Here's the story behind the pic in post 1:
https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Hartford-Circus-Fire-Smoke-at-the-Tent0https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_circus_fireJuly 6, 1944.
167 dead, more than 700 injured.
Aside:I once
ran the Ringling Brothers Circus train, up to Hartford of all places.
Picked it up from the P&W in Old Saybrook, nursed it through Cedar Hill freight yard (New Haven) onto the Springfield line, then pulled it north of Hartford Station and backed the whole thing off to where it could be parked and unloaded.
That thing was long and heavy, and I remember the brakes seemed strange. Mostly passenger equipment, but braked like a freight train.