A friend sent me the following picture. Anybody have any idea of what it is? He wrote:

We're in Alpine Texas on our way to Big Bend Nat'l Park. We're staying in a very classy old hotel - Hotel Holland - and they're displaying this picture in a hallway. Unfortunately you can't count 'em because the panorama function won't go quite wide enough to get the whole picture. The locomotives appear to be pulling some passenger cars, which are mostly out of sight. Any idea what sort of occasion would prompt this scene? The picture says its from an old photo studio in Marfa, which is the next town west from here. Sorry there's no date on it.

I'd suggest new loco delivery and the passenger cars were for the crews needed to look after the locos

TH

24 locomotives in one train would almost surely have to be the Prosperity Special, and from what I can see of the 'trailing' locomotives, they do look like 2-10-2s with Vanderbilt tenders, which would match.

Someone with sharp eyes or better resolution might see whether a sign is visible on one of the locomotives -- these can be seen in some of the running shots of the Special's moves, but I don't know if they were left on in relatively uninhabited areas...

Not sure about what looks like the grade in front of the 'lead' locomotive in the picture, but this might be the sort of adventurous manipulation of the print that produces those 'stretched' roster shots, made so the locomotive looks lo-o-o-o-onger, but with oval wheels...

That appears to be the well-documented Baldwin "Prosperity Special" of c.1930-31 when they shipped a large order of 2-10-2s for SP in one train. it was supposed to encourage the population that there was no threat of depression at hand. The locos worked well, the promo didn't.

Mr. Hamley, you have the wrong depression. Prosperity Special's was 1921-22.

I stand corrected. Right concept, wrong depression.....Maybe this time it did more good that it would have in 1930......

Some other "Prosperity Special" shots, some of which are from sellers on e-bay:

http://c590298.r98.cf2.rackcdn.com/NGM1_164.JPG

On the PRR, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society:

http://www.prrths.com/PRR_Images/l1s.jpg

http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/ ... 1215/m1/1/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b39319/

Another shot on the PRR:

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo ... ving-yards

Many people may not recall this, but there was a recession in this country in about 1921. This was because the government quit spending money on munitions and airplanes and ships and things following WW I. Most people don't recall it, as it was overshadowed first by the booming 1920s and then the horrible Great Depression. As noted, this was a publicity ploy by Baldwin and Sam Vauclain to boost confidence in the economy of the time.

It's also interesting to recall that such a recession was a serious concern for economists who were looking at the end of WW II; they feared something similar would happen when the government cancelled all those contracts for P-51s, B-17s, and Sherman tanks. What it appears they hadn't counted on was (a) a decade of depression prior to WW II, which had a lot of pent-up demand people weren't able to pay for, and (b) rationing during WW II as an anti-inflationary measure and war support policy, which also contributed to the pent-up demand and which, through war bonds, also resulted in a huge level of savings that went to pay for so much of the immediate postwar prosperity of the late 1940s.

My friend blew up a small piece of the picture and you guys were right:

That's a big overhang on the rear of the tender. Were turntables shorter back then?

Not necessarily, but turntable length tended to lag locomotive length. Setting the rear tender truck in by even a couple of feet could make a difference in getting an engine onto an existing table.

Howard P.

As an aside, a Deck of that series, 3670, was the helper on part of the 1955 2nd of July Special that had ran on the SP out of the Bay Area, up the East Valley Line to Dunsmuir. Power was GS-6 4463 . At Dunsmuir, 2-10-2 3670 was added for the climb to Mt. Shasta City. Once there McCloud River RR steam took over and took train to McCloud. The next day, the participants witnessed the opening ceremonies of the Burney Extension.

Soon after, 3670 was given a large 16,000 gallon tender and sent south to Tracy on the San Joaquin Division where she worked until around September of 1956, one of the very last SP Decks in service. One of her builders plates survives.