On Donner Pass, the legacy of legendary photographer
Richard Steinheimer is inescapable
Story and photos by S.R. Bush
ummer 1982 saw me accept a
company transfer. I traded my
boyhood home in sunny SantaBarbara, Calif., for the somewhat
unpredictable environs of Donner Pass —
snow being the greatest adjustment.
I settled in and quickly began exploringnew turf, but turf that came with a kind of
deja vu. Over and over again, I found myself
in places that, although I’d never been to
before, were quite familiar. These mountains
were Richard Steinheimer’s. I’d first come
across a copy of the book “Western Trains”
(by Steinheimer and Donald Sims) as a
teenager, and Steinheimer’s photos forever
formed my notions of what a photographic
image should be: beautiful, informative, and
always somehow honest.
These photos are from my first few years
on The Hill and I swear my approach wasn’t
“How would Dick shoot it?”
Well, OK, maybe a little...20 OCTOBER 2019S
Orders are hung in the snow
shed at Norden for an approach
train on the No. 1 track. There are
three copies: for the head end,
helper, and caboose.