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Meet the Webmaster
Jeff Hawkins
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Thank you for visiting the Rails in Virginia
website. My purpose for creating this site is to share
knowledge, information, and history regarding railroad operations past and
present throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. I hope you enjoy
your visit to the site and check back often for updates.
For a
real job, I sell fire apparatus. Yep, odd job I know but somebody
has to do it and it beats working for a living. In addition to
trains, I also photograph fire apparatus and have over 1,400 images
of both at
www.railfirephotography.com.
Early in my days as a photographer, I quickly realized that I wanted to
incorporate as much of the surrounding environment into the photos as
possible. Everyone knows what a train looks like. It is the scenery that
can really add to a photograph. Often I’ve looked at older photos,
especially from the steam era, and wished the photographer had included
more of the surroundings. Maybe it was a location that I frequent, or
somewhere not many photographs were taken. Trains do indeed change over
time, but so does the landscape through which they travel. With the
installation of new signals, removal of pole
lines,
demolition of trackside structures, and urban sprawl, the railroad
landscape is changing at a rapid pace.
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It is my long term vision to be able to
look back 30, 40, or even 50 years from now and be able to appreciate all
of those times I waited patiently in the sweltering August heat of the
Carolinas, or freezing in the Virginia countryside on a cold January
morning waiting for a shot. |
P.W. Swaim aboard RF&P E8 #1012 at
Broad St. Station on May 30, 1965, after his final run down the RF&P. |
Like a lot of railfans, I had
family members who worked for the railroad. My
great-grandfather worked for the RF&P as
a passenger engineer. His tenure spanned over 40 years with an
impeccable record of service. The evening of May 30, 1965 marked
the end of his career with a final run into Broad St. Station in
Richmond. Unfortunately I was never able to meet him, but that
is something I would have very much liked to have done.
I had other family members
who worked for the RF&P at Potomac Yard. In addition,
there were two other relatives who were employees of the
N&W. One an engineer on the Shenandoah Division, the other a
welder in the East End Shops in Roanoke.
One thing is for certain,
there is a special bond between railfans, particularly those who had
family that made a career of the railroad. I have greatly
enjoyed meeting many of you and are glad to have you as friends.
Jeff
Hawkins
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Richmond, VA
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