The Train as Art

Photographer Jim Shaughnessy first turned his lens on trains in 1946 at age 13. Over the following 20 years, he chased trains around New England and Canada, documenting the fall of steam engines and the rise of diesel locomotives — all in gorgeous black and white.

Shaughnessy approaches the machines with a documentary eye, with art as a welcome byproduct. His extensive body of work includes some of the most important historical photographs of locomotives from the era.

Still an avid train photographer, Shaughnessy lives in his hometown of Troy, New York, a formerly bustling railroad hub that shrank as railway use dwindled. Wired.com talked with him about his photography and his fascination with trains. Click through the gallery to read the interview and see selections from Shaughnessy's upcoming book, The Call of Trains, to be released Nov. 3.

Canadian National Spadina Avenue engine-servicing facility in Toronto, Ontario, 1957

"This is an arty picture which I normally wouldn't have taken," Shaughnessy said. "But I had taken every other possible angle so I thought this would be good. And it turns out it really fills the bill for people who like arty photos.

"And the more I look at it, the more I like it. It's just a big industrial-type scene and the fact that it's backlit only increases the drama and enhances its dirty effect.

"A lot of the pictures we used in the book have never been printed by me before for any purpose. As it turns out, I wish I had taken double the pictures I did take, because you can't go back now."