Tip for Railroad Photographers on FAA

This is mostly about keywording, etc. to start with. With my railroading images here, I try to aim toward two kinds of people. It's going to sound silly, but there are 1.) those who know trains and railroads and 2.) those who do not. The first group are typically called railfans and since I got involved in FAA, I realize that not everyone who takes train pictures or buys them are railfans. Now this is not a bad thing by any stretch. Railfans can be a bit, shall we say, overzealous in their train photography. I can say this because, yes, I am a railfan. Railfans know train symbols and types of locomotives and a lot of railroad terminology. So to market toward railfans, photographers who take railroad pictures should do what they can to help railfans find their work.

For example, I see a lot of train images on FAA that is not keyworded to include the name of the railroad. A lot of railfans have a favorite railroad such as Union Pacific or Norfolk Southern. A smaller railroad is even more important to identify. Also put in the location of the shot. Folks in certain towns, railfan or not, may be looking for specific locations that they know well.

Keywording the railroad is important on steam engines as well and a little Googling is usually all you need to do to find the information. For instance, this weekend I am going to Chattanooga, TN. to shoot the Southern Railway 4501. It is operated by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. the Wikipedia page starts off -

"Southern Railway 4501 is a steam locomotive built in 1911 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Southern Railway. The engine is a 2-8-2 Mikado type locomotive, and was the very first of that wheel arrangement the railroad owned."

This gives me a lot of ideas about keywords including Southern Railway 4501, SOU 4501, Baldwin Locomotive Works, Mikado type, 2-8-2, locomotive, steam train, passenger excursion, Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, Chattanooga and so on.

I'll put in the caption something along the lines of "The Southern 4501 was the railroad's first 2-8-2 type steam engine." The numbers relate to the wheel arrangement, but might be getting into too much railfan terminology other than knowing the actual numbers.

For non railfans who like trains or knows someone who does, more typical keywording probably works, but the location might be important for them. They might ride the train at the TVMR and then go home and think about buying a print to remember the day. Not knowing what kind of engine it was and maybe forgetting the number, the location would help tremendously.

Another example would be train depots. Recently I sold a shot of Main Street Station in Richmond, Va. I believe they must have done a Google search and my guess is they put the name of the station in and mine was one that came up. In this case, tagging it as "Richmond train station" may have worked, but it's a good idea to find the name and tag them both ways. Depots that are now used as something other than a depot should be tagged with the old name as well as the new name. A shot of the old Union Station in Columbia is tagged as Union Station but also as California Dreaming after the name of the current owners.

Just a few suggestions to help. Please feel free to offer your own advice here or to ask specific questions. Good luck!

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