A few days ago, I saw the movie The Long Gray Line. There was a scene at the railroad station at West Point, which was on the NYC’s West Shore Line. The movie came out in 1955 but this scene depicted graduates, Including Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley, departing for deployment in WWI. The passenger equipment was NYC but the locomotive was Camelback. I wasn’t aware that the NYC had any Camelbacks but the NYOW, which had trackage rights on the West Shore Line, did have Camelbacks on their roster. My question is whether the NYC did have Camelbacks on its roster or would they have used motive power from their tenant, the NYOW. The other possibility is that the Hollywood, as usual, was not too concerned with prototype authenticity and just used whatever equipment was available. By 1955, the NYOW no longer ran passenger trains and had been dieselized for some time. The NYC would have had the only passenger equipment on the line. The Camelback could have been a retired NYOW loco that had been preserved and used for the scene at the West Point station. Can anyone shed any light on whether or not a NYC train departing from West Point would have had a Camelback on the lead in 1917?
Just going by memory, I can’t recall any NYC camelbacks. I think the NYOW did have trackage rights at one time along the west shore line, but I think that was for freight only?? It might be at the time the movie was made, an NYOW steam engine was available but a NYC one wasn’t, or the only NYC ones they could find were too modern for 1917, so the filmmakers went with the camelback.
According to steamlocomotive.com http://www.steamlocomotive.com/camelback/ NYC did not have any.
Enjoy
Paul
As I recall, the Jersey Central ran camelbacks into 1954-55.
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/cnj754s.jpg
Could one of them appeared in the film thru the magic of Hollywood?
Thank You.
I rather suspect you’re right.
At the time that movie was filmed, the CNJ camelbacks were the ‘easiest to get to West Point’ still-active steamers. Both the West Shore and the Old Woman were dieselized by then.
Chuck (former New Yorker)
A lot of railroads in the mid/late fifties had steam engines in “stored serviceable” condition - i.e., they weren’t being used, but they were being kept ready in case they were needed. Even if the NYOW didn’t have any steam in service, they certainly might have still had engines that could have been fired up and used for a day or two without much trouble.
FWIW the Missabe had some Yellowstones still in “stored serviceable” condition and on their roster until I think 1967!!