1958 - Recording Made on N&W Receives Honor

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Roanoke Times - March 30, 1958

Recording Made on N&W Receives Honor

   By Fred McCoy

BLUEFIELD, March 29 (Special) - Norfolk & Western steam locomotives 
as recording "artists" have won an award for famous industrial 
photographer O. Winston Link of New York, for his "hi fi" recording 
of "Sounds of Steam Railroading."
   The record, which was taped along the N&W, was selected from among 
the more than 12,000 new records released last year as one of the 67 
"Standout Discs of '57" by Hi Fi Guide and Yearbook.
   The recordings were made by Link over a two-year period taking 
classic photographs along the N&W, one shot of which won Link the top 
prize of $500 in the professional class of the Graflex, Inc., 
national photographic contest for 1957.
   Several of Link's exceptional N&W photos are reproduced on the 
jacket of the prize-winning album.
   The 12-inch recording of "Sounds of Steam Railroading" requires 45 
minutes to play. It captures all of the exciting sounds which are 
rapidly disappearing from the American scene, including the plaintive 
shrill of a passenger train whistle streaking through the night, the 
clanking of bells, switching at junctions, pumping air, calling the 
flagman, the clanking of coupling and the terrifying sound of a 
nearby engine popping off steam pressure, as well as many others 
familiar to rail fans.
   It even has the sound of the voice of veteran train caller "Buck" 
Stewart at the Roanoke depot repeating the traditional urgent 
announcement of the impending departure on a train.
   However the sounds of huge mallet engines straining up the 
Alleghany Mountain dragging 135 coal cars toward the summit at 
Bluefield is railroad realism at its most dramatic.
   The rumble, roar, hissing and ground-shaking reverberations as the 
monster iron horse extends itself to capacity, is captured through a 
special process which permits the powerful overtones to be 
reproduced. Most of this footage was recorded at the western portal 
of Montgomery tunnel near Christiansburg.
   Link, of course, is best known for his complicated night railroad 
photo scene calling for miles of wire and nearly 100 flash bulbs. 
These photographs have been reproduced in all leading railroad and 
train magazines.
  However in preserving for posterity the dramatic sounds of the age 
of steam railroading, Link has made a significant contribution to 
American culture.
   Just as the gasoline engine has driven the horse off the highways, 
so too diesel power is rapidly relegating the faithful iron horse to 
pasture. But the romance of the fiery steed has been embalmed into 
immortality in this authentic sound picture of this day and these times.

Photo Caption:
   N&W IRON HORSE - A dramatic night photograph of an N&W Y-5 mallet 
engine emerging from Montgomery tunnel near Christiansburg, adorns 
jacket of the Hi Fi record album "Sounds of Steam Railroading." Famed 
industrial photographer O. Winston Link used 60 flash bulbs and 
nearly a mile of wire to capture the power required to drag 135 cars 
up the eastern slope of the Alleghenies. (Link Photo)

-----------------------------------

Shameless Commissary plug:

   The above mentioned album is included in the 5 disc CD boxed site 
on our NWHS commissary:
    http://www.nwhs.org/commissary/cd.html

   We also have new unused/non-reproduction Link LP album covers as a 
set, including the "Sounds of Steam Railroading". Great for framing.
    http://www.nwhs.org/commissary/prints.html

-----------------------------------

- Ron Davis, Roger Link





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