Is this photo real or computer generated? What is it and where?http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,1035566

No - it's a result of someone playing with pictures....... However there is a picture dating from 100+ years ago of an incident that really did happen in, I think, Paris in the late 19th or early 20th century.G

This photo was discussed in the Yahoo steam_tech group last week. One of our members does digital photo editing for a living and he was confident this was not a Photoshop job.I wonder if the building isn't a "theme" hotel or restaurant that went "all out' with their decor?The photo can also be seen here (no membership required):http://dl.lustich.net/bilder/dampflok-abgestuerzt.jpgI checked snopes.com this morning, but was unable to find any reference to the photo.

IMHO If it were a real picture, wouldn't the entire window through which the chooch passed would be missing, not a clean line-on-line opening.

Whatever it is, I would guess it's based on this historic photo.

I certainly don't think it's a real "accident", but if the engine were deliberately put there as a decoration, they'd build the window around the car to make it air tight.

I don't think that it is a real photo because the hole in the building does not appear to be a realistic result. But beyond that, the smoke flowing out of the stack vaguely forms a plane as it spreads, and that plane appears to be parallel with the horizontal plane of the locomotive. If the photo were real, the plane would be parallel with the ground.Ron Travis K.

It is "real" in the sense that it's not a computer manipulation - my recollection is that an artist erected this for a few days around the time of the 100th anniversary of the October 1895 wreck depicted. I saw it in a magazine somewhere in Europe when it was done, but unfortunately can't remember the details. It clearly isn't Gare Montparnasse, and in fact doesn't look like Paris or a suburb. It looks more like a building and setting you would see in a smaller town.But it's real.JAC

If it was "real" I imagine the crown sheet wouldn't last too long at that angle, given it is "under steam".

This is the result of the hasty effort to implement a new collection policy in conjunction with the construction of a new building at the of National Railway Museum of (Insert your favorite country to make fun of here). Apparantly the design team made their measurements in the metric system while the curatoral staff made their measurements using English units. Apparantly when backing this display train into the exhibit hall they encountered some resistance when the train struck the back wall. The shunting crew kept shoving, after all the hall was designed especially to accomodate this train - right?Tom Cornillie

Yes, it is a real photo - although staged at a steam museum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. You can see the before & after photos and technical info on this page:http://www.geocities.com/vapor_br_sp/saiu610.htmAccording to the "Babel Fish" translation of the Portuguese information, it: "currently meets in the entrance of the "World the Vapor", as photo below, published in the EFB_Pro list for Tony Belviso, representing accident occurred in Marseilles, in France." In real English, it is at the entrance of the World of Steam Museum, and represents the accident (shown in someone else's post on this board) that happened in France.If you ask me, it is rather a waste of a possibly restorable meter gauge Alco 4-6-0. However, Brazil seems to have a number of similar meter gauge 4-6-0's - see several of the photos linked on this page: http://www.geocities.com/vapor_br_sp/sairam.htmWhile the ET&WNC had wagon top 4-6-0's, one of these straight boilered locos would make a nice starting point for conversion to a 3' gauge loco! Sure would like one for the Doe River Gorge!

Good heavens! Did they torch the front off or dig a hole? Hopefully the latter....J

I stand corrected - I wonder what they'd been smoking when they thought it up? Actually I was both right and wrong in that it wasn't a real accident.....running for cover.G

Although the answer is now known, there were other clues:• No tender.• No broken building window!?!?• Headlight glass appears intact.• Perfectly broken railing and missing moulding under the railing section that is "broken".• No boiler jacket?• It's still smoking, yet where are the shattered bricks that would be everywhere? They are neatly arranged just around the front of the locomotive.• No police keeping people away from a potential boiler explosion?Erich