, they represent unique photographic techniques.

An example of this is a photo from Link’s Abingdon Branch scenes. Considered his favorite railway line, the exhibit includes several color works. The Abingdon Branch locomotives only ran during the day.

To capture an image in both color and black and white, Link used two separate cameras to capture the same image simultaneously, creating a vibrant record of rural life along the line in Southwest Virginia.

The Link Museum collection comprises the  photographic and auditory works developed by photographer-artist O. Winston Link between 1955 and 1960. A successful commercial photographer from New York, Link brought his studio outdoors to create carefully arranged images designed to convey the end of the steam propelled Norfolk & Western Railway and the communities and countryside along the right of way.

Link’s works cover much of Western Virginia and bordering portions of North Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland.