Fire Up 10. On Friday, October 11, 2024, the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum hosted its 20th Annual Night Photo Shoot with lighting by Thomas Nanos. This museum in Willimantic, Connecticut is at the site of the former Columbia Junction Freight Yard. The grounds are a combination of vintage and reconstructed buildings accented by vintage railroad equipment. The reconstructed Columbia Junction Roundhouse and transplanted Armstrong turntable are the centerpiece of the grounds, that also include other restored buildings, locomotives, rail cars and historic artifacts. One of the highlights was the first display of Baldwin 10 (0-4-0, Standard Steel Works Company, 1934) outside of the roundhouse at a night photo shoot. Museum volunteers dressed in period attire, and of course, the annual tradition of "scrapping" a piece of equipment continued. A new addition to the event, members of the Lebanon Fire Department not only brought two pieces of fire apparatus, but also staged various demonstrations during the night. Built late in the steam era as a one-man oil fired competitor to more modern locomotives, Baldwin 10 (61820) has made a tour of museums after its service life with Standard Steel & Wire and Wickwire-Spencer Steel Company. After spending time at the Valley Railroad, it was brought to the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, and eventually joined the CERM collection in October, 2008. To blend in with the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad location of the museum, a "10/X-6" sign was added to the cab, denoting the railroad's X-6 designation for 0-4-0 locomotives. In addition, a power source was added for the headlight and a smoke grenade made the locomotive appear operational for this shot.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
