Bill Gordon Photos

He’s awesome and a really nice guy too!!! 

These photos are just awesome!!!!!!!!!!! 

Job well done 

Big Jim posted:

I would strongly suggest that if you have an interest steam railroading that you take the time to go through the entire twelve pages of Bill Gordon's photos. In particular if you have an interest in the N&W and logging railroads, even a little Tweetsie. You are going to find a lot of very interesting photos there!

hey Jim. Great pictures. Is some of the territory part of your old stomping grounds.  (subdivisions  you've worked?)

Some of the best pictures, I've seen anyways. Something more about the angles and the scenery incorporated into the shots? I think some could learn from these angles.

 There's shots of older diesels that are my favorite. The older EMD's and GE's look amazing. That's where my interests peak. Some rare shots of everything too.

Frisco E8 crossing a road in Alabama. Chessie, B&O, Family lines, CSX, NS, etc., etc. Nice stuff.

Bill's work is a true treasure to the railroad community and hobby. Unfortunately news hit us fans yesterday that Bill has passed away. Quite a life for a man that was able to explore and capture such timeless scenes and open up a book of Americana that few saw. Hope the big man upstairs has the Bluefield WV yard filled with Y6bs for you Bill! RIP.

Wow. I'm so sorry to hear that news. 

Gregg posted:

Big Jim posted:

I would strongly suggest that if you have an interest steam railroading that you take the time to go through the entire twelve pages of Bill Gordon's photos. In particular if you have an interest in the N&W and logging railroads, even a little Tweetsie. You are going to find a lot of very interesting photos there!

hey Jim. Great pictures. Is some of the territory part of your old stomping grounds.  (subdivisions  you've worked?)

Yes, a lot of them were.

I'm sorry to hear of Bill's passing.

I've met him a few times in the past, but wasn't familiar with his shots.  He was a rather quiet and unassuming man.  Wish I had talked to him more when I had the chance.

Kent in SD

Looks like he documented the N&W as much as Link did.

His photography will be featured in a presentation during an annual meeting held by the Center for Railroad Photography & Art next month. A few months ago an article, written by him, in the CRP&A's quarterly magazine mentioned his railroad travels and his inspirations for doing what he did. I was even more thoroughly impressed by the gear he used which paled in comparison to what Link had at his disposal. Also, this man was able to capture all of this without the business connections to the N&W that Link had at his fingertips. Quite impressive if you ask me. 

Don't be afraid to check out his Buffalo Creek & Gauley as well as his Kentucky & Tennessee albums. Great stuff!

Great stuff!  These pictures take me back a few years.  My childhood was spent in Elizabethton, Tn. just love these pictures.

His range of tone in black and white is as impressive as his photo composition.  He really had a good eye and knew how to print.

Wonderful images. Glad you posted this, Big Jim. May have never seen these otherwise.

My wife and I have been up to Keystone many times, wish we would have met Mr. Gordon up there. I have a feeling it would have been as much fun talking to him as enjoying his photography.

Ed

Love these, thanks for a great post.

Thank you for posting! I'll be busy for a while looking at his wonderful images! From what I've seen so far, something for everyone, Steam, early diesel, to modern day!

Rusty

Sadly, these beautiful photos are no longer hosted on the Flickr link in the OP. Anyone know if these have ever been published in book form? I can find a few of his photos here and there with a google search but I’d love to see that whole set again.

Flikr is ever tightening the noose around the neck of the free account users. Could be that Mr. Gordon got tired of the BS. "Free" online services typically boils down to the point concerning money that the "free" accounts are either going to have to go payware, or close out their account.  In Flickr's case, that equates to over $100 per year. I can understand the situation for corporations in regards to offering a free account (costing them more than its worth), then pressuring the freebies to go payware, but its frustrating nonetheless.

Well, according to this thread Mr. Gordon passed away a little more than 4 years ago. I'm hoping his legacy is preserved somewhere. His photos were beautiful and very vivid. He did a stellar job of capturing N&W steam in their natural habitat. You can find some of his photos out there (without attributes of course ) but it would be great to get the set Big Jim was kind enough to share with us. I poked around on the NWHS site but didn't find anything.

I did not know that the link had expired. There has been someone posting his photos on Facebook lately. I'll see what I can dig up.

What little I could find is that after Bill's passing the Flikr site died too and that the NWHS is in talks with the family about the images. Let's hope that they can be saved as Bill's photos were as good as any out there!

Is this one of his books?

Gary