patersonnj

His shoes!

William Crooks refers to the locomotive. It was the first one in the State of Minnesota. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crooks

Captain Slack: Thanks for the additional information. We will update the source data and reload the description.

The 6th man from the left (beard) is James J. Hill President of Great Northern Railway who died in 1916, and the building looks like the Saint Paul Minnesota Union Depot

I like this photo, I only wish the signature were somewhere else less visible.

Interesting example of a preserved (and restored) machine in the early 20th century: a wood-burning 1861 steam locomotive, ca. 1915.

A passenger train is running from left to right in the background. The steam locomotive is no. 1528, possibly of the New York Central RR. It looks like a switcher (0-6-0). The gondola cars on the right are marked NYC & HR (New York Central and Hudson River?)

On closer inspection: The locomotive has two wheels on its leading truck, making it a 2-6-0 or Mogul type engine. There are passengers on board, so the engine isn't just shunting cars. There is another locomotive just behind, on the adjacent track, heading from right to left. Only the top of the cab is visible, above the tender of the train in the foreground. It is pulling five gondola cars that might be filled with material for the construction site behind the sailors.

NY Central RR engine 1528 was apparently built in June 1890 by the Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works of Paterson, New Jersey. According to Wikipedia: Rogers "built more than six thousand steam locomotives for railroads around the world...Rogers was the second-most popular American locomotive manufacturer of the 19th century behind the Baldwin Locomotive Works amongst almost a hundred manufacturers." No Rogers 2-6-0 engines have survived.