I can't tell you how much I am enjoying these images by John.
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Baldwin marked the RF-16 as "The Hauling Fool" and that certainly fits!
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Very sweet.
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Perhaps someone could enlighten me about something? Are the handrails on top of these Baldwins and on the PRR E units a PRR preference or did quite a few of these types of early diesel locomotives have handrails?
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Not handrails, radio or train phone antenna, I believe.
Fantastic images, John! Really enjoying them!
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Nice shot John. I gave you a pca nom.
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OK, why the spacer boxcar? Weight on bridges? Nice as usual John.
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Excellent photograph of how to operate a railroad the right way.
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All of this stuff is enough to make a Pennsy fan cry! Tears of joy in seeing the images, however. Spacer cars weren't necessary for weight distribution, as PRR built for the ages. I believe this is an eastbound of empty ore cars headed for So. Philly and perhaps the box car was added at Altoona (maybe company material) or was a repaired bad order car that had been set out someplace on-line and was picked up by a light train. With respect to the question about the antennas - this is the PRR inductive trainphone; many cabin cars had them as well. For a thorough explanation of this early radio system see, Keystone Crossings http://kc.pennsyrr.com/faqs/trainphone.php. Those radios had a wierd sound but were, at the time, a dramatic leap in communication technology from wayside phones and hand signals.
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Great historic classic Pennsy shot John. Thanks for this masterpiece.
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