NickD said:O. Winston Link’s recording of a Norfolk & Western Class J #603 powering “The Pelican” at Rural Retreat, Virginia on "Christmas Eve, 1957". Although this recording is presented all the time online and elsewhere as"Christmas Eve 1957," and the photo is from Christmas Eve, the recording Link and his assistant made that Christmas Eve night was deemed technically flawed. Link then asked the church organist to repeat the performance three nights later on December 27th, 1957. Link released an edited version of this clip on one of his LP recordings.
This is the corrected "liner notes": "Train 42 'The Pelican' headed by N&W 4-8-4 Class J 603, arrives at Rural Retreat, VA eastbound from New Orleans to Washington shortly before 10pm Dec. 27th, 1957, and thunders off into the night. The Norfolk & Western Railway's own Class J was perhaps the finest of all express steam engines, and 603 is heard here in its last days of main line service with a consist of 17 cars. The photograph shows the train being waved through by Agent J.L. Akers. The photograph and sound recording were by O. Winston Link and his assistant Corky Zider who operated a Tapesonic recorder and non-directional microphone; chimes were played specially for the recording at the nearby Grace Lutheran Church by Mrs. Kathryn Dodson. Seven nights later, steam motive power would come to an end on the N&W main line through Rural Retreat and Bristol."
Funny how the N&W just wanted link to get out of their way. But ultimately he probably did more to graft a positive image of the N&W (now Norfolk Southern) than any other singular person. Ever. And that might include all North American railroads broadly and not just the one he focused his camera on.
