Steam Power on the Grand Canyon Railway - Ken Hulsey Photographer - Circa 1994


 This year, one of my goals is to return to the basics of my life and embark on a journey of self-discovery. I want to reflect on my past and understand how I arrived at this point in my life, all in hopes of improving my future. I know that might sound convoluted, but it makes sense to me. Perhaps that’s my problem? I’ll have to think more about it.

One of my passions is photography, particularly railroad and nature photography. If you're a railfan, I believe you'll enjoy the photo features I plan to share. As I contemplated where to begin my exploration of my extensive collection of images, I was tempted to dive into some shots I took about 15 years ago. However, I decided to look back even further, so I pulled an old photo album off the shelf to see if I could find something from the 80s or 90s. I selected what I thought was one of my better images to experiment with and scanned it.


The image I chose dates back to the summer of 1994, when my ex-wife and I attempted a cross-country trip from California to Texas. Unfortunately, our car went kablooey just outside of Williams, Arizona, forcing us to spend our vacation there while it was being repaired. It wasn't the trip we had envisioned, but we ended up having a wonderful time. Over the years, I've made it a point to stop and spend time in Williams whenever my travels take me through the area. It's one of my favorite places.

During our week in Williams, I had plenty of opportunities to photograph the trains of the Grand Canyon Railway. Today's image features the 2-8-0 steam locomotive #29 as it departs from Williams, carrying a full train of passengers on its way to the Grand Canyon. At that time, I didn't have any decent camera equipment, so this shot was taken with an old Kodak box camera I inherited from my parents. The camera itself dated back to the 1970s, which meant the quality wasn't as high as one might expect. Despite my efforts to enhance the image, I realized it wasn’t working out, so I decided to give it an even older look instead. I transformed it to resemble a photo from the 30s, 40s, or even 50s, and I am quite pleased with the results. I only spent about an hour adjusting the hues and shadows, and I even added a grainy texture for effect.

I recently learned that locomotive #29 was taken out of service sometime after the image was captured, but it has since been restored and is back in operation. This means you might have the chance to capture a shot like this of the locomotive in action yourself. I have several more images, most taken from a closer distance, which I hope will yield better-quality scanned results. Stay tuned for those!


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