Vintage photo of "new" Victoria

[Bruce]

Otto Perry was the premier railroad photographer of the middle part of the last century. His work spanned more than 50 years. The Otto Perry Memorial Collection is preserved in the Western History Collection of the Denver Public Library. All this because a picture of a Chicago, Burlington & Quincy work train near Benkelman, NE, in August, 1933 has Otto's personal vehicle in the foreground. Presumably, his wife is in the back seat. While the work train/crew repairing a washout is interesting, the one-year-old Steelback Victoria is really cool. First, the car is very dirty. But more interesting is that it has been enough miles (in a year?) to wear out its original blackwall tires. Otto Perry chose to replace them with whitewalls with an aggressive tread. If you want to see the whole scene, search for OP-4109. Your browser should bring it up. Or, spend some time at the Museum's website.
Note that I am not promoting another black/white battle ...

[Seth Swoboda]

Do you know if prints are available to purchase?

[Tiny]

Originally Posted by Bruce

Note that I am not promoting another black/white battle ...

Nice photo. It looks like a cloth top though, the top has no shine compared to the body. Thanks for sharing

[burner31]

Must have been a nice day, he had the windshield cracked open.

[Vern]

That is an interesting photo. There is no tell tale strip around the rear roof line indicating it's a leatherback, must have just been very dusty.

[modelAtony]

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I blew the picture up to 400 % and it does look like it has the vinyl top. have fun model A tony tony white Lafayette, LA

[Tiny]

Thanks for that Tony. If that photo is from August of 33 that car could be almost 3 years old by then. Plenty of time to wear out the tires if your a traveling photographer

[Vern]

ModelATony & Tiny, with all due respect, every leatherback Victoria I've seen has a distinctive ridge following the belt line along with a seam over the rear, coming onto the side behind the quarter windows. The Victoria in the train photo has neither. It's still an interesting photo though.

[Tiny]

I hear you Vern, it could be. I've blown that picture up 800% and its still hard to tell. There's just no shine at all on that top and a little on the body which is why I am thinking its a leatherback. Notice the different shades of grey between the A pillar and the roof above indicating two different colors the body appears to be a much darker color than the top. That trim piece could have been removed or lost to abuse. Looks like Otto was having issues with focus that day or its just a terrible scan, so I doubt we will ever know.
That's a nice looking Vicky. Is it yours?

[Vern]

Tiny, nope not mine. I wish it was. Vern

[Bob Bidonde]

The color of the top material on a Leather-Back is light brown, and car in the picture lacks the contrast a light brown imitation leather top would have. In my opinion, that 190A is a Steel-Back.

[Tiny]

OK something occurred to me this morning. If it is a 190-A steelback, where is the cloth top insert? That would surely be visible in the photo wouldn't it? No disrespect intended but that's a leatherback.