This is a slide taken by my friend, David DeVault---who is now, sad to note, in a nursing home in Kingsport, TN, suffering from Alzheimer's. This was October 16, 1965, and he was riding a Southern passenger special from Knoxville to Appalachia, Va and back. I photographed the train as it backed around the wye at Appalachia and before it left. It had a Southern FP7, a freight F3B and an F7A, a heater car, and a long train of heavyweight coaches, plus a mid-train baggage. Here's my black and white shot of the train as it was reloading passengers for the return to Tennessee:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=422130&nseq=1
Since the statute of limitations has long since run out, I will confirm I was frequently an unauthorized passenger aboard L&N freights on the Cumberland Valley Division. Today was no exception, and I rode this extra from Appalachia to Pennington Gap that day (20 miles one way), where they met train 65. I got off and rode back home on that train (aboard an Alco FA2 on the point). But---as we were leaving Appalachia, this guy (who I didn't know then) leaned out of a coach window and snapped a shot of "my" train. The 17-year old fellow on the outside of L&N 513 leaning out is none other than yours truly. I didn't know David until a few years later. Several years ago we were at his house for a slide show, and this shot came up. Immediately I exclaimed, "hey...that's me!" He gave me the slide. The unit on the point is a steam generator-equipped GP9, but the two trailing units are RS-3s. This is a Norton Turn, headed back home to Loyall, KY (Extra 513 North). The 513 was built as a GP7 in 1953, but rebuilt to a GP9 (by EMD) after a 1957 wreck. It still had most of the external spotting features of a GP7, including the older style forged handrail stanchions.
