Nolan Gregory
Noel, Missouri
A large amount of my time last spring was spent documenting the last days of the iconic Kansas City Southern before their merger with Canadian Pacific. As per the usual pattern in the industry, one company does the hard work of creating a profitable rail network with character and a unique footprint in its operating region, all for someone else to swoop in and pirate that success as their own. I wasn't around the see the great success stories like the Santa Fe and Wisconsin Central, but I played the cards I was dealt and documented what became arguably my favorite railroad of all time until its literal final moments.
I found myself with flashes deployed on the banks of the creek at Butler Bluff as the clock struck midnight on KCS's last day (or night I should say), exactly one year ago. In an almost prophetic fashion, the final train I photographed that night was this GKCIHI13 led by one of the last new locomotives ever delivered to the railroad. Dawn would bring immediate change as every KCS marking in sight was arrogantly replaced with classless modern CPKC lettering while company executives and politicians gathered in Kansas City to essentially put the nail in the coffin of this treasured railroad.
In the time since then, inevitable feelings of regret have set in when thinking about how much more I could have done. Railroad photography is so much more than simply taking photos of cool trains. To me, it's the task of documenting the entire image of a railroad to tell a story about its history, the many towns its right of way passes through, and the skilled union men in every craft from carmen to train dispatchers that spend long days and nights away from their families to ensure the freight moves. The KCS changed my entire perspective on railroad photography. Take photos of signs, depots, and every other aspect possible of your favorite railroad because change happens fast, and as they say, ETTS.
Noel, Missouri
A large amount of my time last spring was spent documenting the last days of the iconic Kansas City Southern before their merger with Canadian Pacific. As per the usual pattern in the industry, one company does the hard work of creating a profitable rail network with character and a unique footprint in its operating region, all for someone else to swoop in and pirate that success as their own. I wasn't around the see the great success stories like the Santa Fe and Wisconsin Central, but I played the cards I was dealt and documented what became arguably my favorite railroad of all time until its literal final moments.
I found myself with flashes deployed on the banks of the creek at Butler Bluff as the clock struck midnight on KCS's last day (or night I should say), exactly one year ago. In an almost prophetic fashion, the final train I photographed that night was this GKCIHI13 led by one of the last new locomotives ever delivered to the railroad. Dawn would bring immediate change as every KCS marking in sight was arrogantly replaced with classless modern CPKC lettering while company executives and politicians gathered in Kansas City to essentially put the nail in the coffin of this treasured railroad.
In the time since then, inevitable feelings of regret have set in when thinking about how much more I could have done. Railroad photography is so much more than simply taking photos of cool trains. To me, it's the task of documenting the entire image of a railroad to tell a story about its history, the many towns its right of way passes through, and the skilled union men in every craft from carmen to train dispatchers that spend long days and nights away from their families to ensure the freight moves. The KCS changed my entire perspective on railroad photography. Take photos of signs, depots, and every other aspect possible of your favorite railroad because change happens fast, and as they say, ETTS.