http://www.shorpy.com/node/22233?size=_original#caption

Why do I doubt this looks the same today? Catch the gentleman on the passenger car steps? What would OSHA say?

Bridge was upgraded around the time that the line was electrified (1930?). Not the same angle, but here is what it looks like today:

Dick -

From the sign on the side of the passenger car, and the posing of the other folks (including engineer and fireman), it looks as if this was a special photo shoot. My guess is that the guy on the back end (conductor?) probably just went down there for the photo and wouldn't normally been there during operations. So in this particular case, OSHA probably would have been mum.

Les

Another photo in the series:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/16087?size=_original#caption

In the 2nd photo it is interesting to see the coach has both a knuckle & what looks to be the mechanism for a Miller hook.
In the 1st if you look at the stream it shows the smear of a relatively long exposure time - a pretty sure sign to me it was a staged (and static) shot. Nice of you to post these...mld

More of the series:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/11206?size=_original#caption
http://www.shorpy.com/node/13194?size=_original#caption
http://www.shorpy.com/node/8149?size=_original#caption
http://www.shorpy.com/node/10049?size=_original#caption
http://www.shorpy.com/node/12509?size=_original#caption

Search Lackawanna for more from the DL&W.
Mike

You can spend days searching around the Shorpey's website. There are plenty of vintage C&NW and AT&SF locomotive shots, plus steamboats and memorable people. Some events evoke pride and others shame, but it's all history, with no "alternative facts".

(emphasis added)

Obviously, you've never read the comments that often follow many, many Shorpy uploads. Shorpy attracts no shortage of self-appointed "experts" and "historians" who are more than eager to pontificate or speculate on what Shorpy itself won't--which is part of both the charm and the aggravation of the site. In my personal experience, for every person willing to chime in with well-sourced information, there are three or more who feel compelled to repeat rehashed, warmed-over legends Stephen Ambrose-style, or speculate to wild lengths on the flimsiest of visual evidence.

Quick question for a DL&W aficionado out there. Lackawanna passenger car 503 is marked M & E as, apparently, is the back end of the tender of 4-4-0#130 (only the "M" is visible). What does the M&E stand for?

Thanks.

Les

Les,

The Morris & Essex was an early NJ line that eventually became a key part of the DL&W. The name has continued in use to the present day, as NJ Transit still calls it the Morris & Essex Line.

I hadn't thought about it before, but "Morris & Essex" may be one of the oldest still-in-use railroad names.

Rob