Railroadiana collectors love photos. Photos of old railway stations, rolling stock, cabooses, railyards, roundhouses, and especially steam and diesel locomotives. Postcards, prints and photo books are popular, but slides (and negatives) have been the dominant medium in railroad photography for decades. Many railfans, including famous rail photographers like Lucius Beebe and O. Winston Link, have spent their lives documenting specific railroads, routes, and locomotive types.
If you plan to collect railroad photography, pick a theme... otherwise better buy some additional property to store your collection!
Interviews & Articles
An Overview of Railroadiana Collecting

Many people are fascinated by railroads. At one time, railroads were connected to most aspects of community and economic life, and… [more]
19th-Century Photographs, from Daguerreotypes to Cartes de Visites

I’ve always been interested in antiques. As a kid, I collected a variety of stuff – fossils, rocks, minerals, natural history stuf… [more]
Railroadiana Collectors Preserve the Days of Train Travel

My husband Bill always loved trains and my grandfather had been an executive with the Denver and Rio Grande here. We opened up a l… [more]
Daile Kaplan of Swann Auction Galleries on Collecting 20th Century Photographs

Swann, which is New York City’s oldest specialty auction house, was founded in the late 1940s as an antiquarian book house. In the… [more]
From Ambrotypes to Stereoviews, 150 Years of Photographs

We both come from families that had collections and we both had collections as children. Jack lost his when his grandmother threw … [more]
Best of the Web (“Hall of Fame”)
Railroadiana Online

If you've ever wondered how to tell real from fake railroad china, or how brass baggage tags originated, this extre… [read review or visit site]
Clubs & Associations: Railroadiana
- Key, Lock and Lantern, Inc.
- Railroadiana Collectors Association, Inc.
- National Association of Timetable Collectors
- National Railway Historical Society
The Killer Mobile Device for Victorian Women
If These Shirts Could Talk: The Tantalizing Tales Behind Used Clothes
Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes
In the Hot Seat: Is Your Antique Windsor a Fake?
Bizarro Beauty Products, from 1889 to Now
Love at First Kite: How Pizza and Pente Led to One Oklahoman's High-Flying Obsession
Pin-Up Queens: Three Female Artists Who Shaped the American Dream Girl
Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon's Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar
Tokens for Sweethearts, in Times of War
American Picker Dream, Part I: Mike Wolfe On His Love Affair With Bikes

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