Photo of the Week

Okay....I have finally found a photo of 299 when it was in operation!! I recently purchased and old photo album and within, there was this photo of 299 pushing a flat car with dredge equipment. I couldn't find any dates on the photos, but I would say it could have been taken in 1914 - 1915 when the docks in Balboa were under construction. The photo was taken in front of a newly built Pacific Terminals building that we all know as the Port Captain's building in Balboa. When I blew this photo up in my scanner, you can see the engineer and fireman in the locomotive. This photo is quite historical for all us train nuts as it has 299 in operation. Since 299 is shown here doing lighter duty, this may be the reason 299 was in such good state preservation for display at the train station in Balboa in later years. It evidently not in the cut hauling dirt trains. As I have mentioned before here on CZ Images, my father told me that 299 was used in the Gamboa gravel pits until the 1950's.