Funny how Dad never marked any slides so when I came to these I was almost surprised. But not really, the 4000s were special as far as I can tell and I guess that the fact that we can read the engine number in the image was too obvious. I don’t know where these were taken but I still bet on the San Jose, California area.
Found a box of SP. When I say a box I mean a copier paper sized box full of Kodak slide boxes – see below. The marking says SP + SP Special three boxes. Looking at the first slide I’d say they are pretty likely to be special
My Dad’s friend David Hardie, seems to have made several duplicates and shared with him over the years. I usually don’t scan those and share since I don’t own the content, but I scanned this one in my assembly line and it’s worth a share.
Sometimes Dad would organize by company when sorting slides for Friday night slide night at Iron Horse Hobbies. This box must be one of those. As usual, the slides are only marked with the Kodak mount date but I recall that year’s trip was in August from home to South Dakota on another meandering route.
I have always liked switchers and these are no exception. The shadows and textures of the first two contrast nicely against the fresh looking paint.
The last two are washed out – I skipped Photoshop this time – but they are a study in weathering and details.
I can smell the creosote and oil on the ties. The smells of my childhood.
I think we are in San Jose or Santa Clara but I don’t know. What I do know is that in June of 72 we lived in Burlingame and Dad worked in the San Jose office sometimes so I base my guess on that alone.
The website that I get information from is http://www.rrpicturearchives.net and it’s not looking good today so I cannot state what type of engine this is. I mean I can guess its an Alco product but I am unsure.