Train no. 472 behind double header

NG501023

Train no. 472 behind double header

Steam M&E Train

Two J-1s, the 5329 and 5327, have to exert themselves mightily to overcome the inertia of no. 472's seventeen cars of mail and express leaving Bellefontaine. The condition of the eastbound main, blanketed with sand, testifies to the repeated efforts of engineers to coax their stumbling charges over this hump. Not all of them succeed - many a freight from the west, and a few from the south, have needed help from a yard engine to overcome the last heartbreaking pull into East yard. Some of them give up a good deal sooner, as a subsequent photograph will illustrate. It was a great show in the days of steam, and the performance below was not without its audience, as witness the two children watching from the back yard on the left. In the background on the westbound main is L-2 no. 2932, enroute from East yard to the roundhouse after a run from Cincinnati on hotshot freight LS-6. Farther down, and above the cars in no. 472's train, is Sandusky street bridge, which appears in several pictures and provides the vantage point for a couple of them.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

Apr-53

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297

J-1e

#5329, #5327

Alco-Schen

Bellefontaine, OH

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