A friend wants you to know this was his favourite Jim Shaughnessy photo.
favourite Jim Shaughnessy photo
The 6173, the St. Albans station, and now Jim Shaugnessey. They're all gone.
Make you want to weep, but what can you do? You can't freeze-frame time.
At least Jim's left a body of work behind we all can envy, and it'll live for years.
And I'm sure going to miss his contributions to "Classic Trains."
Excellent choice.
I'm sorry to hear of Jim's passing. For a Rutland fan like me, shaking his hand would have been like a devout Catholic kissing the Pope's ring. At least, I get to enjoy his books, his contributions to CT, and hia appearances on videos produced by Tell Tale Productions of Vermont. I passed through his hometown of Troy, NY, on July 28, while returning home from New England. He was lucky enough to witness things most of us could have only dreamed about; the Rutland 4-8-2's and the Corkscrew Division. God rest his soul(if one may still say that)!
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Troy- James J. Shaughnessy, 84, of Troy, passed away peacefully on August 7, 2018.
Born in Troy, he was the son of the late James A. Shaughnessy and Helen Goodwin Shaughnessy and loving husband of 57 years to Carol MacNaughton Shaughnessy.
Jim was a graduate of Catholic Central High School, class of 1951, and went on to get his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from RPI graduating in 1955. He loved to cook and was an excellent chef. He also enjoyed traveling with his wife Carol to Ogunquit Maine, Stowe Vermont, Mexico and Europe, especially Ireland. Jim was very proud of his Irish heritage.
Over his career he held various positions including professor of civil engineering at Hudson Valley Community College, engineer at both the New York State Department of Transportation and Rensselaer County Highway Department, design engineer at Kestner Engineers P.C., a private water and wastewater consulting firm, and Director of environmental health for the Rensselaer County Health Department.
However, he was most well-known for his brilliant second career as a nationally renowned railroad photographer, author and historian for nearly 70 years. He was one of the driving forces that helped reshape American railroad photography in the 1950s. His work has appeared in over 100 books and been featured in Trains, Railroad, Railfan andClassic Trains magazines. He authored seminal books on the history of two railroads, Delaware & Hudson (1967) and The Rutland Road (1964), and his photography has been the subject of two monographs: The Call of Trains (2008) and Essential Witness (2017). He was awarded a lifetime achievement award for photography from the National Railway and Locomotive Historical Society in 1987.
In addition to his wife, Carol, James is survived by his son James D. Shaughnessy (Laura) of Schodack, and his grandchildren, Keira and Kevin.
Calling hours will be held Friday, August 10, 2018, from 4 to 7 PM at the McLoughlin & Mason Funeral Home, 8 109th Street, Troy, NY 12182.
Funeral Mass will be held at 10 AM on Saturday, August 11, 2018, at Our Lady of Victory Church, 55 N Lake Ave, Troy, NY 12180. Burial will follow at Oakwood Cemetery, Troy.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at www.stjude.org/donate, Shriners Hospitals for Children at https://donate.lovetotherescue.org, the Center for Photography and Art at http://www.railphoto-art.org/support, or the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society at 161 Gilmore Road, Wrentham, MA 02093.
Please visit www.mcloughlinmason.com.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital501 St. Jude Place, Memphis TN 38105Tel: 1-800-805-5856Web: http://www.stjude.org/
Shriners HospitalWeb: http://www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org
Center for Photography and Art313 Price Place, Suite 13, Madison WI 53705Tel: 1-608-251-5785Web: http://www.railphoto-art.org/support
Railway and Locomotive Historical Society161 Gilmore Road, Wrentham MA 02093
There's still time to send flowers to the Visitation at the McLoughlin & Mason Funeral Home from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM on August 10, 2018.
Send Sympathy Flowers
Essential Witness features photographs from Jim Shaugnessy’s 60 years documenting the evolution of the North American railroad.
When Jim Shaughnessy began photographing the American railways, the transportation infrastructure was in a major time of change. In the 1950s and ’60s, diesel trains were replacing the steam locomotives whose chimney exhaust had rose above the steady expansion of the lines. As the 20th century went on, local tracks were abandoned, highways consumed much of the freight traffic, and former railroad passengers took to airplanes or their own cars for travel.
Shaughnessy, now in his 80s, has an archive of around 60,000 images that chronicle these decades of railroad activity. Jim Shaughnessy Essential Witness: Sixty Years of Railroad Photography, out now from Thames & Hudson, features a survey of 150 images. The black and white photographs concentrate on the era of midcentury flux, and the cultural environment of the railroad. Trudging through snow to get the right angle on a locomotive as it barreled over a winter landscape in Quebec, or framing a quiet scene where a cat rubbed against the leg of a night watchman in Hardeeville, South Carolina, Shaughnessy sought to capture every aspect of the railroad.
“Always restless, even daring when he had to be, Shaughnessy worked hard to get in and around the railroad, in all conditions, in all settings,” writes Kevin P. Keefe, former editor-in-chief of Trains magazine, in a book essay. “If the life of a crossing watchman was important, then Shaughnessy shuddered through a subzero night until the perfect moment when his subject dashed back into the warmth of a shanty. If the guts of a steam locomotive were interesting, then he’d insert himself into the depths of roundhouses and sidle up next to the hostlers in order to record the oily intricacies of valve gear and side rods.”
Born in Troy, New York, in 1933, Shaughnessy published his first photograph in Trains in 1952. While the detailed captions in Essential Witness are those of a true rail enthusiast (the “Pennsylvania Railroad 11-class 2-10-0” is identified as chugging over an elevated bridge), his images have a broader appreciation for how people exist with the railroads in North America, and how these systems altered the landscape. The silhouette of a tunnel in Canaan, New York, in 1989 reveals its jagged edges, framing the train with this rock that was blasted through for progress. Sometimes the trains are tiny against the mountains or waterfalls, sometimes the focus is elsewhere, like a 1953 photograph that concentrates on the cows in a Vermont pasture, unperturbed by the freight train zooming behind.
Some of the most compelling images are at night, when Shaughnessy uses available light rather than flashbulbs or other artificial illumination. A GG1 electric locomotive, its curves given streamlined style by industrial designer Raymond Loewy, appears spectral with its headlights shining through an Ivy City, Maryland, service facility. In a 1961 photograph, a yardmaster on the back of a caboose in Mechanicville, New York, is spotlit by his lantern. Essential Witness is notably free of any train calamity or collision. Instead, it uses Shaughnessy’s lifetime of railroad photography to visualize these moments of industry, and the people behind them.
Jim Shaughnessy Essential Witness: Sixty Years of Railroad Photography is out now from Thames & Hudson.
By Margaret M. Knight
When Jim Shaughnessy ’55 took his camera to Troy’s Union Station in the winter of 1946, he wasn’t planning to reinvent railroad photography. He was simply 13 years old and curious—curious about steam engines and about how to capture their power and grandeur on film. That curiosity became fascination and the fascination became a passion that holds him still. Shaughnessy is still photographing trains. His “hobby” has resulted in more than 100,000 images that capture the trains, bridges, yards, sheds, and people of the railroad world from the days of steam locomotives through the transition to diesels. A civil engineer, now retired, he has authored and illustrated two books of railroad history: The Rutland Road (1964) and Delaware & Hudson (1967). His work is featured in more than a hundred books, and he has been published in every major U.S. rail magazine, as well as Adirondack Life and Down East. In 1987 Shaughnessy received the coveted Railway and Locomotive Historical Society’s Fred A. and Jane R. Stindt Lifetime Achievement Award for railroad photography.
Sheer genius.
How about an all Shaughnessy issue as a tribute CTT staff?? Maybe an SIP issue with proceeds going to his favorite charity?
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
Penny--I would purchase that issue!
Look over these images. Empire State Building in full view and check out that coach yard!
Penny Trains How about an all Shaughnessy issue as a tribute CTT staff?? Maybe an SIP issue with proceeds going to his favorite charity?
Count me in on that one Becky, they produce it, I'll buy it. Or maybe two or three while I'm at it, you know, spread the joy around?
I saw Mr. Shaughnessy give a talk on the Rutland RR at Rutland during the 2015 NRHS convention. It was the feeling of being in the room with a legend.
In the book "New York Central In The Hudson Valley" (Kalmbach 1995) the caption says "This high-level view of 30th Street Yard clearly shows the elevated main line heading south and the tracks entering the post office at left." Bot probably the most interresting tid-bit is where it goes on to say "The Pennsylvania Railroad's Hudson River tunnels ran underneath the yard from lower left to middle right." So, would the yard have been built first on air rights belonging to the Pennsy or did the PRR tunnel under the Central?
Good one Penny! That is the $64,000 question.
I think we need David Klepper to explain this one to us, what David doesn't know about New York railroading never happened anyway! I believe the Central's 30th Street yard came first, before the turn of the 20th Century, and was originally reached by trains coming down 10th Avenue. These were the trains that couldn't travel any faster than four miles an hour and had to be preceeded by a man on horseback carrying a red flag, the famous "Tenth Avenue Cowboys." The PRR didn't start tunneling under the Hudson until 1904, completing the work in 1908.
PS: I'm "sprung" everybody, the "moderation" is over, I can post freely again.
Maybe Wanswheel's not too far behind? Please, powers that be?
Jail Break! Congratulations. I thought so yesterday and then earlier today as there was no delay.
Wanswheel has been Banned..for 180+ years. Whatever the heck that means.
Think positive Miningman, maybe they really meant 180 days. That's usually what an American court gives you in jail for a first-offense non-violent burglary of a non-residential location!
NOT that I have first-hand experience of that, mind you!
Hmmm...maybe if that came from Lady Firelock it would be a bit more authentic. We can cut you some slack, and go with that though.
I join my voice to those asking for an all-Shaughnessy issue, special or otherwise. Currently, CT is the only railroad magazine I subscribe to. I'll be glad to purchase any magazine featuring Jim's photos!
I'll second that request for an issue dedicated to the master. I've been reading Trains magazine for about 45 years,and am very familiar with Mr. Shaughnessy's work. He was surely one of the top 5 best-ever RR photographers ever... No doubt.That opening photo in this post, I have seen many times, and I immediatly remembered the caption in an old Trains issue for that photo. Not sure if it was Shaughnessy, or Morgan that penned the words, but I'll never forget them. It was a "Before & After photo, The same St. Albans depot, but after the train shed had been torn down. " It looks like Santa Claus has lost his beard". Very fitting, If I may say.. I dare say now, that We, as a small "club" have lost "Our" Santa Claus, given that we were used to seeing a yearly gift of Jim's Snowy Northeast photos in every December issue of Trains magazine..
R.I.P. Mr. Shaughnessy.. You will be missed... Clear order board here. Proceed at full track speed to Valhalla. Meet Extra Steinheimer east. at Beeb siding.
OPR. wtc.
Disp. A.K.
Supt. DPM
Com wtc. 03:34
Todd
I just bought Essential Witness on Amazon. It was over $10 cheaper than B&N.
Great post 3d rail!
The only thing I could add to it is when Mr. Jim gets to Beebe Siding I'm sure Lucius will be waiting for him with a "Highball," and I don't mean the track signal!
Lucius B was quite the bon vivant, don't ya' know?
Firelock--Nice to see you are back. How was the trip? Did you sacrifice a small nest egg on something Lionel?
Thanks Miningman, great to be back!
Well, I DID get something Lionel, but didn't have to blow the nest egg on it. I found a 681 Pennsy Turbine at Henning's Trains in Lansdale PA at a not-to-be-passed-up price. I wasn't looking for a Turbine but this was too good to let get away. Built in 1953 and refurbished beautifully and only $185. Had it on the layout this afternoon and it runs great! 1953, it's as old as I am! Also picked up a Morning Sun book on the Strasburg Railroad, not cheap but top quality like all the Morning Sun books are. Picked up the latest copy of "Railfan and Railroad" too, here at the Fortress Firelock we call it "Chugger Lust Magazine."
Goes without saying Lionel's Turbines worked out a lot better than the Pennsy's ever did!
Visited Ridgefield Hobby up in New Jersey, bought two railcars but the big score there was a BIG book called "Italian Fighter Aces Of World War One." Looks like a fascinating study. Those poor guys, since the Western Front aces got all the publicity no-one's ever heard of them, and don't kid yourselves, the Italians had a GOOD air force during WW1, and they won their war too.
Went to The Train Station hobby shop in Mountain Lakes NJ and got a two-car add-on set of Blue Comet cars. Shotgun Charlie was with me and he found a Reading RR lantern he didn't have yet, so it was a good trip all around.
Now if I could only work up some enthusiasm to go back to work tomorrow morning. Ah, an hour or two on the job and I'll have the bit between my teeth again anyway.
Sounds like a nice little getaway and some nice finds. Yes it will be tough enough just getting up and heading in for the grind. Don't you find it amazing how fast time flies as one ages. My turn is a week from now on the 27th. I'm freaking out already, haven't used the alarm clock all summer and sure as heck not looking forward to the darn thing going off.
Good luck on your first day back, ,...try not to swear TOO much.
Yeah, Probably a Jack and Coke..
Yep, Morgan will have a tall VO on the rocks, and smoke a pack of L&M cigs, Beebe will have a few bottles of Dom Perrignon on ice, and I will have a couple cases of Miller Lite, ( need to watch my carbs). Maybe ride the ghost of the Olympian Hiawatha through the Bitterroots again. We might just see a tall fellow named Stein trackside with his camera. Then run into Howard Fogg in the diner... Afterward, we all go to the observation car, and run into Winston Link. Have a drink with Barriger, get into an agument with Perlman, then tell Harrison what I think of him, (unprintable), and end up with the Claytors, telling them how much they are both missed. (both Graham, and Robert),
That's how I'd like to leave this world. On the express to Vallhala with my friends.
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