I've been Working on the Railroad....

Back in the pre 9/11 days, back before insurance companies started charging excessively high liability premiums, railroads weren't so paranoid about having people on their property. Usually a letter to HQ, or asking in person at the yard office for permission was enough to secure admission, with the admonition "be careful". Short lines could even be quite friendly, as evidenced in this picture taken on the Lowville and Beaver River RR, in upstate New York.

The owner of the railroad was a railfan, and allowed us the run of the place for our photography. He willingly moved equipment, left doors unlocked, turned on or off lights as we requested, etc, etc, so that we could get some nice images.

This shot is a setup. We had the owner move the locomotive onto the turntable, and turn out all the yard lights, so that we could get the proper effect with our flashbulbs. A couple of us (myself included) had overalls and flannel shirts, which made us ideal subjects to add some human interest to the shot. When the two of us were in postion, the rest of the guys set off our cameras, and went around firing the bulbs. I think it makes a great scene.

The scrawny guy on the ground pushing the locomotive around the "armstrong" human powered turntable is me. The guy climbing onto the locomotive outsized me by 100 pounds and six or eight inches. It didn't occur to me until later that HE should have been the one exerting the effort, and me having the cushy job on the locomotive!