Meet Your Tour Guide

I'm Jim Rinker and have been a rail enthusiast my entire life. As a young boy my father, Robert Rinker, would take me "railroading" around the old Lehigh Valley, Reading, Penn Central, and Erie Lackawanna and later around the Conrail system. I can remember on many occasions as a teenager being so fortunate as to get a ride on freights between Allentown and Lehighton and on the helpers between Lehighton and Solomon's Gap. Once I ran the helper's "light" through the Lehigh Gorge for the 30 mile trip between Solomon's Gap and Lehighton. The experience of running a pair of SD45's as a 15 year is still awesome!

After a 13 year reprieve from ralifanning, I picked up the hobby once again in 2000 when a co-worker "gave" me his "old" Ricoh SLR with two sigma lenses when he went digital. 

I have never looked back since!

The memories of railroading as a young boy and teenager, in addition to being forever etched into my mind, are etched in film to the tune of some 15,000 slides. His photographic work is featured in the Fallen Flags portion on this website, giving you a flavor of what railroading was like in the eastern part of Pennsylvania in the 1970's and early 1980's. This site is strictly dedicated to the photographic work of my father who passed away December 17th, 2002 at the age of 81.

I currently reside in Muhlenberg, Pa with my wife Terri and 9 year old son Joshua.