Navigating Main Street America. In a scene from the early war years, the crew of Santa Maria Valley Locomotive #205 sounds a warning blast on their whistle as they slowly bring a local freight down a residential street in a small town in Western Oregon.
I've been photographing steam railroads for over 20 years and this is the first time I've ever witnessed a re-creation of a street-running scene like this with a live steam engine. Putting this together clearly took a ton of coordination on the part of Lerro Photography, an antique car club, the Albany & Eastern Railroad, the City of Albany, Oregon, and of course, the good citizens of West Olive Street, who literally had their street closed and taken over for a couple of hours this day. The railroad folks brought in a refreshments tent, portable toilets and the city put up "Road Closed" signs and had wreckers ready to move any vehicles which had not been removed from the area. For a couple of hours, this little neighborhood looked like a Hollywood movie shoot.
A look at steam operations on Oregon's Albany & Eastern Railroad, headquartered in Lebanon, OR, and featuring Santa Maria Valley Railroad Locomotive #205.
