Highliners

From Foreword: "The railroad train is an American institution evolved out of the urgent vastness of continental spaces and reaching its fullest flower almost with its first creation.... It has been the object of the author..to collect within these covers the best action photographs of modern trains which he was able to secure. In procuring them he has himself traveled not unimpressive distances, and he has called upon the resources of other photographers and never found them wanting either in generosity or enthusiasm for the work in hand. The perfect railroad action photography - with its rural background, its clarity of definition of all moving parts, its indication of speed through smoke and steam exhaust, its full-length view of the entire train, and its absence of any object or matter to distract the attention from the locomotive and consist themselves - is not easy to come by. There are but a few hours each day when the flat light necessary for the clear depiction of valve motion and wheel arrangement is available, and long distances and inaccessible spots must frequently be achieved to meet these conditions."