Looking through the images I have of Jack Delano’s trip out west on the Santa Fe, I realized that I’d overlooked this nighttime scene that he had recorded while in Barstow, California. Pictured is the yard there, and the scene includes three trains apparently ready for departure. The locomotive in the foreground is 2-10-2 #1691, built by Baldwin back in 1912. Note the unusual turtle-back tender (some sources refer to it as a whale-back, I don’t know which term is correct).

The image is surprisingly sharp for what was obviously a time exposure, and Mr. Delano shows his mastery of the art with this photograph.