03/06/2025
Rotkäppchen Românesc is a spellbinding photographic railroad journey in today’s Romania. Horst Klein made these images over several years as he traveled by train in wintertime Romania to remote and sometimes semi-abandoned train stations and train landscapes. These are not typical train photos but rather brief glimpses through the train windows of an evolving Romania.
An important background for the premise of the Romanian Redhats...the Rotkäppchen Românesc is reprinted at the end of the book, an excerpt from Cǎile Ferate Romǎne (CFR, the Romanian Rail regulations). Article 153 of these regulations requires what they call “parading” at all train stations, no matter the demand, no matter the lack of a true requirement. “Parading” required a railroad employee to monitor the train by standing in a specific, marked location, and to wear a red cap; he/she had a green/red wand for daytime and a green/red flashlight for night. Train fans called these station monitors, “Little Red Riding Hoods.” They stood in their lonely spots with their red and green signals to monitor the trains and signal the train if some malfunction was detected. Always wearing a red hat, perfectly centered….. Take a look to the hole Review at PhotoBook Journal.
