New photography by Pat Cagney captured with a digital camera-2005.

Train No. 17, The Birmingham Special, Moving West, Gets a Highball, Rural Retreat, Virginia

Artist O. Winston Link (American, 1914-2001)

CultureAmerican

Date1957

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 15 5/8 × 19 1/2 in. (39.7 × 49.5 cm)
Overall, Support: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Overall, Mat: 25 × 28 in. (63.5 × 71.1 cm)

InscribedSigned and dated by the artist in pencil on the verso of the print. Artist's Studio stamp on the verso of the print.

Credit LineGift of Susan and David Goode

Object number2023.26.20

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a gelatin silver print.

Label TextO. Winston Link American (1914-2001) TRAIN NO. 17, THE BIRMINGHAM SPECIAL, MOVING WEST, GETS A HIGHBALL Rural Retreat, Virginia, 1957 L2004.11.90 In what has become one of Winston Link's best known photographs, station agent J. L. Akers gives the Birmingham Special a highball, the signal to proceed, at Rural Retreat. The date is December 27, 1957, and steam powered passenger service ended on the Bristol line of the Radford Division less than a week later. The Birmingham Special would have passed through Rural Retreat about 11:30 PM. The movement of the train from left to right in the picture cut off a major source of light, so one side of the station is in almost complete darkness, which emphasizes the drama of the figure giving the engineer the signal to proceed. Link originally set up here to photograph Train No. 42, The Pelican, east-bound from New Orleans, Louisiana, to New York City. This train, moving in the opposite direction, stopped in Rural Retreat at 9:43 PM, and was the train Link recorded in his most famous sound sequence of Christmas carols coming from the Lutheran Church as The Pelican arrived and departed. Edited By: DS Approved By: MHM Approval Date: 07/25/2005Exhibition History"Norfolk and Western Railway Photographs by O. Winston Link," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., July 1 - December 31, 2005. "Norfolk and Western Railroad Photographs by O. Winston Link," Kaufman Theatre Lobby, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA., March 4, 2009 - October 18, 2009. Published ReferencesPhotographs by O. Winston Link, text by Timothy Hensley, _Steam, Steel & Stars: America's Last Steam Railroad_ (New York: Abrams, 1987), 87.