First Post/Free Quality Photos?

[Anonymous]

How's it goin' everybody...? Glad I found the Classic forum; lots of good stuff here. I haven't been an active fan in years, and don't plan on going back soon because most of the stuff I want to see doesn't exist anymore, these things being modern steam and the operations surrounding it(North America only), lightweight passenger cars, cab unit diesels, etc... Most any road is of interest, but C&O is without compare, at least to me.

So my first question is, does anyone here know of any sites floating around that have free, high-quality photos of modern steam power? I know of only one with a large free library, the Virtual Railroad Steam Roster (linked on steamlocomotive.com), and I'm sure some of you know it as well. If not, it's definitely worth checking out--amazing photos, with lots of locomotive portrait work on tons of US class I's and shortlines, all kinds of wheel arrangements, etc... Also a massive international database for those interested in steam abroad.

Well, I gave up my secret, even though it's not really a secret, but it is all that I know. If anyone knows of anywhere else I can go to build my collection I would much appreciate this. Until next time...[8D]

[jefelectric]

MillstoneDuke,

It looks like the virtual railroad has been shutdown. When did you last view it?

[Anonymous]

Jef:

I was there about a week ago. Tried to go back oh, I dunno, a couple of minutes after I posted the original message! They're not coming up for me either. Hope it's not permanent, but good things tend not to last forever. (I suppose that's why this site exists.)

Anyhow, since you seem familiar with what may or may not still be virtualrailway, do you happen to know of any comparable sites?

[Anonymous]

Try railpictures.net. There is always someone uploading to this site. It gets better everyday.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the railpictures link; some great stuff there from remaining steam. As for the classic B&W's, virtualrailroad remains MIA...(CURSES#%&^%$^$!!!!!!)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mike DeSandro

Try railpictures.net. There is always someone uploading to this site. It gets better everyday.

[#ditto]

[Anonymous]

Virtual RR is officially dead, according to an email from Wes @ Steamlocomotive.com. I can't bring the page up at all, but apparently he was able to access what's left of it, a message saying that the site is closed due to bandwidth problems and copyright issues. A true shame, but not surprising since the photo collection was very large and the site no doubt hard to keep up. The copyright issues probably arise due to some of the steam age photographers still being alive. I couldn't care less about their heirs, and dead mens photos belong to the ages in my opinion. However, the ones still living deserve not to have their life's work plastered on a site for free download without permission.[soapbox]