Ron Ziel was born on July 17, 1939, in Manhattan and died on December 15, 2016.

He was an American railway historian.

Ziel family moved to eastern Queens in 1942 and eventually settled in Melville in 1949.

Ron’s first became interested in railroads as a small child, when his mother would take him to watch the trains at the Long Island Rail Road stations at Queens Village and Bellerose.

Ron Ziel attended Huntington High School, graduating in 1957, and studied advertising design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, earning a BFA in 1961.

Ron Ziel first began photographing steam locomotives at Brooklyn’s Eastern District Terminal in the fall of 1960.

According to him, these were the last steam locomotives to be used in freight service in the state of New York.

Ron Ziel passed away at 77 years old.