The Philip Ross Hastings, M.D. Collection
Philip Ross Hastings (1925-1987) was a celebrated railroad photographer with a much copied, innovative style.
In 1997, the Hastings family selected the California State Railroad Museum as the permanent home for Hastings' photograph collection, consisting of over 46,000 plus black and white negatives, 4,000 prints, and 32,000 35 mm color transparencies. Below is just a small sampling of the Hastings collection.
View the digitized catalog entries
To find the photos below in our catalog, just search by its filing number (e.g. PRH 232).
To view a subset of this collection featuring the Southern Pacific Railroad, click here.
Café window
PRH 232View of locomotive no. 497 through café window in Charma, New Mexico. April 11, 1953.
Locomotive No. 1532
PRH 2055Man holding a stop sign in front of a Canadian National locomotive in Ontario, Canada. 1957.
Fireman in cab of a locomotive
PRH 10494A fireman in cab of a locomotive at the Elizabeth station. Date unknown.
Conductor in Chair
PRH 10509A Rutland Railroad conductor looking over paperwork. 1956.
Little girl
PRH 3642A little girl staring at Western Maryland steam locomotive no. 202. Date unknown.
Railroad track
PRH 9806Close up of railroad track near a Nickel Plate locomotive.
Unloading Mail
PRH 2170Unloading mail from a Railway Post Office car at Shelburne, Vermont. Date unknown.
Lifting a speeder
PRH 3011Track workers lifting a speeder on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific in Malcom, Iowa. Date unknown.
About Philip Ross Hastings, M.D.
As a child, Hastings accompanied his father to the local railroad station. He took his first railroad photo before age 10. Hastings' plan to become a locomotive engineer was foiled by his bad eyesight. He enlisted in the Army in 1943.
While a student at Tufts, Fordham, and New York Universities and the University of Vermont, Hastings studied both medicine and photography. He graduated from the University of Vermont as an M.D. in 1950. After college, Hastings re-enlisted in the Army and was posted in New York State, Maryland, Texas, and Washington as part of his medical training. He was certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in March of 1959. Hastings received many awards as a practicing psychiatrist, and became president of the Iowa Psychiatric Society in 1971.
He and his wife, Marian and their five children, Pamela, Stephen, Hugh, Doug and David settled in Waterloo, Iowa in 1959 where Hastings continued to develop his interest in photography. Hastings became a staunch supporter of the Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society in North Freedom, Wisconsin and served as its board chairman during the 1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s, Hastings wrote for TRAINS magazine. He and David Morgan, editor of TRAINS, documented the end of the steam era in a series of articles.
In 1985, Hastings won the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society's annual Photography Award in recognition for a lifetime of outstanding achievement in his field. Many of Hastings' photos are prominently featured in railroad books and publications. His images were compiled and printed in THE MOHAWK THAT REFUSED TO ABDICATE AND OTHER TALES (1975). Another book, PHILIP ROSS HASTINGS: THE BOSTON & MAINE: A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY was published posthumously in 1989. Hastings died on February 20, 1987 in Waterloo, Iowa.