I plan to do some Narva/Woodfield in black and white next so in order to help everyone's eyes adjust, here's a shot of #3640 with its original low-pro Leslie horn set...

With this early publicity photo of #259, notice how dark the green is in relation to the black. The same thing happens if I greyscale that color pic of #250...

On later pics, as the Narva faded, it becomes pretty much impossible to tell the difference between that and the Woodfield. The only real clue might be the relative wonkiness of the nose striping as the original EMD factory paint job was very precise. These two are both in Woodfield... LOL

Color reproduction on B&W film depends on the color sensitivity of the film used.

For example, orthochromatic film, which was in common use when those R.Co. FT's were new in 1945, is not sensitive to red.

Even panchromatic film is more sensitive to blue than to red (and most are also sensitive to ultraviolet which humans can't see). Different films have different color sensitivity, such as Super Panchro Press Type B versus Royal Pan.

Professional photographers recommend filters in front of the camera lens to bring the image closer to what the human eye sees, most commonly the Wratten #8 (K2) yellow filter with type B panchro film to match human color sensitivity.

Incidentally both Super Panchro Press Type B and Royal Pan were Type B. Royal Pan was newer and had finer grain; "Pancho" had more contrast.

Phil Mulligan

I should add the photos of 259 and 250 were taken before R.Co. started painting the handrails yellow and are older than the others. The clouds in the photo of 259 were added in the darkroom by the photographer and the darkness of the green may be the result of green being at the extreme end of sensitivity of ortho film.

My Speed Graphic has been retired for decades, so this does bring back memories.

Phil Mulligan

It's always good to stimulate long-dormant parts of the brain once and awhile, Phil. LOL Thank you for that info!!! He probably added the clouds to get a better separation between the subject and the background and the shots of #250 and #251 are color pics I posted earlier which were converted to greyscale by my computer.

I did want to post this link to a quick little guide on lens filters and what they do earlier on but never got around to it so here it is now...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/ph ... for-lenses

That's really all I have concerning black and white pertaining to the matter at hand. As we transition back to the wild kaleidoscopic world of color, perhaps I'll throw in this little piece of Reading history awhile...

Wrecks are all fun and games until someone gets hurt or even dead. If you happen to know that Gary Everhart fellow by any chance, could you please inform him that these three pics are of the aftermath of the Myerstown troop train accident which occurred in January of 1946...

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4513342

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4513343

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=4513344

If I remember right, the tech and historical society featured this incident in one of their magazine issues. Gen Disasters has an entry on it...

http://www.gendisasters.com/pennsylvani ... ,-jan-1946

The wreck actually happened just west of the Myerstown tower on the Ramona curve near the end of Creamery St...

https://goo.gl/maps/VussELPB7SBam6EA7

Here's a 1973 pic of GP-7 #666 eastbound approaching the scene...

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=832411

And a small memorial to the fallen the relief crews erected during the clean-up which may still be there today...

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1653121

The combatants, #1734 and #3011, had their wounds buffed out by the shops and were returned to the rails later on...

This could be one of the greatest T-1 pictures of all time, so much so it displaced the Alcos off my desktop for the time being. LOL If my color choices end up making the grade, then the steamers are 005 Black and 242 Yellow...

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If you look at the photos you will see M-1sa 1734 had its air pumps mounted on the left side in front of the firebox in the wreck photo and on the pilot beam in the after photo. There's also a lead weight between the pumps for more weight to hold the front end down.

All the M1's still in service got the relocated air pumps and lead weight.

The first M-1sa, 1700, was actually built in 1912 but RDG had to enlarge the railroad to take a fleet of them.

The T-1 2119 photo was probably in 1957 pushing Westward from Gordon to Locust Summit. Why P&RC&I located its biggest breaker on top of the mountain is a mystery. That grade was 2.3 to 2.6% and in the Eastward direction from Shamokin a mere 1.5%.

Phil Mulligan

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As always, thank you guys for the additional input and welcome to the discussion, RITH!!! I'm sure we could do a separate thread on that wreck since there seems to be a bit of mystery involved along with conflicting information on the conflict. LOL Maybe on the Railfanning Board, perhaps?

Ironically, I was going to put up a bread truck picture next but not this one...

So here's the one I was going to post. 93-5925 Cream, Plate #11 in the 1954 chip lineup, is the next lightest yellow before 93-242. Rainbo Bakeries used this color on their trucks back in the day. The yellow in the striping is 93-5248, my suspected Safety Always Yellow. Quite a contrast there, way more so than what you see on Reading equipment. The red is 93-066H...

After what happened with the FP-7's and their last repaint, you guys can pretty much tell what I'm thinking here about Harry's Trainmaster and Grande Gold. #801's covered with a little bit of that whitish/gray residue, BTW...

P&R 110-114 were end-cab 4-4-4's with an experimetal 4-point suspension. They proved to ride terribly and were quickly rebuilt to P-7 4-4-2's 350-354. These engines worked well and outlasted all the other 4-4-2's (which were all camelbacks).

Port Clinton to Temple is water-level going downstream along the Schuylkill. It's now RBMN.

I might add anthracite coal requires much more post-mine (called a Colliery in NEPA) processing than soft coal. In later days, this is done at a centralized breaker so having Locust Summit Breaker at the top of the mountain meant raw coal loads had to go up in both directions. Processed coal loads then went down in both directions to get to the customer.

Phil Mulligan

What the heck, I might as well engage in a little theory and conjecture on the wreck for a moment... LOL

Let's see, the freight was a 68-car afternoon HB train out of Rutherford.

He was on One Track at speed when he either broke through or overrode the outside rail.

He then slid out right in front of the oncoming troop train which was on Track Two also running at speed.

The resulting glancing blow propelled both locomotives across the outer tracks and onto the berms on each side of the cut.

Mr. Hellings never had a chance. It was that quick.

One fact, however, the house in the background in the first pic was leveled as part of the Whitmoyer Labs Superfund site cleanup.

Also, remember the guys had to lay fresh track to get the wreckers in.

Anyway, it looks like AHM/Riverossi used the same-colored body shell for both roadnames. Hey, it's a clue!!! LOL