Norfolk and Western's "M" Class No. 382 and No. 475, both 4-8-0 Mastodons, bask under the light of a full Moon (and a few well placed floods) for a photo shoot with Lerro Productions at the Strasburg Rail Road in November of 2017.
The N&W relied heavily on this class of locomotive - all together, 286 4-8-0 locomotives were built for the railroad between 1906 and 1912. Of those, 125 were designated "M" class locomotives, the remainder, were M1 and M2 classes of which several (5) survive. However, only two "M" class locomotives remain today - No. 475 owned by the Strasburg Rail Road and No. 433 on display in Abingdon, VA - home to the Virginia Creeper. No. 382, seen here, to the right, is actually No. 475 in disguise. The photo is a composite made by staging No. 475 as No. 382 for shot, and then a quick transformation saw "No. 382" return to her No. 475 livery and re-positioned for the second shot. The Moon, too bright to capture during either of the first two shots, is the third and final image layered together to make this final image.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
