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: David McLeod
Silhouetted against a twilight sky, chunky Pakistani HGS class Consolidation 2306 rolls along 5-foot 6-inch rails in December 2021.
Runner Up: Eugene Armer
A New York City Transit Manhattan-bound “Q” line subway train negotiates the double-deck elevated section between Coney Island-Stilwell Avenue and W 8 Street-New York Aquarium past Coney Island’s famed amusement park on August 30, 2018.
Runner Up: George Hiotis
At sunrise on November 27, 1979, a New York & Long Branch (Conrail/NJDOT)commuter train, headed by a GG1, crosses SA Draw over the Raritan River into Perth Amboy, N.J.
Runner Up: Rick Malo
At 4:23 p.m. on May 19, 2024, an eastbound BNSF stack train, pummeled by the winds and rain on its climb out of the Canadian River valley, crests the grade near Coburn, Texas, as the heavens unleash a fury that would eventually spawn four tornadoes over Oklahoma.
Runner Up: Camron Settlemier
Coos Bay Rail Link is crossing the Cherry and Mallard Arm of Tahkenitch Lake late in the evening on June 30, 2024. The bridge, north of Reedsport, Ore., is one of six on Tahkenitch Lake with another visible in the background.
Runner Up: Joel Poland
BNSF GP35u 2547 and C44-9W 643 power the Northgate Local through the humble hamlet of Hartland, N.D., with tonnage from north of the Canadian border on June 20, 2024.
Third Place: Bob Avery
At 8:30 a.m. on November 2, 2021, a two-foot gauge steam train of Ffestiniog Railway in Wales heads into the rising sun with silhouetted semaphores standing guard.
Second Place: Al Crossley
As if to mock the clotted traffic on North Torrey Pines Road at left, Northern County Transit District (Coaster) Train 640 breezes south toward San Diego on March 13, 2024, viewed from Torrey Pines State Park south of Del Mar, Calif. Still, the last laugh may belong to the Pacific Ocean, whose gradual erosion of the beaches and cliffs here threatens both road and rail modes.
