I have no way of identifying the engineer in this picture, other than to say that he would have been from the Mt. Carmel, Illinois pool on the Cairo Line. This is a classic pose of an engineer at work on the local while switching at Vienna, Illinois. The photo was taken by agent H.C. Settlemoir in the early 1950's, before arrival of the first diesels on this branch line. The engineer's hand is perfectly posed on the throttle; whistle cord is visible in the background, and train orders are neatly rolled up and placed in a valve handle in the foreground. Of course, the engineer's large oil can is close at hand and resting on the brake stand! CAPT Rex Settlemoir
It looks to me like he has a pipe wrench on a valve just to the left of the throttle grip. You can see the ferrule and the hole in the wrench handle. Charlie
Another great photo, Roger. I noticed that pipe wrench, too. Maybe a valve handle broke off. Whatever the reason, it just shows how the railroaders handled problems back then. Just find another way to do the job. Git er done. :tb-biggrin:
