Where can I find railroad pictures for publication?

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Hey guys, experienced editor and aspiring author here, got an idea for a book on trains of the south and west. Researching facts, figures, and history is no problem. But I'm clueless as to how to go about gathering pictorial materials to back up the text. Stuff I see online is (I presume) copyrighted and therefore not reproducible without permission of the owner (how would you know who that is?)--and assuming I made a trip to headquarters of the present-day railroads, would they let me dig through their photo archives? I guess I could write the text, then send it to a publisher and (assuming they liked it) let them worry about finding photos, but that doesn't seem like the best way to proceed. If anyone can point me in the right direction here, I'd be much obliged.

-- Bill Crockett (TXRRCowboy@aol.com), January 07, 2000

Answers

Check out Virginia Tech's Digital Library & Archives. They are online at http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/imagebase you will want to click on advanced search and then in the drop down window you have some choices of rail collections. Of course there are many ways to search the database. There is a small fee for a good print.

You may also want to check out their railroad collection at http://scholar2.lib.vt.edu/spec/railroad/rrintro.htm

Good luck, Holly

-- Holly Hansen (htholly@webpipe.net), April 21, 2000.


Bill - To directly answer your question, "Where do I buy railroad photos?", I'd suggest you visit your nearest model railroad hobby shop and buy a copy of TRAINS magazine and MAINLINE MODELER magazine. TRAINS has a classified advertising section in the back, one category of which is photos. The most recent issue had about a dozen ad's from people wanting to sell railroad photos. MAINLINE MODELER has display ad's from a number of photo dealers such as McCarter, Big Four Graphics, Alco photos, Allen County(the Lima collection), etc. For a $10. outlay you'll have enough railroad photo sources to get you going. Any photos from any of these sources that you use in a book will have to be credited to the source, and in many cases additional money will have to be paid over and above the costs of the prints. TRAINS magazine can sometimes be found in chain bookstore magazine racks if you don't have a model RR shop near you. Hope this solves your question. Tom.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), January 29, 2000.

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