During our trip to Connecticut last week, we visited the town of Essex - the kind of almost painfully charming New England town I would live in if it didn't get so damn cold up there in the winter. While in Essex, we took a short train ride (combined with a river cruise) along the bank of the Connecticut river in a train powered by a genuine, coal-fired steam engine. Here are some shots I grabbed.

The second shot features my daughter (the professor) while the third pic is of my son-in-law (also a professor) pondering the wonders of train travel.

Jer

[Sailor]

The first photo provides a glimpse of the "herald" on the tender. It is based on what the "New Haven" railroad used in the day of steam {folk in Connecticut are very proud of their connection to the "New Haven" and do what they can to preserve memories of it}

Interesting. As was the train/boat ride.

Jer

A great series, Jer. I really like the perspective on #4. I can remember as a young kid, we'd go down to the train tracks and watch the steam engines hauling away car-loads of scrap iron. I can remember the wheels spinning, and then sand would come out of a little pipe onto the tracks to increase traction. Good Lord, that really dates me, doesn't it!

Thanks, Dewey! I can dimly, very dimly, remember steam engines pulling trains on the L&N Railroad that bisected my home town - Mt. Vernon, IL.

Jer

[reh321]

A great series, Jer. I really like the perspective on #4. I can remember as a young kid, we'd go down to the train tracks and watch the steam engines hauling away car-loads of scrap iron. I can remember the wheels spinning, and then sand would come out of a little pipe onto the tracks to increase traction. Good Lord, that really dates me, doesn't it!

Not necessarily. When I was very young, my family moved to a suburb of Chicago IL served by the CB&Q, by then an early adopter of diesel power for all types of service. Nine years later we moved here to South Bend IN served by several railroads, including the GTW, which still used steam locomotives in passenger service. Adoption of diesel was very uneven.