I grew up near Sacandaga Lake. It’s not a lake, it’s a reservoir. But, it’s been there so long they call it a lake. This picture hung in a diner near Northville, New York.  I’d see it there when I was a kid. Steam engine sitting, almost hovering there. The story was they didn’t get the engine out of the reservoir in time, and it was still there, at the bottom of the lake.

At about the age of 12, I was sitting with a family friend who was a diver. He told me an in-depth story of working his way through the weedy, murky depths to the engine feeling his way along the side to the front wiping it off with his hand and exposing the headlight. It was an amazing story. But it was that, just a story.

By way of the reinforcement of local lore, many people believed that the engine was set at the bottom of the lake. You could say it was common knowledge. It wasn’t really until the birth of the internet that the truth was sifted out. In the 1930s they flooded the reservoir. The engine was being used as the hall track that was being taken up. The train had in fact, made it out of the lake.

I admit it, part of me was heartbroken when I found out the train wasn’t actually at the bottom. The folklore was better than the truth. But, sometimes the truth is more unbelievable. While I may have been fascinated with the idea of a steam engine at the bottom of a lake, the city of New York tossed nearly 2500 subway cars into the ocean in the early 2000s.

Photo credit, as well as the top photo and bottom two photos, goes to Stephen Mallon.

The train cars were piled up in yards around the city and needed a new home. After some research and some environmental studies, it was determined it would be a good idea to use these cards to create artificial reefs for fish. They were stripped of anything that might be toxic, loaded onto barges, and pushed into the ocean over several years.

Take a look and appreciate this photography by Stephen Mallon at www.stephenmallon.com

Born and raised in Upstate New York, Mathew lives in a wooded valley north of the Susquehanna River with his wife and kids. His first book "Simple Sutras" was published in 2014