Take a look at this BIG, Big, engine!

[solo1]

It is a Berkshire 4-8-2 that was one of the last steam engines built in Lima Ohio in 1943.  It was used on the Nickle Plate railroad on runs from Chicago to Ft. Wayne.

My oldest son Wayne took the picture about three weeks ago when the engine made its only run this year, an excursion run from Ft. Wayne to Wabash, Indiana.  He had the patience to wait for it at the right time.  The excursion run was called The Wabash Cannonball.

I ran it through Photoshop for him just to crop it a little so that 765 had room to run into the picture.

Since I didn't take the pic I can brag that, IMO,  it's a good one.  Dynamic pictures of steam engines taken in this age are rare.  

Old 765 is a good example of what dedicated citizens can do as it was rebuilt using only private funds. It is maintained by the Ft. Wayne Railroad Historical Society and its home is close to New Haven.

Oh yeah, Wayne rides a Pacific Coast so now it's motorcycle related

[RP#62]

Wow.  Beautiful picture.
Thanks

-RP

[..]

Have you sent the photo to the Society?

That could be a postcard.

[sheets]

Beautiful! Captured the moment with perfect composition. Just for fun make a copy and try a little HDR effect on it. 

[old2soon]

Some years back on I-35 South of Dallas Tx. headed North I was fortunate to see a Steam Locomotive. No camera but the smell and the noise were FANTASTIC.  RIDE SAFE.

[John Schmidt]

Beautiful pic Wayne, those old steamers bring back fond memories of the early 40's. During the war, dad was a school superintendent in SW Iowa near Council Bluffs(he tried to volunteer but they wouldn't take him because of his job). We attended church in Omaha at that time and after the service would find something to do for the afternoon since the folks always attended the evening service as well. One item I recall was a bridge we could walk over that spanned the RR tracks at right angles in the switching yard. We would see a steamer coming down a track, puffing huge white billows and we'd run over and stand right where it would pass under us. Then be temporarily engulfed in a cloud coming from 20' below us. After all that, we'd drive over to an airport and watch the the military air traffic come/go. I have no idea where it was, but we could go up to an observation deck and I could watch for hours.

Toward the end of the war, dad was finishing work first on his Masters, then his Phd. at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Rather than drive out due to rationing, we would take the Rocky Mountain Rocket west out of Omaha, friends would pick us up in Denver. Many of those runs were with diesels, but I remember distinctly the sound of the steamer going across the plains and lulling me to sleep. It was high speed back in those days and I could look out the window and see the smoke trail from up ahead. Imagine how fast the rhythm would be of the drive wheel cylinders when running 80mph or more. Aaah...the days of wonder and childhood memories.