Roselle Park, Summer 1949

Harold H. "Hal" Carstens (1925-2009) was an accomplished rail photographer, author, and publisher. He was a frequent contributor to the Penn Publications magazines, which included Railroad Model Craftsman, before becoming an associate editor in 1952. Carstens became President of the company, which was renamed Carstens Publications, in 1962.

Carstens visited the Rahway Valley several times in his career. He traveled to Roselle Park with fellow photographer John Krause on August 20, 1949. After drilling the Can Branch and picking up inbounds off the CNJ, the RV typically reached Roselle Park about lunchtime. The crew would tie down the locomotive and break for lunch while waiting for the LV Oak Island-South Plainfield road drill to drop off their cars. The LV drill was frequently late to Roselle Park.

On this day, Carstens photographed a lone No. 13 at Roselle Park. While waiting for the local drill, a westbound LV road freight passed through Roselle Park. The freight was led by a less-than-year-old ALCo FA-1 A-B-B-A set, with No. 544 as the lead unit. 

Finally, the road drill showed up. The train was powered by LV No. 421, a 2-8-2 "Mikado"-type built by Baldwin in 1916. The locomotive was one of thirty members of the LV's N-3 class and dwarfed the diminutive No. 13. Earlier, the road drill had typically been powered by Camelback 4-6-0s and 2-8-0s; however, as the older steam engines were scrapped, and the big engines were bumped off the road freights by new diesels, the bigger steam engines found their into to less glamorous work in their waning days. Steam ended on the LV in September 1951. 

After making its set-outs, No. 421 proceeded west and No. 13 brought its inbound cars off the LV and back to home rails. Later in the day, Carstens and Krause caught No. 13 crossing the Rahway River in Springfield... just an average day on the LV and RV.