Looking for a D&H Book Picture ....

The picture is a quality print, unlike that of a magazine, and is half-page size. I would have bet my last dollar it was in one of my Morning Sun books.

The picture itself is of a railfan trip sometime in the early 60's. The picture is in color. The train is a mix of passenger cars and open gondolas on the rear for people to ride open air in. The shot is taken from the end gondola looking forward towards the rest of the train. There are two prominent guys right at the front of the picture .... an older man in a trench coat and hat, the other is a younger fellow in a varsity type jacket and red hair.

The train is Binghamton bound and the shot is taken approaching the Howes Cave cement plant. The train is curving to the left with the cement plant on the right.

I've gone through all my books twice and still can't put my fingers on it. I'm really hoping it might sound familiar to someone who can help me re-locate it.

Thanks for ANY help, Mark.

Darn! I know I have never seen the picture, and it's not in any of the D&H books in my limited collection. I would recognize it, because I was on that Capital District Railroad Club Fall Foliage Excursion in October, 1961. We started from Albany and headed down the Albany Main to Delanson and Cooperstown Jct., then to Cooperstown and back to Albany via Schenectady and Mechanicville.

Joe Davis was the engineer on that trip. He owned one side of 205/208. He is in a photo in Morning Sun Volume I, sitting on a pile of ties at DE Cabin with his train, No. 205, waiting for a southbound freight. Joe's nickname was "Red," but when he became bald the nickname became "Curly." Joe was a self-described "Lace Curtain Welshman from Wilkes-Barre," a good railroader and a true gentleman.

I wangled a ride in the engine from Cobleskill to Cooperstown, thanks to the kindness of Bruce Nyland (BCE RPI 1947), then Trainmaster at Oneonta and later my boss when he was Engineer Maintenance of Way and I was Track Supervisor at Plattsburgh. The D&H Engineering Department was a tight little society of RPI graduates.

I would love to see the photo and try to ID the characters. It could well be in one of the Morning Sun books, but it's not in Vol. I.

Gordon Davids (BCE RPI 1963)

I was also on that trip to Cooperstown in 1961. I still have the fantrip
flyer and the ticket stub somewhere. I also got a short movie clip of the
special going into Cooperstown from the gondola.
I had relatives in Cooperstown at that time and used the layover time to
visit them.
We had two RS-2's, several through line coaches, some arch rood non
AC commuter type coaches, a D&H diner and on the rear end two open
gondolas which were accessible by panels of plywood from the last coach.
It was some trip.
Noel Weaver

Sorry if I led anyone on a wild goose chase - it WAS in a magazine. I searched all day today and finally found it in the October 1999 issue of Railmodel Journal ( reprinted below ). This one drove me nuts trying to find .... at least I'll be able to sleep tonight !!!


( Sorry for the crappy pic - I just took a photo out of the magazine )

Mark.

I think I can barely make out the phrase "circa 1958" in the photo caption. It wasn't 1958, because the trip that year went to North Creek. The 1959 trip, my first, ran Albany - Troy - Eagle Bridge - Rutland - Whitehall - Albany. 1960 ran on the NYC - Albany - Kenwood - Selkirk Yard - Frankfort (via West Shore) - Utica - Schenectady - Albany. And then this one, in 1961.

Every trip was a real hoot!

I'm afraid I can't make out any of the people in the photo. I think the guy in the fedora hat is a D&H official, but I can't get enough of his face to tell who he is.

I don't remember if they ran one in 1962. I was a senior in the fall of that year, and I had to devote my time to that higher enterprise.

GAD!

After the trip to Cooperstown, I got put on the mailing list for more trips
and the one that I went on went to Rutland then after back tracking went
down the Washington Branch. We had two gondolas on the rear of that
trip and we were moving pretty fast running up to Whitehall. I think that
particular trip was probably in 1962 but I will have to look for either the
flyer or the ticket stub.
Noel Weaver

By the way, the picture you describe is actually in the last page of the D&H "Color guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment" put out by the BLHS.
(I know, it is a very late response!)

Apparently, some where along the line my original picture got removed. No, it wasn't the picture in the Morning Sun Color book either. The picture was taken in front of the Howes Cave cement plant heading south.

I looked for the picture to repost, but I can't seem to locate it. As discovered in my original pst, it was from the October 1999 issue of Railmodel Journal - have never seen it any where else.


Mark.