Nothing quite like a big Alco Century... these were the most lovely of brutes, even a former Penn Central one that had been patched for Conrail. Regarding the black dirt, this was the Pit at Meadows Yard in Kearny, New Jersey. Who knows what chemicals and poisons were in there blackening that soil (rectifier oil?), but even then I wondered if I was shortening my life walking around there. This unit began life on the Pennsylvania Railroad, served for Penn Central, and then Conrail... all three of them relatively briefly. C630 #6766 in Meadows Yard, Kearny NJ, June 30, 1979, Charles Freericks.
