Hello
does anybody know where this picture is taken?
That’s a pretty tough angle to be certain for those of us unfamiliar with it. I would start the suggestions with a GE 70 tonner as a starting point.
Nope…70 tonners are end-cab switchers. The locomotive pictured is a center-cab. I’d guess something along the lines of a Whitcomb.
Judging by the plethora of relatively late model automobiles visible in the distance and behind the speeders, I’m guessing this is either a museum or a railfan event.
The paint scheme resembles that shown on an RS-3 on the Batten Kill Railroad in the November 2009 Railpace.
Note that the turnout in the foreground is a ‘3-way’ - they’re not that common, so that might help you narrow it down.
On the siding behind the loco is of course a speeder, and behind that is a track machine of some kind - looking kind of like a tie inserter/ remover, maybe. Also a big pile of what looks like either old ties or logs off to the left edge.
The trees/ greenery means likely northern or southeastern US - not the mountains, deserts, or high plains country. Also looks like a power transmission line in the background.
I can tell you that it’s not Topton, Kempton, Middletown, or Hummelstown, PA - all of which seemed to be possibilities when I first looked at it.
- Paul North.
Looks like Valley Railroad 0901. Essex CT. A picture caption on their website lists it as a GE 80 Tonner.
I believe we have a winner. In fact, this satellite photo (select the satellite photo if a plain map comes up), even shows said locomotive in front of the engine house! Or so it would appear…
I concur. Using another resource, I could see the 3-way turnout, plus the length of the enginehouse and the spatial relationship of the curve in the track to the station in the background is consistent. The transmission tower way in the background is on the northerly side of the Chester Bowles Highway, at the inside of a bend in the waterway there. And I could also see MOW equipment on the same tracks.
But Larry - in both your linked photo and my reference, it looks like there’s a twin of this locomotive - or something else painted just like it, as viewed from above - on one of the tracks to the right/ east, at about the middle of the enginehouse. Could they have more than 1 like that ?
- Paul North.
All of which backs up my soap box position. It is of critical importance that at least minimum information accompany all pictures. Provide date and location and the rest can usually be figured out fairly easily.
Put the information on the slide or print, or with the negatives. In the digital age the ideal is to rename the digital file to include that data (more universal than in the IPTC or EXIF files).
The photographer thinks, at the time, that he will always remember. Memory can and does fade. When a picture changes ownership, that memory is usually lost altogether. Numbered slides with a separate data book also means an orphaned picture has lost its information.
And to get the information right do it as soon afterwards as possible when any error will be immediately obvious. A scanned image on RailPictures is of an Amtrak train supposedly taken in June of 1966! There are no leaves on the trees, which is also remarkable for summertime in New England.
John [soapbox]
It might be Valley 0900. Their web site has a photo caption listing it as a GE 80 Tonner.The 0901 is probably an earlier version.
Since I’ve never been to Essex, I’d be guessing. Does look that way, though…
I found it rather interesting that there was a locomotive, in the appropriate paint scheme, sitting in pretty much the exact same spot in both the railran photo and the satellite shot.