Re: NNG - Merrilees Collection Oddities

Rick and Brian, thanks for your comments about those photos. That’s half why I post them. You’re both spot on about revisionist history, there’s a lot of that going on these days. It’s not fair to judge people from past generations based on today’s values (or sometimes lack of them), and in the Railroad context those scrap drives were absolutely essential. It’s easy from our secure armchairs to say the Allies won the war and saving this or that engine didn’t make a difference, but the view of things was a whole lot different back then.

And RDannemann, I’m glad you mentioned the second photo again. Caused me to take a better look at it than I had before. It’s obviously in a locomotive works setting, with the rows of driving wheels in the far back left, two brand new cow catchers on either side in the foreground, possibly the edge of a transfer table in the immediate foreground, and other assorted hardware lying around. The engine itself I would gather to be the shop goat, perhaps converted from a 4-4-0????? There’s a bell where the headlight would normally be, a pilot instead of a cow catcher, and what appears to be home made water tanks beneath the cab as opposed to a proper tender. It may have still had a turn of speed, but never strayed very far!

Feel free to send these pics along if you know other groups who specialize in these railways. I’ve posted some of the NG stuff, but for example there’s literally hundreds of early D&H steam photos in the collection, as well as from many other mostly eastern US lines. However, a couple years ago I sent samples to the D&H Hist Soc, but curiously got absolutely no reply. Oh well, their loss.

Cheers,
Ralph