Sam. The steam locomotive crews at the Sumpter Valley Railroad seem to take pride in looking the part, and Sam McCloskey is no exception. A recent addition to the roster of SVRR volunteers, Sam came to the railroad with previous steam engine experience. Over the past year, he's spent a ton of time at the railroad, helping with projects and working through all of the qualifications for train operations. He is now a fully qualified Engineer.
When Sam was tapped to be the Engineer on the line's annual Fall Photo Train, some of his crewmates became concerned that he needed some period headgear, because there were going to be a lot of folks around with cameras. They found a "homeless" brown bowler hat that had been hanging around the shop forever and suggested that he put it on. He did....and a star was born. Over the course of the weekend, I suspect that a lot of the attending photographers mounted up their 70-200mm zooms and went hunting for the perfect shot of our Engineer. One of the other photographers and I couldn't help but remark that Central Casting couldn't have found anyone who looked more at home in the cab of a log-hauling Heisler in the wilderness of Oregon.
And that hat? Well, it's no longer homeless. It now has Sam McCloskey's name in the liner. Over that weekend, he made it his own. I'd like to thank a kind crewmember for showing me the internal workings of the line's water tank, and allowing me to photograph Sam from this unusual perspective.
