Ron Goodenow first met trains on what is now Jersey Transit's Boonton Line. His father and grandfather before him trundled in old Boonton Line-style coaches on the Lackawanna Railroad to Hoboken, where they took the ferry to the Battery and work near Wall Street. A historian by training and an accomplished award-winning photographer, he began shooting passenger trains as a college student in Iowa and has put together a substantial archive from around the world which he is now scanning and sharing widely. He met his wife of almost 40 years on the Pennsylvania Railroad, literally hitch-hiked a ride on the Rock Island's Rocky Mountain Rocket to be with her on the day President Kennedy was assassinated, was temporarily arrested in a Brazilian terminal [it is illegal to take photographs in large stations], and, more recently, has traveled [and photographed] virtually the entire British Rail Intercity system, as well as passenger trains in much of Western Europe. Now retired from many years of university teaching and research, he earns a living from his home in a small central Massachusetts town near Worcester as a photographer and independent researcher, lecturer and writer who advises Fortune 200 companies, health systems and universities on the ever changing nature of information technology in healthcare and society. Tools of the trade include digital cameras and an always-ready laptop for editing on the go. We'll be expanding the Gallery to include many more photos, and Ron is currently re-editing many that are already there, so check back often for a rare glimpse of almost 50 years of passenger railroading and Ron's colorful commentary on the past and current scenes.

Sadly, on October 28, 2018, Ron passed from this life. Those of us who knew him personally are deeply saddened but will always remember Ron as very special human being capable of so much love, warmth and life. The train and photographic community has also lost a good life long friend. Amtrak has lost a champion. Rest in peace, my friend. We will miss you. This photographic gallery will remain as a testimony to your commitment to passenger train travel as well as your fine artistic photographic skills. --Craig S. O'Connell

SELECT A PAGE BELOW FROM THE FRIENDS OF AMTRAK PHOTO GALLERY:

Pre-Amtrak Penn Central/New York and Long Branch train, photographed at Hazlet, NJ, in 1969.

The Santa Fe Super Chief - El Capitan in San Bernadino, 1967.

Rock Island #6, the Plainsman, taken near Grinnell, Iowa, in 1967.

Train #32, a single RDC, ran from Montreal to White River Junction, Vermont - 1964.

Amtrak Empire State train in the Rensselaer [Albany] station, 1978.

Self-propelled SPV 40 (??) along the Springfield line in Connecticut, 1981.

Amtrak's Chicago-Milwaukee-Minneapolis train, 'The Hiawatha', in Wisconsin, 1973.

Union Pacific Train #103, the Chicago-LA City of Los Angeles-Challenger Domeliner in Riverside, California 30 years ago.

LaSalle Street Station, Chicago in the early '60s.

Rare passing photo of eastbound California Zephyr in 1968.

Amtrak's pre-Superliner Southwest Chief, 1973.

New Haven's beautiful Union Station, November, 1998

Seasons Greetings On the C&O-B&O Diplomat, 1965.

Northeast Direct Train 145 Southbound from Worcester, MA, Dec. 1995

Canadian National's eastbound Panorama in the Frazier River Canyon, 1966

Amtrak's eastbound California Zephyr, 1982.

1968 view of No. 172, the Penn Central-New Haven Senator in New Brunswick, NJ

InterCity 125 taken between Doncaster and York on the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinbrugh in 1985

The Sante Fe in the 60s

Alaska Railroad, 1967

Amtrak's San Francisco Zephyr in Berkeley, CA, in June 1975.

UP's City of Portland-City of Denver domeliner in 1964.

PRR GG1 hauling a Boston-Washington Colonial at high 100mph+ speed in late 1960s in Metuchen, NJ.

Two pics...Erie-Lackawanna, Hoboken, NJ late1960s and MU's arriving in Hoboken on a frigid day in 1982.

Two pics...SP Lark, Santa Barbara, CA in1967 and Redwood City, CA in1968.

Northern Pacific's Mainstreeter near Missoula, Montana in1969.

Empire Builder and Western Star, 1960s.

Southern Pacific's Del Monte, Redwood City, on the Peninsula Line, in 1968.

Nigerian Railways, 1977 and Belgium Railway, 1983.

Vintage New Haven Shoreline Boston-Grand Central expresses, 1966.

Amtrak's Boston LakeShore in Worcester, MA, Sept. 1999 and the New York Central's New England States in Newton, MA, in 1966.

SP's Coast Daylight, 1966 and Amtrak's San Diegan, 1975.

Two E-unit streamliners in the 1960s--CA Zephyr and City of LA-Challenger.

1982 Wolfeboro RR, New Hampshire and a Santa Fe Southern train in the Santa Fe, NM in 1998.

PRR's "Afternoon Keystone," behind a GG1, Metuchen, NJ, 1962 and USDT-Penn Central Metroliner, North Brunswick, NJ,1968.

Amtrak's City of New Orleans, Champaign, Illinois, June, 1971.

Great Northern's Empire Builder, Havre, Montana, 1967 and a regional Italian express, near Milan, 1983.

Canadian National's Panorama in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, 1969.

Amtrak's North Coast Hiawatha across Montana, summer 1973.

Boston And Maine Ambassador, 1964 and 1965.

MoPac Train 27-28 in El Paso, TX and Penn Central's Admiral at Adams Station, New Jersey, 1968.

Hoboken Terminus for Jersey Transit and London's Paddington Station, 1982-83.

Grinnell, IA depot on the Rock Island Line, 1968 and 1982.

Amtrak in New Haven, CT, April, 2000.

Vermont Rails--Monadnock Central's Bellows Falls - Chester Depot run, 1964 and Steamtown Excursion in Bellows Falls, 1978.

Amtrak's Lake Shore Ltd. at Rensselaer, NY station, May, 2000.

Rock Island's eastbound Rocky Mountain Rocket near Limon, Colorado, 1965 and VIA's Jasper - Prince Rupert run, 1983.

Newly restored Worcester, MA railroad station, July, 2000.

Boston And Maine summer train at Weirs Beach, 1962 and the Winnipesaukee Scenic RR train, July, 2000.

Amtrak's Vermonter at White River Junction, Vermont, summer 2000.

Amtrak's train #41, the Silver Star, on August 10 and 11, 2000.

Amtrak's California Zephyr, September 5, 2000.

Capitol Train 729 departing for San Jose from a gleaming terminal, September 2000.

NJ Transit and MARC trains on the Northeast Corridor.

November 4, 2000. Amtrak's Northeast Direct #163 coming and going from Old Saybrook, CT, on the shoreline between Boston and New York.

Metra trains at Chicago's Olgivie Transportation Center, October, 2000.

New York's Grand Central Terminal and Metro North Commuter RR in New Haven, CT on December 7, 2000.

Denver and Rio Grande Western's "Yampa Valley" at Fraser, CO.

1982 North Station, Boston...RDCs operated by the MBTA.

The Union Pacific's City of Los Angeles-City of San Francisco-Challenger Domeliner in Laramie, Wyoming, 1964 and Northwestern Pacific's No. 4 in Santa Rosa, CA a few years later.

Santa Fe's Grand Canyon in Albuquerque and Seattle Train #2 in Vancouver, WA, late 60's.

Buffalo's magnificent Central Terminal, 1971; Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo's RDC connection to Toronto.

North Coast Ltd. in Montana, 1967.

CN's daily Montreal and Quebec at Cochrane and its Senneterre - Noranda-Rouyn run, photographed in Cadillac, Quebec, both 1969.

Virgin Rail's intercity trains on the privatized British railway, June 2001.

Britain's Gatwick Express and Heathrow Airport rail shuttle,

More privatized British rail - Great Western 125 arriving at Bristol; another leaving Paddington.

Amtrak's Acela Express at BWI, August 10, 2001.

Metro North Commuter train out of Grand Central Terminal in Waterbury, CT and Caltrain local pulling into San Bruno on its way down the Peninsula to San Jose, CA; spring 2001.

Amtrak's California Zephyr on September 9, 2001 and San Joaquin 714 on September 12, 2001.

1968 - Southern Pacific No. 11, the Cascade, shot in Milwaukee, Oregon and UP's Train No. 19, photographed in Wallula, in Eastern Washington.

Amtrak's new "Downeaster" service, January 1, 2002.

Jan. 2002, Amtrak's Lakeshore Ltd. at Southboro, MA and an Amtrak operated MBTA local inbound to Boston at Westboro, MA.

Boston bound conventional and Acela Express runs, Canton, MA/RT.128 station, February 3, 2002.

Canadian Pacific Train #8 in 1963 and VIA Calgary-South Edmonton local, at Red Deer in the winter of 1984.

Amtrak switcher with a consist of mail and express cars and the Chicago bound Lake Shore Limited, in the Albany-Rensselaer, station, April 17, 2002.

Amtrak's California Zephyr along the Colorado River on April 19, 2002.

NJ Transit at Harrison, NJ and Amtrak's Three Rivers, on its way to Pittsburgh and Chicago, February 2002.

Amtrak Train 142 northbound in Windsor Locks, CT, July 2002.

SP's Coast Daylight in 1967

Amtrak California's San Joaquin Train 712, April, 2002 and Metra scene in Chicago, summer 2000.

UP's City of Portland in Pendleton,Oregon, 1968.

August 31, 2002, west of London, England. A spanking new Virgin Trains Voyager cross-country express.

September, 2001, in Northern California Amtrak-California train arriving in Emeryville and the Napa Valley Wine Train.

SP's #21, mixed freight-passenger, in Nevada, 1965.

Zephyrs across the years: Burlington's Kansas City Zephyr, 1965; Amtrak's California Zephyr, 2002.

Canadian Pacific's transcontinental Canadian winding through Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, 1969.

1981 RDCs on the Springfield Line in Connecticut.

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