Frank B Fairbanks Rail Transportation Archive
The Frank B. Fairbanks Rail Transportation Archives,located at Station Square headquarters of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, represents the realization of one man’s consuming passion. Mr. Fairbanks spent his entire adult life riding, documenting,and collecting material from rail lines all over the world. Starting in the 1950s and continuing to the end of his life in 2005, he logged nearly 200,000 rail miles traveled, a feat surpassed by few other people in the world.
Frank B. Fairbanks,J r.(1930-2005) was a mechanical engineer and president of Horix Manufacturing Company of Pittsburgh. His precision-driven mind enhanced his ability to document his rail trips in a uniquely detailed fashion. The collection includes hundreds of index cards featuring his hand-drawn observations of track layouts found along his travel routes,as well as photos of rolling stock, trestles, yards, stations, and vistas from around the world.
Among the many types of materials to enjoy in this collection are railroad history books, magazines, journals, pamphlets, brochures, and promotional novelties. There are also hundreds of timetables, railroad publications, maps, postcards, slides, posters, even a selection of dining car placemats! While Mr.Fairbanks was a trustee of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation,he donated these materials so other rail enthusiasts and transportation scholars could enjoy the fruits of a half-century of historical documentation.
Online Digital Photo Archive
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and the University of Pittsburgh partnered to bring you a limited sample of digital images that are contained within the Fairbanks Archive.
You may browse these images by clicking here: http://images.library.pitt.edu/f/fairbanks/
Hours and Other Information
The archives are open by appointment on Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Use of the archives is free to members of Landmarks. Non-members are assessed a $10.00 per person user fee. To make an appointment, email Judith Harvey at fairbanksarchives@phlf.org or contact Al Tannler (412-471-5808, ext. 515; al@phlf.org).
No part of the archives can be borrowed, and there is no facility for copying information. You may bring a digital camera and/or computer for your documentary needs.
You can help the Frank B. Fairbanks Rail Transportation Archive obtain this famous O. Winston Link photograph
The Fairbanks-Horix Foundation has issued a challenge to Landmarks’ rail enthusiasts: Contribute $5,000 toward the purchase of O. Winston Link’s famous photograph, The Birmingham Special Gets the Highball at Rural Retreat, and the Foundation will match that amount so that the photograph can be acquired for Landmarks’ Frank B. Fairbanks Rail Transportation Archive.
To participate in the challenge, you may make your check payable to PHLF and direct it to:
Judith Harvey, Fairbanks Archive Librarian,
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation
100 West Station Square Drive
Suite 450
Pittsburgh, PA 15219.
Be sure to note “Fairbanks Challenge” in the memo portion of your check.
OR online with your your credit card.
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