This arrived in the mail today. I am only 10 pages into it, but it is a wonderful history of the Niagara on the New York Central. Right up there with "Know Thy Hudsons."
That cover photo must be very late steam era. The rust on pilot, smokebox door, etc is heavy. I wonder if this loco had been in a dead line, then revived?
I doubt that is rust, Ken. The photo was taken in 1953, and those engines were delivered in 1945 and 46. They did not sit still long, for the number of hours and miles they accumulated were pretty amazing.
I'm mostly a West Coast fan of railroads, but those Niagaras were beautiful, even built one of those plastic "Snap-Fit" Monogram models! It didn't have the smoke deflectors though.
Yes, they were beautiful, even though they diverged from the "New York Central Look" that Hudsons and Mohawks had. Ken, you may be right about rust, after reading further into the book. By 1953 no Niagaras ran on "Lines East" and the maintenance was not as good as in the past, as diseasals were taking over big time. One of the comments in the book stated that the original smoke deflectors were aluminum and would not hold paint. Later ones were steel. If '53 was the end on lines east, I was 13 years old and that was the last time I saw one run through Little Falls, NY.
