Each year, we ask our readers to submit their best shots for consideration in our annual Center Spread Contest. Our theme is the very broad category of “creative photography,” which presents challenges for photographers and judges alike. After sifting through hundreds of potential candidates, we narrowed it down to the few selections seen here. We think you’ll appreciate the creativity that our contributors have shown in capturing these exciting images.
Keep an eye on Railfan & Railroad Magazine online (including Facebook, X and Instagram) and in print for details about the 2024 contest in the future.
Congratulations to all of this year’s winners! —The Editors
Runner Up: Anthony D’Amato
Switzerland’s Brienz Rothorn Bahn makes its impossibly steep push for the summit on August 24, 2023. Built in 1882, the steam-powered cogwheel railway tackles grades as steep as 25 percent as it climbs 5,500 vertical feet from the shores of Lake Brienz to the top of the Brienzer Rothorn over the course of just 4.7 miles of track.
Runner Up: Dave Blazejewski
Alaska Railroad’s premier train, the Denali Star, rolls south behind a pair of SD70MACs about 45 minutes from its destination of Anchorage after a 12-hour run from Fairbanks on September 2, 2015. This location is at mile 144.8 on ARR’s main line, a few miles north of the siding of Eklutna and right beside the Glenn Highway.
Runner Up: Adam Twombley
Providence & Worcester Train FPCH crosses New York City’s Hell Gate Bridge on the afternoon of July 11, 2022. Four C40-8s are bringing a long train of empty aggregate hoppers back to New Haven, Conn.
Runner Up: Dee Matyas
On the evening of August 31, 2022, a CSX employee throws a switch in East Deerfield (Mass.) Yard. The lack of maintenance by the previous owners is evident in the backlighting provided by the Norfolk Southern Geometry Train parked just out of frame to the upper left.
Runner Up: Eugene Armer
Arguably the greatest steam railroading show running in the northeast, Reading & Northern’s ex-Reading Railroad class T-1 4-8-4 2102 heads up its last fall foliage excursion for 2022, crossing the Peacock’s Lock Viaduct over the Schuylkill River on the cool, crisp morning of October 29.
Runner Up: Matt Csenge
It would be very easy to lose track of the world outside the brightly colored walls of the Rockaway Beach Surf Club while enjoying the tacos, refreshing beverages, and good vibes within. Thankfully, every 15 minutes or so a subway train rumbles overhead to remind you that you’re in fact still within the boundaries of New York City. One such train passes overhead on June 15, 2023.
Third Place: George Hamlin
BNSF Railway GP35 2647 and MP15 3702 switch Rices Point Yard in Duluth, Minn., on September 29, 2016. Late afternoon light creates long shadows in the view from Skyline Parkway.
Second Place: David McLeod
Charging through a thicket of semaphores, Pakistan Railways Consolidation 2306 heads out of Attock City during a December 2021 Farrail tour. Built in England by Vulcan in 1923, the 2-8-0 is one of three serviceable steam locomotives on the railroad. Despite the generous gauge of 5 feet 6 inches, the HGS class weighs a modest 81.5 tons in working order with only 26,760 lbs. of tractive effort, yet the HGS designation stands for Heavy Goods Superheated. The low photo angle lends a dramatic air to the scene, but it was also practical; I had fallen victim to the dreaded “Delhi Belly” and remaining upright was quite challenging. A hard bed of ballast was not exactly comfortable, but being horizontal was the safest option.