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Circa 1900. "Chicago & North-Western Railway locomotive CNW 605 on turntable." 4x5 glass negative from the Louis A. Marre Rail Transportation Photograph Collection. View full size.
Is the Marre collection fully digitized through LoC? Can anyone provide a link?
[Did you try Googling it? - Dave]
The engine also shows signs of having been built as a wood burner, later converted to coal. The extension riveted to the front end of the boiler below the headlight bracket (still attached to the original "smokebox") and "shotgun" stack are draft appliances added to better burn coal than wood.
The 1899 photo shows a Schenectady builders plate and a front truck with paper wheels. (Those were made of compressed paper, which were supposed to ride better and wear better. The spotting sign is the set of rivets in the wheel.)
But this time, the loco is missing its builders plate, and the front truck has a spoked wheel in the front and a conventional cast wheel in the back. The pilot (cow catcher) framing looks a bit different, too. That to me says it must have been in accident with damage to the front of the loco.
So, in the image linked in the comment below, the date is one year earlier, 1899. The pilot has a link coupler. In this photo, c. 1900, the engine has an automatic coupler on the pilot. Real progress along the lines of safety!
[It also has different front truck and driver wheels. - Dave]
The heavy timber handle, jutting up on the far right at an angle, was all that powered this turntable, pushed by one or two men, hence the nickname.
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