Nostalgia & History > You Gotta Love The Old Railroad Publicity Shots Like This One!

The dawn of the new diesel era really brought out the publicity photogrpahers to railroads like the Great Northern.

Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/15 15:13 by LoggerHogger.

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Heavily "Photoshopped" (airbrushed, or whatever), but the artist had to have had something to work with to begin with.

There's only one place the original unedited picture could have been staged.  Four main tracks.  Ancillary trackage to the left.  A single track, separated from the 4 track main by a raised wooden conduit for the interlockings control cables.  An embankment to the far right.  Facing the morning sun.

It's just west of the Westminster tower in St. Paul.  1/2 mile from GN headquarters building. Now, permanently sealed in darkness by the newest I-35 freeway bridge overhead.

-John

The GN had only 13 E-units, all E7s, for their flat-land trains.  That John, increases the likelyhood of your observation that the photograph was taken at Westminster Tower in St. Paul.  The five units were not renumbered like shown in the picture until 1952.  All but one (504) made it to BN and had a BN number.  GN 500 became BN 9901, for exmple.  Here is a photo I took of #500 in St. Paul in June of 1964.  Note the upgraded number boards, the beacon, the snowplow pilot, all the hoses, and the headlight in the door in comparison to the picture above.

Interesting publicity photo Martin,
Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/15 17:05 by MartyBernard.

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MartyBernard Wrote:
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> The GN had only 13 E-units, all E7s, for their
> flat-land trains.
 
> Marty Bernard

GN initially assigned E7s (in two-unit sets) to the Empire Builder when it was equipped as a streamlined train.  GN replaced them with F-units in 1951. 

While it seems that most railroads which owned units E-units ran on routes with gentle grades, B & O, MEC, PRR and UP powered many of their passenger trains with E-units.  All four railroads ran passenger trains which operated over stiff grades on portions of their routes.  

 

The rosters here make it clear what we are discussing: http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/index2.htm?GNEGNDieselRosters.htm

Marty Bernard

Definitely a red filter involved.   Nice!


Bob Helling
PRose

PRose Wrote:
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> Definitely a red filter involved.   Nice!

Please explain.

Thanks,
Marty Bernard
 

Red filters used with panchromatic B&W film turned blue skies nearly black and red to almost white. I loved to use this technique on Donner. That is what we see in this publicity photo.