Steam Compound with Schmidt Superheater

Steam "Compound" with Schmidt superheater, originally uploaded by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky.

So this isn't my image at all. In fact this was taken, in color, by a Russian photographer, Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky. He used different colored filters and monochrom film to make color prints of life in Russia starting at the turn of the century. He started by learning chemistry in Berlin in 1889, but moved back to his homeland and started making a name for himself. His breakthrough came by taking the first, and only, color portrait of Leo Tolstoy in 1908. Yeah, he was good. In fact, he was good enough to get the attention of Tsar Nicholas II, who set him up with a railroad car darkroom and funding to photograph Russia as much as possible in order to teach schoolchildren about the importance of Russia's diversity. He wound up catching the pre-revolution workers and lives of many people in pictures that have vivid color and sharp details even by modern standards.

This steam engine, while not massive, was new, shiny and state of the art at the time. Click on the link to the flickr page with the photos to see more of these shots.