Speaking of Stereoviews, Here's One from the PRR

jdorn · **Joined:** Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:11 am **Posts:** 71

I saw the seller of the one Jersey Steam posted is also selling an old Altoona roundhouse stereoscopic.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/194808422939?h ... SwjiZiAyqk

NVPete · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2022 9:53 am

I'd say the mid-to-late 1860's, like the P&R picture, going by how much the vegetation has recolonized the fill material, Kelly. My edumacated guess is that this is a Staghorn Sumac tree and it's about 10 to 15 years old depending on the growing conditions over that time...

Al Stangenberger · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:59 pm **Posts:** 650

Cremer's Stereoscopic Emporium closed in 1882, so that's probably an upper limit to the date.

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2022 12:52 pm

Ron Travis · **Joined:** Sun May 15, 2005 2:22 pm **Posts:** 1543

It seems like it could be pre-Civil War. Is it really a 4-4-0? It may be that some touch up work was done on the photo just after it was made. Maybe dark area was removed around the trucks, under the boiler, and in the coach windows to kind of clarify the image. If so, the work was not very precise.

djbower · **Joined:** Fri Jan 15, 2021 1:49 pm **Posts:** 5

Stereo photography started in about 1849-1850 – per Britannica:

https://www.britannica.com/technology/p ... hotography

Since the PRR was completed through to Pittsburgh in February 1854 – it’s possible that the photo dates to when the railroad was new. Typical construction of large fills in this era was to build a temporary trestle and dump material off the end and sides, burying the trestle. Given that a lot of material would have been accumulated as the roadbed is a shelf cut into the sides of the mountains, it’s reasonable to assume that the spoil was just carted to the fill locations. (I don't recall any borrow pits around this area.) In some cases they didn’t even bother to remove nearby trees where the fill would go.

This method does not create a well compacted fill, at least not initially. As the fill would settle, the railroad would just add more material to bring the track back up to grade. So, for some time after construction, new material added could continue build up the sides of the fill, covering up vegetation that might have started.

If you google “1858 horseshoe curve photo”, you’ll find a photo credited to 1858 that shows very little growing on the slopes of the fills.

As for the locomotive, this does look typical of ones built around 1850 – for example, see some of the drawings in E.P. Alexander’s “The Pennsylvania Railroad – a Pictorial History”.

So, the photo could be from when the Horseshoe curve was brand new – or from a few years later. I’m guessing that the photo is from before the Civil War.

NVPete · **Posted:** Mon Feb 14, 2022 10:50 pm

Here's an eBag listing for another Cremer photo from Altoona featuring a very similar locomotive. The seller's saying early 1860's like others in the collection...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194808422939

And this what a Staghorn Sumac cluster tends to look like when situated out in the open with the rampant sucker sprout growth around the base of the plant...