David Marcham Photograph Collection

David Marcham’s lifelong career in railroad management began with his youth and student days in Ithaca, NY. As a teenager, he rode and photographed the trains of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and made friends among railroaders. As a student at Cornell University, he worked summers for the railroad, serving at Cortland and other locations in upstate New York, and taking more photographs. The railroad images captured on film in 1941-1956 show the last days of passenger service to many small communities. Service was being cut back and becoming less convenient. Motive power was also in transition; steam locomotives were being replaced by newer diesel-powered locomotives. Local transportation was moving to the highways, and special movements (such as circus trains) were becoming rare. Enthusiasm and first-hand perspective make these photographs an intimate record of smalltown railroading that would soon disappear.