Steam & Excursion > Some Steam Crew Members Were Filmed By Their Other Crewmen!

Not all railfans back in the steam era were simply citizens with "normal jobs" who filmed trains on their days off.  Some of even the earliest railfans were steam locomotive crewmen themselves who took railfan photos during their work days.  We see one of those photographs here.

The date is the mid-1940's and SP engineer David J. Welch has taken his camera with him to his job at the SP roundhouse in Tracy, California.  While there he asked his fellow engineer Ted Mack to spot SP #3123 near the roundhouse turntable for a photo in the low afternoon light.  Mr. Mack was more than eager to oblige since it would allow him to pose in the cab of his engine for this portrait.

The reslut of these 2 steam locomotive engineers taking a few moments outo of their work day was no loss to the overall profitability of SP for the day, but did result in preserving a a small slice of history that would have otherwise been lost for all time.

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/19 10:32 by LoggerHogger.

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The tender really adds a nice dimension to the overall appearance of that locomotive.

Thanks for posting, Martin.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Nice shot, complete with upside down bell!