Re: A Darn Good Example of a 'Phraud-O-Graph' . . .

John West Wrote:
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> Actually the dead giveaway (or at least ques-
> tion mark) {in the photo at [ngdiscussion.net]}
> is right in the foreground, the high level switch
> stand. That is a new or reconfigured switch.
> The original ng. (mostly) used low level stands
> like the one in the picture with the old cars.
> However in the later years a few high level
> ones did creep in.

I wondered about that as well, but the roof-line of #401 means it's relatively late in the life of #18, and she wasn't retired 'til 1954 IIRC, so that tall stand MIGHT have been there when #18 was still running.  OTOH, it might have been installed by the folks at Laws just a couple of weeks before.  I'll bet some of the older photos could tell us one way or the other . . . *

> I think the fun part of phraud-o-graphy is to convey
> the "ambience" of the old, without necessarily
> trying to fool anyone. It is a bit like the differ-
> rence between recreation and preservation –
> you really don't want to fool anyone but it is fun
> (and perhaps even occasionally educational) to
> show folks what things more or less looked like in
> the old days. A working steam engine tells a lot
> more interesting story than a static exhibit.


You're right, John -

Honey catches more flies (and new museum members) than vinegar, and a little gemütlichkeit goes a long way!   Just make sure there's no yodeling at the back of the photo line!    

- Willie

*  I just looked high & low through George Turner's 'Slim Rails Through the Sand' and Mal Ferrell's 'S.P. Narrow Gauge' and couldn't find ANY older photos of that particular switch stand, neither high nor low.  While it does look a bit more modern than the rest of the photo, it's not an absolute give-away, and since #401 lost her clerestory roof late in '52 it's quite possible that the exact scene you photographed also occurred back in '53 or '54.  So I'm gonna stick with my earlier appraisal of it being one of the most believable – and just plain stunning – Phraud-O-Graphs yet posted here on the NGDF.  (Luckily, the engineer's bright purple hat with yellow polka-dots doesn't show in your photo.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2017 10:31PM by Johnson Barr.