Sometimes you don't see the full picture...

At first glimpse, you might think this is the original Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern depot in Arlington. But it's not.

Lesson #1 of historical research: double check your "facts."

It seemed legitimate. I purchased this photo at an antique store in Arlington a few years back, where a fellow sells reproduction enlargements of antique photos. I was told by a shop employee that these photos are derived from old glass negatives which this gentleman purchased from the Arlington Times at some point in the past.

So it would be easy to assume this is a turn of the century photo of a trainwreck at the Arlington Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern/Northern Pacific depot, right?

To someone without an expert eye, yes.

But to my fellow members at the Northern Pacific Railway TellTale discussion group, there are several red flags. Roger Barrow best summed it up:

Prominent in the picture is an N&W [Norfolk & Western Railway] coal hopper. The depot is board and batten with gingerbread on the gable, and a lower-quadrant train order semaphore. The station platform is brick and a water tank appears in the (south?) distance. Helping to date the picture, we see a mix of steel and wooden hopper cars, and
rail with no tie plates.

So face bright red with embarrassment, I went to do some additional digging, and it turns out this is a postcard view of NOT the SLS&E/NP depot in Arlington, WASHINGTON, it's of a 1913 derailment at the depot in Arlington, OHIO.

Now it is possible the photo did come from The Arlington Times -- from other research I've done, the paper did publish news photos from other parts of the country, and many of them have been related to railroading.

I was excited about this photo when I bought it because I really thought it could be connected to a 1910 Northern Pacific blueprint which shows a (proposed) remodel or rebuild of the Arlington depot. Could it be a picture of the original SLS&E depot built in 1890?

Well, no. I should have looked more carefully at this photo of the depot, from the Stillaguamish Pioneer Museum:

Or this one, taken by former NPR employee Jim Fredrickson:

 Or this one:

Or this one, by former NPR employee Russell C. Johnson:

OR, just take a look at any other photo of original SLS&E depots, and you'll see the siding is horizontal, not vertical.

This might also be a lesson in what happens when you've been away for awhile from writing and research, and possibly what they call "chemo brain."

I'm just grateful that the folks at the TellTale group were so kind and helpful about my gaffe. With all  sincerity, they are truly a valuable resource for details on local railroad history -- which I will certainly call upon in the future. :)