If this isn't a movie set it oughta be.
Fantastic!

The romance of the rails. The chance to travel and see new places. Wonderful picture.

I believe it was always single tracked. If you look closely, you'll see that he's standing on pavement, a good clue that it's a siding for unloading freight at the station and not a through track.

Also, check out the lantern that he's holding. If you look closely, you can see the line running to it. Link would stage the photos, using props such as this, and place a weaker bulb inside to give the illusion of it being a working kerosene lamp. Brilliant in every aspect!

The Rural Retreat station is the only one of the classic N&W frame train stations still in existence. (All the others were pulled down in the '50s and '60s with the demise of steam and of passenger service.) When I saw it in 2012, it was boarded up, with peeling paint and rotten planks all over.

Since then, things have gotten better. The depot building has survived a number of close calls, and the town has created a foundation to restore it to original condition. Details about their efforts are here.

This print reveals Winston Link's photo techniques. One of his flash bulb reflectors peeks around the edge of the station. The man by the station has aimed a hand-held flash toward the camera to simulate a lantern. A close look at the enlarged photo shows the synch cord dangling from his other hand. It has been partially retouched out against the brightly-lit ground, but the cord is there in the shadows.

Townbay

Class J 4-8-4. The 4-wheel trailing truck can barely be made out. The lightweight aluminum rods with roller bearing crankpins give it away.

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