Welcome to the RRPictureArchives.NET contributor site of Thomas C. Ayers.
"So," you might ask, "what's with all of these photos and articles about the Pennsylvania Railroad?"
When I was really young, my Mother would take my brother Jim and me for walks along the Pennsylvania Railroad's tracks in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where we'd be serenaded by steam locomotives switching cars back and forth. It kinda figures we'd end-up there, since her own Father was a PRR locomotive fireman and engineman for 50 years.
When I was a little older, I found that I was obsessed with trains. First, there was the Lionel Lines layout in the basement. Then there was watching trains. Then there was photographing trains. And all-along there was the melancholy sense that something really, really extraordinary had just passed . . . it was the "Age of Steam" . . . and I had just missed it!
Now that I have just signed-up for Social Security, I've found that I have over 1,500 black-&-white photos and color slides of Pennsylvania Railroad trains and equipment ~ and that I took most of them during the eleven-year span between the end of the "Age of Steam" on the PRR and the creation of the Penn Central Railroad (i.e., 1957-1968). Many of those photos and slides are now published herein.
Over the years, I have also acquired a lot of PRR-related ephemera ~ including a complete collection of "Pennsy" magazines and the first 12 years of "Trains" magazine. By means of eBay auctions, I've bought large numbers of PRR-related negatives, prints, and slides from the collections or estates of Nathan Dahms, John S. Fisher, Roy Healey, Douglas C. Jones, Raymond C. Laws, Brad Mann, Gary Mittner, Harold K. Vollrath, Henry C. Westenberger, and others. In a like manner, I've purchased large quantities of "Al Chione" slides from Lewis Fols, Tim Howerter, and Tim Rose. It's my intent to scan and process, upload and annotate them for both fun and historical reference.
I've also re-published a large number of PRR-related images that were first published in Facebook by the late William E. Burket of Altoona and the late Edward Kaspriske of Laural Run, Pennsylvania.
Long live the Pennsylvania Railroad, if only on film!
Monday, 04 July 2016
Revised: Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Revised: Friday, 09 March 2018
Revised: Monday, 06 August 2018
Revised: Sunday, 17 March 2019
Revised: Tuesday, 01 0ctober 2019
Revised: Thursday, 03 September 2020
Revised: Monday, 15 March 2021
Revised: Wednesday, 11 May 2022
Revised: Sunday, 31 July 2022
Revised: Thursday, 01 June 2023
You may browse my collection of pictures via the menu located on the left hand side of the page. I hope you enjoy the collection and thanks for stopping by!