Train no. 416

NG503039

Train no. 416

Steam Passenger Train

Though she had doubtless had her moments of triumph, too, the 5291, shown here on no. 416 near English Avenue, was decrepit and despised in the days of her assignment to the Big Four. Needless to say, this short-winded old racer was not to be mentioned in the same breath with the vaunted 5451. She rode hard, she was loose in all her joints, she was a tough customer to keep steaming, she broke down perhaps more than her share of times, and (worst of all, from her drivers' and handlers' standpoints) she always kept coming back for more. Her PT tank made her a tough but necessary choice on the Cincinnati-Kankakee runs, including even the Riley at times (the few J's with PT tanks always seemed to be unusually difficult to keep in service, but when all the others were indisposed for one reason or another, the 5291 was inevitably available, to the dispair of the engineer who had the run in question). She was forever covered with grime, and in this scene, as she spews gray smoke into a dull atmosphere in a dreary part of town, she is fully in her element.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

Spring, 1954

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403

J-1d

#5291

Alco-Schen

Harlan St., Indianapolis, IN

See NG503039a