Railroad drone photography with Brandon Fiume

Steam locomotive with motion blur and mountain scenery.

Railroad drone photography Digital photography is constantly improving, and these advancements are empowering photographers to push the boundaries and implore new styles of photography. A new style that has recently emerged reinvents the classic, pan and pace. Using a low shutter speed and a steady hand, this style allows photographers to focus on the subject […]

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What could a Big Boy West Coast Steam Tour be?

A Big Boy locomotive leads a yellow passenger train through the Great Plains.

On the same route of the proposed Big Boy West Coast Steam Tour, Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 leads a matched UP office car train westward through Speer, Wyo., in 2019. Jim Wrinn photograph There was a collective groan that could be heard from many railfans west of the Rockies in 2022 when the Union […]

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Intense media focus on derailments belies long-term safety trends

Firefighters watching burning railcars

Why are there so many derailments? Freight train derailments have been in the headlines since the disastrous Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern wreck in East Palestine, Ohio. Some have been spectacular, like the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train caught on video at a grade crossing in Springfield, Ohio.; the fiery derailment of a BNSF Railway […]

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Beyond the byline with Kevin Gilliam

North Carolina guy on a train

What was your first byline in Trains? Kevin Gilliam: My first byline was what became a Trains Trackside (previously Trains Presents) five-minute video that was concurrent with the Norfolk Southern 21st Century Steam Program visit to Asheville, N.C., in April 2013. More of those short videos followed, eventually culminating in the first feature-length 611 In Steam […]

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