No worries Big Jim...all is well.
MiningmanWell geez you called me a creepy guy!
.
Overmod Greenbrier by any name would smell as sweet. (Probably unlike doodlebug exhaust, but I digress...)
Greenbrier by any name would smell as sweet. (Probably unlike doodlebug exhaust, but I digress...)
Weren't noxious fumes entering the carbody a major problem of some early Doodlebug designs?
Digress away...
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_C._Kalmbach
Does he not look like he has a sense of humor?
Hagerstown Daily Mail, April 11, 1959 – Passenger Train Goes – Yesterday marked the end of three quarters of a century of passenger service on the Western Maryland Railway. The railroad's final passenger coach was removed from its run yesterday after it completed a round trip from Elkins to Durbin, W. Va. The West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway instituted passenger trains between Cumberland and Elkins in August 1887, and shortly afterward the WVC and PR extended its tracks 47 miles south to Durbin.
https://www.american-rails.com/western-maryland-railway.html
GeoffSIt's too bad it won't show up just about now so we could all take a ride to Ronceverte!!
However ... I'd have to be concerned if I started to hear banjos at some point in the trip...
M-Man thanks for mentioning "The Twilight Zone."
It's to bad it won't show up just about now so we could all take a ride to
Roncerverte!!
Ya looking again it does look like she's walking towards the camera. Women back then did sometimes wear a sheer scarf that would cover their face - normally it was easy to see through it, might be the light is hitting it just right in the photo that it makes it look more solid? However, the engineer looks quite happy; the conductor looks more bored than menacing..."OK, take the picture so we can get on with our work!".
Well geez you called me a creepy guy!
I can see what you are saying about the lady but if you blow it up a bit you can clearly see she is walking to the camera and facing us. Look at the right leg...the shoe and ankle are coming right at you, the left leg is in a back to front swing.
Likely a scarf, but as Overmod pointed out some kind of photographic effect is going on, perhaps in the developing step.
It is a beautiful and historic area and important from a railroad operations and railroad history perspective.
Cass Scenic Railroad in video provided by Wanswheel.
Miningman The woman is definitely not walking away...look at her feet, she is clearly walking to the camera. Sorry you don't find the amusement in it all.
The woman is definitely not walking away...look at her feet, she is clearly walking to the camera.
Sorry you don't find the amusement in it all.
Sorry you don't see the amusmement in what I said.
The only thing "creepy" about the photo is that someone finds it "creepy"!
I agree that the woman is walking away and the engineer seems to have a smile on his face that seems to say..."The jokes on you pal!"
As we all know kids are very smart. Think back to when you were say, 8 to 12 years old and then came upon this scene with a couple of buddies on a summers day, just doing some 'exploring' ...you would instinctively freeze and then run...if you ran down the tracks of that branch on the right I think you go straight into the Twilight Zone! Stuff of kids legends!
We had a neighbour on one side of us when I was a kid and if any kind of ball went over a very high hedgerow fence it was never ever coming back. We, my pals and myself, called the lady Mrs. Crabtree. Mrs. Crabtree must have had one heck of a collection in her basement or taken out for garbage.
It was spooky just to peek through all that thick hedge and 'see the other side'. All I remember clearly of her backyard was the impeccable lawn and one of those big glass balls on a pedestal. A monument to all the absconded balls? Thats kind of funny.
"You ain't from around here, are ya boy?"
Well they ALWAYS have that look just before the teeth sink into you and tear off flesh!
Thanks again to Wanswheel ...of course!!! The Cass Scenic, now I remember the connection.
wjstixUm, ya, the lady on the platform is walking away from the photographer...
Um, no, look carefully at an enlarged view and you can clearly see her right shoe and ankle; she's walking toward the camera. So there's some more photo artifact here than meets the eye. I do agree that head coverings are a major factor here.
Much of the creepiness in the 'crew' goes away when you look at their facial expressions up close, particularly the engineer.
Um, ya, the lady on the platform is walking away from the photographer, and wearing a scarf on her head - very common for women in that era. As a kid in the 1960's I remember my mom and sisters wearing them when we went to church.
http://www.banarsidesigns.com/blog/history-of-scarves/
It's my hope the lady is walking away from us & the white we see is
her head gear. But you never can tell what kind of head gear..............
MiningmanYou are correct Firelock...the Doddlebug is a strange one all right and is reminiscent of Gort! That big bulbous overhang and those antennae or ray guns off to the sides along the top! Invasion of the body snatchers?? Whats with the atomic head lady?
Invasion of the body snatchers??
Whats with the atomic head lady?
Early Photoshoping!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
http://www.wmwestsub.com/gcesub/durbin.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0f1h8i1Q5o&t=9m
You are correct Firelock...the Doddlebug is a strange one all right and is reminiscent of Gort! That big bulbous overhang and those antennae or ray guns off to the sides along the top!
Jeez, that's creepy all right. Sure isn't the "Happy Valley Line!"
I don't know, even that "Doodlebug" looks menacing, to me anyway. Reminds me of Gort the robot from "The Day The Earth Stood Still."
The GOOD one, with Michael Rennie.
Shortly before departure from Durbin, W.Va., on Feb. 23, 1951, the crew of the Chesapeake & Ohio doodlebug assigned to train 143 eyes the photographer before he climbs aboard for the ride down the Greenbrier River valley to the main line at Roncerverte, W.Va.A. C. Kalmbach photo
Was all excited when I guessed the correct road this morning.
Then the creepiness started. The lady to the left has a white ball of energy or something for a face. The folks on the platform look menacing. The crew looks even more menacing. The branch veering off to the right and into the distance even looks menacing.
Yeesh.
Nice Doddlebug though. I think.
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