The photograph was captioned as follows: Typical of the steam motive power housed at this tiny terminal was 2-6-0 Mogul No. 1261, here all steamed up in 1939 and awaiting departure time for a round trip over the branch with the daily except Sunday mixed train. A side-door caboose accommodated the infrequent cash rider.

See also: https://www.tampicohistoricalsociety.com/HYandT_History.html

Hol Wagner adds: I'm fairly sure the 1344 is simply doing one of its designed chores: shoving a tender, disconnected from its locomotive, into the Ottumwa roundhouse for repair or temporary storage while the locomotive was worked on. And the roundhouse is almost certainly at Ottumwa, the 1344 being assigned to the Ottumwa Division in 1914.

Among locomotives that got L&B front ends, as the smokebox extensions were known, were several classes of 4-4-2s. These extensions could make for some really ugly looking locomotives! Known as L&B Front End ( Lignite & Bituminous), it worked for both, and that's why the extension and its "guts" did not have to be removed when a locomotive was reassigned to non-lignite burning divisions; only the grates had to be changed. And for reference, the Omaha, Lincoln and Wymore divisions were never lignite burning divisions. Alliance, McCook, Sterling, Casper and Sheridan were the only ones, but Sterling and Casper became oil-burning divisions by 1930. To the best of my knowledge, the only Q locomotives that came from the builder with L&B front ends were the class B-1 and B-1-A Mountains ( 4-8-2 ); all others were fitted with them by the railroad.