Crew members are always welcome elements in railroad photos. In my view, they add so much life to the images. The challenge is getting them into the photo such that the result is a great composition, with all of the elements properly positioned, no merges, etc.
I believe that the other gentleman with Stathi in your photo is George Sapp, from the Eureka crew. Super nice guy. George has been working with Dan Markoff and Eureka for many years. He is also the recently retired CMO at Railtown 1897 in Jamestown, CA. He is easy to recognize in photos because he has the most diverse collection of "hogger hats" of any Steam Engineer I have ever met.
/Kevin Madore