Once upon a time, a power shortage gripped the mighty Union Pacific where it hurt most- in their motive power department. Saddled with many, many tons of freight to move on short notice, they were forced to turn to other railroads for much needed assistance. It was a tough time for war weary railroads and almost all of them had so much to take care of on their own lines that only a few could help out. Strange as it seems, help came from way across the country in Brooklyn, NY where the little Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal agreed to allow their number 12, an 0-6-0T, to go west to aid the U. P. But just for one month since they, too were expecting an upturn in traffic. In fact, BEDT asked UP to reciprocate and send one of their Big Boys to help move the freight along the Brooklyn docks but the UP refused (after having received the BEDT engine).

Photos of the BEDT 12 on UP in that month of April, 1945 are very rare but here is one that has surfaced. It may be the only one and the photographer is unknown. The picture is dated April 1, 1945 and shows the BEDT 12 assisting a Big Boy on Sherman Hill on that rare occasion.

Wow, what a sight to see. =P

Boy those old camera's sure distorted scale. It almost looks like BEDT 12's boiler and drivers are only slightly smaller diameter than the big boys... The engineer looks twice as tall in BEDT as the UP locomotive...

Having done some research, I now understand. The BEDT locomotive had a much more spacious cab than the Big Boy, so taller engineers preferred to take the spacious tank engine out as opposed to the cramped Big Boy. With seniority comes perks, I guess...

Boy oh boy, that's an awful flat spot the 0-6-0 has on it's last driver.

I think what appears to be a flat spot is, in fact, that desert mirage effect, when hot air is rising and distorts the horizon.
Really, that is a fabulous piece of photographic work. My compliments to the man who discovered this rare image.

Yep, that's probably it, since there's plenty of hot air and distortion around here today... Lots of fun too, and plenty of creativity.

That's an awesome picture... seems odd that UP would deny the request to send a Bigboy to New York even after they received help from #12.