This sad cab from a 1947 built Alco FA-2 freight locomotive was originally the New York, New Haven & Hartford No. 0402. After years of hard service, in 1963, the railroad traded in 0402 to Alco to help pay for some new locomotives.
Normally, all of 0402 would have been turned into razor blades. But that is not what happened. In 1964, the New York World’s Fair opened and 0402 was there. You see, the Long Island Railroad wanted an interactive display. So they had Alco chopped off 0402’s cab for the LIRR’s display. There the public could get into the cab and then have a photo of them taken of them at the controls.
Well, that didn’t last forever and the Fair closed. What to do with 0402? It was given to Tanglewood Day Camp in Lynbrook, NY. From 1965 to 1988, lucky kids could play engineer. However, by 1997, when I took this picture, ole’ 0402 was looking pretty sad. I understand that the cab was moved over to the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum.
Photos of North America's favorite First Generation locomotives. EMD, ALCO, Baldwin; essentially anything that represents the OG wide cab diesel locomotive
