Employee's Picnic 1928

Here is a picture taken in the summer of 1928, showing the Elgin Joliet & Eastern Railway 755 2-8-2 Mikado. According the the www.ejearchive.com this locomotive was built by Alco Brooks in 1923.

This is a special picture for my family, showing my great grandfather James McArdle, who was an engineer on the 755. He is shown wearing a white cap in the picture, 6th from the left. At the EJ&E yearly picnic, different divisions of the railway would clean and decorate an engine, that would be entered into a contest. According to a letter my great grandfather wrote, the 755 lost this contest in 1928 to the Gary division engine 748. The contest turned serious in 1929, to which the 755 would emerge victorious (I will share some photographs of the 755 in 1929 in the future). The 755 is seen here pulling passenger cars that carried employee family members for the special occasion. This picture was taken in Plainfield, IL north of the grain elevator which still stands today, just south of route 59. The engine is draped in a patriotic red white and blue. The American Flags at the time had 48 stars, 6 horizontal rows of 8.