Not
a very good picture you say? Out of focus and blurred you say? Shouldn't
be on a Web site you think?
Place yourself at trackside on the C&M
branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the late 1920s. You're waiting
with your Kodak box camera for the Northbound coal drag out of
Cambridge, Ohio. Perhaps a whistle in the distance and a smudge of smoke
on the horizon, and then a whistle for the crossing. Thousands of tons
of machinery and material are suddenly on top of you and they are on the
move! This is serious railroad business! Two freight engines are
coupled to the head end and sharing drawbar traction while out of sight
a similar engine pushes from the rear. The adrenaline causes you to snap a picture and step aside
quickly! This coal drag is making a run for the Post Boy Hill gradient
and the Post Boy tunnel and speed means the difference between making
the hill or stalling in the tunnel. Look closely at the photo, it
captures in its own crude way the essence of railroading. We wish we
could do so well today! Compare this photo with the first photo on
our page.
It's the same location with a few years seniority! |
