70 CLASSIC TRAINS FALL 2019
structure in his photos. He developed a fondness for lineside
signals and especially semaphores, or “blades” as he affection-
ately called them. He made a point to document as much as he
could of these elements of railroading before they disappeared.
Every year from 1973 through 1980, Bjorklund took a
one- or two-week vacation in the summer to photograph rail-
roads in his beloved Northwest. Like many photographers of
the era, he focused on the Milwaukee Road’s spectacular main
line in Washington, Idaho, and western Montana, but he cov-
ered much more of the region’s railroads. His Milwaukee Road
photographs include secondary and branch lines across the
system. And he sought out other lines in the area, including
Burlington Northern’s former Northern Pacific of his youth, as
well as Union Pacific’s main lines and many branches.
With the demise of the Milwaukee’s Pacific Extension in1980, Bjorklund began traveling to other parts of the U.S. and
Canada for his summer vacations. He also extensively photo-
graphed his hometown railroad scene in Michigan, Ohio, and
Indiana. His widow Rose donated his remarkable collection to
the Center in 2011 with the help of Jeff Mast and Michael R.
Valentine. It is a wonderful example of both the railroads and
the photographic styles that dominated the U.S. and Canada
during the last third of the 20th century. We have fully digi-
tized the collection, and we encourage anyone working on
projects that might have use for Bjorklund’s photography to
get in touch with us.SCOTT LOTHES is president and executive director of the Cen-
ter for Railroad Photography & Art, http://www.railphoto-art.org. He
thanks Jeff Mast for his assistance with this story.