An 1890 Train in the Black Hills

I like trains and pictures of old trains, particularly nice images of the steam locomotives. I can remember — barely — when some steam engines were still used on the Union Pacific.

I also like to find large old images where one can see a lot of detail when you look close. I’ve cropped this one several times to show all of the people in the image.

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“Giant Bluff.” Elk Canyon on Black Hills and Ft. P. R.R.
A wood-burning locomotive with four cars, on a track below a cliff; several people are posing in front of the train.
1890.
Grabill, John C. H., photographer.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.02546

american history, history, now that’s cool!, photography, railroad, south dakota, train, transportation

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Opal Tribble - Vegan Feb 21, 2008 Link

    I love old trains also. A few times yearly I take my daughter to the Stratsburg train museum. They have numerous old trains, and we actually get to ride on some of the steam engines.

  • teeni Feb 21, 2008 Link

    Wow – a woodburning one! And the quality of the photo is really good. I can't believe you were able to crop those people and we can see them better! I didn't even see those ones in the back on the last car!

  • Beth Ellen Feb 21, 2008 Link

    Great images. Old trains are so visually interesting.

  • Mike Goad Feb 26, 2008 Link

    I intend to post more train images. I grew up in a railroad town and most of the time that I lived there, we lived on the poorer side of the tracks, just a few blocks from the tracks. I sleep very well to the sounds of trains rumbling by. Even train whistles aid my sleep, unless they're too close!

  • Nicole McFarland Sep 20, 2008 Link

    I grew up near the area where this train passed through. July'08 hiked up Elk Canyon below Knifeblade rock, near Piedmont SD and found location of this picture. Really cool to see the rock strata in person. The "giant bluff" hasn't changed much but you almost cannot find the original rail cut. Really beautiful, yet challinging hike.

  • OAP Extrordiair Oct 31, 2009 Link

    I love the images. there is amazing detail even though you cropped them. I was wondering how fast trains went at that time.

  • OAP Extrordiair Oct 31, 2009 Link

    Who gave you these pictures? My boss at the museum was very interested in some blow up copy's.

  • Mike Goad Oct 31, 2009 Link

    We rode a similar train in Colorado a few years ago. It's top speed is 18 miles per hour.

    No one gave me the pictures. They are available online from the US Library of Congress and are public domain, with NO copyright restrictions.

    There is a link at the bottom of the blog post to the applicable page at the Library of Congress.

    The site I use to find images that I use is the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

  • Alba Jun 14, 2010 Link

    Hi,
    Would love to see these images but the links no longer seem to be valid? Could you repost them if you know where they can be found now?
    .-= Alba´s last blog ..Love Piemonte =-.

  • Mike Goad Jun 14, 2010 Link

    I had forgotten that the location of the pictures were in an older version of this blog and had deleted that blog and all of its files. Fortunately, after I deleted the local files, they were still in the recycle bin on my computer, so I was able to restore them.

    These pictures have been restored as have pictures for quite a few other posts.

  • Alba Jun 14, 2010 Link

    Thanks Mike,
    Fascinating image and crops… glad you found them!
    .-= Alba´s last blog ..Love Piemonte =-.

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