> But the photos just don't look right when
> you look at them a second time. Particularly
> the top photo. At least, the balance of
> contrast and brightness have been played
> around with. The seat frames in the left
> foreground look very strange.

Well, now that we've nailed down the legitimacy of the photos this is water under the bridge, BUT--lost of wierd things can be made to happen in Photoshop, depending on the image editor's intent. I beleive in the case the contrast and brightness as well as color balance may have been pushed and tinkered with to bring out the McCloud markings on the tender. So, a "real" photo, just heavily modified from its raw condition to emphasize some details stored in the pixels at the expense of others.

eledbetter@rypn.org

Today, I got a reply from my inside source.

As already reported a tender swap was made.

he writes:
"When McCloud #21 was being shipped for scrapping, it passed through Stockton. The Stockton Terminal & Eastern acquired the tender from the scrapper to replace the one on their 2-6-2 #3 (former Dolbeer & Carson #3), which then went to scrap with McCloud #21. CSRM acquired ST&E #3 in the 1980s, after its enginehouse in Stockton burned. The fire scorched the paint on one side of the tender, revealing the McCloud lettering.

"Go ahead and post the info.

"As to the seat frames, they have just been painted for our MKT coach #642 (ACF, 1923) being restored for service. It is sort of a cinnimon color, although the color values don't show well in the photo."

bnorden49@earthlink.net