The photo below was taken at the Whistlestop Museum in Burlington, NC. It is a to-scale model of Engine 8, the first 4-4-0 steam locomotive produced at "Company Shops" (former name of Burlington) and named the Pioneer. It is depicted as emerging from the Engine Shop which is now represented by a mural display.

The present Railroad Depot was once the site of a large locomotive repair shop facility during the mid-19th century for the North Carolina Railroad. On this site was a camp of recruitment and instruction for the 6th North Carolina Troops during the American Civil War. In July 1861, these troops left Company Shops to ride by rail to the Battle of Manassas, Virginia. This was the first time in American history that military personnel were transported by rail in to combat.

The South suffered from a logistics problem that did not exist in the Northern states, and it all had to do with the gauges of their railroad tracks. Railroad companies were privately owned in the South and to stifle competition and prevent another company from using their tracks, they built them at different widths (gauge). This was to prove devastating when transporting supplies to the troops because one train could not run directly from one place to another. There are instances where a train would pull into one town and have to stop while all of its cargo was offloaded and transported by wagon to another city where it was then loaded to another train for further transfer.

I've studied this photo for a long time. It is perfection. I can't tell, and don't want to know, where the mural starts and your color work begins. As a photograph, I love the black-and-white of the background, and the vivid colors up front. I have so much problem when I take photos with lights in them that I can't imagine what you did in-camera or in pp with reflections. If your goal was a 3-D image to seem as if the train is moving forward from the wall, you succeeded. It doesn't matter to me if the museum did a good job with the exhibit; the photograph is beautiful.

Thanks for the history. Fascinating. As for your wondering about the photo+history, I think the photo stands alone for its quality.