Some old Photos for your enjoyment

[Bret4207]

Maven, nice! You look at the pic of the engine on the roundhouse and it pretty well shows you what draws some to the whole "Steampunk" thing. A living, breathing, mechanical marvel- that's a steam engine! I have seen exactly one live steamer in my life, and that was on the other side of the St Lawrence while sitting on a traffic post one day. A good 3-4 miles away, but that plume of smoke and steam was exciting even at that distance!

 

[Rick H]

My grandfather worked as a civil engineer for a railroad. When he heard that the last steam passenger train run was being run in my area he got the whole family in the car, put us on a train so we could ride from Toledo to Detroit. I was just a kid and really didn't appreciate it at the time. Those engines were some serious USA Iron.

 

[Maven]

Well said, Bret! Who knew tat a few years after I took those photos and 6 months after I retired, I'd be working on an honest-to-goodness steam locomotive (New York, Susquhanna & Western's #142). Yes, they are living, breathing reminders of the past, but filthy and somewhat difficult to operate compared to diesel electric locos.

 

[Walks]

I still remember the Steam Locomotive at KNOTT'S Berry Farm going right thru the center of the Park every 30minutes. For a 10yr old in the early 1960's it was Magic.

 

[Rockydoc]

I am showing my age here but I actually rode on a steam locomotive when I was a teenager. Not in an amusement park or tourist attraction, but serious transportation. And yes they were dirty, being coal fired.

 

[Walks]

I am showing my age here but I actually rode on a steam locomotive when I was a teenager. Not in an amusement park or tourist attraction, but serious transportation. And yes they were dirty, being coal fired.

Yep,
You are old. I actually got to ride on the Grand Canyon Railway when it first started back in the early 1990's. 2-6-0 pulling OLD coaches.

 

[Maven]

Walks, Make that a 2-8-0. Its sister engine, #23 nee Lake Superior & Ishpeming, used to reside in Kingston, N.Y., but was never restored. Here's a photo of it in our RR yard with my son + a replica builders plate for it:

 

[462]

My paternal step-grandfather worked in the roundhouse, in Auburn, Washington. My sister has pictures of him standing next to several steam locomotives. In one he's holding a huge oiler. She has pictures of our father standing next to some, as well. I only remember diesel electric engines rumbling through town. When stopped at a crossing, my sister and I would count the cars.

My wife and I rode the Grand Canyon Railroad, but the engine was diesel electric. A fun and scenic trip, made interesting on the way back to Williams.

 

[Ian]

I rode the Silverton-Durango steamer two or three times, quite an experience. The crew keeping them going have a foundry, full machine shop (HUGE lathes, shapers, broaches, presses, etc), and full knowledge of how to use and maintain it all. The roundhouse and shops burned down many years ago along with at least one of their engines, but it was all rebuilt, retooled, and the engine completely rebuilt from scratch. Riding the train and visiting with the friendly, expert crew and mechanics is a real treat.

 

[RicinYakima]

Like the other old guys, in 1954 my second grade class road the last steam passenger train from Dayton to Cincinnati. I think it was the B&O road. Even got a certificate but lost over the years.

 

[Bret4207]

My area had a lot of rail service, to each little town in fact it seems. The New York Central was one, can't recall the other. One line ran up to one side of the Oswegatchie river in Ogdensburg to the west side of the port and the other up the other side to the east side. They were killed off by the St Lawrence Seaway, as was the City of Ogdensurg (aka-Methdensburg these days!) and the improvement of highways for the dairy/mining industries. I can still recall the coaling towers for the steamers.

 

[Walks]

Walks, Make that a 2-8-0. Its sister engine, #23 nee Lake Superior & Ishpeming, used to reside in Kingston, N.Y., but was never restored. Here's a photo of it in our RR yard with my son + a replica builders plate for it:

Maven,
Thank You for the Correction. But it has been some 25yrs+.
And with a pair of little ones to keep under control, I'm lucky I noticed it was a Steam Engine.

 

[JWFilips]

Another interesting one from shorpy.com:
"No caption" is all it says here. From photos taken in July 1941 by Russell Lee in Idaho for the Farm Security Administration, this one at "Official Light Testing Station No. 89" -- possibly in Lewiston or Genesee. Medium format acetate negative.

 

[JWFilips]

And One more from shorpy.com: I have never been to the Pacific Northwest ..so this image is very cool to me;
September 1941. "Indians fishing for salmon at Celilo Falls, Oregon in Columbia River

 

[462]

The background hills looked somewhat familiar, so did a search. In the '50s a dam was built East of The Dalles, Oregon, and the falls were flooded. The Sam Hill Bridge, just East of the ex-falls, connects Oregon and Washington, and I've crossed it twice.

 

[RicinYakima]

The background hills looked somewhat familiar, so did a search. In the '50s a dam was built East of The Dalles, Oregon, and the falls were flooded. The Sam Hill Bridge, just East of the ex-falls, connects Oregon and Washington, and I've crossed it twice.

Yep, drive by that area several times a year.

Another interesting one from shorpy.com:
"No caption" is all it says here. From photos taken in July 1941 by Russell Lee in Idaho for the Farm Security Administration, this one at "Official Light Testing Station No. 89" -- possibly in Lewiston or Genesee. Medium format acetate negative.
View attachment 25803

Looking at the clothes and shoes, it is not southern Idaho. Mostly farmers, city folks and loggers, it appears to me that Lewiston would be a good guess, too far south for Coeur De Lan.

 

[Missionary]

That would have been a river to Kayak !

 

[smokeywolf]

Dad was a fan of steam locomotives. We rode "The Skunk Train" from Fort Bragg to Willits and back in the mid 1960s. Rode the Fillmore to Piru train a couple of different times and browsed the trains at Griffith Park's Travel Town Museum several times. Dad had a 5" scale steam locomotive in the back yard, back in the early 1990s.

 

[Jeff H]

And One more from shorpy.com: I have never been to the Pacific Northwest ..so this image is very cool to me...

You should go! Put that on your bucket list. You, especially would love it.

In the early eighties, as a rank amateur "photographer," with a K1000 and a couple cheap lenses, I took some marvelous photos. I shot a lot of B&W negatives, but mostly slides, when I could afford to have Kodachrome developed. Most often, it was Ektachrome, which I could develop for free at the Post craft shop on my way home from an outing.

The light is almost always "right" - overcast, and there is just SO much to take pictures of that it's overwhelming. VERY hard to contain yourself and remember that you only have so many frames for a given weekend, and you still have to pay to have some developed or make prints. A local shop would print me a contact-sheet before printing any individual frames and they'd go through them with me and help pick out what to make bigger prints of. Don't find that these days - at least not where I live.

I haven't taken any really good photos since I left that environment.

 

[popper]

Done the Durango Silverton one, Palestine to Rusk. Lots a fun ride. Used to be one in central Ar. but IIRC it stopped long time ago.
As a toddler (~ '49), visit grandma, the steam engine would come by her place and we would run out to wave. they'd see us and blow the whistle. We'd go to the station and climb into the grain or rock carrier cars, yup, dumb kids. Climb up the ladder and jump off into the sand pile. IIRC, Chillicothe/Cameron line that made all the whistle stops.