Steam & Excursion > Several Aspects Of This Steam Locomotive Photo Make It Very Rare!

While the quality of this steam image is certainly not the best, the many rare elements of it more than make up for that one shortcoming.

What we have here is a railfan photo taken in 1943, during the height of WW-2.  During this time, photographing any of our Nation's railroads was frowned upon, to the point of being nearly prohibited all together.  As such, very few images of railroads of any kind from these years exist at all.

Next, and partially because of the year the image was captured on film, we see one of the few photos recorded of Yosemite Sugar Pine Lumber Shays in the woods.  The remoteness of the YSPL logging operations on top of the huge incline above the Merced River Canyon in California made visits by camera-toting railfans of the era very uncommon.  The only reason these Shays were parked at all in a place they could be photographed was because the lumber company had shut down for good in 1942 when they ran out of timber holdings due in part to the USFS buying up additional timber lands for inclusion in Yosemite National Park.  The scrappers had begun to assemble the Shays and other railroad equipment at Camp 2 in 1943 in preparation for the scrapping of the operation.  That made this unique picture possible.

The last notable aspect of this image that makes is a rare one is who is posing for the photo in the cab of YSPL Shay #2.  Yes, that man smiling for his own camera is none other than Stan Snook, a noted railfan of the area of that era.  Mr. Snook has taken the time to travel up to Camp #2 with his camera and set it up on a tripod with a timer to record not only this rarely photographed Shay in this remote location, but also himself in the image to prove he was there. 

Images from Mr. Snook have rarely been published.  He took extensive photos of the railroads in the central part of California in the 1930's through the early 1950's.  Mr. Snook only traded photos with a small handful of other railfans so his images are not widely known.  When you do find one of his images, like this one, the subject matter tends to be quite unique and very interesting.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/19 03:00 by LoggerHogger.

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Martin:
Your photos are always very interesting because you give us such a well-written and researched explaination every time.
Keep up the good work and thanks for this and all of your posts.

The day My friend and I were at Owenyo, CA in August 1959.
We had heard that the SP #1 Diesel was out for classified repairs in Bakerfield.
We rode No. 9 down to Keeler than back north all the wey to Zurich, picking uo loads of talc then heading back to Owenyo in reverse . The conductor charged us $1.50 for the round trip.
I understand that Stan Snook was in the gang standing around the depot, but I never was able to meet him.

Great memories, but I can't seem to find my slides of that day.
I hope they will turn up some day.
 

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA