, Managing Editor

After graduating from Rutgers University in 1979, Steve started his full-time railfanning (at least on vacations and weekends) by attending that year's NRHS Convention in Washington, D.C. Since then he has attended every NRHS gathering, including this year's in Salt Lake City. He later became the National Director for the NRHS Wilmington, Delaware, Chapter and the NRHS Eastern Region Vice President.

Steve has been a contributor to the rail hobby press for about 15 years, starting with an article in Rail Classics in 1983. In 1986 he submitted his first article to Railpace, which began a long and productive relationship with the regional news magazine. In 1993 he started writing the Creative Camera column on a semi-regular basis.

In 1996 Steve left his vocation of 16 years, accounting, to start a new career in the rail magazine industry by joining the staff of Railfan & Railroad as associate editor. He'll shoot anything on rails from Conrail's latest power to streetcars to tourist steam. He estimates that he has taken about 80,000 slides in 17 years of photography. When not shooting or writing, he can be found in front of the television watching any version of Star Trek or NFL football. He also has a large collection of country music from the 1970s to the present, including 350 CDs and 1200 vinyl albums.

Steve lives in Newton with his wife Genie and the 10 "kids" (five dogs and five cats). Genie enjoys riding trains and reads Railfan cover to cover every month. 

, Associate Editor
I’m kind of a “new-old” face around the Railfan & Railroad office. In the early ’70s, I was introduced to Railroad Model Craftsman staffer Bob Mohowski by our good friend, the late George Berisso, at a Railroad Roundtable dinner meeting. Eventually I wormed my way into the Carstens fold, writing an occasional short piece for RMC. In 1984, I came up to talk to Hal about an opening in the art department, which seemed like a good way to learn the publishing business. When Hal heard the princely salary I was after (ha!), he tossed a copy of Creative Crafts & Miniatures across his desk and asked if I could “handle (editing) that.” Although dollhouses and decoupage were absolutely not my bag, I quickly realized that such an opportunity might never surface again, so I accepted Hal’s offer.

At that time, Railfan and CC&M were bimonthly partners, each published on alternate months. All the time I worked at CC&M, I yearned to move over to Railfan. Jim Boyd was convinced that was in the cards, but after a year and a half, Hal and I decided that the dollhouse thing wasn’t working out, and we parted company. Shortly after that, CC&M was sold, and Railfan was published monthly.

By then, I was happily toiling as a staff photographer at a weekly newspaper in central New Jersey, but still living near the Carstens offices. Staying in touch with Boyd and Bill Schaumburg, I was introduced to the late John Krause, who needed a book editor. Our first project together was Remember the Rock, a modest softcover collection of Rock Island photographs by Philip R. Hastings. The little book enjoyed some success, and was reprinted by Andover Junction Publications after Krause (and Hastings) passed away.

I was always a little put off by John’s habit of referring to Hastings, one of the hobby’s most influential icons, as “Phil.” He probably would have called former Trains editor David P. Morgan “Dave.” (Morgan was often Hastings’ traveling companion, and wrote many timeless Trains articles which were illustrated by Hastings’ insightful photography.)

I later designed and edited two more books, Rio Grande Southern Album for Krause (finally published by Ed Crist after Krause’s death), and Katy Diesels to the Gulf for Steve Esposito at Andover Junction. “RGS” was a full-color softcover collection of Phil Ronfor’s exquisite vintage Kodachromes of the sickly railroad’s last years, while “Katy” featured the black and white work of J. Parker Lamb, presented in a large format. Thanks to my friends at Carstens, I had the honor and pleasure of presenting in book form the work of three of this hobby’s greatest photographers.

About the time Remember the Rock was published, Boyd was looking for a carto-grapher. I’d done a few simple maps for the book, and since I lived right down the road, I started inking Jim’s maps for Railfan. All the while, I continued to practice photojournalism. Despite the drawbacks of working for a small newspaper, my job at the Hunterdon County Democrat was pro-bably the most rewarding one I’ve ever had. After a successful ten-year career there, I left to pursue graphics full time.

One day Boyd informed me, in his usual delicate manner, that if I didn’t learn to produce Railfan’s maps on the computer, he’d find someone else who could. In just about those exact words! So I took a couple of introductory courses at the local community college to find out what computer graphics were all about, emptied my meager bank account, and bought a Mac with appropriate software. It turned out to be a good move, as I have been able to create maps and technical art on the computer that would have been very difficult to accomplish conventionally. What a pleasure it was to let my Rapidograph pens dry out for the last time!

Which brings us to mid-September 2000, when I called Steve to discuss maps for the December issue. “Wanna be associate editor of Railfan?” he asked. Well, sure! After 15 years, Boyd’s prophecy finally came true. Better late than never. – Walt Lankenau

Jeff Terry, Preservation Columnist

, Online News

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