Western Railroad Discussion > Many Thanks to the "Little old Lady from East Carbon"

I had Friday off and was attempting to chase down Union Pacific's "dirt train" local on the Sunnyside Sub. I finally found a very nice quad of EMD's finishing up switching at East Carbon Development Company's yard and landfill at Columbia Junction.

The EMD's began to proceed east which meant the power was about to travel a couple of miles to East Carbon City for beans. Yes! I had just the photo in mind.

As I approached a small garage at East Carbon, I spotted a little old lady working outside. She was tidying things up and spotted me as I drove my car and stopped near her garage. I started a conversation with her knowing my "gang of four" EMDs were only seconds away. She said she loved my car and wished she could afford one. I told her it was paid for and was enjoying the freedom from payments.

Anyhow I told her I loved her small town and in particular the cars spotted outside the garage. She was gracious and told me a bit about her family business. I quickly asked her if I could include a couple of cars in a photo of "an approaching train". She obliged and went about her business.

The results were a kind of a slice of Americana on pixel. The power rolled by slowly on the way to milepost 15 where it would be parked while the crew went for beans. It was a fun moment to catch this assemblage of interesting elements in a tiny desert town in eastern Utah.

James

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Yeah, that's cool.

James, your amazing work has just become even more amazing. May the Muses continue to whisper in your ear.

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

Two Cadilac's in one photo :) Aaron 20 (Wonder what year the car is, the emblem is a give away)

RRmemories Wrote:
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> Two Cadilac's in one photo :) Aaron 20 (Wonder
> what year the car is, the emblem is a give away)

1956

Super_C Wrote:
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> > Two Cadilac's in one photo :) Aaron 20
> (Wonder
> > what year the car is, the emblem is a give
> away)
>
> 1956

Thanks for that John. Do you by chance know the year of the truck? I noticed it was a Studebaker step side pickup.

James

GrandeGold Wrote:
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> Thanks for that John. Do you by chance know the
> year of the truck? I noticed it was a Studebaker
> step side pickup.
>
> James

I'm afraid I can't be definite about the truck. An educated guess would be around 1948. We need a Studebaker expert to step in on this one, James!

John

Super_C Wrote:
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> I'm afraid I can't be definite about the truck.
> An educated guess would be around 1948. We need a
> Studebaker expert to step in on this one, James!
>
> John

I have a better side shot of it on the home compootur. I'll post it this evening.

James

GrandeGold Wrote:
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> I have a better side shot of it on the home
> compootur. I'll post it this evening.
>
> James

James,

Do you happen to have a shot of the front that shows grille, headlights, hood ornament, etc.?

John

Super_C Wrote:
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> GrandeGold Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Thanks for that John. Do you by chance know the
> > year of the truck? I noticed it was a
> Studebaker
> > step side pickup.
> >
> > James
>
> I'm afraid I can't be definite about the truck.
> An educated guess would be around 1948. We need a
> Studebaker expert to step in on this one, James!
>
> John

It's newer than that. When I was a kid we had a 1949 (Edit: 1948 actually) Studebaker pickup that didn't look like that and several from the 1950's that did. It might be hard to pin it down, because Studebaker didn't change those pickups much from year to year.

That 1949 (Edit: 1948) had a bench seat and a three-on-the-floor transmission. If you were stuck in the middle of the seat, you had to watch your knees, because the shift knob came right back against the seat in first and third!

Edit: The truck in the picture looks like a 1955 to 1958 model with a repaint. The front corners of the front fenders were smooth in the 1949 thru 1954 models, but in 1955 Studebaker "freshened" the front end with a grille that was applied to the front of the truck. (They also replaced the two-piece windshield with a one-piece design.) The vertical line on the fender just to the left of the jack handle looks like the edge of that grille. Generally, the grille was a different color from the body; here, it's the same color, so that's why I guess it's been repainted.

The 1959's had styling entirely different, resembling the Lark cars. That style persisted until Studebaker went out of the automobile business.

It'd be good to see some photos of the front end of that truck, to verify or refute my guesses!

Super_C Wrote:
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> Do you happen to have a shot of the front that
> shows grille, headlights, hood ornament, etc.?

I think so. After the SD40-2's passed by I fired off quite a few photos of the vehicles only.

Nice shots but given the age of the vehicles, a SD-9 would have been more timely choice but where on the UP would you find one? Keep up the good work!

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

mojaveflyer Wrote:
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> Nice shots but given the age of the vehicles, a
> SD-9 would have been more timely choice but where
> on the UP would you find one? Keep up the good
> work!

Exactly what I was thinking at the time. How about a pair of SD7's or SD9's back to back with a long cut of GS gondolas and a black caboose. Let's have the SD9's in black and yellow "bumblebee" paint while we're at it.

Dreaming...