Re: 478

Steve,

I think it is a very nice photo just the way you saw it and took it. I too thought about the cinder bonnet and the tender lettering but then this is not 1955 and it is not the D&RGW.

Imagine if you will looking at pictures of the k-27s and saying thats nice but really it should have Vauclain cylinders and oil headlights. Or 2-8-0s on the RGS and thinking it would be better if they still had short smokeboxes and diamond stacks.

The railroad changes, always has, always will. It is a process not a product.

I like the photos you all post that capture the drama, beauty, humanity, and soul of the railroad far more than those which attempt to re-take the pics taken by Kindig, Perry, Moedinger, Shaughnessy, or Richardson.

The photos of the #483 in movie paint at the birth of the C&TS in 1970 or the Rotary runs in the 90's are now history and would not be better if everything was lettered Rio Grande or if there were no people in them.

I enjoy the pictures of #315 on Cumbres because they are testimony of what can be accomplished by dedicated volunteers and professionals with a vision. While they evoke the past they record and preserve the instant when they were taken.

Just my opinion.

John Bush