"Night Trick" on the Norfolk and Western Railway.

with a print of the cover image

O. Winston Link's first publication with a vintage print of the cover image. In the mid-1950s, Norfolk & Western was one of the few remaining American railroad companies that continued to use steam instead of diesel-powered engines. Between 1955 and May 1960, when the last steam engine ran, Link documented the final years of the steam engine and the erosion of the American rural landscape. While working as a successful, technically accomplished industrial photographer, he experimented with complicated lighting set-ups to photograph trains at night in his spare time. Having a lifelong love of trains, he submitted a proposal to the head of the Norfolk & Western Railway asking permission to photograph at night the trains, people and buildings along the route, which ran from Norfolk, Virginia, to Cincinnati and Columbus and the North-South lines, which crossed it. 'Night Trick' is the name given to the night shift by those railmen working it.

First edition, with a vintage print of the cover image; oblong 4to (215 × 278 mm, 8½ x 11 in); black-and-white photographs and a map printed in relief halftone; wire-stitched photo-illustrated wrappers printed in yellow; light wear along spine and edges, handling marks and light rubbing to lower side, a very good copy; [16]pp.
'J. R. Harrell, Powhatan Arrow engineer': vintage gelatin silver print, (image: 193 × 242 mm, 7½ x 9½ in; sheet slightly larger, rough cut along bottom edge); Link's early 'Owl' studio hand stamp, his copyright stamp, and an inventory notation in pencil, on verso, crease across bottom right corner, light handling marks, some mirroring.

Steam, Steel, & Stars p106; The Photobook: A History II, pp188-9.