A great photographer: J. Parker Lam
Sometimes you find a great website: https://railphoto-art.org/ – and a great photographer: J. Parker Lamb – and you just have to spend a lunchtime analyzing the photos. We’ll start with the B&O, Dayton, 1955!
This photo is interesting to me because I’ve never seen the process of emptying and cleaning the ash pan of a medium or large steam loco. B&O #4604 gets the ash pan cleaned at the shops in Dayton, 1955. #4604 was a class Q-4b, 2-8-2 Mikado with a Vanderbilt tender. The B&O roster source I have lists the builder as the B&O in 1941-42. Not sure what B&O did in their shops – maybe a rebuild(?). 1941-42 would be late for a new set of Mikados. And, a lot of the B&O’s Q class were built by Baldwin pre-mid ‘20s (also a few Alcos and Brooks). But the Q-4b’s all list B&O as the builder in my source and ’41-42 as the build date – I’m thinking the “b” is probably an upgrade designation.
This is also a great photo for some of the appliances on modern medium steam: The engineer side injector is between the worker and the trailing truck. The heavy flexible pipe going back to the tender is the tender water input. They heavy pipe coming out the right is likely the pressurized water heading to the check valve on the boiler. And the heavy pipe going up out of the top is likely the incoming steam pipe coming from the turret above and in front of the cab. The two smaller pipes that follow the side board are likely pressurized air pipes for brakes and signals going back to the tender. You can just catch the end of the power reverse to the right of the photo with it’s lever going back to the cab, and some of its attachments to the valve gear. Additionally, the ash pan is being washed above the ash pit. The diagonal rails to the left coming out of the pit were used to bring ash and waste out of the pit in a conveyor bucket to be loaded and removed. You can also get a good look at the rear driver’s brake, and cast trailing truck.
Same loco, same location, same day – here’s a shot of #4604 on the turntable at the Dayton shops:
The fireman’s side of #4604 – Westinghouse air pump and arid air tank, and several other details.
The same photographer caught B&O #4415 in Dayton. #4415 was a class Q-4, so similar to #4604 without the “b” upgrade. The Q-4’s were built by Baldwin in 1920 to 23. Again, it has a Vanderbilt tender. Check out the classic B&O F unit behind the steam. And there’s two PRR cabooses following some steel reefers on the tracks behind. There’s a short study of steel boxcar builds behind and to the right of the two cabooses. My guess is the row of cabooses further in the background are also Pennsylvanians – probably on the yard caboose track.
Same photographer, Dayton, 1955, B&O #5301 leads the Cincinnatian. This is the loco that Monty is looking at duplicating for the club. You can clearly see the sloped front of the cab in this photo. The cab roof’s barrel roll is a lot more extreme than I realized. Also, the whistle is exposed in a small pocket in the center-top shrouding. This photo reveals how the bullet shrouding of the boiler bends continuously into the pilot shrouding – great detail for Monty’s 3d printing; difficult to scratch-build using traditional techniques.
Staying with J. Parker Lamb – same gallery, let’s move to Louisville, 1957. Illinois Central #2713, a 2-10-2, moves on to the Oak Street turntable. #2713 has the generator on the fireman side – up on top of the boiler just ahead of the cab. Often times the wiring from the generator ran through the handrail – #2713 is a perfect example with this pic displaying the junction boxes. It looks like you can see the junction box where the conduit from the generator meets with the handrail. There’s also a junction box at the front of the cab where the handrail runs into the cab. Running to the front of the boiler, you can see a junction box on the handrail just before it bends downward – this connects the wiring to the headlight and number boards. It also looks like there’s a second lead coming out of this box that goes up to the marker lights – both sides at the top front of the boiler. Some other details on the top of the boiler: There’s a turret cover and two sand domes. The sand domes are a bit different shape, and the valves between the dome and the sand pipes are smaller or partially hidden under the dome shrouding.
…And what a great shot of the turntable and roundhouse! Note the ladder on the roof to access the upper roof. The clerestory windows on the roundhouse alternate 2 to 1 with louvers. It looks like they still have stack vents on the upper roof, so the louvers must be for additional ventilation. The clerestory windows are missing a few glass lites. Here’s a minor detail – you can see what appears to be a door stop at the bottom of the one stall door! And the rails coming off the turntable all show their open bolt holes on the turntable end. The guide rail used for the turntable rotation has a conduit or support piece that runs back to the pit wall – visible at two locations, potentially under two track leads. Could this be a lock in point for indexing the turntable? – I’m not sure what they used to lock in on each lead track.
I couldn’t find much on the IC 2-10-2’s but did locate a few shots of sister locomotives: From a different gallery – IC #2736.
Again, from a different gallery – IC #2739.
And one more from a different gallery – IC #2741.
Getting back to the J. Parker Lamb collection – again in Louisville, 1957, not enough information is given to identify this loco. It certainly looks similar to the 2-10-2’s above, with the turret cover, rough wheel diameter, cast trailing truck, awning on the cab window – but I assume it could be a number of different modern steam locos on the IC. The injector is barely visible behind the worker, but you can see clearly how the large steam pipe coming from the turret turns under the cab and then drops to the top of the injector. The pressurized water pipe then runs out the side of the injector and toward the front of the boiler to connect with the check valve. The ash pan has been notched to avoid the pressurized water pipe. Then the air lines run under the side boards and cab.
Again, J. Parker lamb photo, Fairborn OH, 1956. An Erie train that resembles/justifies our small train sizes. Help me on the loco – it’s an Alco – an RS maybe? Since it’s running long end forward – not a really significant sign since it’s a switcher – but could it be an RS1? Nice Erie caboose. Look at the trucks on the caboose – more of a passenger truck rather than a freight truck with leaf springs. Were RRs running passenger style trucks on the cabooses in the ‘50s? (Guess I need to check up on caboose trucks (???)) And I love the combination of the train – Erie train with a C&O hopper and PRR boxcar – in Fairborn. Looks like the hopper is empty – so the train might be on the return trip. (So maybe it ran out with short nose forward, then back with long nose forward. (?))
Fairborn is flat – much like most of the terrain we model. Look at the appearance of the “scenery”. Looks like farm fields on either side of the tracks. I see a few vertical “posts” – maybe, on the edge of the near field, that could be wire fencing. If there is a fence there, it’s likely by the farmer and not the railroad – we’re in the ‘50s. There’s an obvious drainage ditch on our side of the tracks with long (dried) grasses growing. It looks like winter with the dried grass and since the trees are missing leaves, but in fact it’s listed as April. So the trees are probably just budding, and the grass is probably a bit green down by the roots. It’s likely not as dry as it looks.
J. Parker Lamb captures a lot in his photographs – very worthwhile to take some time with his gallery. Plus, most of his photos are close to home, and in our era (1950’s). I’ll have to do another on his photos in the future. Here’s a link to the exact gallery I used: https://railphoto-art.org/collections/lamb/group-one/ .
Thx,
Kevin
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