Steam & Excursion > USA Steam Photo Series

Today I'll start a  new series on USA steam. I was a bit hesitant to do so as all of the photos are from special movements or photo charters. That means that some of you were probably participating in the same event...perhaps even standing next to me. So you will have the same photos. That's the only negative (no pun intended) to a photo charter. And of course non can compare with the many excellent photos posted here daily  of real working steam from back in the day. Sadly, I wasn't around then and didn't become interested in the subject until much later although I always enjoyed riding trains, even as a young child.   I'll post in order by year with one or more photos per individual event. So here goes. First is from a Cass Carl Franz charter in May of 2001.  Seen is Shay No. 11 near Spruce. As I recall, that event covered all the available Cass mileage available, not just the line up the mountain. Note the "real" logs in the consist. Carl always made a big deal of using "real" logs (as opposed to I guess the fake ones) in his promotional material which was typically a phone call at some late evening hour. Although it was raining at the time of this photo, somehow I feel it well captures the atmosphere of this wonderfully preserved logging line. 

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USA=U.S.Army perhaps.
From the summer of '67 when I was stationed at Ft. Eustis, VA.
From my informal notes the USA 611 was a poppet valve 2-8-0, probably intended to acquaint Army RR Battalions with how to work with those engines in the event they had to work with them in a host country.
The image is a scan of a print from a fixed focus and exposure plastic box Kodak of some sort, cash was tight.

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