Yet another piece of out long-running puzzle came into focus today. Many of you know we are an addicted rail fan so we just HAD to know the probable Atlantic & Pacific locomotive and baggage and coach car type in use at the time of the 1889 Canyon Diablo Train Robbery.
As luck would have it, world famous and legendary photographer William Henry Jackson took a fabulous photos of an express train posed on the Canyon Diablo bridge roughly in the same era as the robbery.
It would be reasonable to speculate it was an American type 4-4-0 engine such as the one Jackson photographed. The 4-4-0 American was just about as generic a locomotive as was possible to be in those days and was a common workhorse of both the Atlantic & Pacific and their successor, the AT&SF R.R.
The first 3 images were extracted as screen clips from an enlarged version of the fourth photo.
Photo source: https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/collection/p15330coll21/id/7736
The 4-4-0 American type locomotive was still being used on the AT&SF in the 90's.
This photo is said to be circa 1895.
Famed photographer William Henry Jackson had a "good eye" for all subjects but he had an especially "good eye" for All Things Railroad. It's a very little known part of his career but Jackson actually traveled the Union Pacific side of the first transcon from Nebraska to Promontory Summit in the summer of 1869 and recorded some stunning images along the way. Plus, he kept a detailed daily journal! His photographic work on the railroad helped catapult him to future fame.
In any event, Jackson was undaunted when it came to getting "the best angle" for railroad infrastructure. This is a classic example of his work...standing in the bottom of Canyon Diablo looking up at the trestle. On my second visit to Canyon Diablo back in the mid-80's, I figured out how to climb down to the bottom of the steep canyon. Trust me, it was difficult and I wasn't carrying cumbersome antique photographic equipment such as Jackson would have been. What a sweet photo!
Photo source:
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