Farewell to Number 4. On her final day of operation, Monson #4 ran 3 public passenger trips around Portland's Eastern Promenade. When those were completed, the engine crew began to prepare for a planned night photo shoot. That event would include a look at #4 with some freight cars. While most of the railfans and photographers had gone off to find some dinner, the railroad crew needed to take the freight cars down to the eastern end of the line (railroad west) and arrange them for the evening event. I caught wind of that move and elected to pass on dinner in hopes of catching some daylight shots of #4 with freight cars. I beat feet for the other end of the line and was rewarded with about 30 minutes worth of switching moves, culminating in the scene you see here: Number 4 with a flat car (railroad unknown), a restored wooden box car from the Bridgton & Harrison Railroad, and a beautiful caboose from the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad. Although Number 4 typically hauls passenger coaches at the museum, this is the type of train she would have hauled back in the day. Only one other photographer was present to see this, and as (bad) luck would have it, our night photo shoot was cut short due to a rain storm, and we never got to see the engine with freight cars again.
