All this talk of railroad badges on hats reminded me of a story.
Back in the 1980s when I was producing the Hopewell Productions video, "Queen of the Fleet" about N&W "J" No. 611, I wrote a letter to O. Winston Link. I wanted to interview him for this video because he was instrumental in convincing the N&W to save the J and the 1218. This was before the days of email and internet, so a type-written, hand-signed letter was what I sent. About a week later I got a very nice but somewhat formal letter in the mail back from him. In that letter he said that he would agree to do this interview, provided that the interviewer did not have long hair and was not wearing a hat full of railroad badges!
I wrote back and told him that I had found a single railroad badge in my desk that I immediately threw away. I also told him that I had checked around the office and the only person here with long hair was my wife, The Lovely and Gracious Linda. That broke the ice! Winston's next letter to me was a very friendly one, and we established a time and place to shoot this interview. It's in the video.
Winston was one of the most talented photographers ever to point a camera at a train. This is perhaps his most famous and best-known image, shot at the drive-in theater in Ieager, West Virginia.
You can see a large collection of Winston's work HERE.
