This photo, taken by my father in 1957 at Bennäs Station, Jakobstad, Finland, shows myself as a three-year-old. I can still remember the locomotive blowing its pops, scaring me! It however made me a life-time railfan. The locomotive is built in 1898 by ALCO for the Finnish State Railways, then belonging to Czarist Russia. (Finland declared independnce on Dec 6, 1917) It is working its last miles after almost 60 years of service, Wood-fired still!
Nice loco! Not sure if it was Alco, though, because Alco was incorporated in 1901. Most likely it was built by one of Alco's predecessors, like Pittsburgh, Cooke, Brooks, or Schenectady. The cylinders look a lot like the ones on a locomotive here at Exporail, Maritime Railway #5, a 4-6-0 built by the Pittsburgh works in 1896. And when I was about your age, my nemesis was a hovercraft. Back in 1967, I witnessed one making a lot of noise going across the water... then crawling up onto the shore! I decided to use my Dad as a human shield...
jmha, thanks for the nice photo. It is always interesting to learn how members have become railfans. I see from that photo that you certainly started at a very young age. It could very well be an Alco, as Mike explained, there were many predecessors but they became Alco.
The smokebox sign reads "American Locomotive Works". Some resolution was lost when digitizing the old photo.
The photo is also very grainy - if the builder's plate on the smokebox is at the limit of resolution, it's quite possible that some numbers were distorted. It wouldn't take much to change a 9 to an 8, or a 0 to a 9, etc. It's also possible that this engine was on the shop floor, nearly ready to deliver at one of Alco's predecessors when the amalgamation occurred in 1901, and then delivered as an Alco, with the Alco builder's plate.
It is a neat piece of personal history. Cool that it stayed wood burning, but given the materials available in the area I suppose it makes good sense.
