Lake Superior Terminal & Transfer Railway EMD NW2 101 with BN Lettering at Superior, Wisconsin in August 1979
Somebody decided to have have some unauthorized fun with the cab end lettering on LST&T Railway NW2 101. Note the big "BN" that was painted on in Dulux gold paint, just to the left of the headlight. By the time that the Terminal was actually shut down for good, all of that funny-at-the-time BN had been scratched off.
I shot this one standing south of the Belknap Street overpass looking north. The crew aboard Terminal 101 is making up an Incan train that will go on the next day's railroad car ferry run to Thunder Bay.
The thing that I like best about this photograph is that we can see both locomotive crew members seated inside of the cab. Back in this time a locomotive crew still included both an engineer and a fireman. The man on the right is the engineer and he's doing all of the work. The man on the left is the fireman and he is, well, basically, sitting there on the left. When the steam locomotives were replaced by diesels the firemen stayed and were supposed to keep an eye on the mechanics of the diesel engine. But given the inherent reliability of these modern power plants the fireman ended up with little else to do but sit and talk to the engineer, or anyone else they encountered along the way. The railroad firemen that I met were always happy to talk about life on the railroad, the different jobs they worked, and how the railroad actually ran back in these times. Since they had nothing but time on their hands they were always a great history resource for me.
The most valuable contribution that firemen made was being an extra set of eyes in case they needed to pull the emergency brake valve handle to stop the engine or train in an emergency situation. But that's not an everyday occurrence. As a conductor working on the railroad I've only done it twice in the last 12 years. So during the 1970s and 1980s the firemen mostly just sat out their careers inside the engine cabs until retirement day finally arrived for them.
Lake Superior Terminal & Transfer Railway EMD NW2 101 with BN Lettering at Superior, Wisconsin in August 1979
Somebody decided to have have some unauthorized fun with the cab end lettering on LST&T Railway NW2 101. Note the big "BN" that was painted on in Dulux gold paint, just to the left of the headlight. By the time that the Terminal was actually shut down for good, all of that funny-at-the-time BN had been scratched off.
I shot this one standing south of the Belknap Street overpass looking north. The crew aboard Terminal 101 is making up an Incan train that will go on the next day's railroad car ferry run to Thunder Bay.
The thing that I like best about this photograph is that we can see both locomotive crew members seated inside of the cab. Back in this time a locomotive crew still included both an engineer and a fireman. The man on the right is the engineer and he's doing all of the work. The man on the left is the fireman and he is, well, basically, sitting there on the left. When the steam locomotives were replaced by diesels the firemen stayed and were supposed to keep an eye on the mechanics of the diesel engine. But given the inherent reliability of these modern power plants the fireman ended up with little else to do but sit and talk to the engineer, or anyone else they encountered along the way. The railroad firemen that I met were always happy to talk about life on the railroad, the different jobs they worked, and how the railroad actually ran back in these times. Since they had nothing but time on their hands they were always a great history resource for me.
The most valuable contribution that firemen made was being an extra set of eyes in case they needed to pull the emergency brake valve handle to stop the engine or train in an emergency situation. But that's not an everyday occurrence. As a conductor working on the railroad I've only done it twice in the last 12 years. So during the 1970s and 1980s the firemen mostly just sat out their careers inside the engine cabs until retirement day finally arrived for them.