Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, the five states featured in this spectacular collection, once boasted nearly 45,000 route-miles of railroad within their boundaries.Photographs by the author and many other talented rail photographers capture the essence and the spirit of railroading in America's heartland.
The photos of freight and passenger trains are taken through the seasons by thirty nine photographers, captions are explanatory without too much technical detail, the books landscape shape helps display the trains better than an upright format.
After looking through the book a few times I was aware that I could tell if it was a Greg McDonnell photo, to my eye he seems to have a knack of framing the train in the composion and all the elements in the photo work together. This is not to say the other photographers are not as good as McDonnell (the famous Emery Gulash has a great dock and diesel photo on page 130) but his work clicks best with me.
Railroad fans are very demanding customers, they want raw energy, speed, sharpness, detail and very little moody, out-of-focus stuff that other photographers might say contributes to their best work, I suppose railroad photographers are basically involved in the reportage style. This and McDonnell's other book 'Signatures in Steel' of railroading in his native Canada are as good as it gets for train fans. Highly recommended.
