Flagstaff, Arizona  ·  7,000 ft

Fine Art.
Real Work.

Frédérick Manfred St Simon

Photographer  ·  Railroader

Railroad Services Workshops Gallery
About  ·  SteelWheels.Photography

The Work
the Iron Demands.

Production Roadmaster  ·  BNSF Railway
Washington Eastern Railroad  ·  Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad
CP  ·  NS  ·  PATH  ·  RailWorks
Four decades on the iron
Trains Magazine  ·  Winterail  ·  Autumn Leaf

SteelWheels Photography is the vision and vocation of Frédérick Manfred St Simon — professional railroader, multidisciplinary creative, and witness to the soul of steel and motion.

Every photograph is forged from friction and presence. No glamour, no cosplay. Just the raw intersection of man, machine, and land. This is not railfan candy. This is railroad realism, told in contrast and shadow, in thunder and silence.

Produced and performed visual narratives for real-world rail operations. Critically praised multimedia work for the Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad. Work featured in Trains Magazine, Locomotive, Railroad Heritage, Winterail, and Autumn Leaf.

Photographer  ·  Writer  ·  Flâneur  ·  Revenant Bohemian Polymath  ·  Founder, The Code of Railroading.

Where the Rails Remember

The rails remember. Even when we don’t. This was no ruin. It was a cipher — a code written in rust and memory, readable only by those who had once been part of the rhythm.

Railroad Photography Services  ·  The American West

Double Track.
Full Service.

⬢  Commercial Photography

Commercial & Editorial

Industry-grade imagery for rail operators, publications, and corporate clients. Operational documentation to campaign-ready content. The only thing that travels from client to client is the quality bar.

⬢  Fine Art Prints

Fine Art & Licensing

Limited edition prints, matted and framed to museum standard. Licensing for publication, broadcast, and commercial use. Images from four decades of field-credentialed access.

⬢  Multimedia Productions

Multimedia & Presentation

Immersive visual narratives for operations, public advocacy, and industry events. Built from the inside — by a railroader who understands what the work actually looks like.

⬢  Infrastructure Documentation

Operations Documentation

Track inspection, production gang documentation, infrastructure photography. GPS-stamped, time-coded, field-accurate. The kind of record that holds up under review.

“Dream Job”

“It’s a lifestyle, not a job.” A lifestyle, a brotherhood that intimates, friends, and pedestrians alike find difficult to appreciate, even reconcile with. Having become a professional boots-on-the-ground and in-the-seat operations railroader, my perspective of what it is to be a railroader has wiped the nostalgic notion of railroad romanticism from my psyche — but for the innate love of it. And documenting it.

Fine Art & Productions

The Works.

⬢  Critically Acclaimed  ·  WSDOT  ·  EWGRR

“What Was Begun, Must Be Finished”

A multimedia presentation produced for the Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad in support of its bid to retain operations of Washington State DOT’s Central Washington Subdivision. A photographic and narrative argument made in steel, light, and consequence — performed live and delivered where it mattered most.

“Hands down the best.”

— Washington State Department of Transportation

Watch Film → “What Was Begun, Must Be Finished”
⬢  Winterail 2019

“Metallic Machinations”

Produced and presented at Winterail 2019 — the pinnacle gathering of railroad creatives. An immersive multimedia production exploring the visceral machinations of modern railroading in motion, shadow, and sound. Premiered to the most discerning audience in the genre.

Watch Film → Metallic Machinations
Railroad Photography Workshops  ·  Double Track

Learn the Iron.

Six corridors. Six different encounters with working American railroading. Led by a photographer who has worked every one of these subdivisions.

BNSF-MRL Mullan Pass Bozeman Tunnel — Rocky Mountain Corridor
Montana  ·  Northern Idaho  ·  Former Montana Rail Link (now BNSF)

Rocky Mountain Corridor

The former Montana Rail Link mainline through Mullan Pass, Bozeman Tunnel, and Lombard Canyon. Big sky. Heavy tonnage. Unforgiving grades.

⬢  Pending curriculum & schedule completion
Inquire About This Workshop
BNSF at Latah Junction — Pacific Northwest Corridor
Eastern Washington  ·  Spokane

Latah Bridge & the BNSF Corridor

A BNSF westbound across Latah Bridge — an infamous stretch of notoriously congested railroad. New locations, new angles, the intensity of the Pacific Northwest corridor.

⬢  Pending curriculum & schedule completion
Inquire About This Workshop
WER St. Elmo's Fire — Night Iron Workshop
Eastern WA  ·  Northern Idaho

Night Iron

Photography at night using only ambient light. A whole new world. Crisp, clear images under the cover of night in and around the Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho rail scene.

⬢  Pending curriculum & schedule completion
Inquire About This Workshop
BNSF Stack Train Rolling into Winslow — East on the Transcon
Flagstaff  ·  Winslow  ·  Holbrook  ·  BNSF Seligman & Gallup Subs

East on the Transcon

The BNSF mainline east of Flagstaff through Winslow and Holbrook. High desert light, ancient geology, relentless train traffic. The Arizona Transcon at its most elemental.

⬢  Pending curriculum & schedule completion
Inquire About This Workshop
BNSF Hyrailing with AZDOT and FRA — West on the Seligman Sub
Flagstaff  ·  Williams  ·  Seligman  ·  Hackberry  ·  Kingman

West on the Seligman Sub

Route 66 country. The BNSF Seligman Subdivision west through Williams and out to Kingman. Dramatic elevation changes, desert canyon light, and the ghost of the Santa Fe.

⬢  Pending curriculum & schedule completion
Inquire About This Workshop
BNSF Rail Production Gang — The Peavine
Flagstaff  ·  Prescott  ·  Phoenix  ·  BNSF Phoenix Sub

The Peavine — South to Phoenix

The former Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Peavine route south from Flagstaff through Prescott down to Phoenix. One of the most photogenic corridors in the American Southwest.

⬢  Pending curriculum & schedule completion
Inquire About This Workshop

“Devil’s Canyon”  ·  Feb 1986

When the train finally arrived and the light was fresh and fine, it made it worth the excruciating waiting game. That is railroading — the ratio of patience to moment, measured in Kodachromes.

Their aching roar obliterates the crepuscular peace. Engineer Bruce Butler, the bantam centenarian, has gone round-and-round with this nemesis for years — putting his gut-instinct mojo on the throttle, beating killer curve one more time. It is precisely then, in his gut and by the seat of his pinstriped bib overalls, that he knows he has beat the Hill.

Intergurm  ·  Full Sensor Capture  ·  The Unmasked Frame

Intergurm.

From the Latin integrum — whole, unaltered, restored to its original state. Intergurm is a new word for a new thing: railroad photography presented exactly as the sensor recorded it. No crop. No convention. No four right angles imposed on what the optics actually captured.

Every image in this collection carries a white border — not as a stylistic choice but as an honest declaration. The border is the sensor’s edge. The shape inside it is the shape of the truth. Some are wider than standard. Some are taller. Some carry the distortion-corrected geometry of extreme glass at work in the field. All of them are precisely what was there.

This has not been done in railroad photography. The tradition is to conform the image to the frame. Intergurm conforms the frame to the image. Every one is a limited edition. Every one is unique in shape. Every one is as it was.

Intergurm
Full Sensor Capture Series

The first collection of full-frame, distortion-corrected, border-honest railroad photography. Limited editions. Matted and framed to the image’s own geometry.

Status
Coming Soon
Notify Me When Available →
Contact  ·  SteelWheels.Photography

Get in Touch.

Whether you are inquiring about a workshop, licensing railroad photography, or commissioning original work — reach out directly. Every inquiry is answered personally.

simon@steelwheels.photography

(928) 605-7984  ·  Direct

Flagstaff, Arizona  ·  7,000 ft

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Frédérick M. St. Simon  ·  SteelWheels.Photography