SpeedGrafik™ · Track Speed · Builder’s Art

Railroad marketing has long had to choose between a picture that is true and a picture that moves. SpeedGrafik™ ends the choice. Every SpeedGrafik image is an actual photograph, upgraded and never invented: a SteelWheels.Photography frame, made trackside by a railroader during the railroad’s own operation, with nothing staged, no train chartered and no crew held for the picture. The frame is then finished one of two ways. The train and the scene are real; the sky and the colors within the scenery may take an artist’s license. It stays real and true, and it carries the speed and color an advertisement needs and still reads correctly to the people who run trains. And the work does not stop at the frame: SteelWheels.Photography designs, writes and produces the finished piece around it.

§ 01One frame, three waysAs made · Track Speed · Builder’s Art

As made: BNSF 4528 with a stack train under an overcast sky, as the camera recorded it — **As made**The same frame as the camera made it, before treatment.

Builder’s Art: the same frame of BNSF 4528 rendered as a 1960s-style advertising illustration with a stylized blue sky — **Builder’s Art**The same frame as an illustration in the builder’s idiom of the 1960s, the unit, its marks and its numbers kept true.

More from the archive · photograph and builder’s art

BNSF 9298 photographed at dusk under a dark, glowing sky — **BNSF 9298 · photograph**As photographed.

BNSF 9298 as Builder’s Art in flat poster color — **Builder’s Art · poster**Flat poster color.

BNSF 9298 as Builder’s Art in dry-brush gouache under a red and orange sky — **Builder’s Art · gouache**Dry-brush gouache.

A grain train passing a grain elevator at sundown under an orange sky — **Elevator · photograph**Grain train at sundown.

The same grain elevator and train as Builder’s Art — **Builder’s Art**The same scene.

Samples shown. Every treatment is tailored to the client’s requirements and brand. No endorsement by the owner of any mark shown is implied.

Published in Trains, Locomotive, Railroad Heritage and CTC Board · shown at Winterail
Selected by The Art of Elysium · presented for the Center for Railroad Photography & Art.

§ 02The two treatmentsWhat each one does

I.Track Speed

A finished photograph with the motion put back in. The light is brought up, the sky and the color of the scenery may be evolved, and the scenery around the train is streaked with the motion. The locomotive, the cars, the marks and the numbers stay exactly as the camera recorded them. It reads as a photograph, because it is one.

II.Builder’s Art

The same frame taken back to the advertising art the builder ran in the 1960s: the unit drawn hard and true, the sky thrown into a single field of color, dry-brush strokes carrying the speed, the territory behind it held in silhouette. The unit is rendered from the photograph itself, so the paint scheme, the marks and the numbers stay correct. It reads as an illustration, because it is one.

§ 03Designed and produced hereGraphic design · Content · Production

SteelWheels.Photography is a graphic design and media production house as well as a photographer. A SpeedGrafik frame can come back as the finished piece, made by the same hands from the first post to the last poster.

I.The design

Posts, carousels, web banners, posters, brochures, calendars and trade-show walls, to the client’s brand or a new one.

II.The content

Captions, backstories and campaign copy written by a railroader, so the words read as correctly as the picture.

III.The production

Short video and motion pieces from the same runs, cut for the feed and the screen, and print files built to the press’s specification.

§ 04What comes with itThe delivery

I.The set

The frame as made and each treatment ordered, at full resolution and color-managed, with the crops for every platform the campaign will run on.

II.The record

Date, place, railroad and treatment written into each file’s metadata, so the image can be placed and used correctly years from now.

III.The terms

Standard SWP license terms; the treatment quoted with the license.

IV.The eye

Every frame chosen and checked by a career railroader.

§ 05Where it worksMarketing and social media

Motion and color stop the scroll; a true frame holds up when railroaders read it in the comments. One frame yields the whole campaign.

No.	Use	Version	Delivered as
01	LinkedIn post and company page	Track Speed	1.91:1 and 1:1
02	Instagram and Facebook feed, Stories and Reels	Track Speed or Builder’s Art	4:5, 1:1 and 9:16
03	Website hero and campaign banner	Track Speed	16:9 and 3:1
04	Careers and recruiting	Track Speed	16:9 and 4:5
05	Anniversaries, heritage units, unveilings	Builder’s Art	Screen and print
06	Posters, calendars, trade-show walls	Builder’s Art	Print, to the press’s spec
07	Annual reports, safety and regulatory paper	As made, only	Full resolution

§ 06Real and trueWhat we hold to

I.Actual, never invented

Every image is an actual photograph of a real train in a real scene. The sky and the colors within the scenery may take an artist’s license.

II.Motion only where trains run

Speed is added to a train on track it runs on: main, siding, running track. A unit standing on a house track or at a shop door is never made to fly.

III.The railroad, read by a railroader

Signals, track, consists, clearances and people checked before delivery; anyone recognizable is released or left out.

IV.Labeled for what it is

Every treated file names its treatment in its file name and metadata, and treated frames are not offered for safety, incident or regulatory paper.

§ 07The door is openHow it continues

See it all three ways first

Any frame in the archive can be shown all three ways before a license is discussed, and any unit or location a railroad wants found goes on the next run’s list.

Inquire About SpeedGrafik™ → simon@steelwheels.photography

Frédérick M. St. SimonSteelWheels.Photography · simon@steelwheels.photography · (928) 605-7984

The Art of Railroading · Delivered.

Speed|GRAFIK™