Steam & Excursion > Steam Files - Southern Railway #12

I happened to look down on a stack of old RAILROAD magazines that I've been meaning to re-read and this one was on the top of the pile.
A splendid painting of a Southern 4-8-2. I have always admired the covers on that early era of Railroad Magazine, and if there was ever a book published with them I'd buy it in a heartbeat. The corner of the cover somehow got cut off over the last 82 years, but no matter.

This one is from December 1943, and I think it would sure look good hanging on my wall.

The painting was by Frederick Blakeslee and named Mountain Sun Shower.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/25 07:01 by train1275.

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That has always been one of my favorite issues. I started collecting the old pulp digest size Railroad's as a teenage railfan in the late 60's. Inside Railroad there were stories never told anywhere else and photos never seen anywhere else - like Ps-4 1401 draped with the flag, waiting for the FDR funeral train to arrive. Young hostler Bill Sams posed beside the 1401 he got ready and decorated. Less than 30 years later I would ride monster freights with him with RS-3's with no. 6 brake stands on the point. I learned so much from the technical articles too. I really enjoyed the articles and notes from old SOU men like H.G. Monroe.

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I've got a collection of random issues of Railroad Magazine purchased from drug stores in the late 1960s into the mid 1970s, and I agree about the stories and photographs not seen elsewhere.  Much of that material is classic, including at this point in time, even the nostalgic non-railroad advertisements.  (And then there are the Virgil Staff photos!)  When Carstens acquired the magazine and merged it into Railfan, Jim Boyd and company republished a few of the articles for preservation, aware that R&R's slick paper coatings would outlast Railroad's pulp pages. 

Another publication that I miss is the late John Gruber's Vintage Rails.  Anyone who'd have the nerve to print the Rio Grande's John Norwood's cooking recipes and run a three-part article about Richard Steinheimer amongst surveys of FTs and Lackawanna's big steam power into New Jersey surely got my attention.

There may not yet be a publication consisting of Railroad's cover paintings; however, the Center for Railroad Photography & Art has just put out a book about the artwork that Kalmbach commissioned over the years to illustrate its articles and grace its book and magazine covers.  The exhibition of this material continues through mid-August at the Grohmann Museum in downtown Milwaukee.  Having attended the opening there as part of CRP & A's "Conversations 2025" last month, the artwork brought back a lot of memories, and the backstories were fascinating.    

If I had a wish list, I've often hoped for a book that included the best frontispieces from Trains Magazine - you know, the one- or two-page short articles and a photo that ran in the magazine.  Many of these were DPMs, but there were guest authors as well.   

Splendid & thanks for the post :-)

Hopefully, someday the old Railroad magazine can be archived and indexed so we can go back and read it and gather information and photos. I had a few of those but can't have things like that around anymore as am deathly allergic to the mites that impregnate old paper. I gave away or sold my magazine collection.

Victor Baird



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/25 21:17 by wabash2800.

I have a collection ot Railroad and Railroad Sories magazines. I mostly bought them so I could read all of Harry Bedwell's fiction, much of whoich is not available elsewhere. Love the tecnical article about steam too.

Can anyone make out the engine number? It appears to be a Class Ts-1 assigned to the Asheville Division, but in my opinion the mountains seem to be more western than eastern. It is still a very nice painting. The Class Ts-1 was made up of USRA Light 4-8-2 locomotives which were allocated to Southern Railway.. The Asheville assigned ones received minimal modifications.

Please note - no red cab roof.

It is indistinct, I tried the best I could, but I don't think it was painted as to be readable.

I was thinking the location to be the old bridge near Burnside, KY coming out of Tunnel 4 and crossing the Cumberland River, but I really don't know the terrain and geography all that well.

train1275 Wrote:
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> It is indistinct, I tried the best I could, but I
> don't think it was painted as to be readable.
>
> I was thinking the location to be the old bridge
> near Burnside, KY coming out of Tunnel 4 and
> crossing the Cumberland River, but I really don't
> know the terrain and geography all that well.

That's interesting!

It's very unlikely the the Asheville Division Ts-1s would run there. The CNO&TP had some. Five of the original Southern Railway engines were later transferred. However they would have received distinct details such as the Wimble smoke duct.

And after all, it is an artistic rendition, and in my thought a very impressive one wherever it is.
I like to think it is west of Old Fort in any case rather than on the CNO&TP, and the Asheville Division was the focus of the story in the magazine too.
But the bridge makes me think more of Burnside.

And I agree with you about the mountains, but again, it is a painting, and one I'd love hanging on my wall !
 

Now you know where the term "artistic license' came from. <G>

But Railroad magazine had some great cover paintings. As a kid, I bought a small, soft cover reading book though a school reading program. It was the called the "Phantom Brakeman and other Railroad Stories", IIRC.  I don't know who did the artwork (sketches) in the book, but they really stirred my imagination.

Victor Baird

I forgot to mention that the little book I reffered to was written by Freeman Hubbard, who was an editor for Railroad magazine.

Victor Baird