A recent book sale notice included a volume by Henry B. Comstock, who was an editor for some time for Railroad magazine in the 1940s and 1950s. He seems to have been a person of multiple talents, working as an editor, a writer, and sometimes as an artist (the cover illustrations for Railroad in this time period were paintings). His writing style was described by a friend of mine as "purple prose," i.e., very colorful and descriptive. One example that I recall included some lines in a story on the then-new Cincinnatian on the B&O, in which he described a new highway bridge under construction as "lazy-tonging its way across" the Potomac River. In an earlier story from the WW II era on the operations of the N&W, he mentions electric sparks "flicking like the tongues of snakes" from the catenary through damp exhaust of the Mallet helper cut in ahead of his caboose as a coal train worked its way through the old, electrified Elkhorn Tunnel.

Other credits that I know about are the text and illustrations in his book, "The Iron Horse," and other illustrations in the January 1966 edition of Popular Mechanics on the subject of what would become the Metroliner service. Beyond his work, though, I know nothing of him at all. Can anyone tell us about the man?

Similarly, an artist who did many covers for Railroad in this time was Frederick Blakeslee; again, I know nothing of him at all, other than he has a signature line on a lot of Railroad cover paintings. Again, does anybody know anything of the man?

Some samples of the artwork:

Henry B. Comstock:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VI ... 0282852951

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/r/railroad_194707.jpg

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/r/railroad_194804.jpg

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/r/railroad_195111.jpg

Hmm, did find out a little about Frederick Blakeslee:

http://www.pulpartists.com/Blakeslee.html

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blo ... s-air-pulp

http://www.ageofaces.net/authors-artist ... blakeslee/

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/r/railroad_194502.jpg

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/r/railroad_194504.jpg

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/r/railroad_194605.jpg

Now, to find out more about Aurion Proctor:

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/r/railroad_194005.jpg

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/r/railroad_194203.jpg

http://www.philsp.com/data/images/r/railroad_194209.jpg