trainingshipalabama

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.

I read the date on the sticker as 4/7/17 (April 7, 1917)

@technogeo --- that was the day after the U. S. declared war on Germany, and entered World War I (April 6, 1917). So the sticker must have been placed deliberately to cover the earlier scratched-on date, and allow reuse of the 1913 photo to publicize war preparedness.

Recycled photos as propaganda! Nicely done, Wystan!

You are right. That sailor is getting yelled at for his kit being out of place.

From Wikipedia: Lattice masts, or cage masts, are a type of observation mast common on major warships in the early 20th century. They were used most prominently on American dreadnought battleships and armored cruisers of the World War I era. Their purpose was to make the observation posts mounted on the masts and used to direct the fire of the warships' guns less vulnerable to shells from enemy ships. These masts remind me of Chinese finger traps.

More lattice masts in this image: Must have been some fun painting these things!