Harold A. Reid (1925–1992), also known by the pen name H. Reid, was an American writer, photographer, and historian. Reid's photographs of

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s, captured the last days of steam motive power on America's

Class I railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$ ...

s, notably on the

Virginian Railway The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads. History ...

, and ending with the

Norfolk and Western The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

in 1960, the last major U.S. railroad to convert from steam. In ''The Virginian Railway'', published in 1961, Reid combined photography with a storytelling style and depth of facts recording the "Richest Little Railroad in the World" before it merged

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

in 1959.

Childhood, education, marriage

Reid grew up with the railroad. His childhood home in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

was adjacent to the massive Lamberts Point facilities with general merchandise and

coal pier A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship. The typical facility for loading ships consists of a holding area and a system of conveyors for transferring the coal to dockside and loading it into t ...

s of the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

(N&W). Author Lloyd D. Lewis who himself was a child when he first met Reid, relates that "H" (as he preferred to be called) printed a small newspaper for his neighbors as child. He attended Elon College (now

Elon University Elon University is a private university in Elon, North Carolina. Founded in 1889 as Elon College, Elon is organized into six schools, most of which offer bachelor's degrees and several of which offer master's degrees or professional doctorate d ...

) in

Elon, North Carolina Elon () is a town in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Burlington metropolitan statistical area. The population as of the 2020 census was 11,324. The town of Elon is home to Elon University. Elon began in 1881 as ...

and graduated from the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III a ...

Williamsburg, Virginia Williamsburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula ...

. He and his wife Virginia (née Ewell) Reid lived in Norfolk near the

(VGN) tracks leading to

Sewell's Point Sewells Point is a peninsula of land in the independent city of Norfolk, Virginia in the United States, located at the mouth of the salt-water port of Hampton Roads. Sewells Point is bordered by water on three sides, with Willoughby Bay to th ...

Newspaperman, author, railfan

Reid was a newspaperman by trade and worked a brief time in

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

for the local Norfolk County Public Schools in what is now the City of Chesapeake. He began honing his art with black and white photography with a Brownie box camera when he was a child in the 1930s. Black and white remained his favored medium even as color photography became popular in the 1950s. He contributed articles and photographs to ''Trains'' magazine, published by Kalmbach, and his work was noted by its longtime editor David P. Morgan. Following a long friendship with the Assistant to the general manager of the coal-hauling

, after that company's merger into the N&W in 1959, he wrote his epoch work, ''The Virginian Railway'', which was published by Kalmbach in 1961. In that book, Reid combined his photography with a storytelling style with facts. Reprinted three times, first and second editions of ''The Virginian Railway'' have become valued as collectible items. Reid's other published work include contributions to ''Trains Magazine'', two other books, ''Extra South'', (1964), published by Starucca Valley Publishing, and ''Rails Through Dixie'' written with Johnny Krause (1965), published by

Golden West Books Golden West Books is a privately owned American publishing company specializing in American Railroads. Donald Duke founded the company in 1960, and wrote some of its titles. Its headquarters are in San Marino, California. The company's titles ...

. His photography work has been featured in many other publications, notably several by Lloyd D. Lewis which include ''The Virginian Era'' (1992), ''Virginian Railway Locomotives'' (1993), and ''Norfolk and Western and Virginian Railways in Color by H. Reid'' (1994), all published by TLC Publishing of

Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner John Lynch (1740–1820), John Lynch, the city's populati ...

. His photographs have been published in many other books.

Photography

Author Lewis describes Reid as a "consummate artist of the black & white image." At a time when many rail photographers concentrated on still photos taken from front and side profiles, Reid created unusual shots. Taken from above and below, Reid's photographs often included scenery or surrounding features in the genre described in depth in author

Leo Marx Leo Marx (November 15, 1919 – March 8, 2022) was an American historian, literary critic, and educator. He was Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is known for his works in the fiel ...

's 1964 book ''

The Machine in the Garden ''The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America'' is a 1964 work of literary criticism written by Leo Marx and published by Oxford University Press. The title of the book refers to a trope in American literature represe ...

''. The travels of Reid and his friends in search of rail subjects took him to sites as far from Hampton Roads as

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, and the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

Valley in New York. The hobby of rail photography was still emerging, and Reid occasionally slept in logging camps and rose early to catch the work of steam locomotives on the

short line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

s which were the last bastion of steam in the United States.

Death

Reid died in 1992, aged 67.

References

Books

*Lewis, Lloyd D. (1992) ''The Virginian Era''. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. *Lewis, Lloyd D. (1992) ''Virginian Railway Locomotives''. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. *Lewis, Lloyd D. (1994) ''Norfolk & Western and Virginian Railways in Color by H. Reid''. Lynchburg, Virginia: TLC Publishing Inc. *Reid, H. (1964). ''Extra South. An Unscheduled, Unhurried Look At Dixie Steam Railroading'' (1st ed.). Susquehanna, Pennsylvania: Starrucca Valley Publications. *Reid, H. (1961). ''The Virginian Railway'' (1st ed.). Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing Co. *Wiley, Aubrey and Wallace, Conley (1985). ''The Virginian Railway Handbook''. Lynchburg, Virginia: W-W Publications.

Magazines

*Reid, H. (1953) "''Trains & Travel Magazine''" December 1953 "Some Fine Engines", Kalmbach Publishing Co.

External links

Norfolk & Western Historical Society
covers Virginian history
Virginia Museum of Transportation
displays 2 of only 3 extant VGN steam and electric locomotives, located in Roanoke, VA
Virginian Railway (VGN) Enthusiasts
non-profit group of preservationists, authors, photographers, historians, modelers, and railfans

a community project in

Mullens, West Virginia Mullens is a city in Wyoming County, West Virginia. The population was 1,475 at the time of the 2020 census. Located in a valley along the Guyandotte River within a mountainous region of southern West Virginia, the town was nearly destroyed by f ...

with photos
Johnson City, Tennessee Railroad History
Includes the Cy Crumley ET&WNC Photo Collection: a favorite railway of H. Reid

a community project with photos

a community project with photos
preserving the Virginian Railway Passenger Station at Roanoke Virginia
a community project with photos (requires a pdf file viewer)
Norfolk Southern Corp websitelink to site of Railfan.net forum for Virginian Railway which has ''Roanoke Times'' story and photos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, H. 1925 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American photographers American people in rail transportation College of William & Mary alumni Rail transport photographers Writers from Norfolk, Virginia 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Historians from Virginia American male non-fiction writers