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Ways of Going: 1865
Circa 1865. "City Point, Virginia. Railroad yard and transports." Wet plate glass negative, half of stereograph pair. ... to one of the buildings and perhaps a pile of unfinished railroad ties near there as well. Broken At first I thought there ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 5:34pm -

Circa 1865. "City Point, Virginia. Railroad yard and transports." Wet plate glass negative, half of stereograph pair. Studio of Mathew Brady. View full size. Last PushYou can really feel the war coming to an end in this picture. All the stops were pulled out with this drive. Great picture. Is now my desktop background. Balloon StacksThose funnel-shaped smokestacks (aka "balloon stacks") were designed to keep sparks from escaping, esp. from wood-fired locomotives of that era. Great photo! Mystery ObjectI wondered if anyone might know what this is? It somewhat resembles a lathe. Possibly some kind of woodworking equipment, as there seems to be a large saw blade next to one of the buildings and perhaps a pile of unfinished railroad ties near there as well. BrokenAt first I thought there was graffiti on the boxcar in the foreground, but on close-up it reads "Broken." A lot to seeI'm always amazed at the detail in these photos you post. From the word "Broken" chalked on the rail car to the piles of wheels on the dock. And with a bit of exposure time, we can see the moving masts of a ship at dock. Locomotive smokestacks Once again, I'm sent to wondering why the locomotives of that era had those huge, funnel shaped smokestacks. Seems like a stovepipe type would eject smoke just as well, or am I missing something by way of aerodynamics? That said, another magnificent moment frozen in time. ShipsGreat depth of focus (if that's the correct term -- I mean you can clearly see details in the far distance). I'm fascinated by the ships. Looks like your standard schooner docked at the right. The inboard ship on the left appears to be a three-masted schooner. The outboard one looks like a brigantine -- could it be a type of Baltimore Clipper? It looks like it has steam power too. Great photographTechnically this is a great photograph; historically it is magnificent. You can just feel the moment and can also appreciate the sheer strength and efficiency of the (relatively) young United States. Hurry Up and WaitThere is a lot of activity in this photo. Whether it is efficient activity or not is impossible to judge. Second Look at ShipsEast Coast three masted schooners were called "tern schooners." The vessel moored outboard of "our" tern schooner is technically a half brig or hermaphrodite brig, although today it could be called a brigantine. In the 19th C, brigantines had upper, square sails on their mainmasts in addition to their gaff mainsail. (That rig is no longer seen today even for yachts or training ships.) The smokestack immediately aft of its mainmast can't possibly belong to this ship, because it would obstruct the swing of the main boom, as well as presenting a fire hazard to the mainsail. It's about the right size to belong to a steam tug moored on the outboard side of the half brig. Transition of technologiesRemarkable scene of a busy waterfront showing the transition of wind-powered clippers to steam-powered ships, of mule trains to locomotion. i love the stack of wagon wheels on the dock. Another great Shorpy photo. Interesting place to visitYou can still walk along one area where the original track was laid around that bluff next to the river as seen in one civil war photograph. This was an important Union military center with trains departing this location for the front on a daily basis. The rail transportation system was so efficient at this location that fresh baked bread was still hot when it arrived for the soldiers at the front. General Grant had his command post not very far from here on top of the bluff. Mopping UpOn the side of the boxcar in the foreground, next to its door on which "BROKEN" is scrawled, hangs a mop! Anyone have an idea of the mop's purpose? Locomotive SmokestacksThere is a lot about those smokestacks that a photograph will not show. Inside there is a cast iron deflector that diverts the exhaust blast downwards and at the top is a heavy wire mesh screen. Coal burning locos used a straight stack as they did not create sparks to amount to anything, but the wood burners needed something to keep them from setting the scenery on fire. There were one or two cleanout doors near the bottom of the stack to allow for removal of the settled cinders. The locomotives in the photo are all of "American Standard" design and had four-wheel trucks up front to guide the four main drive wheels. For those in the know, the wheel arrangement was called 4-4-0. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Civil War, Railroads)
Manhattan Panorama: 1906
... iron pioneer James Bogardus and built in 1856 in the rear yard at 82 Beekman Street. It looks like an obelisk with windows. This 217-foot ... port. NYNH&HRR New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad I assume? Any more partners and they'll need a longer boat. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 7:19pm -

New York circa 1906. "Manhattan skyline and East River." Panorama of two 8x10 inch glass negatives. Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Shot TowerI want to point out one small feature of this amazing view. At the extreme right hand edge of the photograph is the Tatham Brothers Shot Tower, designed by the cast iron pioneer James Bogardus and built in 1856 in the rear yard at 82 Beekman Street. It looks like an obelisk with windows. This 217-foot tall tower is sometimes considered a forerunner of the skeleton frame skyscraper, as it had structural iron members holding up brick infill panels. Margot and Carol Gayle (Cast Iron Architecture in America: The Significance of James Bogardus, 1998) state that it was demolished in 1907; that, combined with the total absence of the ever-popular Singer Tower of 1906-1908, may be a clue toward the actual date of this breathtaking panorama. Where to start?This picture is so full of waterfront activity that it's almost impossible to take it all in. Coastal steamers, ferries, tugs and barges, ocean-going steamships (one in need of some re-ballasting to return to an even keel), what looks like a fishing harbor and right in the middle a gaff-rigged sloop. I think I'll spend some time just staring at this photo. Man the pumps!The two-masted steamer in the left portion of the frame is definitely listing to port. NYNH&HRRNew York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad I assume? Any more partners and they'll need a longer boat. WaterfrontFrom Sail to Steam and everything in-between. Thanks for this most amazing panorama. South Street SeaportBased on the address of the Shot Tower it seems that the majority of this picture covers the area of the present day South Street Seaport just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. The area's changed a bit in the last 100+ years. Shot tower -- another viewCoincidentally, I just posted an article about the Tatham Brothers structure a couple of weeks ago. The article, and a couple of additional images, can be accessed here: http://dreamersrise.blogspot.com/2011/12/lost-tower.html In the Rotograph postcard view that I included, which is probably almost exactly contemporary with the Detroit Publishing photograph, the tower can be seen in the far right. Although the tower was torn down in 1907, another adjacent Tatham Brothers structure remained on the same block for several decades until it too was demolished. Bogardus may have been the architect for that lower building as well. Abendroth BrothersThere is a building in this picture, on the right side, with a large sign on it, that advertises Abendroth Brothers. They were manufacturers of stoves and iron pipes. They were in business from 1840-1920. The Manhattan address was 109-111 Beekman St. Their foundry was in Port Chester, NY. The attachment is a partial segment of a printer's file copy of a stock certificate. Why are there flagpoles on so many buildings?Any particular reason? Peck Slip?Can anyone ID the location of Peck Slip in this photo? The block fronting on South Street was, and still is, a wide plaza. Wilse RE: Why are there flagpoles on so many buildings?Because without them, the flags would just lay flat on the rooftops of course! Peck SlipWilso127, it appears that Beekman Street is the last street clearly visible on the right. Peck Slip would be the next street, just out of sight to the right of Beekman Street. Peck Slip now runs only from South Street up to Pearl Street, only two or three blocks long. TAN: Abendroth Brothers LocomotiveThe Abendroth Foundry locomotive, mentioned in the description of the Abendroth Brothers' stock certificate, later named "Amy", was running at the Shore Line Trolley Museum in Branford, Conn., until the recent Hurricane Irene. It is being dried out. (Panoramas, Boats & Bridges, DPC, NYC, Railroads)
Working Dad: 1955
... prices if you have the time and patience to put them in a yard sale or sell them on eBay. When my mom died after 54 years in the same ... up, one of the dairies had the cartons printed up like railroad cars and one a diesel locomotive. The "wheels" were printed flat on ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/15/2016 - 11:37pm -

March 1955. "Men participating in family life. Includes women and children standing by window waving to men as they leave for work." Photo by Bob Lerner for the Look magazine assignment "Male Behavior." View full size. WaxI will eschew the obvious point about the lady's anatomy, and mention the fact that that milk carton would probably still be made of heavy waxed paper, or cardboard. Thick gobs of wax sometimes. The plastic coated cartons were a great step forward. SuburbiaThe Missus is lookin' nice and perky today. Bye Susie! Susie?Um, yeah, have a great day Dad. Boy, do I love Cheerios! Restrain yourselvesMembers of the Shorpy.com community are asked to please not make the obvious comment about the contents of this pleasant and innocent photo of times gone by. Thank you. Bye Dad!I was five when this came out. Only difference is my father left before daylight for his army "pencil-pushing" job. He was gone when I got up, and my mother slept until after my sister and I went to school. I'd say we had a typical lack of quality parenting. This is America! Homburgs Away!One of my favorite memories from my youth is this motif set in the future, as it often was in the pages of Popular Science and Mechanix Illustrated. I was soooo looking forward to the day when I grew up and had my own flying saucer. Older and more jaded now, it strikes me that, given our inability to drive safely in 2 dimensions, the potential for mayhem in a 3-d traffic jam over Manhattan during rush hour is mind-boggling. You forgot the paper!Dad left what appears to be his New York Times on the kitchen table, yet he's appears to be on his way to the train station. There's a car parked outside, but is it his? This is a well-educated East Coast family. Of course, he could have left the paper behind for his wife to read, which would be very nice male behavior. Charming sceneI love the swing away can opener on the wall. Most likely it was yellow. They seemed to be in every home in my community. Ours was red. Lovely shelves for the tins of spices. An altogether charming scene. Neighbor's house both TV channels on that antenna.Precursor to cable TV up on the roof. And you had to get up and walk to the set to change the channel. The horror. The CarNot much to go by, but it's a low-end Chrysler product, probably a '55 Plymouth Plaza or such. News you can useJust FYI, anybody who still has any of those old tins of spices, they can be sold for much more than their original prices if you have the time and patience to put them in a yard sale or sell them on eBay. When my mom died after 54 years in the same house, we found dozens of old spices in her kitchen cabinet in all sorts of old containers and tins, even some wrapped in parchment in more ancient little cardboard boxes. Some she would buy for one recipe and never use again. Anyway, my sister bagged them up in a large, clear plastic bag with a note saying they were old and probably not usable, and sold the whole lot (about 30 kinds) priced at $20. To my surprise they were one of the first things to be sold at the estate sale. I also see they often appear on eBay for a tidy sum, which baffles me since I don't know what they do with them, but if you are a seller of things, don't just throw them away as I was going to do. Maybe they use them for props in films to create authentic kitchen settings, I just don't know. Looking For CluesI am questioning if the car is a Borgward. My clue is the point where the roof meets the door and edge of windshield. That rules out Plymouth, Hudson Jet, Crosley, US Ford, Ford Anglia or Prefect. All those cars have a rounded corner. How much curve is in the edge of that windshield is a clue too. It wraps pretty far for its era. The left edge of the door's window makes me wonder if this car has something other than roll up and down windows. That is why I am wondering if it is an import, not a US car. But I can not really tell if that is a slide mechanism on that window or just some reflection. [Looks like a '55 Plymouth to me. - Dave] I am also questioning if this location is a Levittown. Levittown houses had kitchens at the front, and some models had that floor to ceiling window with this same 2 by 4 framing, and the slider on the top row. Sure looks like a Levitt kitchen window. Milk carton?I was also intrigued by the package on the table, and looked up old milk cartons. I think this is the type shown, and the carton has a dairy name on it; something like Grandview. Box 'O MilkThat's a carton of milk from the Grandview Dairy. The cartons had one corner that would lift to pour out the contents. Even the small half-pints of milk in school had these flat tops. Milk Cartons Into ToysThose boxy milk cartons must have been very common in those days. In Northern California (East Bay) where I grew up, one of the dairies had the cartons printed up like railroad cars and one a diesel locomotive. The "wheels" were printed flat on the bottom -- you were supposed to cut them out and fold them down to finish the car or locomotive. Neat stuff for a poor kid. Levitt RanchThe home in the background, over the roof of the car, is definitely a Levitt Ranch. I owned one for 4 years in the late 80's, in Levittown, NY. The main clue is the chimney in the center of the house. The homes had the furnace in the kitchen, under a removable cover. Adjacent to the furnace was a 2 sided fireplace facing the kitchen and the living room. These homes were built with car ports most of which were converted to garages. Here's a street view of the one I owned, 26 years after I sold it. It was a wreck when I sold it, and doesn't look a bit different. goo.gl/7B46DV HubcapsCall it what you will, but the buggy has 1955 Plymouth hubcaps on it. At least one anyway. Agreed, Plymouth & Levittown NYThat the hubcap matches Plymouth seals the deal, even though that car does not have the stainless strip. Obviously Dave and Fanhead are correct. And dang the collective brain is good when it comes to figuring out geographic locations. Forget the CIA. The Shorpy collective can solve anything. Milk cartonMy dad was a home-delivery milkman from the early 50's to the early 1960's and when milk started coming in cartons, the smaller ones opened the way the one in the photo does - you would peel up the tinfoil at the corner and then peel back the corners of the top. I don't think he ever delivered gallons or half gallons in cartons, when he was in the business it was always glass. TrimlessThe side trim on a base Plaza wasn't standard—of course, neither were full wheel covers, but factory literature didn't show the smaller hubcaps. (Kids, Kitchens etc., LOOK)
Sootyscape: 1904
Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1904. "Yard and tracks, South Terminal Station." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit ... on that old tank car is "W.O.W.", and I have no idea what railroad or shipper that is. The two ramps on the right lead to the ... ones used on the Nantasket Beach Branch of the New Haven Railroad. This was center 3rd rail, like Lionel toy trains. Safety complaints ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 6:23pm -

Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1904. "Yard and tracks, South Terminal Station." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Rough (rail)road aheadIf you ask me, that switched diamond junction in the lower-right looks a bit treacherous. Maybe if you get up enough speed and Evel Knievel it to the next track... NiceReally love the geometry of the tracks. I pass through this station every day on my way to the office in downtown Boston. What a mess of double slip switches that is! Those switches are double slip,meaning that each one handles the duties of two normal switches. Puzzle SwitchesThese are "double slip" or "puzzle" switches. They combine four switches and a diamond crossing in only slightly more track length than a single switch or crossing. Very common at big passenger stations, due to the tremendous space saving, but hard to maintain, thus very rare outside that context. I hand built one in HO some years ago, doubt that I will ever build another. I count 28 of them in the picture, plus many conventional switches. Handling all those switches isn't that stressful, since there is a mechanical interlocking frame in the tower to prevent lining up conflicting routes, and the switches are thrown pneumatically. There is a large track diagram in the tower, with every switch and signal numbered, to use as a guide. However, keeping trains moving in and out efficiently is highly skilled work, little different from air traffic control. These tower operators would "have a lot of whiskers," or high seniority. It appears that at lower right, the ramp track to the lower level was in the process of being abandoned, I vaguely remember reading references to that, apparently the lower level platforms didn't work out as planned. There is also evidence of some track rearrangement in the form of extended ties and switch machine parts at lower center, just beyond Signal Bridge 8. Regarding the cars at the left, passenger trains were the airliners of the day, and carried much more than passengers - mail, express parcels (Railway Express and its competitors, the FedEx of the era), and perishables. In many metro area commuter zones, including Boston, milk was carried from farm to the city in special refrigerator cars cut into passenger trains. Switches!Being in charge of switching all those rails correctly, every time, must have been one heckuva stressful job. And probably sold a lot of headche powder and Bromo Seltzer, too. Mail?I'm curious what those railcars on the left would be used for. South StationWonderful photo of a building that still exists. You can see the back of the clock and eagle which stand above the front of this station. The station has been remodeled, fortunately the facade of the building was preserved, the interior has been changed. Progress, some people say. Attention model railroadersBet you can't model that switchwork. The Big SootyThe filth (and smelliness) of cities at the time when coal was widely used for heating and, as here, railroading would astonish people today. Many buildings in Milwaukee were built in the 19th century from a local clay that's light tan in color -- "cream city brick." But they didn't stay cream-colored for long, thanks to the coal soot belching out of every chimney. Downtown still has many of these brick buildings, and while many of the more prominent ones have been scrubbed back to their original color, lots of others -— the less important ones, and those on side streets — still have the blackish patina they acquired before about 1960. South StationSouth Station is only 9 years old in this photo. All 28 tracks are in use, and at this time it is the busiest passenger terminal in the world. It was capable of handling 8 simultaneous train movements through the yard throat. This picture most likely was taken from the drawbridge control cabin over the Fort Point Channel. This 3-bridge, 6-track structure was only torn down in the past 10 years or so for the Big Dig. The large train shed was torn down in the 1930's due to the expense of maintaining it and the corrosive effects of the coal smoke on the steel and concrete structure. Not to mention keeping the glass clean. The building on the left is the outbound express building, which was originally used by a predecessor of the Railway Express Agency. Most if not all the cars in the photo are wood framed cars. The 3 cars behind the leg of the tower are especially ancient with their flat arched roofs. The building on the far right is the power plant and gas plant for power and lighting of the station (replaced by the South Postal Annex in the 1940's). The coal carrying cars are of the drop bottom gondola type, rather than a true hopper car. The reporting marks on that old tank car is "W.O.W.", and I have no idea what railroad or shipper that is. The two ramps on the right lead to the abandoned underground commuter loop. This was to be used with electric commuter cars like the ones used on the Nantasket Beach Branch of the New Haven Railroad. This was center 3rd rail, like Lionel toy trains. Safety complaints and projected expense kept the New Haven from electrifying all Boston commuter traffic like it wanted to. South Station was the 1st terminal in the world to be designed for electric trains, and yet it didn't happen until the 1990's for Amtrak on the upper level. The reason for two ramps is that the one on the right was to be used for all Old Colony RR lines to the South and East, while the ramp to the left was to be used for all Providence, Franklin, Needham, Dedham, and Stoughton lines. From what I read, they tried to use the loop once with a steam engine test train, but almost killed everyone on board due to the total lack of ventilation. The loop station was used at various times as a parking garage and a bowling alley. It was not fully removed until South Station's reconstruction in the mid-1980's. The Atlantic Street wing of the station (visible at left) was torn down before preservation efforts started. It was rebuilt much wider in the 1980's for a food court. They reopened the same quarries used in the 1890's to get the same color granite. The Summer St. wing was shortened by half for the Stone & Webster tower. All of South Station was owned by the Boston Terminal Co., which was jointly owned by the railroads that had their own stations replaced by South Station: Old Colony RR, Boston & Providence RR, Boston & Albany RR, and the New York & New England RR. Each RR owned 20% of the BTCo., plus the New Haven RR which owned the OCRR, NY&NE, and B&P (giving the NHRR 80 percent control). Today, South Station is at 13 tracks, yet it has more scheduled trains than in 1940. There is serious talk of moving the Post Office out, and expanding the track diagram to 20 tracks. W.O.W. - The Company Became Part of ValvolineThe W.O.W. marking on the tank car stands for the Wilburine Oil Works, Ltd. which was essentially a subsidiary of Valvoline Oil Company (97.04% of stock was owned by Valvoline by 1898). A predecessor company of the American Association of Railroads (AAR) later assigned the "WOWX" mark to Wilburine rail equipment and they used this mark during the period 8/1920 - 7/1923. Valvoline Oil Co. used the "WOWX" mark after 7/1930. Car number 225 shown here is listed amongst Wilburine's holdings in the Official Railway Equipment Register for September 1901. In fact, the next car number, car 226, is the highest number shown. Originally an abbreviated company name alone was used to designate the owning company of a railroad car. With the growth of international and transcontinental shipping a standardized naming convention was introduced. Most companies retained their old abbreviations, but suffixes were added to differentiate various type of shipping equipment. The letter "X" designates a commercial railcar. Sometime after 1911 but definitely by 1917 Valvoline was using the VOWX (Valvoline Oil Works, Ltd.) mark and Wilburine was using the WOWX mark. The W.O.W. car sitting in the yard makes sense because steam trains needed lubrication for their valve gear(s). Valvoline was a principle supplier of this type of oil for more than 70 years. Valvoline was founded in 1866 as the Continuous Oil Refining Company by Dr. John Ellis. The name “Valvoline” was established in 1868 (VALVe OIL [for the] LINE) and it was trademarked in 1873. Valvoline Oil Works and Wilburine Oil Works finally merged in 1925 according to Moody’s' Industrial Manual (1929 edition, Volume 1). Is That Fire?!Is that fire shooting out from the chimney of the tall building on the far left, or is it just the result of a deteriorated negative? If it's fire, there must be a lot more going on inside the building that can't be seen. (The Gallery, Boston, DPC, Railroads)
Death Avenue II
... almost empty of buildings between 25th and 26th St-- just railroad yard. Also note the building numbers, which fit 10th Ave and not 11th (and in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/19/2012 - 2:24pm -

Another bird's-eye view of Eleventh Avenue, a.k.a "Death Avenue," on New York's West Side as captured by the Bain News Service circa 1911. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Trains and horsesHow long did it take people to decide it's not a good idea to allow horses and horse-drawn vehicles to go directly atop train tracks? The driver of the horse-drawn wagon on the left has the right idea: you can't be killed by a train if you're not in its path. Why "Death Avenue"?Why the name "Death Avenue"? [See Friday's posts. - Dave] Trains & HorsesThese trains aren't moving at 70 mph... In lots of cities rails and other traffic share the same space. You just need to get yourself, car, bike, or horse out of the way if a train / tram / trolley / cablecar starts coming at you. Ever driven in San Francisco? Death AvenueEleventh Street was called "Death Avenue" due to the fact that an average of 100 people a year were killed in train accidents on the street during the 1890s. 11th Avenue and?Can anyone make out the cross street? Looks like a 24 to me, but I'm not sure. Street's too narrow to be 14 or 34 (They've always been bidirectional). Man! People think NYC is dirty today! [The answer is in the previous post. 11th Avenue and West 26th Street. - Dave] Tenth AvenueAll (?) of these "11th Ave" pics are actually on 10th Avenue. Easiest way to confirm that is look at the old real-estate (or fire insurance?) atlases at http://historicmapworks.com that show the west side of 11th Ave to be almost empty of buildings between 25th and 26th St-- just railroad yard. Also note the building numbers, which fit 10th Ave and not 11th (and in the other pic, looking south, 34 10th Ave is at the SE corner of 13th St). The railroad ran on 11th Ave from the 60th St yard down to the 30th St yard, where it crossed over to 10th Ave to continue south. The newspaper term "Death Avenue" might refer more to the 11th Ave stretch than 10th Ave. [The negatives all have "11th Ave." written on them. - Dave] Death Avenue267 11th Avenue there on the left is between 27th and 28th on the western side of the road. On horsebackI think that's the first photo I've seen of riders on horseback, as opposed to horses pulling wagons or cabs of one sort or other. And that must have been some really fast shutter speed, to freeze the action like that. It's rare that we don't see ghostly motion blurred inhabitants. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, Horses, NYC, Railroads)
Occupied Atlanta: 1864
1864. Atlanta, Georgia. "Atlanta railroad depot and yard; Trout House and Masonic Hall in background." From a series of ... by a series of violent explosions from down the Georgia Railroad opposite Oakland Cemetery and the rolling mill. Hood's ammunition ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/22/2012 - 2:45pm -

1864. Atlanta, Georgia. "Atlanta railroad depot and yard; Trout House and Masonic Hall in background." From a series of photographs, "War in the West," made by George N. Barnard. Wet-plate glass negative. View full size. "Sherman in Atlanta, September-November 1864. After three and a half months of incessant maneuvering and much hard fighting, General Sherman forced Hood to abandon the munitions center of the Confederacy. Sherman remained there, resting his war-worn men and accumulating supplies, for nearly two and a half months. During the occupation, George N. Barnard, official photographer of the Chief Engineer's Office, made the best documentary record of the war in the West; but much of what he photographed was destroyed in the fire that spread from the military facilities blown up at Sherman's departure on November 15." GWTWThis photo was obviously taken before Sherman destroyed Atlanta as his troops were leaving town. This photo of the open space in the yards might have been used as the inspiration for the panoramic scene in "Gone With the Wind" showing the multitudes of the dead and dying Confederate troops, no? [This picture was taken after the Great Fire of September 2, which marked Sherman's arrival in the city. - Dave] View from the skyHere is a bit of a painting of "Atlanta in 1864" by Wilbur G. Kurtz as reproduced in "Yesterday's Atlanta" by Franklin M. Garrett. Your photo appears to be taken from the City Hall (?) building in the top left. The Trout House can clearly be seen in your photo beyond the station and what the legend of the painting calls the City Park. It also says that the building with the sloping roof to the right of the Trout House is the Masonic Hall. The photo and painting don't quite match. The photo shows clear ground in the foreground while the painting shows houses. At the right the photo also shows what appears to be a circular building (locomotive roundhouse?). This can also be seen right at the end of the street in a previous post. This was taken from the right of the painting image looking left with the large Franklin Printing House building clearly visible on the right hand side of the street. The legend of the painting mentions a roundhouse, but doesn't actually seem to show it. What's there now? I dread to think. The Great Fire of Sept. 2, 1864This is an excerpt from "Atlanta and Environs," Vol. 1, by native Atlanta historian Franklin Garrett. More here. By midnight of September 1st most of the troops had left the city. But a few cavalrymen lingered. They had a special assignment. Hood had no idea of leaving behind, in usable condition, ammunition and military stores for the use of his adversary. Shortly after midnight the citizens who had remained in the city were startled by a series of violent explosions from down the Georgia Railroad opposite Oakland Cemetery and the rolling mill. Hood's ammunition trains, consisting of seven locomotives and 81 loaded cars, had been set afire to deny them to the Federals. As the flames reached each car, it exploded with a terrific din. Five hours were occupied in this work of demolition, which also included the rolling mill. Flames shot to a tremendous height and the exploding missiles scattered their red-hot fragments right and left. The earth trembled. Nearby houses rocked like cradles, while on every hand was heard the shattering of window glass and the fall of plastering and loose bricks. Hundreds of people flocked to high places and watched with breathless excitement the volcanic scene on the Georgia Railroad. Fortunately all the citizens in the vicinity of the explosions had been ordered to leave their houses before the work of blowing up the ammunition trains commenced. Every building, for a quarter of a mile around was either torn to pieces or perforated with hundreds of holes by shell fragments. A new day was dawning when the last car let loose, and the last Confederate cavalrymen galloped out McDonough Road (Capitol Avenue) to rejoin Hood's retreating army. Blow-UpIs it possible to enlarge the sign on the rear of the wagon in the center of the photo? Appears to be in sharp focus, but can't quite make out what it says, might be something interesting! HotlantaRemember there were two fires in Atlanta - The Great Fire of Sept 2 - this is the fire in GWTW and was caused when Hood burned up his ammunition trains - The second fire was when Sherman left to March to the Sea on Nov 15 and the Union Army burned 'anything of value' to the Confederates and, well, things got out of hand - From Sherman's Memoirs - About 7 a.m. of November 16th we rode out of Atlanta by the Decatur road, filled by the marching troops and wagons of the Fourteenth Corps; and reaching the hill, just outside of the old rebel works, we naturally paused to look back upon the scenes of our past battles. We stood upon the very ground whereon was fought the bloody battle of July 22d, and could see the copse of wood where McPherson fell. Behind us lay Atlanta, smouldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in air, and hanging like a pall over the ruined city. Away off in the distance, on the McDonough road, was the rear of Howard's column, the gun-barrels glistening in the sun, the white-topped wagons stretching away to the south; and right before us the Fourteenth Corps, marching steadily and rapidly, with a cheery look and swinging pace, that made light of the thousand miles that lay between us and Richmond. Some band, by accident, struck up the anthem of "John Brown's soul goes marching on;" the men caught up the strain, and never before or since have I heard the chorus of "Glory, glory, hallelujah!" done with more spirit, or in better harmony of time and place. That ConcertI am currently doing a lot of research on the history of theater in Atlanta. One of my sources states that Sherman attended 17 band concerts in the old Atheneum (noted in the photo) during the Federal occupation. Since the last info appears to be the date of Nov. 8, it seems to be a rough advertisement for one of those concerts. The Atheneum was on the north side of Decatur Street just before the Trout House when traveling east. (The Gallery, Atlanta, Civil War, Geo. Barnard, Railroads)
Made by Maul: 1913
Detroit circa 1913. "Maul stone yard." Plus: a cigar factory, coal car and "dignified credit." 8x10 inch glass ... Company. View full size. Gathering moss The railroad tracks and the spire of St. Albertus church remain but the rest of the ... The Maul Co. made "artificial stone." Its yard was at the southwest corner of Hancock and Dequindre and apparently ran ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 1:18pm -

Detroit circa 1913. "Maul stone yard." Plus: a cigar factory, coal car and "dignified credit." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Gathering mossThe railroad tracks and the spire of St. Albertus church remain but the rest of the scene has been hammered by the passage of time. All those wiresGet a load of those overhead lines in the background! I'm guessing telephone and power? Ridge 365Maul Co.'s phone number. Tie GameImagine cutting stone all day long -- while wearing a tie! Artificial StoneAccording to the 1913 Detroit city directory, The Maul Co. made "artificial stone." Its yard was at the southwest corner of Hancock and Dequindre and apparently ran all the way south along Dequindre to Forest. Dequindre shares its right of way with the rail line on which those coal cars are sitting. The I.E. Boomer Mason building in the background was on Forest and today is the site of its successor, Boomer Co., where I occasionally stop in to buy stamped concrete maintenance products. This Google Street View is taken from almost the identical spot and angle as the 1913 photo. View Larger Map Proper attireInteresting to see the workmen wearing ties. My father (a plasterer) did the same through the 1960s. Macotta Maul branched out into the artificial stone business and created innovative porcelain enamel panels backed by lightweight concrete and featuring stainless steel edging. The product was used extensively in Canada and the U.S.on retail stores, groceries, theaters, and the like. The Knapps Department Store in Lansing and Bastone Restaurant, formerly B&C Super Market, in Royal Oak, Michigan, are examples. Attitude.Gotta have one to work here. I love this photo!Great group of faces there. At a glance, it appears that the working grunts don't like posing with the administration. Or maybe they're all just anxious to get back to work instead of posing so long for this picture. The two fellows back right could be brothers. Interesting how the far right guy appears to be dressed more artistically than the rest. And the weaselly looking guy in the back middle? I don't think I'd want him watching my kids! Ultimate SignNot only is firm's name unpronounceable, but the next line is spaced over a window. And then there is "Dignified Credit" Does this mean they don't collect with baseball bats at hand? : (Not even one person "likes" this photo? Sad face! I thought it was quite cool, esp. the old buildings in the background. : )Yay! Colorized Times Square no longer sucking up all the FB love. BoomersThere is still a Boomer Construction Company (now at Forest and Russel) in this neighborhood. Anyone know if it's related to the company seen here? Leszczynski & LesinskiLeszczynski: original name. Lesinski: Americanized version, same pronunciation. Mr. Maul's SonThe guy without the necktie. Casual Friday MistakeThe guy standing near the middle (in white overalls, white cap, hands on hip) must have not worn his tie mistakenly thinking it was casual Friday. AmazingThe difference between the 1913 shot and the 'today' shot by Mike_G. Yep, been some changes in the last 98 years or so, yes indeed. Hancock StreetLess than a mile west of here, at 98 W. Hancock, my great grandmother had just purchased a four story apartment building on the Wayne State University campus. Isabelle O'Connor Breen owned the apartment building at 98 W. Hancock St., Detroit 48201 circa 1915-1925. She had moved from Emmett, Michigan sometime after her husband, Henry, died in 1905 at the age of 40. Henry died of heat stroke while taking a load of hay to Capac. He leaned over the horses' water to fill his hat and collapsed. "Belle" and Henry had only been married six years and had three children ages 5, 3 and 1. Besides living on a farm in Emmett, she also owned a millinery store in town. She moved to Detroit to educate her children at Wayne State University. When she died at the age of 43 in 1922, she left behind three children--Mary, 22; Helen, 20; and Daniel, 18 (my grandfather)--to manage the apartments. It proved to be too much for them and they sold it (exact year unknown). Both Mary and Helen received degrees from WSU. It is still amazing to me that all of the ephemera received (tax bills, correspondence from attorneys, etc.) after my great-grandmother died is addressed to my grandfather because he was the surviving male in the family. Today, the apartments are rented by students and professionals. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Railroads)
Hanover Junction: 1863
... use and their gauge varied quite at bit from RR to RR. Railroad construction was still in its infancy during the Civil War. Most if ... Typical weight in those days was about 35 pounds per yard, pretty flimsy by today's standards. Ties were hand hewn; flattened on ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/02/2009 - 8:28pm -

1863. "Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania. Passenger train at depot." From photographs of the main Eastern theater of war, Gettysburg, June-July 1863. Wet plate glass negative by Mathew Brady or his assistant. View full size. Look closerThere is a man in a stovepipe hat just to the right of the passenger train. A Beat-Up WorldIt always interests me to see how hammered and dilapidated everything looks in photos from this era. The train itself looks sharp and new, but man, those tracks! Imagine the ride. It's a wonder they didn't derail more than they did. The buildings look like they're barely holding together too. I know it's wartime and they had contstraints, but still, it's a harsh, dirty looking world. Wouldn't want to live there. Mr. LincolnSurely the recognition point for Mr. Lincoln at this period is not the hat but rather the beard. I'd have to say that this photo offers inconclusive proof if only because I can't tell if the man in the stovepipe hat has a beard or a black cravat. Maybe, maybe not.Another shot of the train, "purportedly showing Lincoln." In any case he does have that Lincolnesque hat. NovemberSummer? There are no leaves on the trees. The Gettysburg Daily (http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/?p=1121) says the picture was taken on November 17, 1863 and shows Abraham Lincoln's train en route to the Gettysburg. Close to homeI think Lincoln stopped here on his way to Gettysburg. Hanover Junction Station todayhttp://www.yorkcountyparks.org/parkpages/Museum.htm Hanover Junction is about 10 miles east of Hanover. En RouteThis photo has been debated for years. Is it Lincoln in the photo, on his way to Gettysburg? [There's another photo of the station, minus the train, that shows half a dozen gents in Lincolnesque headgear. - Dave] Track GaugePerhaps it's just the angle of the camera or distortion of the lens, but is the gauge of the track on the left the same as the gauge of the track that the passenger train is on? I believe in 1863 there were still several gauges in use even in Pennsylvania. Perhaps someone could verify based on the location of the photo. Making tracksThe gauge is the same on all of the tracks at this location. Though narrow gauge was used extensively, it did not appear until 1870. There were some wide gauge lines in use and their gauge varied quite at bit from RR to RR. Railroad construction was still in its infancy during the Civil War. Most if not all rail was imported from Great Britian during this period. Typical weight in those days was about 35 pounds per yard, pretty flimsy by today's standards. Ties were hand hewn; flattened on two sides with an ax. Difficult work at best. Speaking of a beat up world ...I think if I was on the Junction Hotel balcony, I would be more than a little worried about the obvious sag in the middle. I wonder if you could feel it sink a bit as you walked across it? All smilesThe woman on the balcony in the light colored dress has the biggest smile I've ever seen in a photo this old. A rare Civil War smile!As already noted, there is a smile here you just have to see. Bless her! Beard or not to beard.Lincoln cultivated beards off and on his entire adulthood. He was without one when he was shot, by the way. (The Gallery, Civil War, Mathew Brady, Railroads)
Stuyvesant Dock Terminal: 1900
... Fish (1851-1923), President of the Illinois Central Railroad, presumably because not even he was happy with the idea of calling it ... to me in this photograph is the pristine condition of the yard tracks and the 0-6-0 that is hard at work. In 1900, stub switches were ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 4:01pm -

Louisiana circa 1900. "Stuyvesant elevators, docks, R.R. terminal at New Orleans." Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size. Harrison Line, LiverpoolAccording to a German/Weimar Cigarette card book "Lloyd Reederei-Flaggen der Welt-Handelsflotte" published by the Martin Brinkmann AG Zigarettenfabrik circa 1933, the flag represents the Harrison Line, Liverpool (Charente Steamship Co., Ltd.) The flag is a red Maltese cross on a white background. Working in: England to the West Indies, Gulf ports and Mexico, Brazil, and Africa Operating: 42 Cargo boats with small cabins 2 Passenger Freighters Total Tonnage: 239,720 Honoring Mr. FishThe Stuyvesant Dock Terminal was named for Stuyvesant Fish (1851-1923), President of the Illinois Central Railroad, presumably because not even he was happy with the idea of calling it the Fish Dock Terminal. The opening of the terminal was a great leap forward for the New Orleans and Louisiana economies, and it was dedicated with "imposing ceremonies" conducted by Governor Murphy J. Foster and Mayor Walter C. Flower, on November 4, 1896, and with remarks by Mr. Fish on behalf of the railroad company. According to the New York Times (10-26-1896), "The construction of these docks is the beginning of a great effort that the railroad will make to bring European shipments via [New Orleans] for Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati and all Western cities. The wharfage will be absolutely free to all steamers landing at the docks with interior freight for shipment by the Illinois Central Railroad, and such a saving in port charges, it is believed, will bring a great body of traffic this way." Pristine tracks and locomotiveWhat really stands out to me in this photograph is the pristine condition of the yard tracks and the 0-6-0 that is hard at work. In 1900, stub switches were still in vogue in the South and West, as was unballasted track. The frog switches show that the Illinois Central was dedicated to being a truly modern railroad, as willc's research shows. I'm fascinated by the shiny boiler jacket and controls in the locomotive's cab, I suppose the same crew ran this locomotive daily or the engine terminal really spent some time on cleaning every night. I can assure that my local Canadian National/Illinois Central yard is being switched by a diesel that is no where as clean as this little teakettle! And in 1905Disaster strikes. History repeatingThe Stuyvesant Docks were on the Mississippi between Louisiana and Napoleon Avenues, stretching for twelve blocks before they burned in 1905. If you google that area today, you can still see the footprint of the massive railyard and the skeletal remains of the docks which burned again just a few years ago. Backward CompatibillityThe slot and hole in the knuckle of the switcher's coupler are there to accommodate a link and pin, if a car with the just recently obsoleted (and dangerous) link and pin coupler needs to be moved. You can still see these coupler modifications on a few museum engines. Dead or AliveThere isn't a man dead or alive who wouldn't jump up and sit on that tender next to the sign "Keep Off" because that's the way we are wired. Gotta love us… Where in the world?Can anyone identify the flag atop the ship mast? It looks like a Maltese cross, but a quick search turned up no such flag. Shipping Company House FlagsMost commercial shipping companies had house flags that were flown from the highest mast, at least in port. There were hundreds of designs, only a portion of which were recorded in registers. I didn't find a plausible match online for the flag seen here, but found several similar designs in the 1912 edition of "Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels," a sample from which is seen here to illustrate the idea. Colorized versionI colorized a major portion of this photo. Please look here and list any comments you may have. Thanks.. (The Gallery, DPC, New Orleans, Railroads)
Serve in Silence: 1942
... Proviso yardmaster's office, Chicago & North Western Railroad. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. ... shoes (a great shine) he must not have gotten out in the yard a lot. Love the pix. Coffee Can Look in the coffee can on the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/30/2012 - 10:03pm -

December 1942. A winter afternoon in the North Proviso yardmaster's office, Chicago & North Western Railroad. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. Click here for a closeup of the poster on the wall. Serve in Silence! SERVE IN SILENCE! When you hear something pertaining to the war or ANY of its phases from someone supposedly "in the know", they should be severely reprimanded for divulging information regardless of its value, importance or authenticity. And don't repeat it! "The Axis Rats" are ever on the alert, even though you are among friends you can be overheard. The very next time some BIG MOUTH spouts about how things are going on all fronts, shut him up! If he can run this war let him offer his services to our GOVERNMENT. They'll give him a GUN. RoomWhy can't they bring Kodachrome back?...please?!?! [Kodachrome is still around, at least in the 35mm size. - Dave] Love the……coffee in the tin on top of the stove. Looks like it would be Chase & Sanborn brand. Coffee can Used to put an empty can full of water on top of the stove in winter to provide moisture. Houses are sealed up pretty tight these days, moisture tends to stay inside. In the old days things would dry up pretty good indoors once it got cold out side. Hence the can on the stove. Old timers used to rely on frost to seal up air leaks to the outside from the inside. Moist air would provide a faster seal. It would also provide a "warmer" heat. It was the first thing that appeared on top of my wood burner when I first set it up. An old neighbour grabbed a Folgers tin and plopped it, half full of water, onto my hot stove. "To keep the house from drying up, and to make it warmer." Yardmaster's shoesBy the looks on the yardmasters shoes (a great shine) he must not have gotten out in the yard a lot. Love the pix. Coffee CanLook in the coffee can on the right...it looks like the yardmaster may be heating up a little toddy to warm where the stove can't. Chase & SanbornChase & Sanborn have always been one company. In 1938 they began the "Chase & Sanborn Hour" initially with Mae West, and later with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and searching eBay (those people have everything!) reveals an 1898 ad for "Seal Brand Coffee" produced by the Chase & Sanborn Coffee Company. The can on the stoveIt's SANBORN coffee. Chase joined Sanborn later. - SGL BeautifulThis is a beautiful, evocative photograph; one of the few color pictures posted here that really speak to me. Who Needs 3D?This photo draws me in. The feelings I get every time I look at it are visceral. You feel the heat radiating from the coal stove. You can smell The scent of stale cigar and pipe smoke and coal hang in the air. You can hear the hollow scrape of chairs across the floor and the quiet echo of the regulator clock punctuated by the rumble of a slow freight passing by... Anyone else notice the clasped hands resting on a blue leg, just behind and to the left of the stove? Or the melted snow about the feet of the gent sitting on the padded bench by the wall. A marvelous glimpse into the past. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads, WW2)
Passing the Chief: 1943
... down the mountain on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between Barstow and San Bernardino." Medium-format negative by Jack ... signals while shoving into the darkness of the Airline yard. As usual, Delano’s composition is near perfect, and the detail ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/31/2012 - 11:39am -

March 1943. "Summit, California (vicinity). Passing an eastbound passenger train, the Chief, while coming down the mountain on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between Barstow and San Bernardino." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. Mt Baldy?I think that may be Mt. San Antonio (better known as Mt. Baldy) in the background, the highest point in Los Angeles county (10,068 ft (3,069 m)). Here's Baldy in Google Street View View Larger Map Must be in EngalndLooks like they are driving on the wrong side of the road. Happy New Year to all. Al BrakesThe guy is up there setting the retainer valves on the cars, which hold the brakes on somewhat without using up air. Google is your friendI went looking for further info on 3770 and was surprised at how many photographs of it there are on t'interweb. While I've got your attention, a Happy New Year to all you Shorpists and to Dave in particular. The locomotive isa "Northern" 4-8-4 originally a coal burner converted to an oil burner, loved the times you could ride on top of a boxcar, now their are no walkways or method of getting up om top. The General Code of Operating Rules,Rule 1.21, prohibits railroad employees from occupying the roof of moving equipment.(Employees whose duties require them to occupy the roof of a car or engine must do so only with proper authority and when the equipment is standing.) As recently as the early 70s the practice was still permissible. I recall many cold, windy, winter nights in Milwaukee seeing a switchman climb to the top of a car at the end of a long cut with a burning fusee to pass signals while shoving into the darkness of the Airline yard. As usual, Delano’s composition is near perfect, and the detail incorporated is of special interest: semaphore, hand throw switches, handbrake wheel, mountains, pole lines, etc. Wonder if anyone knows if this was double main territory. The photographer was on top of the boxcar tooWonder if Jack Delano, the photgrapher, used a camera with a tripod or hand-held to get this photo? Either way, that's some balancing act while you're on top of a moving train! Times ChangeBefore George Westinghouse running atop car to car was how you stopped the train. A little help here!Is that another locomotive in the background, helping 3770 up the grade? Not Everybody Was ImpressedMy father was Chief Special Agent and General Claims Agent for the Western Pacific. He spent about 20 years lobbying the Association of American Railroads to change car layout standards so that employees didn't have to climb on the tops of cars to operate equipment. And if you lost your balanceBack in the 1940s or so my Uncle George was a brakeman - I forget the railroad but he worked out of the Chicago area - and while doing what the roofwalker here was doing he fell off, losing his left arm. Every car he owned after that had a steering wheel spinner and, until he finally bought one with an automatic transmission, somehow managed to control the car's direction with what was left of his arm and shift gears with his remaining hand. Cajon PassA location well-known to railfans, Cajon Pass is the transportation artery that carries busy BNSF (formerly the Santa Fe) and Union Pacific rail lines between San Bernardino and the Mojave Desert. When this photo was taken, Route 66 also ran through the Pass. Alas, it's no longer intact, replaced by I-15. Meeting the Chief?Interesting problem here. If we are looking toward the head end of the train, then in railroad parlance this would be categorized as a meet, not a pass. On the other hand, if we are looking rearward, then it is indeed a pass. But that would bring up the question of why a mixed freight would be passing the Chief. 3770's stack is very clean, suggesting that she is standing still. Of course it is wartime, so anything is possible. There could be a reason that the freight has priority. Or perhaps the Chief is stalled? Helper? Maybe. DBell, Good catch. It might be a helper. On the other hand, there is an intermediate track between the freight the photographer is on and the track with the Chief. So it may be yet another train. Cajon Pass was a busy place. This is at "Summit".You can see the Summit Train Order station roof just to the right of the tank car, over the Chief. For reference, here's some views of Summit from 1964: http://coastdaylight.com/cp/cajon_64.html My 2 cents: It may be that they are just getting done cutting the helper off. That would explain why the 3770's stack is clear and also explain the caption "Passing The Chief". They would be "passing" her if she was sitting still. How 'bout it: Can any ATSF experts out there shed more light on operations on Cajon Pass during the war? It surely was important getting these trains over the summit. RetainersIn 1943, the retainer valves weren't accessible from the ground, they were mounted at the top of the of the B end of the car, next to the brake wheel on cars fitted with vertical brake wheels, or next to the brake wheel shaft on cars with stemwinders. Details• Note the wartime headlight shroud on 3770. • Retainers were accessed from the ground, not atop the cars. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Ride the Cars: 1938
... part of a Ma & Pa (Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad) maintenance yard, and runs their excursions on a section of Ma & Pa line. Right next to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2017 - 9:24am -

November 1938. "Streetcar motorman in Omaha, Nebraska." 35mm negative by John Vachon for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. How simple, how sweet ...... life must have looked from those windows. Some things change very little over time...I was recently down on Ybor City (Tampa) Florida and took a ride in one of their new retro streetcars. The operators station has changed very little. In fact, some of the hardware used in the new cars was salvaged from old streetcars. There's an identical station at the opposite end of the car so the driver can just walk to the other end of the car (flipping the wooden seats as he goes) and drive the opposite route. Must fight the urge to do a Tennessee Williams pun. Actually, I was sorta thrilled by it. A pain in the a...I cannot imagine how uncomfortable it would be to ride all day one what looks and probably felt like a piano stool, with your legs dangling at an uncomfortable angle. WattmanAt the time where streetcars were popular, here in Belgium and France the conductor was called a "Wattman". The name was based of course on the control they had on the power of that thing ... Vibration DamperI had a long bus trip in Detroit during the early 1960's to get to high school. Even will all the Motor City engineering know-how, they had not solved the problem of dampening the heavy rattling fare boxes which were built like safes. One hand on the wheel and the other quieting the fare box. Next stop the 1930sThe inclusion of the car makes this photo for me. One way ticket to the 1930s please! UpscaleThis was a big improvement over the older cars, where the operators had to stand on a outside platform. Strangely familiarIt looks a lot like the streetcars I've ridden on Main Street in Memphis. Crash that puppy... and you cold lose the family jewels on the coin changer! As Uncomfortable as It Might AppearThis arrangement was far superior to the Motorman's accomodations on earlier streetcars and horsecars. I recall reading a book about Baltimore's system whereby the company refused to provide any protection beyond a waist high dash until an operator died from exposure during a winter storm. ...OR ELSE!I love the sign. It's like they're threatening you. Fare BoxThe motorman is resting his hand on top of the fare box. I have often seen bus drivers do this, as well. The explanation I got was that it keeps the damn thing from rattling too much and making a racket. An outstanding jobUntil the 1910s or 1920s most motormen were required to stand, and this was when they had 10 or 12 hour shifts. Early streetcars (and the horsecars and cable cars that preceded them) usually had open front vestibules, so if it was rainy and cold, the poor motorman just had to take it while standing the whole time! Still Running in TucsonIf you want to try the real thing there are still some running on the Old Pueblo Trolley line in Tucson! http://www.oldpueblotrolley.org/ Back and forthMy grandfather drove a streetcar in Binghamton NY at about the same time as this picture. My mother rode with him to the end of the line and flipped the seats around to face the other direction before walking on home. We still have the stool he used, with the footrest very worn. "Ride the Cars"Omaha was the site of a violent streetcar strike in 1935. I wonder if the sign is an attempt to dispel any lingering anger over the strike. The motorman's woesFor an account (albeit fictional) of a motorman's miserable day, find the episode in "Sister Carrie" where Hurstwood tries to be a scab motorman while the union is on strike in late 1800s Chicago. Streetcar seatsI heard a Fibber McGee & Molly radio show from the 1930s with the joke, "What do motormen do at the end of the shift?" "Turn their seats around and go home." See the Streetcar Museum!And apropos of streetcars and Baltimore, I recommend their streetcar museum for anyone interested in the subject. I first learned about from my father-in-law, who did a good deal of volunteer work for them, and a couple of years ago we finally got there. (Warning: it's not easy to find or get to; for best results, phone and ask for directions.) The museum occupies part of a Ma & Pa (Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad) maintenance yard, and runs their excursions on a section of Ma & Pa line. Right next to the museum, railfans will note the roundhouse converted by the state of Maryland to a road maintenance yard; the engine stalls now shelter piles of sand, gravel, and salt. (The Gallery, John Vachon, Omaha, Streetcars)
Gus the Horseshoer: 1936
... "Houses at Detroit and Van Buren streets near the electric railroad." 3x4 nitrate negative by Carl Mydans. View full size. High ... also had a 1934 headline, "ANTI-NAZIS BREAK INTO HARVARD YARD" about Thaelmann supporters. In 1925, Thaelmann had come in a distant ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/10/2012 - 4:16pm -

April 1936. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "Houses at Detroit and Van Buren streets near the electric railroad." 3x4 nitrate negative by Carl Mydans. View full size. High WaterWould it be possible to get a close up of the water tower on the tannery? I can't make out what it says. The exclamation point indicates that it's very important. [Well isn't that interesting. "FREE XXXELMANN!" Maybe starting with a T. Who will be the first to solve this Shorpy mystery? - Dave] Blues Brothers, too!This is essentially where the Blues Brothers "ran off the road" and flipped their old Police Interceptor Dodge. I was in the neighborhood, in college, the day of the filming. Free ______!"Free Mumia"? Very cutting edge for 1936! On a more serious note, Detroit Street has been renamed St. Paul Street, and there's not a lotta tanning or shoeing going on there these days. View Larger Map Free Thaelmann!Free Ernst Thaelmann? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Th%C3%A4lmann He was an anti-fascist, anti-Nazi Marxist. He ran against Hitler in '32 for German president. When Ernst lost to Adolph, he tried to organize a general strike and coup against Hitler the next year and when that failed he was jailed by the Gestapo. He died at Buchenwald in August, 1944. Thaelmann had his 50th birthday in April of '36 and it apparently drew worldwide attention. Milwaukee's large German/Polish immigrant population (except for the Swede, Peterson the Horseshoer) should have made Thaelmann's Nazi imprisonment a local big deal. First!!!?? The smellsI imagine the folks living between the tannery and horseshoer had very few visitors. Tachan tachan...Coloreado por Paco. Colage y acuarela. Paco!How dare you paint over a priceless and historic photograph. Have you no shame? Learn something new with every pictureI'm always impressed by Dave and the rest of the Shorpy community. "Free Thaelmann!" seems accurate. During the Cold War, Ernst Thaelmann became a hero to the USSR, which might be why I hadn't heard of him until today. It's an interesting story, though, as the movement to support him seems to have been supported by a counterculture, complete with controversial demonstrations. To wit, as the Hindenburg prepared to set an endurance record in 1936, "a red biplane flew over the hangar trailing a pennant which read: 'Fight Fascism--Help Free Thaelmann.'" (NYT). NYT also had a 1934 headline, "ANTI-NAZIS BREAK INTO HARVARD YARD" about Thaelmann supporters. In 1925, Thaelmann had come in a distant third in the German presidential elections (as reported by the Lake Region Times, 4/30/1925). "Communist Pranksters"From the Milwaukee Journal of October 1, 1939: Milwaukee progressThanks to the map that JeffK provided I got a better mental picture of this location. Decades ago I did some work at the nearby Milwaukee Tallow Company which helped produce an acrid stench that permeated the neighborhood. I think the building JeffK points toward is the same one as the former Mamie's Grotto located at 625 E. Detroit Street seen here. I grew up in Milwaukee and cannot recall ever hearing of Detroit Street. That is undoubtedly due to it being changed to E. St. Paul Avenue according to the data shown here. With the Horseshoer photo being taken in April 1936, the Chevrolet sedan shown on the left side of the photo was new at the time. It is certainly years newer than the other cars parked on the street which have squared corners on their roofs. This is Hibernia StreetI found this picture by searching "Milwaukee" on this great site. The caption "houses at Van Buren & Detroit street near the electric railroad" got my attention, as there has never been an "electric railroad" (other than streetcars) anywhere near Van Buren & Detroit Street (now E. St Paul Avenue). The caption on the Milwaukee Journal photo posted by "Nuclear_art" said that the building was near 10th & Clybourn; this made more sense, as the Rapid Transit tracks were on an elevated structure at that point & swung over Hibernia Street. So, it would appear that the photographer is standing at about the line of 9th Street (Gus's address is 902)looking west. This entire area is buried deep beneath the Marquette Interchange today. Hibernia StreetThe location of this excellent picture is actually about a mile west of the stated location in Milwaukee. We are looking west along Hibernia Street towards Tenth Street. Just out of the picture to the left is the huge freight terminal of the Milwaukee Electric system (later Aldrich Chemical). This building stood until just a few years ago, surrounded by freeway ramps in the middle of the Marquette Interchange. Everything you see in this picture is gone today, the last of Hibernia Street being removed in the early sixties to make way for the freeway. 902 Hibernia / Detroit StreetWright's Directory for Milwaukee in 1888 has a listing for a resident at 902 Hibernia--a news carrier. The revised version of the Milwaukee Interurban around 1930 planned to be below grade west of Eighth Street. Previously, the interurban used the Clybourn Street streetcar tracks west to 35th Street and turned south a bit, where it entered its own private ROW south of the Marquette Stadium neighborhood and then over a very long trestle over the Menomonee River to connect to its older tracks east of County Stadium/Miller Park around 45th Street and Canal. However, the Abel and Bach (fancy) luggage factory that took up the space between St Paul and Clybourn at Tenth Street refused to sell its land south of Hibernia for that. [I doubt Abel and Bach was also a tannery, but it could have been. Milwaukee already had plenty of tanneries.] As to Detroit Street around 1900... That particular street was primarily occupied by Sicilian immigrants back then--with a very high murder rate. This can easily be verified reading through several websites, including those about the Balestreri/Balestrieri family genealogy, among others. Desilu could have used Detroit Street for an Untouchables episode. Also, that area around Detroit Street was the last in Milwaukee to install indoor plumbing. (The Gallery, Carl Mydans, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Horses, Milwaukee)
Mourning McKinley: 1901
... between Half & First Streets, in 1901 showing coal yard and old homes near railroad station. Houses have McKinley memorials. Portrait of President William ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/03/2021 - 10:29am -

Washington, D.C. "View from Randall School of H Street S.W., between Half & First Streets, in 1901 showing coal yard and old homes near railroad station. Houses have McKinley memorials. Portrait of President William McKinley draped in black is visible on the house on the left. A flag is at half mast on the right." Along with at least two other McKinley portraits. 8x10 inch glass negative, D.C. Street Survey Collection. View full size. Oddly lonelySuch a stark contrast exists between the pretty house with delicate embellishments casting lacy shadows -- the two older folk porch sitting on an early autumn afternoon; the younger woman dressed like an Old West frontier female standing by, arms crossed; the hatted child playing at the edge of the sidewalk -- and the rest of the landscape, which appears suspended in a dusty, lonely languor. McKinley's destinyThe assassination of William McKinley made Theodore Roosevelt President at the age of 42. When TR became Vice President earlier that same year, his friend Charles G. Washburn remarked: "I would not like to be in McKinley's shoes. He has a man of destiny behind him." Buffalo / DallasI was 7 when President Kennedy died. I never hear mention of Dallas without thinking of his assassination. I've always wondered, did people who were alive when McKinley died have similar associations with Buffalo, where he was assassinated? TRElsewhere in the city, "that damned cowboy" Teddy Roosevelt has just become the new President. All the houses with TepeesI had always assumed that the little turrets, or cones on the corners of houses were purely for appearance. I wonder whether they also played a structural purpose since more than two dozen of them are visible in the picture. McKinley's DeathWhen he died President McKinley was widely and deeply mourned. The trappings of official and Victorian mourning with black crape and formal mourning attire were everywhere. But so also were touching demonstrations by simple people throughout the country where public assemblies and special services in churches were held. The route of his funeral train was lined by ordinary working class people standing shoulder to shoulder with the well off and powerful. People placed coins and flowers on the train tracks and kept the flattened remnants as mementos. At almost every stage of the journey local bands appeared playing the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee," a popular hymn and Mr. McKinley's favorite long before it became associated with the Titanic disaster. McKinley was a deeply religious man and according to popular legend (disputed) his last words were from the opening verse of the hymn. Here is a link to some rare film footage of the official ceremonies and funeral procession. https://youtu.be/gTQrpsZ3tQA LOCIs that the Library of Congress in the distance on the left? Ballast = coalI believe we're looking at a coal dealer. Note that some of the bays are divided so the coal can be sorted as to lump size and possibly some choice Anthracite in there. Seems to be a small cart-ramp extending over yet more bays below. Displaying FlagsFlags are flown at half mast aboard ships. On land they are flown at half staff. Jefferson BuildingThe partially visible large building in the upper left of the image is southeast corner of the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, which was completed four years before the image was taken. Lehigh ValleyThe elevated rail arrangement and piles of ballast in the center-right of the photo remind me of all the comments and speculations last week with regard to Earth Movers: 1901. Building IDI'm curious about the complex of large white (at least in this picture) buildings in the upper right. Can we identify that? It's on the MapGoats of Venus has indeed got it right. [As does the photo caption, which calls it a coal yard - Dave] A look at a 1904 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows this to be the Allegheny Coal Co. The map clearly shows the hard and soft coal trestles as well as the other structures on the site. Even more fascinating, it matches up perfectly with the houses in the image (facing H Street) and accurately shows their construction, with the pink color representing brick and yellow being frame. Even the 2-story frame porch on the house in the foreground is shown on the map as well as the split brick and frame construction of the first house around the corner on Half Street. Building ID FoundAfter much sleuthing, including trying to get the right perspective using old DC maps, I can positively identify the large white building in the upper right as being the “old” Providence Hospital located at the time at 2nd & D Streets SE on Capitol Hill (see the image in the plaque below). I’m a bit embarrassed it took me so long to figure it out--I was born there in 1950. Dating to the Civil War era, the hospital moved in the 1950s to larger quarters in Northeast. The buildings in the photo were razed and site became Providence Park, which still exists today. Incidentally, a number of previously published Shorpy photos were taken around the same time frame from the roof of the hospital, including several pointed back in the general direction of the Randall School—the reverse of where we’re looking from in the photo above. The fall of a sparrowThe prominent group of structures at 2 o'clock is the old Providence Hospital complex. It's a park now. (The Gallery, D.C., D.C. Street Survey, Railroads)
Park Transfer: 1925
... trains before they were switched out (called "Toads" in railroad slang) carried a 1" diameter stick of chalk on their walks. If they ... These symbols were not universal, and varied from yard to yard. If they found a major defect (such as a brake defect, safety ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2013 - 5:06pm -

Washington, D.C., 1925. Something for the railfans, something for the truckfans. "O.D. Boyle" is all it says here. National Photo glass negative. View full size. ToadsCarmen, inspectors who walked incoming trains before they were switched out (called "Toads" in railroad slang) carried a 1" diameter stick of chalk on their walks. If they found anything that needed minor attention (such as a loose bolt or cotter pin, brake shoes needing replacement, or worn air hose) they would chalk a symbol on the corner of the car to tell other repairmen. These symbols were not universal, and varied from yard to yard. If they found a major defect (such as a brake defect, safety violation, or worn bearings) they stapled a postcard size card onto the side of the car, reading "Bad Order" and what the defect was. When the switchman broke up the train a Bad Order tag superceded any other instructions for the cars routing and it was placed in the "Rip", or repair yard. Timeless boxcarsSome things change, some don't. Cars and trucks have changed tremendously in 88 years but a 1925 boxcar looks very much like a 2013 boxcar. GMCThat's a GMC truck, probably about 1915. First GMCs were built in 1912. Already pretty old at the time of the picture. As I See ItVisible marked rail cars, from left to right, hail from the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O), Nickel Plate (N.K.P.) and Louisville & Nashville (L&N), respectively. As for the truck, I'm thinking it's post-equine drayage. (Wikipedia helps here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drayage.) Team TrackThis would be a Team Track, where rail customers without spurs to them could receive goods. A series of parallel tracks, separated by a roadway where a team of horses with a wagon, and later motor trucks, could pull up alongside the railcars and transload goods from, or destined to, local customers. As I (also) See ItThe reporting mark on that middle car (N.K.P) is more accurately defined as: NKP - NEW YORK, CHICAGO & ST. LOUIS RR (NICKEL PLATE ROAD) now, of course, the NORFOLK SOUTHERN RWY. CO.[*]. The name's origin is interesting as told here: Origin of the Name Nickel Plate Road. Centrifugal Dirt CollectorThe things you learn at Shorpy. A few Googles and I was at pp. 88-89 of the December 1909 issue of "Air Brake Magazine". The subject collector is placed in the air line upstream of the triple valve. The shape of the chamber swirls the dirt around until gravity takes it to the bottom, where it stays. This is the "B" endTo report mechanical issues, or describe anything concerning a railroad car, you need to be able to differentiate one end from the other. The "B" end of any car is the end where the hand brake is located. The opposite end is the "A" end. This practice is still followed today. Boxcars then & nowThere is a world of difference between boxcars of a century ago and those of today, although these do look more modern than the solid-tired GMC truck. These boxcars have corrugated steel endwalls, but the sides of the one to the right are all wood. So you can imagine the steel-rod-and-turnbuckle structure on the bottom, the kind hobos are seen riding in the cartoons, and which needed constant adjustment. The knuckle couplers on these boxcars do not have the horizontal slot intended to receive a link during the transition from link-and-pin couplers of two decades earlier. It remains for better railfans than myself to say how quickly these were upgraded to solid knuckles. Modern boxcars do not have a roofwalk, and the ladders do not reach the roof. Besides the work-related injuries of having brakemen climb up on the roof, there was the ever-present liability of unauthorized persons getting up there. Since the '60s, boxcars, and all revenue rolling stock, have been getting larger. They have steadily been lengthened, and bridges have been raised to accommodate increased height. Finally, journal boxes have given way to Timken roller bearings. I suspect the word "journal" refers to the fact that these bearings once required daily attention. The top-hinged doors on the boxes would seem to attest to this. A major reason cabooses (or cabeese) had cupolas on top was so the crew could watch out for overheating bearings. My dad says that solid bricks of lubricant were available to dump into a problem journal box, as a stop-gap until the train could be brought into the yard. A large portion of his career at Texaco involved the development of an ideal lubricant for roller bearings, which since the '70s have completely replaced journal boxes. Chalk MarkLower right side of closest car, just above the "pole socket": anyone know what it means? O.D. BoyleO.D. Boyle was a yard brakeman for the B&O, working in Washington DC, in 1918. The connection to this photo is beyond me, though. See Page 22 here. Pole SocketsPole sockets were the receptacles for push poles. Sometimes it was necessary (or at least convenient) for various reasons to move a car on an adjacent track that you could not couple your engine to. To accomplish that you used a push pole held in place by a crew member. The inherent danger of such a maneuver caused the practice to be outlawed relatively early on Class I railroads, but on backwoods short lines where operations were not so constricted by rules, it continued much later. And, railroads being railroads, no one really wanted to go to the trouble of changing any blueprints, and pole sockets continued to appear on equipment long after no current employee could remember seeing them used. Here's a photo of a push pole mounted under the tender of a Mississippi Central steam engine, probably from the 1930s. Polin' the carsmichaeljy says the practice of poling cars was abandoned relatively early by Class I roads, but maybe not so ... in Winston Link's masterful history "The Last Steam Railroad in America," he includes two pictures (pages 100 and 101) of a brakeman poling a gondola on the Abingdon division of the Norfolk & Western some time between 1955 and 1957, when the division was dieselized completely. Locomotives continued to be made with pole sockets right up until the end of steam. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo, Railroads)
L. Logan, Boilermaker: 1942
... "L. Logan, of West Chicago, boilermaker at the Proviso Yard roundhouse, Chicago & North Western R.R." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency ... He is found in the 1930 Census and was working for the railroad at the time. Buy him a beer! I wouldn't mind in the least ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/06/2012 - 10:58pm -

December 1942. Melrose Park, Ill. "L. Logan, of West Chicago, boilermaker at the Proviso Yard roundhouse, Chicago & North Western R.R." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. IncredibleWhat a face!! He has not had an easy life. He looks weary. Startling, lifelike!Wow, it's like looking through a window directly into the past. A fantastic portraitBut then again I find most of Jack Delano's work to be amazing. You can almost smell the oil, sweat and coal dust. Those spectaclesIt seems as though his glasses might fit quite snug under those goggles. I can smell the welding now. Reminds me of my old tradesmanThis bloke looks a lot like the first tradesman I was assigned to when I was an apprentice boilermaker. Happy memories! You know JackJack Delano is one of the great photographers who need not sign his work. You know who took that photograph that just knocked you off your feet! Whatta guy! Great LightingAnother fantastic Jack Delano photo. The lighting really brings out the character in his face. When I first saw the photo I thought I was looking at Henry Fonda. Delano's workcould be the inspiriation for the super-realism artists. Delano creates with photography what those guys do with an airbrush. Leroy LoganBased on my research, I am fairly confident that this is Leroy Logan, born circa 1889 in Illinois. He is found in the 1930 Census and was working for the railroad at the time. Buy him a beer!I wouldn't mind in the least buying this man a drink and talking shop with him. [I'd buy him a boilermaker. - Dave] MaybeI grew up in West Chicago, which was a fairly small town when that photo was taken, maybe 5000 people at most. Chances are good I crossed paths with him or more than likely his kids. He looks like a hard working good guy. FlawlessI think this is the finest exposure on the whole site, to date. Great composition and lighting. Delano's masterpiece, perhaps, and shows how amazing Kodachrome could be. (I used it exclusively, even for night shots with that slow 16 and 25 ASA, even if I had to sit for hours waiting for an exposure.) Stay Bolt InspectionThis gentleman is likely conducting inspection or repair of stay bolts inside a radial stay fire box. He's crawling (or peeking) out of an open butterfly fire box door. He appears to have air lines under his left glove for tools. Stay bolts keep the boiler in perfect radius around the fire box and are hollow so that when tested under pressure they leak and water can be detected on close inspection. A leaking stay bolt must be ground out and replaced. A deafening and dirty job. Shift ShaveFrom the stubble on his face, I would guess this was well into a long shift. Mr. Logan looks like a gentleman who started his shifts with a clean shave. If the hat fits.....That is certainly a very well-worn and stained Fedora that Leroy is wearing.....probably his favourite work-hat. I'll bet that it has seen a few years since it left the manufacturers. Firebox Door!That's it! I was trying to figure out exactly where Mr. Logan was on the locomotive. Not many clues here but I figured the castellated nut above his head is the pivot point of a "Butterfly" firebox door on the boiler backhead. The angled pipe to the left was used to open and close the door manually and on most engines there was also a foot pedal to open the door automatically for "hand firing." You can see part of the flue sheet inside the firebox above his right ear. Jack took the picture from the cab floor. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Mystery Coach: 1910
... as a switch and signal house either in a small hump yard or on a factory premises. Certainly Instruction The equipment on the right side is railroad brake equipment, as deemery said. There is equipment for several cars, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/28/2014 - 2:37pm -

From around 1910 comes this 5x7 glass negative showing a rail car fitted with ... what? Post your informed supposition in the comments. View full size. Instruction car.I'm assuming that this is an instruction car for either an interurban railway or an elevated transit line. In either case you can see the master controller just to the right of the end door. Along the right side is a bank of air compressors while above those are what look like framed study guides or instructions. Edit, after reading the other post I have to agree. Along the right side are are brake cylinders. You Brake ItI'm going to guess this is an Air Brake Instruction Car. I know such cars existed, I've seen references to them on various RR rosters. The contraptions on the right hand side are brake cylinders (air reservoirs and triple valve, Westinghouse K or equivalent.) The problem with my guess is I can't directly account for the electrical stuff on the left side. AmenitiesThe spittoon is a nice touch. And the Answer Is ...... I don't know for sure. But I have a hunch. And I think braking is (so to speak) on the wrong track. Maybe the rectangular objects, radiator-like fixtures and light bulbs on the left are clues. Motorman's Instruction CarI'm thinking motorman's instruction car -- teaching both brakes and electrics. New York subway had one in 1904, interior shot here, and the exterior here. The window configuration of the latter is very similar, including the larger front left window. InstructionsPart of the instruction could be how to hit the spittoon. The whisk broom is a nice, dainty touch. So are the hanger straps. My guess is that it's a transit car converted hastily to a dynamometer car, with plenty of heavy wiring and large resistors to dissipate heat. My dad worked on one in the late '30s to test diesel locomotives for the Milwaukee Road. Another trackThose may well be air brake assemblies but I suspect they're doing other work, the labeled electrical gear with hefty looking trunking on the opposite side argues against this being a very mobile installation even if the motorman's station is still in place, what we can see of those display boards above the pneumatic gear looks rather maplike. All this added together with the seven bulb light board, the desk, chair, and spittoon leads me to suspect we are looking at an interurban car repurposed as a switch and signal house either in a small hump yard or on a factory premises. Certainly InstructionThe equipment on the right side is railroad brake equipment, as deemery said. There is equipment for several cars, so the propagation of the braking commands can be seen. The equipment on the left is for propulsion control for (as Pudgyv said) an interurban or transit car. On the left, in the foreground (and a bit out of focus) is a jumper connection, used between cars for multiple unit control. The equipment hanging from the ceiling seems to be contactors for motor control. The metal housings near the floor are heaters which may serve as resistors to limit motor current for low speed/slow acceleration. The white "pipes" between the contactors and the floor may be cables between the contactors and the motors mounted on the trucks below the floor. I suspect the white stuff is asbestos insulation; these cables would carry the traction current at around 600 to 750 volts, and hundreds of amps. Instruction Car.Yes, this most certainly is an instruction car and there are several interesting features: The metal boxes on the left wall next to the floor are electric heaters - as are the same on the right. The cylinder with the arm attached, above, is most certainly a carbon-pile Voltage regulator. The white things I suppose are insulators. The seven glass tubes on the wall I suspect are load or indicator lamps. Hard to tell if this was a 32-Volt (steam line) car or an electric line (600+ Volt) car. The very curious thing about both sides is the standee straps - guess part of the instruction was carried out while the car was moving. It appears that this was an open-platform car (looking through the windows). Another curious feature is the controller to the right of the door. It does not appear to be an engineer's/motorman's brake stand - but could be - maybe. It is too small to control traction motors. Moving around the right side, yes, those are most certainly K Brakes. Have considerable Westinghouse, Pullman, etc. reference material on this era equipment. Note the framed posters above each station. These appear to be valve air channel diagrams. But in addition to the other curiosities, it seems odd that there are no air pressure gauges included with the stations. Just an observationIt seems that every "break unit" on the right is separated by flexible line like between cars and there's a small reservoir like what would be much larger under each coach car. So I think this might be a mechanical model of a train of coaches to demonstrate what? Same with the electrics on the left with all the electric heater units that are all over the break side also. [Another observation: BRAKE, not "break." - Dave] Thanks Dave. I'll never screw up there their they're but otherwise we're free ranging. IRT Instruction CarThis looks like the New York Subway (IRT) instruction car. There are slight differences between the two cars pictured but this could be due to modifications over the years, or possibly there was more than one instruction car in the fleet. Railroad_Sparky is right that the controller appears small. Streetcar controllers usually had bigger cabinets but this one is actually pretty typical of multiple-unit controllers used in rapid transit cars. Mobile Hot-SpotThis one was easy. You've got your bank of Wi-Fi routers and access points on the left, and your uninterruptible power supplies on the right. Looks like they've opted for the air-cooling option center-right. New York Is On The Move! Controller sizeis indeed small. To amplify comments from Railroad_Sparky and SteveLexington, streetcar controllers actually controlled the motors directly, and so had to carry the 600 volts (or so) and the heavy motor currents. Thus, the contactors inside the controller had to be large to carry the large currents, and had to have large separation to extinguish the high voltage arc (spark). "Multiple Unit" (MU) control was introduced to allow one motorman to control several cars (multiple units) from one controller at the front of the train. Air brakes had been developed already to do this for the brakes, but it took a while longer to control this mysterious 'electricity'. MU controls typically used low voltage control circuits. These were coupled between cars using a multi conductor (7? 14?) plug-in cable. The low voltage would operate heavy duty contactors on each car, which in turn controlled the traction current and voltage. Since the current and voltage are both (relatively) small, a controller can be made much smaller. You're all wrong.It's the inside of a TARDIS. I See the LightMaybe the light bulbs came on in a sequence from left to right or right to left to indicate how the brakes engaged in a sequence? Or perhaps they indicated the cleanness and accuracy of the shot of tobacco juice aimed at the spittoon? Car 824, no doubt It is indeed the interior of IRT Instruction Car 824 - you can barely make out '824' right over the door. I've been in this car - it's at the trolley museum in Branford, Connecticut. Sister CarsA pair of lovingly preserved (but more conventional) ex-IRT coaches are at home at the Western Railway Museum at Rio Vista Jct. (Suisun City/Fairfield, California). In their "last gasp" service lives, the were WWII-era "Shipyard Railway" cars running between East Bay (Berkeley, Oakland and Richmond) communities hauling war-workers. https://www.facebook.com/WesternRailwayMuseum (Technology, The Gallery, Found Photos, Railroads)
Jim and Jack: 1943
... lunch in the caboose on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad between Waynoka, Oklahoma, and Canadian, Texas." Medium-format nitrate ... in the car, spotted on a designated caboose track in the yard or near engine service areas. Basically you never left your job, and yards ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/14/2009 - 10:30am -

March 1943. "Conductor James M. Johnson and brakeman Jack Torbet having lunch in the caboose on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad between Waynoka, Oklahoma, and Canadian, Texas." Medium-format nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. ATSFThe wearing of trainman badges (Conductor, Brakeman) on a fedora style hat really seems to have been a Santa Fe thing that was not prevalent on other railroads. That's a bad brim.The brakeman is sporting one very cool lid and I think he knows it. Jack Delano does it once again. Nice mug, buddyMy grandmother had those huge white stoneware mugs that could keep coffee hot for hours. The glaze was crazed from decades of us. When her farmhouse was emptied, I always regretted not snagging one of those. They likely were thrown out. I can't say much about the tin cup the other guy is using. The heat conductivity would burn your fingers and lips, and you'd have to drink fast if you wanted anything hot. The only time a metal cup was a good idea was dipping it into the milkhouse cooling trough for a cold drink. By the way, I've never seen anyone look more dapper in overalls, of all things, than this fellow. It's as if he should break out in song after tapping out a rhythm on the table with his cup. ToppersFedoras rock! Warm TopperJust found another one of my grandfather's Kromers in a box of hats last night. It's just like the one hanging on a nail behind the brakeman. CaboosesA good friend retired from the railroad and was working when the caboose was still used. The railroad had the caboose as someplace for the workers to stay when they were not on shift. For long cross-country trips, the caboose was used for sleeping and recreation. The railroads determined that this was a luxury for the workers and then eliminated the caboose. Nice Mug, Buddy reduxI agree with Jano on the mug. As a potter, I looked at the bowls and mug first. The bowls look like Japanese tea bowls, with a nice foot ring. The mug reminds me of the days on the road as a musician drinking cup after cup of coffee from just such a mug. Thick and heavy, they could keep a cup of coffee warm for hours. They are the bright spot in the photo, in the center. Whose hat is hanging on the wall? This is a great photo with superb detail. AT&SF trainmanMy grandfather, an AT&SF engineer during the same period these men helped get freight over the road, had his "Engineer" badge on a ten-gallon Stetson. After he exclusively ran diesels (this was in 1953, he was a passenger engineer), he switched over to a white hat just to make the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific engine crews envious of working conditions on the Santa Fe. I still have the hat and badge. Worker's Paradise - NOT!The caboose was hardly a "luxury for the workers." First up, it’s not the safest place on earth. Especially during steam days, the slack action (the front of the train starts before the back; the force of acceleration is transmitted and increases between cars) could be so severe that crewmen were thrown from their seats and injured — have also heard of cabooses being jolted so hard the stove broke loose from the floor. Rear end collisions were also a fact of life, adding to the danger. In helper districts, it was possible to shove too hard and buckle the underframe. Cabooses in this period were assigned to a conductor; they didn't go "cross-country," but roughly 100+ miles between division points. The car served as office and lookout to increase safety, its function as bedroom and kitchen was secondary – engine crews stayed in nearby boarding houses or railroad hotels — train crews slept in the car, spotted on a designated caboose track in the yard or near engine service areas. Basically you never left your job, and yards were never quiet day or night. They added weight to trains, generated no revenue, added switching and maintenance costs and were basically wearing out by the 1980s. Technology and progress made it possible to eliminate them, much as diesels replaced steam. Mugs still availableGreat photo, and my eye went to the mugs as well. These are still available. I found my first one at the Original Cafe in L.A. in 1992. Cost two bucks, and is (or was?) a place that Jim and Jack would recognize. I have another which I bought maybe 5 years ago, at a restaurant supply store, for not much more. The difference was that this one had the handle in the "wrong" place. Thanks again for this great photo -- made my lunchtime today. The coffee pot on the floor would look great in my kitchen, too. Sweet vestThe guy on the right looks to be wearing a Brown's Beach Coat vest. Very nice piece of Americana workwear. The guy on the left is just pure style from his fedora to his railman boots. Love this photo. This is a beauty.I LOVE SHORPY! Jack's TimebookJack Torbet's railroad timebook is on exhibit at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas. If I recall correctly, it's open to a page from WWII. Timebooks are where railroaders keep a record of their trips for pay and tax purposes. Apparently Mr. Torbert donated several items to the museum at some point. Jeff Ford Amarillo (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Marcella Hart: 1943
... course. Marcella's ticker I'll bet there's a railroad pocket watch in her upper right coverall pocket attached to the denim ... change. I work on diesel locomotives in the Morris Park yard of the Long Island RR. The steam engines are gone, as are the wipers, but ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2012 - 4:43pm -

April 1943. Clinton, Iowa. "Mrs. Marcella Hart, mother of three, employed as a wiper at the roundhouse. Chicago & North Western R.R." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. Blue and RedWonderful photo! I imagine Jack Delano saying something like, "Just as you are, ma'am, that's fine. Yep, grease and all, that's what I'm after." and her saying "You can have the grease, but there ain't no way you're taking that picture till I've put on my lipstick." Our momOur mom was a wiper, too. But it was mainly on our cabooses. And on really bad days, she probably looked a little like the hardworking lady in the photo. Sans overalls, of course. Marcella's tickerI'll bet there's a railroad pocket watch in her upper right coverall pocket attached to the denim shoelace. Some things don't change.I work on diesel locomotives in the Morris Park yard of the Long Island RR. The steam engines are gone, as are the wipers, but we still get just as filthy! WipersOK, thanks "Our Mom" for the mental images - but what does a wiper do in a locomotive sense? Good Manicure TooDespite her hard, dirty job, Mrs. Hart still has beautifully lacquered nails. Reminds me of the landlady in the first reel of "Swing Shift," who, as her young tenants are putting up her blackout curtains for her after Pearl Harbor, finally finishes with her nail file and announces to the room, "Well, this is one American who's going to die with perfect nails!" Re: WipersA wiper was essentially a '"ube tech" and cleaner, they went around and filled oil reservoirs on bearing-boxes and various pivot points then knocked off accumulated road grime. The Wiper's JobThe wiper's job was to wipe down or clean the boiler jacket -- no mean task on a big, modern engine. This was done with a handful of "waste" (a leftover from the textile mills, it was basically a wad of loose thread, used by the handful like a shop rag -- this is what she's holding in her right hand) and dipped in a light oil or kerosene (the red can). Wipers might also clean headlight, reverse lamp and class/marker lights, cab glass, and sweep down the running boards to remove accumulations of cinders. May have even hosed down the deck of the cab during this busy time, although firemen usually took care of that chore. Wipers Wipeoff dirt, grease, and any other gunk that gets on the locomotive. Railroads worked hard to keep their equipment looking good. If a wiper was good, he/she could move up to oiler, and learn how the various bearings should be lubricated. My dad started out his careeras a "callboy" on the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1920s. Very few people in those days had telephones. He went door to door to wake up operating personnel, like locomotive engineers and firemen, to call them to work. The prerequisite for the callboy job: you had to have a bicycle! His dad, my grandfather, was a "hogger"(locomotive engineer) with the CPR. He retired circa 1950. My dad progressed to an engine wiper, apprenticed as a steamfitter and received his journeyman's papers in 1936. He served in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve in WWII and went missing in action at sea 10 days before my birth in 1943. Just out of curiosityOldtimer, what ship was your father serving on when he was lost? This is my new nick here now, BrentMy father was serving on the HMCS Louisburg and Royal Canadian Naval Corvette of the Flower Class. They were on convoy duty running supplies and troops into North Africa for the campaign against Rommel. His ship was hit by an aerial torpedo and sunk very quickly. Being an "Engine Room Artificer" below decks, his chances of getting out alive were slim to none. Thanks for asking! http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/824.html (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Double Play: 1910
... Something for everyone here: Bridges, riverboats, a rail yard and two baseball games. And a high-rise natatorium. 8x10 glass negative, ... The railway yards were the Pittsburgh & Western Railroad. All that is gone, replaced most by parking between Heinz Field and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/03/2012 - 1:35pm -

Circa 1910. "Pittsburgh waterfront, Allegheny River." Something for everyone here: Bridges, riverboats, a rail yard and two baseball games. And a high-rise natatorium. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Same View in Google Earth TodayApproximately. Exposition ParkThe big ballfield would be Exposition Park, home of the Pirates from 1891 to 1909. The site is now between PNC Park and Heinz Field, pretty much where Three Rivers Stadium used to be. Baseball?The lines on the field at Exposition Park make it look like that isn't a baseball game going on. The Pirates had left the year before. Anyone have a rotary phone to try out the Penn Advertising Company number? [That's the foul line. The field was there until 1915. You wouldn't need a rotary phone -- of which there were hardly any when this picture was made -- to call 90 Grant. - Dave] Got no blues today"We had a great game today!" "How come?" "No umpires!" PittsburgThese are great photos of Pittsburgh, but you should note that the photos taken before 1917 were of Pittsburg, not Pittsburgh. They changed the name during WWI to avoid being considered somehow Germanic, and therefore supportive of the wrong side. [Pittsburgh's temporary loss of its "h" occurred long before World War I and had nothing to do with Germany. - Dave] Where was the pool?Wonder if the pool of the natatorium was in the basement or near the top of the building. There are architectural features that may support either location depending on the size of the pool, of course. "Natatorium"Funny how you see strange words or names somewhere and then you suddenly see them again a short time later! I was just at the University of Illinois at Chicago Physical Ed. building which has a huge painted wall that welcomes you to the Natatorium: The Olympic sized swimming/diving pool. Building near the BridgeThe building just to the left of the bridge is one of my favorites. The open arch in the front and the open center design really makes it unique. [The Fulton Building. - Dave] Are you sure this isn't Springfield?I see a Duff's sign off to the left. Love the bridgeI don't think I've ever seen the bridge that was in place before the current 6th Street span, the Roberto Clemente Bridge. The newer one (which dates from the 1920s) is a big improvement. PittsburgI love my town and it's always great to see old photos on this fine site. The etymology of the spelling indicates that the first recorded reference using the current spelling is found on a survey map made for the Penn family in 1769. In the city charter, granted on March 18, 1816, the Pittsburgh spelling is used on the original document, but due to an apparent printing error, the Pittsburg spelling is found on official copies of the document printed at the time. Even before the name of the city was temporarily changed to Pittsburg in 1897, that spelling variant was well-attested. Very interesting stuff at least to me anyway. Phipps Apartments / Art RooneyThe white building in the foreground is Phipps Apartments. The bell tower is atop Daniel Webster Grade School. The apartments had 6 hallways with 12 apartments in each hallway. No elevators. It had 2 flights of steps to each floor. You could hang your clothes on the roof. Football games were played on the field in front of the apartments. The Rooney Reds played home games there. Art Rooney played on the Reds and owned a bar near the apartments. Art Rooney later owned a football team called the Hope Harvey football team. The history of Art Rooney and old pictures of this North Side area are here. http://www.artrooneyjr.com/pictures1.php This site contains a photos of the Hope Harvey team with the Phipps apartments in the background. The one below is Art Rooney’s own Hope Harvey Football Team, circa 1923. Art is not in the picture but his brother Dan Rooney is 5th from the left, back row and brother Vince Rooney is the young ball boy in front. Photo courtesy of Vincent.T. Rooney family. StreetsThe street dividing the playground from Exposition Park was South Avenue. The cross street at the left was School Street. The railway yards were the Pittsburgh & Western Railroad. All that is gone, replaced most by parking between Heinz Field and PNC Park. And previous to that Three Rivers Stadium. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads, Sports)
Rear Entrance: 1937
... I was a child in early '50s it was terminus of RF&P railroad and Capital Transit streetcars and also the location of car lots and ... get home as early as she expected (or the boys' job doing yard work was finished before expected). Is that a church at one ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/14/2013 - 12:06pm -

September 1937. "House in Negro quarter of Rosslyn, Virginia." Washington, D.C., and the Key Bridge form the background for this curious scene. Medium-format negative by John Vachon. View full size. You Are HereThis might be about where present-day N. Fort Myer or N. Lynn Street are now. Interesting to see roads are dirt. The Key Bridge Marriott was built where Arlington Brewing Co. was. Its building was erected around the turn of the century and brewery closed in 1916. Ultimately it became Cherry Smash Bottling plant. The Rosslyn area had been location of saloons and brothels until closed in early 1900s. When I was a child in early '50s it was terminus of RF&P railroad and Capital Transit streetcars and also the location of car lots and pawn shops. QuestionIs that marijuana growing by the side of the house? I'd saythis is a second story job. Current viewThe attached photo was taken in the same general location as this LOC photo. The green space in the foreground of the current photo is the George Washington Memorial Parkway National Park. This portion of the parkway was built between the 1940s and 1950s, and the neighborhood in this photo may very well have been torn down to accommodate it. AnswerAllie: I don't think so. To the extent one can tell at this resolution it looks more like Jatropha multifida. Possible some type of cleome (from the flower stalks), but I don't think any cleome has leaves that are heavily serrated like these. OkraI think that's okra--all overgrown after a long summer. Marijuana?It looks more like castor bean plants to me. They're quite easy to grow pretty much anywhere. The beans are highly toxic though, and are actually used to make the poison ricin. Castor beans most likelyLooking carefully at that whole stand you can see at least 5 clumps of what appear to be what Nicodeme says--castor bean plants. My mother used to grow them and they make beautiful red accents in a garden, often quite tall, too. I think this is a flower border, despite the ramshackle house. Although not particularly well-tended, there does seem to be a rough logic with lower, flowering plants along the front and the taller at the back. Castor plants are often very red. Ought to have been quite a colorful border. More on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_bean_plant Mom locked us out!I wonder if that was the story behind the three boys on the roof, trying to get in through the window; that Mom was out working and didn't get home as early as she expected (or the boys' job doing yard work was finished before expected). Is that a church at one o'clock?(I think those buttresses would have caught my eye if that building still stood.) And for more on the Georgetown Tower of Flour see https://www.shorpy.com/node/5510 Not Mary JaneIf it was they could afford to move to a nicer place. Ancient AutoAnyone know what make and model car that is? It clearly has not moved in years. RepurposingIn the lower right, you can see that the rear doors from the abandoned truck have been used to patch the roof on the structure next to it Where is this?It would appear that the location of this photo is now about where the Key Bridge Marriott is located. Re: Mom locked us out!Not really, that downstairs backdoor is open and ajar. Looks more like these boys are just fooling around, maybe watching the photographer at work. Old W&OD TerminalIf you look off to the left, in the foreground, below the Key bridge you can see the W&OD terminal which was torn down in 1939 to make way for the GW parkway. Address of this houseBased on an aerial photo of Rosslyn at this time and the 1943 Arlington street/lot map (see both attached), the address of this house was 1934 North Fort Myer Drive, on the southwest corner at the intersection of North 20th Street. The present-day intersection is N. Ft. Myer Dr. and eastbound Lee Hwy. Credit to Jeff Clark, John Dowling, and Steve Palmeter on the "Northern Virginia History" Facebook group for help in zeroing in on the exact location. (The Gallery, D.C., John Vachon)
Street View: 1941
... location is directly across from the modern industrial yard, but that's a bit in the distance, more near to the camera would be where ... hammerhead crane in the background, the furniture store, railroad tracks and big warehouse on the horizon, I think both pics were taken ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/23/2021 - 3:05pm -

March 1941. "Housing in Norfolk, Virginia." Yet another installment in this exciting series. Acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. SEE the "History of Lower Tidewater Virginia"South Norfolk Furniture Company, located at 519 Liberty Street, according to: https://archive.org/details/historyoflowerti03whic The other side of the street?Are the porches just visible on the left the same ones from the Track Shacks picture? The photographer shot these from the opposite ends of the neighborhood? Street view; tower perspectiveLooks like he did a 180 after taking the previously posted "Track Shacks" photo, and snapped this one from the same high vantage point. Your walk talksThe lady with the colorful hosiery (at least I think so) and jaunty lid is on a mission. Such confidence and determination in her stride, even in this still photo. Also: I see the SEE on the building in the distance and raise you a S.E.E. on a tombstone. I don't remember where I took this picture. Re: other sideDifferent front stairs. Different porch foundation. What could have beenThe scene recreating the look of this neighborhood, which would have started the story a decade earlier, was unfortunately cut from the final version of WandaVision. That Furniture CompanyHope this is still allowed. There's more on the furniture building here. Before/afterThese look to be shacks by today's standards and were undoubtably tired by 1941. But the people living there had to have come from somewhere and likely thought these were a step up. That's a shuddering thought. Hammerhead Crane on the horizonThe Hammerhead Crane 110 on the horizon was built in 1940 and used mainly to lift and install and service the giant 16 inch gun turrets, is still present though no longer in use in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, on the edge of the Elizabeth River. The smaller crane on the top was called the "pig". The crane is located only about half a mile from the photo location. The crane on the horizon and the South Norfolk location of the furniture company place this near Liberty Street in the City of Chesapeake today. Roofing materialDoesn’t look like asphalt shingle. Some kind of heavy tar paper? Great composition, by the way, with the series of radiating diagonals. And anchored by the vigorously-striding woman that JennyPennifer points out. Check out the rooster in the lower right. Bit of a monster, that one. Another view Hammerhead CraneAnother view of the Hammerhead Crane Hammerhead craneIn the hazy distance behind the SEE building, you can see the Naval Shipyard's hammerhead crane, that was used for heavy lifts, such as engines, during fitout or overhaul. Installation of heavy components was done after launching, to free up the shipways, and to minimize the weight being launched. We're not as far out of town as it looks. Still there, but possibly no longer in use: https://goo.gl/maps/8b1vYDLD9k1Xn5aY7 Every self respecting naval shipyard had a hammerhead crane like this. Cocks Not PermittedThe South Norfolk homeowner of the property on the bottom right is in severe violation of current Norfolk chicken codes. Roosters are not permitted in residential neighborhoods. Also, I can't see where the coop is, but is must be located 12 ft from the owners property lines, which I trust it isn't. Tsk tsk. @BillyB "The other side of the street?"No, though you're right that they're both South Norfolk. It appears to me, based on a number of factors, that almost a mile and a half separates the two. This one is quintessentially true; it shows the Hammerhead Crane, at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, over in Portsmouth. Track Shacks shows a building that was in Norfolk until the early 1970s in the background; it was replaced by a building on it's site I still know as the "Sovran" building, though that was neither the original nor current, to my knowledge, name, simply an intermediate name reflecting it's large neon letters as a local headquarters for Sovran Bank; it's now sporting Bank of America. From South Norfolk, one would be facing north, towards Norfolk (Track Shack) and is close to the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River, which is hidden in the distance in Track Shack. Many of the DISTANT houses may still exist, though I think not for these; the northern section of South Norfolk was mostly redeveloped in the early 1940s with early urban/suburban style housing, while a mile further west, it still looks like the distant houses in Track Shack. This photo (Street View) is taken facing west and slightly north. It's been identified as being near 519 Liberty Street (the building with "SEE" on it is South Norfolk Furniture Company). The rough location is directly across from the modern industrial yard, but that's a bit in the distance, more near to the camera would be where the post office and a funeral home are located, in a generally und(er)developed area where a lot of "blight" was torn down, with little but light commercial or industrial to replace it. In this photo, the only remaining thing visible is the Hammerhead Crane, which can be seen on the horizon over the South Norfolk Furniture Company store's roof. And even it may not be long for this orb, as the Navy is talking about dismantling it. Designed to lift turrets off battleships, it can also lift elevators off aircraft carriers, and small ships (such as WW2 frigates) completely out of the water. It's large enough that a smaller crane is actually on top of the larger crane. An image of the Hammerhead Crane in 1983: Re: Hammerhead craneThe crane is almost completely hidden from streetview, but here are some articles with photos about the Navy wanting to get rid of it a few years ago. Its 350 ton lift capacity is much more than most others. https://cranenetworknews.com/historic-hammerhead-crane-is-an-iconic-regi... https://www.pilotonline.com/business/shipyards/article_0b064e9e-fe6d-53c... https://richmond.com/news/virginia/navy-ponders-fate-of-portsmouth-shipy... ...and Bremerton's preserved one. https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2018/03/03/bremertons-iconic-... Found the pic spotBy triangulating back on this pic and the previous one using the hammerhead crane in the background, the furniture store, railroad tracks and big warehouse on the horizon, I think both pics were taken from the old 22nd street overpass in the Berkeley section of Norfolk. The overpass was built in the late 30s and is now closed and being demolished. (The Gallery, John Vachon, Norfolk)
Unloading: 1900
... by law on all interchange cars (those cars passed from one railroad to another) by 1906. Flat bottom gondolas I never thought about ... sitting on the ground at right. It has been demoted to yard shanty status. This car is about 34 feet long, and was likely built in the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 7:36pm -

Buffalo, New York, circa 1900. "Thornberger hoist unloading ore at Lackawanna docks." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. 18440I hope those 2 guys standing in that open boxcar were getting hazardous duty pay. Janey Couplers & BrakesIt is interesting to note that all the freight cars (drop bottom gondola type) are equipped with Janey style knuckle couplers. Car 18440 is marked as having air brakes but the others are not and do not show any air hoses next to the couplers. These cars must have been assembled into very interesting trains with air brakes on some cars and hand brakes on others. This picture was taken during that transition time. I think air brakes were required by law on all interchange cars (those cars passed from one railroad to another) by 1906. Flat bottom gondolasI never thought about how the unloaded those cars -- hole in the middle, so men have to push the coal to the opening, eh? I had wondered. Labor was all American back then. The American Flyer train set I had as a kid had cars that tilted to dump. That's a load?Note the gondolas with a pile of ore in each end of the car. These cars are loaded. Ore is much heavier, by volume, than coal. To load one of these cars with ore like the coal load in the foreground, would cause the car to collapse. Coal hoppers are loaded with iron ore exactly the same way today. Also note the old boxcar sitting on the ground at right. It has been demoted to yard shanty status. This car is about 34 feet long, and was likely built in the 1880's. Six-Rig Thornburg HoistI believe the correct spelling is Thornburg, though their are several variants: Thornberg, Thornburgh, and Thornberger. A reverse view of the same machines is at Hydra: 1901. An earlier year of the Blue Book referred to them as Excelsior Hoists. I can't find out much information on either Thornburg or Excelsior Hoists and whether they were one and the same. Also, I still can't figure out how these things were powered: electric or steam? Blue Book of American Shipping, 1909. Railway Terminal Facilities for Ore and Coal Traffic on Lake Erie. Buffalo, N.Y. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Co., (Docks in Erie Basin), W. E. Dowle, assistant general freight agent — Six-rig Thornburg hoist, capable of unloading 1,500 gross tons in ten hours. All rigs can be worked on any vessel having hatches of 24 feet centers or less. No storage room. Medieval ore loadersLooks like a bunch of trebuchets to me. Look at all of those barges waiting to go back up the Erie Canal. Steam or electric?I'd say steam from the steam plant on the left. the venting out the top is a tell tale of steam pressure venting from an engine. I imagine the steam is produced there and vented there (no venting on the rig itself it seems) and supplied under the track it traverses on. I just wonder if they had some kind of flexible piping to allow the thing to move or if they hooked it up after setting it in place.. it doesn't look like it has to travel far. One more possibility is that they were powered hydrolically from the steam plant. that would solve a lot of problems bringing steam out to the units. the other post mentions 2000t over 10 hours so I don't imagine each of the units had to deal with a lot or weight in a shovel full. I think it was built for speed over capacity and hydrolic would make sense and is about right for it to be tried in 1900 for a job like this Electric or steamThe building in the foreground with the large stack and the 2 smaller stacks appears to be a stationary steam plant. I do not see any wires or typical electric infrastructure going to the hoists. On the other hand I also do not see any evidence of steam operation on the hoist mechanism. If they were in operation at the time of the photo you would see exhaust steam coming off of the steam powered winches. A Powerful IdeaThe power to these hoists perhaps is provided by a line shaft from the shed on the left, which happens to be inline with the hoists. There appear to be two steam exhaust stacks from the roof, which could indicate a large twin cylinder or tandem steam engine with a boiler elsewhere. A line shaft could exit the end of the shed and run through near the base of each hoist much like an old time machine shop providing power to each hoist, and each of course being individually controlled by an operator. Also note, the counter balance weights on each hoist that look like lumber planks stacked three or four, hooked to cable running over pulleys and guided by round bar. I think rather than wood planks, they are large steel flat bar counterweights to assist in moving and/or balancing the load of the booms as they swing back and forth. A second set of weights are certainly on the other side of each hoist out of view. A line shaft providing power to the cable lifts for the ore buckets and also the booms, which being relieved by the counter weights would require less power. ShaftsOn the link kindly provided by stanton_square showing the other end of these hoists, one can see a shaft extending from the last hoist and being supported by a sawhorse and a bearing block being positioned by tapered wedges or shims. Such a block, probably wooden, properly oiled provides a surprisingly good bearing surface and placed to keep the shaft from whipping and damaging the inboard bearing. This shaft extension leads me to believe that indeed this set of hoists is powered by a line shaft from the shed. All of the hoists probably have these shaft extensions for connection to each other and rather than cut off the last one, it is usually left in place for future expansion or to move to another position should one hoist be destroyed or go out of service. Other unloading cranes Here's a link to the development and photos of much larger buckets and cranes as the industry evolved. Visit each of the sites in the left navigation page for a overall history. Unloading Iron ore http://www.clevelandmemory.org/glihc/oretrade.html Alva Sunk 1895According to Great Lakes Maritime History Vol 1. Chapter 41 http://www.linkstothepast.com/marine/chapt41.php (1895) "August: Steamer Alva sunk by collision with whaleback barge 117 at the Sault." Unless the ship being unloaded is a different Alva, this picture has to have been taken before then. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Buffalo NY, DPC)
Locomotive Dreams: 1942
... in the roundhouse at a Chicago and North Western Railroad yard." Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/23/2017 - 12:08pm -

December 1942. "Locomotives in the roundhouse at a Chicago and North Western Railroad yard." Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size. Absolutely beautifulThe light, the composition, the atmosphere, it's breathtaking, almost like a rendering PerfectWow, just perfect! Just beautifulI agree with the other comments. You couldn't paint this scene any better. Terrific lighting, atmosphere and composition. Fine art in the roundhouse. You can almost smell the coal smoke and steam. Organic FlooringI believe that the floor surface depicted here is wood block. Similar to cobblestones, long wood blocks were placed with the grain in a vertical orientation, and were remarkably durable, albeit somewhat lumpy. As a young lad ca. 1959, my father pointed out to me the old driveway of a family member in East Hollywood, California - it was wood block. Delano's Masterwork? This is one of the greatest photos on the site. Wood block flooringIn my youth I inspected fire damage to some rooms in the old St. Louis Post-Dispatch building on 12th Street. One room was floored with wood blocks. Fire fighting water had expanded the blocks so that they were humped up as much as a foot or more above the concrete floor like the waves in the sea. I walked on that surface. The sides of each block had slots to accommodate long strips of corrugated metal. Those strips held the blocks together. Wood block flooring was common in machine shops, printing press rooms and the like. Wood block flooring at GPOThe only place I've ever seen flooring like that is at the old Government Printing Office in downtown DC. I remember liking the look of it. I guess the original purpose, at least in that building, was to lessen the noise of large printing presses. I don't know whether printing is done there now. When I was last there, in the mid-1990s, I don't recall seeing or hearing presses running. Cushioned flooring?I was recently given a tour of the NASA-Ames center in Mountain View, CA, and saw a similar wood block floor in a 1940s lab building. When I commented on it, one of the engineers said the wood blocks cushioned any tools that might fall off a workbench, as opposed to the damaging effect of landing on a concrete floor. Wood?If that's a big pile of ashes under the fire it suggests this is not wood but rather stone. All that oil-soaked wood would have gone up in flames faster than an early 20th century resort hotel. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
The Witts: 1911
... Parents. R.L. Witt. He is apparently working on the railroad, but his three oldest children, here work in the Roanoke Cotton Mills. ... of clothes, work in a knitting mill and have a dirt yard and no plumbing, this is how you look before washday rolls around. - Dave] ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/31/2011 - 10:49am -

May 1911. Roanoke, Va. "Dependent Parents. R.L. Witt. He is apparently working on the railroad, but his three oldest children, here work in the Roanoke Cotton Mills. Mamie is only 12 years old and earns very little. Home is very poorly kept. Mother would not be in the photo." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. If R.L. remarriedwould the siblings be half-Witts? Now this is poorAnd people today think they have it tough. I can't imagine what it would be like to grow up in a family as hard up as these people. Hard working and still just making ends meet. Barely!! Clarence WittThe boy, based on the 1910 census is Clarence, born 1896. By 1920 he is still living in Roanoke, and is married to Creasey and they have a 1 year old child. He works for a hardware company and can read and wright. In 1930 he is still in Roanoke and still working for a hardware company and his wife, now called Minnie, and he have 6 children, Robert, Russell, Grace, Richard, Howard and Ada. The oldest four children are all in school. That is the story of America during the immigration period. We look at those poor kids working in factories and farms and worry. But in large part, they grew up and lived better than their parents, and their kids better than them. Before there were iPadsThis picture is a classic example of the "old days" when families struggled to earn a living and the children were expected to contribute. Not a lot of playtime for the kids. This family displays the simple dignity of folks who endure life's struggle without being self-conscious over their condition or place in society. My paternal grandmother would have been about the age of the girl on the right. She knew hard work all her life. This website is a reminder of our past - with its stately buildings and its stately families. I hope they were able to afford shoes later in life and were able to enjoy the marvels of Maytag. BOTH Washboards Broken?Perhaps both washboards on top of the wooden barrel are out of service, considering all of the moving parts they have. My mother would have been saddened by this picture stating that soap and water are cheap. She grew up on a dry land cotton farm in the Texas panhandle with nothing. Water from a cistern, no power etc. Her childhood friend lived on the neighboring farm in a dirt floor shack. Even the dirt floor was always swept clean and hard as concrete, the children were clean, dresses and bonnets were clean etc. Every time I see a similar situation as above I always think of my mother, her stories and her wanting to just grab kids like these and scrub 'em good. Big LickMy great-grandfather might have worked right alongside the man pictured -- he was born in Roanoke in the 1880s and began working for the railroad shortly before this photo was made. It's quite probable that this house is still standing somewhere in South Roanoke, and I feel I may have even passed by it dozens of times in my life. Mamie WittHere we see another shot of Mamie working in that cotton mill. Clean GetawayMy mother, born in 1919, had 9 brothers. Everyone worked on the farm and most had side jobs as well. Spare time was an unknown commodity. Yet my grandmother managed to keep them all CLEAN! She worked like a mule, but the key word there is "work." There was very little money when I was growing up but my mom would have stole a bar of soap, found a puddle and a rock, and cleaned that mess up. And she was no thief, but you get my point. The first thing I see when I look at this picture is laziness, not poverty. [I'll bet your grandmother didn't do laundry with a bar of soap and a puddle. Laundry was generally a once-a-week affair that involved fetching water from a pump or well, boiling it over a fire or stove, a lot of scrubbing, then drying and ironing. If you have but one or two changes of clothes, work in a knitting mill and have a dirt yard and no plumbing, this is how you look before washday rolls around. - Dave] No, she didn't do our laundry in a puddle. She pressed clothes in a dry cleaners six days a week so she was busy with other peoples wearables. But your not taking into consideration the unkempt porch, dirty hair and the lone shoe. Other folks worked in dirty jobs as many hours and didn't live this way Dave. That was all I'm saying. [I suspect that if we traveled back a hundred years -- or looked at more of Lewis Hine's photos -- we might come to a different conclusion. - Dave] Out of the pictureThe statement "Mother would not be in the photo" might be a clue as to why this family is so dirty. Maybe she was too depressed or sick to do anything. It's back!Yet another random single shoe in the yard. Pick Me, Pick Me!Looks like the littlest one is digging for gold, there! Thankfully, kids never change. All of us probably have picture of ourselves or one of our siblings with a finger up the nose! What does it say about us?We all look at a 100-year-old photo of a family on the porch of their home. All the people in it are long dead. Yet it's possible for us to still pass judgment on them: "They were lazy!" "They never heard of a bar of soap?" Many of us have ancestors who also grew up extremely poor, hard-working, and needy, in both small towns and cities across America. That we are all here at all is a tribute to their determination and success. Yet just as many families were destroyed by sheer bad luck - by eminent domain, by sudden accidental death, by fire, flood or influenza. This family is gone. Is there harm in feeling sympathy for them, even if their clothes are dirty and their house is slovenly? We cannot know the troubles they bore - whether the mother never recovered after the birth of her youngest less than four years ago, whether the father was a gambler, a tippler, or a wastrel, or whether the children had any supervision or guidance. Perhaps there is even some benefit to imagining them compassionately. It may help us regard our own living neighbors with more kindness. The Witts: 1911This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. The girl on the right was Eva Witt. The father was named Robert L. Witt. I talked to the son of Russell Witt, one of the boys in this family who was not pictured. He was very surprised about the Hine photos (there are four of this family, three of them with just Mamie in them). He did not know what happened to Mamie or Eva, but he knows someone in the family who is working on the family tree. He will see if he can get more information from that person. (The Gallery, Lewis Hine)
Locomotive Dreams: 1942
Roundhouse at the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad yard, Chicago. December 1942. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2012 - 11:29pm -

Roundhouse at the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad yard, Chicago. December 1942. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. repeatYou guys already posted this one. It's beautiful enough to warrant posting twice...but I just figured I'd let you know. RepeatIt's not a repeat ... the other one is horizontal. This one's a vertical. PhotoYou can smell the coal and grease fantastic photo PPHow did you do your post processing in these beautiful color pictures. They look great - great job!!! Constantin http://www.goodstockimages.com Good GodWhat an absolutely stunning image!! :^o Superb. Jack Delano has aSuperb. Jack Delano has a new fan. Absolutely brilliant. C&NWThe engine closest is a C&NW M-1 class 0-6-0 switcher built in 1916; the second looks like a C&NW 2-8-0 number 1756 Class Z freight engine built in 1910 and last one looks like a C&NW M-1 class 0-6-0 too. Can't read the number. The M-1 0-6-0s were interesting engines---the C&NW had many built from 1905 to 1917. The early versions were lighter and less powerful than the late versions --- yet they all bore the M-1 class and same pay level for the crews. Trivia. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
American Injector: 1910
Detroit circa 1910. "Michigan Central Railroad tunnel." Other points of interest include the manufactory of American ... hat and walking cane doing in the middle of a freaking RR yard sitting and reading a magazine. Nice Radial Brick Chimney I'm a big ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/18/2012 - 5:37pm -

Detroit circa 1910. "Michigan Central Railroad tunnel." Other points of interest include the manufactory of American Injector (maker of U.S. Injectors and World Injectors), a large sign proclaiming ROYAL SALAD DRESSING, a number of men working on the railroad, and a fellow reading a newspaper. View full size. Odd geographyYou're looking south on this photo, and the tunnel leads to Windsor, Ontario, which is, logically, south of Detroit. There's also a few spots up around Niagara Falls where the U.S. is north of Canada. The railroad tunnel, built c. 1900, is still there and in use, but the surrounding area has changed drastically. Flirting with disaster?I sure hope that the fellow resting his foot on the third rail electrical supply didn't let his foot slip down on the metal portion. Also, I'm impressed with the fancy window and door trim featured on the small houses on the left. They look like laborers shacks, and such trim you would normally not see on such structures. Ropes over the tracksThese are called telltales and first appeared in the 1800s when brakeman rode the rooftops of trains. Before Westinghouse Air Brakes were fashionable, men had to run from car to car and spin the wheel to apply the train car brakes. A very dangerous profession in sunny & 70 degree weather. The tell tales were a warning device. If and when the chains hit the brakeman, it meant "DUCK!" To this day, they remain in place as a reminder of our RR past. Steam InjectorsA broader view of the same area from the previous Electro-Motive: 1910. More tunnel history at Sinking the Tunnel: 1910. The Industries of Detroit, 1887. American Injector Company. … At their two-story and basement factory, at 175 Larned street west, they give employment to a force of eighteen skilled workmen in the manufacture of their celebrated specialties in boiler attachments. Among these is the American Automatic Injector, the most reliable boiler feed in the market, simple in its construction and most reliable and perfect in its work. It can be taken apart, with an ordinary monkey-wrench, and cleaned without disconnecting a single pipe; has no interior moving parts, and is, therefore, less liable to wear out; is perfectly automatic, requiring no adjustment to pick up the water upon its return, after it has been taken away; and works under the greatest variety of conditions, such as varying steam pressure, variable temperature of supply water, water to be taken from a lower level or under pressure. They also manufacture the American Exhaust Injector, to feed boilers by the use of exhaust steam, thus utilizing an otherwise wasted product and doing away with both pump and heater, and which is the only exhaust injector made in America; also the American Ejector, adapted for raising water and liquids from wells, tanks, ponds, mines, quarries, holds of vessels, gas works, wheel pits, etc. All of these appliances are patented by Mr. H. Murdock, Vice-President of this company. Their great utility and the superiority of their mechanism has caused a large and steadily growing demand for them from steam users and makers of boilers and engines in all parts of the United States and Canada. In addition to a large business in their own products, the company are manufacturers' agents for all manner of boiler, engine and steam-fitters' appliances, in which they do a large business in Michigan and surrounding States. All the officers of the company have long been respected citizens, and President Trix is prominent in the Stationary Engineers' Association of Detroit. The business is prospering as a result of meritorious goods and accuracy and reliability in all the transactions of the company. Living dangerouslyThe gent reading the newspaper is using the electrified third rail as a footrest! I do understand that it is under running third rail with the top and sides insulated. Still, having worked around that sort of thing for 27 years I wouldn't want to be that casual. Follow the white lineof material on the right track, and wonder how much of it was left when it arrived at its destination. Ropes?Anybody know what those ropes are for hanging over the tracks? What, pray tell...is a man with long coast, hat and walking cane doing in the middle of a freaking RR yard sitting and reading a magazine. Nice Radial Brick ChimneyI'm a big fan of the old radial brick chimneys used for industrial purposes. There is a pretty nice one in the left background of this photo. The curvature is just beautiful. There used to be quite a few of them still surviving in Danville, VA where my Granny lived when the old Dan River Mills was still in operation back in the '80s and '90s. Also, is Royal Salad Dressing still around, and if so, what does it taste like? They Were A Full Service Photographer!Here's a product shot of Royal Salad Dressing taken by Detroit Publishing between 1900 and 1910. Never Separates, Never Spoils. Good Housekeeping, December, 1894. “Royal” Salad Dressing Always fresh and inviting. Never separates, never spoils. Send postal with your address to the Horton-Cato Mfg, Co., Detroit, Mich. and obtain handsome book free. How To Make Salads. 'Tis a fact that a salad is delightful when properly prepared; but if not, it is an abomination. Celery, lettuce, and other things used in making salads are such more enjoyable when interwoven with a delicious mayonnaise like the “Royal.” 20,000 visitors to the World's Food Fair recently held in Boston partook of salads made with the “Royal,” and all praised it. The Philistine, March, 1905. Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like an ox, but he didn't solve the problem. I have always been fond of grasses, such as lettuce, celery, chicory, romaine, cabbage and things used in connection with chicken, shrimp, lobsters, etc., but unlike old Neb, I never care to eat them like an ox. I have always wanted sauces or dressing like Mother made when I picked the lettuce and hunted the eggs in the old barn while she skimmed the cream. A man in Detroit mixes, blends and cooks mustard and other spices, pure olive oil, fresh country eggs and rich cream into a dressing so delicious that you could make a salad of the leaves of this magazine if you had no other leaves to use, and in spite of the hard-boiled epigrams, you would find it appetizing and wholesome. Don't forget, it is called Royal Salad Dressing and is published all the while by The Horton-Cato Mfg., Co., of Detroit, Mich., through all grocers who have looked into it. It's a billyclubThe guy reading doesn't have a cane, it's a billyclub and he is a railroad Bull (cop). (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Factories, Railroads)
Clinton: 1943
... and Clinton, Iowa. The train going through Clinton to the yard two miles beyond." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View ... about two years ago. Depot details Clinton Iowa, Railroad Town Many photos and info about the depots and railroads that ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/26/2016 - 5:17pm -

March 1943. "Freight operations on the Chicago & North Western between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa. The train going through Clinton to the yard two miles beyond." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. Station building on the leftSeems to still be there.... Two depotsI believe that would be the C,B&Q's depot on the right. It's long gone and before my time but they had, and still do by trackage rights, access to Clinton from the Quad Cities. The Northwestern's depot is on the left and still exists today. Two depots, three railroadsThe Chicago & Northwestern passenger depot is the large structure in the background on the left. The smaller depot to the right is actually the CB&Q (Burlington Route) station, which I believe was also used by the CMStP&P (Milwaukee Road). Both the CB&Q depot and the interlocking tower in the far background are now gone, but the C&NW depot was still standing when I visited Clinton about two years ago. Depot detailsClinton Iowa, Railroad Town Many photos and info about the depots and railroads that served Clinton. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Retarder Tower: 1942
... November 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. South classification yard seen from retarder operators' tower at an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Medium format nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/03/2013 - 9:31pm -

November 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. South classification yard seen from retarder operators' tower at an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Medium format nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. Fantastic imageI admit I am a railroad "groupie", but this picture is incredible. Jack Delano may be the Ansel Adams of railroad images. The ultimateTrain Set. Not a groupieBut a rail fan like me and many others who love trains, would this be Markham yard on the IC? (IC the train) Something to considerAs we enjoy these photos, we should give a tip of the hat to the photographers who often risked life and limb to make them. In this Delano photo take a look at the tower off to the left. I've been in such towers, and whether Jack had to climb up a straight ladder or take an outside spiral stair, there are spots with no handhold and the top higher than it appears. Bulky photography equipment in those days would probably have hung from his body by rope as he climbed or pulled up hand over hand by rope - no easy task. Then they had to produce artistic photos and develop them carefully. Devoted people! [In this case, Delano was shooting 120 roll film, most likely using a camera similar to the one he's shown with here. -tterrace] The Proviso YardsActually located in west suburban Hillside, Illinois. These yards are 1/2 mile from where I grew up in the 50s and 60s. I bet you're right, ferrochrr. All the big yards in the "rail hub of the country" begin to look alike! Proviso?Proviso yard would be C&NW RR, (UP RR today) not the IC, as for climbing up into RR towers, they were not hard to do, sure the stairs could be a little steep, but certainly not difficult to manage. I've been in a few towers myself for photo opportunities as well. Connection queryCan someone explain how the levers on the control panel were connected to the switches in the distance? Looks to me as if only a few inches of movement on the lever would activate a switch on the rails that must have been relatively large. How was it done? Cables? Motors? Is the same principle used in modern railroading? LeversTo answer some questions, the levers in this photo were connected to the points by means of electrical connections. Previously they were mechanical, in that the levers pulled a number of point rods that activated the retarders and switch points. Sometime around 1930, IC upgraded their systems to a more modern type that used motors and electrical impulses to activate things. Believe it or not, though largely modernized, a similar system is still in use today. (Technology, The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Hobo Life: 1915
... at Ann Arbor in civil engineering, becoming a professional railroad engineer. At his retirement, he was the only person to have served as ... Word got around that there was a lady living at the Yard "who could kill ya!" We never had problems again. Not surprisingly, the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/15/2010 - 5:24pm -

Location unknown circa 1915. "Tramps in boxcar playing cards." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. On their wayFive years later, they attended the banquet for the Civitan Club. My Dad, in 1933, at age 16 left his home in depression-ridden Flint, Michigan, to hobo his way via rail to California. He managed to return home to Flint, and eventually graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in civil engineering, becoming a professional railroad engineer. At his retirement, he was the only person to have served as Chief Engineer for 3 major railroads: the Wabash, the Norfolk and Western, and the B&O-C&O (predecessor to CSX). Hobo or TrampThis is according to Wikipedia: Tramps and hobos are commonly lumped together, but in their own sight they are sharply differentiated. A hobo or bo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays, but soon or late he returns to work. A tramp never works if it can be avoided; he simply travels. Lower than either is the bum, who neither works nor travels, save when impelled to motion by the police. Not an easy lifeHobos faced all sorts of dangers -- from freezing to death on trains, to being beaten by railway "bulls," to being murdered by other hobos. It wasn't uncommon for newspapers to include methods of dealing with unwanted hobos, including hints on poisoning them. My father rode the rails for a time until he witnessed the death of another man who was knocked from the top of a train. I highly recommend "Hard Travellin': The Hobo and His History" by Kenneth Allsop. A fascinating glimpse into the life and history of hobos. Emmett KellyThat guy on the right sure does look like him, only he doesn't need any makeup. In the cardsJudging by the number of cards per player the scorecards on the ground, I'm guessing these guys are playing three-handed euchre. Since euchre is played mainly in the upper Midwest, I'm going to guess this was within smelling distance of the Great Lakes. [How far away from the Great Lakes do they have to get before they stop playing? - Dave] Works & DreamsForget Wikpedia, trust the old hoboes who described it this way:: A hobo works and dreams. A tramp dreams and works. A bum is too lazy to do either. Mum and the bumFor the first several years of my life my father worked for Southern Pacific as a telegrapher. Our family routinely had contact with hobos, tramps and bums. It was not uncommon to find some very well educated men traveling the rails as a hobo. I was told by my mother that many times she would let hobos hold me as an infant and they would sit and talk. She said you could tell it made them think of home. Hobo camps were common and most people left them alone. When tramps or bums hit the area there was more often trouble. My father related a story to me in which a bum burst into our single room home (under the Swithing Tower) one night when it was cold. Father was upstairs at work. A bum was going to force his way in and stay by the iron stove. What he did not know was my mother was a "crack shot" with a small pistol she kept tucked away. Rather than call for Father, she pulled the gun out and forced the man outside. The bum challenged her. He didn't think she could handle the gun. Mother pointed it at a bottle by a fencepost and fired. Now, more than likely it was by luck, but the bottle shattered. The bum ran for the hills all wide-eyed. Word got around that there was a lady living at the Yard "who could kill ya!" We never had problems again. Not surprisingly, the hobos in the area always kept an eye out for our family and made sure we were safe! As we got older, all of us Railroad Kids would wander off to the camps and visit with the hobos. It was a different time. A time when you knew who you could trust. Dressing styleYou know, I think these tramps are actually far better dressed than most employed men I see on the street today. Four months ago"I told my wife I was running out to get some cigs." "Are you in or not?" "Oh, sorry. I'll see your twigs and raise you a handful of hay." I can hearArlo Guthrie singing "The City Of New Orleans" -- the part that goes "the rhythm of the rails is all they feel." I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last nightalive as you and me! Family loretells that my great-uncle John Shea was a hobo back then. I wonder if one of these guys is he. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, Railroads)
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