Deep in the cut. A Valley Railroad Engineer carefully backs NH 3025 out of the rock formation known as Tate's Cut, in the town of Deep River, Connecticut. On this particular day, the locomotive and crew were hosting the students of the railroad's "Your Hand on the Throttle" program. Each of the day's 8 students had the opportunity to actually operate the big Mikado for a full hour, while running between Essex Depot and Chester Station. The spot you see here is about the only place on the line where the Engineer/Instructor had to take over the controls himself for just a minute or two, in order to take the engine through a very blind grade crossing, which is just behind the tender at the bottom of the photo. When the Valley runs its normal tourist trains, all southbound trips normally flag this crossing.
This unusual angle provides a look at the "tender behind" of the converted Chinese SY. Those familiar with the slope-back tenders on the production SYs will note that the Valley folks did quite a bit of surgery on this unit, removing the hand-rails, flattening the top deck and squaring off the corners, to make it look a little more like the "Clear-View" tenders that were featured on some of New Haven's Class J-1 Mikes.
From a hint of "Bee" (NKP 765), colorful "Bees" (KCS), "Bees" w/ "attitude", to "Bees" that "sting" your eyes, in their own way they have "Bee" on display! Equipment that "Buzzes" with Yellow & Black colors! ("Bees" can still "Bee" entering this "hive"!)
