At the Pennsylvania’s South Amboy, N.J., engine terminal in the mid-1950s, a hostler shovels coal into the firebox of a K4s Pacific in preparation for its next run.
Don Wood photo
Preparing a K4
By Angela Cotey | December 9, 2021
| Last updated on January 6, 2022
Back in those days, a friend of mine, George W. “Bud” Rothaar, would go to South Amboy, NJ engine house and South Amboy, NJ station and take many, many, PRR photos. He had several friends who ran the K-4 steam engines. I want to believe this photo of the ‘hostler” is really Bud Rothaar. Bud used to fire some of the K-4’s back in those days. Since this is a Don Wood photo, then it could be Bud Rothaar firing the K-4. Of course, Bud & Don Wood used to go all over the PRR Middle Division taking steam pictures. Later on, Ed Kaspriske would join them. I do have some of Ed & Bud’s PRR photos in my collection. Bud & myself would go to North Rahway, NJ in the early 1970s’ and take Penn Central shots. This was before Bud’s untimely death in an auto accident caused by an intoxicated under age driver in Avenel,NJ 3 days before Christmas in 1972. The guy in the picture sure looks like Bud Rothaar!