Although steam engines were seldom used for everyday train transportation by 1960, they live on in the minds of those fortunate enough to have experienced them and in the many museums and steam-powered excursions throughout the country. They are especially active in the West, where master photographer Joel Jensen has, for more than twenty-five years, documented these well-restored and maintained veterans in their natural settings doing what they used to—hauling both passengers and freight and delighting rail fans of all ages.

This timeless collection takes us back to the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, with captivating images evoking the past. Essays by John Gruber, the president of the Center for Railroad Photography, and Scott Lothes, the project director for the center, help to put these wonderful photographs in context.