The End Of An Era  Hof  W. Germany  1974  by  John Fasulo

I first went to visit relatives in  Germany in September of 1974. It was the first of many trips back to my roots. My grandfather had left Germany in 1923 along with my grandmother and my mother who at the time was a year old. An uncle that I met on that first trip told me, “You have to go to Hof”. When I asked why, I was told that Hof was the terminal for the last division of German Railways to still be all steam and that it would soon be gone with modernization of the line. I left for Hof the next day on an early morning train. It was an all day trip, with a change of trains and short lay-over in Munich. That evening my train entered the rail yard at Hof and snaked past yard engines and the roundhouse where at least six engines could be counted in the dim light. Steam was everywhere. The air had a pungent smell of burning coal. The tracks glistened as a light rain fell. In front of my eyes was a dream come true. Here in the middle of the 20th century were some of the last real working steam engines in the world. This was not a tourist railroad, this was the real McCoy! As my train pulled into the Station at Hof, I gathered my things together. I found a small Pension to spend the night at. As I tossed and turned in my bed, the sounds of the nearby rail yard kept me awake. I listened as long freights moved through the yard and disappeared in the night.

The next morning I dressed and ate quickly. I walked back to the train station and found out that the division Superintendents office was a short walk away. When I entered the office, I was confronted by a clerk asking me what I wanted. I explained that I had come a long way and wanted permission to photograph the steam engines in the yard... I was told, rather bluntly, that, “it is verboten, you can’t go in the yard, it’s too dangerous’. That seemed to be the end of the conversation as far as this surly clerk was concerned. I, however, had not come all this way to be turned away by a nasty clerk. Back at the train station, I sat on a trackside bench and pondered what to do next. A railway policeman came up to me and asked about my camera equipment, and if I was interested in photographing the trains. I told him about my encounter with the railroad clerk. He frowned and told me to follow him. We went into the superintendent’s office and passed the clerks desk without stopping. I gave him a glance and a slight smile. Upstairs, we entered the superintendent’s office. I was introduced and was welcomed with coffee and cake. It seems that he was a big fan of the New York Central Railroad... He was delighted to find out that I had come all this way to take photos of his steam engines. We talked about the railroad here and I told him that my grandfather was a machinist for the NYC RR and had worked on the engines that pulled the famous 20th Century Limited. After about a half hour, the head machinist was called and asked to give me a tour and to be allowed to photograph in the yard. I had a tour of the roundhouse and after about twenty minutes, I was told that I could take all the photos that I wished and go where I pleased. I was told, “Remember, this is a working rail yard.  ... Be careful” With that, I was on my own. I spent the day taking photos and talking with the workers in the roundhouse. It was a day that I wouldn’t forget. It seemed that I had been transported back in time to another era. All around me, steam prevailed. It could have been Germany in 1930. Not long after my visit, the facility was demolished and the last scheduled steam on German railways vanished forever. Steam power, except for tourist railway and smaller, narrow gauge lines had disappeared from the landscape.

In 1995, I was in Germany again and not far from Hof. I decided to take a look at what had become of the railyard there. It was unrecognizable. The roundhouse and turntable were gone, as was the coaling station and watering towers and ash pits. In place was a modern steel diesel shed. I Left without taking a photograph. Returning had been a mistake.  I was comforted, however, with the knowledge that more than twenty years before I had captured images that would endure. In 1998, after months of discussions with the director of the German Railway Museum in Nuremberg, the museum purchased a number of photographs from my series in Hof. Mine were some of the last images taken that portrayed the end of the steam era at Hof. I had been in the right place at the right time. Like my friend and mentor, American photographer David Plowden, I was, ‘One step ahead of the wrecking ball’.

A footnote. I continue to photograph railroads. Now that I am retired from the television industry, I have more time to devote to photography. I traveled across Canada by rail on the CP in the 70’s, and recently on Amtrak to Montana. I now have a digital camera but still prefer to shoot black and white and work in a traditional darkroom. John Fasulo 2005

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