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Tomatotown: 1941
... of canners W. Grason and Nannie Winterbottom and a lumber yard owned by architect/builder J. Benjamin Brown. Mr. Brown designed many of ... wonder if the green-on-top signal is a carryover from the railroad signals of the day? "High green" was called out between the engineer ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/04/2022 - 5:00pm -

August 1941. "Cambridge, Maryland, home of Phillips Packing Co. tomato canning plant." As well as Phillips Hardware at the corner of Muir and Race streets, and a green-on-top stoplight. 4x5 inch acetate negative by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Only standard lights in sightI'm surprised the Phillips Hardware building still has its cornice - its neighbor doesn't: Green on Top?How can you tell from a black-and-white photo? Never MindSaw it when I enlarged the pic. The Bros.The same pair of brothers - Levi and Col. Albanus Phillips Sr. - owned the hardware company and the packing company. After the obligatory Massive 1910s Fire in Cambridge's main commercial district destroyed the hardware store and others, the brothers purchased the sites across Race Street that had been occupied by the home of canners W. Grason and Nannie Winterbottom and a lumber yard owned by architect/builder J. Benjamin Brown. Mr. Brown designed many of the buildings that rose from the ashes of his business and others in the fire zone. From 1910 to 1923, before the property at Race and Muir was sold to the hardware company, it was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Winterbottom, Levi Phillips (and his wife Florence), and Albanus Phillips (and his wife Daisy). All four Phillipses died between April 1945 and January 1949. The building's most recent use is as a venue for special events. https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/Dorchester/D-380.pdf Nice variety of pumps... but the "depression brick" siding is an odd pattern I haven't seen before. Hereabouts, we had a good sampling of that stuff around town, along with the asphalt shingle version. When applied well they can be pretty convincing from a distance. It has started to get harder to find as the old buildings get torn down for what the current folks mistake for architecture. [Especially hard to find in this photo! - Dave] 'tis hard to see here- how'n heck can I get it to move? On the othe hand, if I leave it here I can only make a single mistake, try to correct it and the possibility is endless. Guess it's your move, Dave. I'll bet a buckthat sign said Shorpy. Best store in town. The Phillips Hardware Co. building still looks good. Initials PHC are still in each decorative transom window. Fate has not been so kind to the building on the right. In an effort to make it look modern, an owner stripped away or covered up architectural detail and replaced the large upper story windows with much smaller windows that cannot be opened. I guess they don't want natural light or fresh air up there. High Green?I wonder if the green-on-top signal is a carryover from the railroad signals of the day? "High green" was called out between the engineer and fireman when approaching a clear (or go) signal. This in itself may have carried over from the semaphore type signals when the arm "dropped" down to show a red signal and the arm or blade was horizontal. [It's green on top only on Muir Street. On Race Street, it's red on top -- the signal has just three bulbs for all 12 lenses. To get red on top for both streets you'd need a more expensive 12-bulb signal. - Dave] Red=stop, green=go, yellow=confusionFollowing up on Dave's explanation, it's easy enough to see how it worked for red and green, but what about the middle light?? Without some kind of rotating baffle, it would show yellow for both directions: "proceed with caution" in theory, but surely accidents waiting to happen in practice. [Back in the day, stoplights often showed yellow (simultaneous with red) when changing from red to green. This would be one of them. - Dave] OK, both yellow and the red/green would be illuminated simultaneously, so you would know- hopefully! - if your yellow meant turning to red or turning from it; still rather confusing ... I think they would have been better off with only the two colors. Start of the Phillips empireThis is the same Phillips family that went into the seafood business and eventually opened Phillips restaurants and airport locations present today. Also, you may find their products in the frozen foods section of your local supermarket. (The Gallery, John Collier, Small Towns, Stores & Markets)
Proviso Perspective: 1943
April 1943. "Tracks at Chicago & North Western railroad's Proviso yard, Chicago." Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/28/2022 - 4:50pm -

April 1943. "Tracks at Chicago & North Western railroad's Proviso yard, Chicago." Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. If you listen closely... you can just make out Boxcar Willie practicing. (btw, that's a really cool photo ... talk about vanishing points) Good ol' Chicago --Where the tracks are paved with gold. It's not a perspective illusionThe tracks really do come together in the distance. The ParaTracks ViewThose of you born after 1974 ... go ask your grandparents. For Shorpy old-timersThe great Yellow Rail Controversy of aught eight. Days PastI grew up less than a mile south of the yard in the '50s and '60s. Fond memories of hearing them move cars from one train to another on a warm summer night. Ah, memories.I worked night shift in the Burlington's Clyde hump yard in Chicago back when I was in college. Once you get the sounds in your head on a quiet night, it never goes away. I can still hear it 55 years later. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Star Vehicle: 1920
... that in the 70's, we had a 1912 but with a flatbed as a yard hack. It was a bonebreaker, you could only steer when it was moving. Oh ... of August 23, 1919 mentions Wallace Reid's accident in a "railroad wreck scene which was so realistically produced that Reid was injured ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 9:54pm -

Washington, D.C., 1920. "Mack truck." As seen in the major motion picture "What's Your Hurry?," starring Wallce Reid as truck driver Dusty Rhoades. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Mackin'DC still had Mack garbage trucks with chain drive and solid tires in the mid-1930s. JarringDriving this thing must have been a bone breaker, hard on the eyes (no windshield), a bear to control, and a lead-sled to stop. Pneumatic tires would have helped the ride a little. MackosaurusWhat a dinosaur of a dumper. Chain drive, open cab and solid tires! What's Your Hurry?Wallace Reid should have stuck with trucks. After he was injured in a train wreck in 1919 while on location in Oregon making "Valley of the Giants," he was prescribed morphine so that he could keep working. He got hooked, and in 1923 died of an overdose. In the stone ageof product safety - look at that open chain drive! How many fingers/hands/arms lost out to that beauty? Big as a bread boxI've noticed these bread (pie, cake) lockers in some other Shorpy pics. I have read about bakeries making regular deliveries just like the milkman or ice man, and finally put 2 and 2 together -- these boxes are where they left your loaves, pies or cakes! What a fascinating detail of everyday life. It looks like this address also received deliveries of beverages from Reading Brewing. Reading BrewingBelow, a 1912 "City Bulletin" from the Washington Post. To survive during Prohibition, Washington's breweries switched to selling low-alcohol beers, as well as various cereal- and malt-based soft drinks. Legendary RideMy father, who was 16 years old in 1920, used to say of some cars, "Rides like a Mack Truck." It was never meant as a compliment. Mack MaintenanceThe brakes on this Mack are on the rear wheels only. The brake band can be seen around the circumference of the large hub the small chain sprocket is mounted upon, the actuating lever from the foot pedal to the front of the brake hub draws the band tight. To adjust the brake slack as the band wears, or after being renewed, the wing nuts below would be tightened or loosened as required. To the rear of the small driving gear, inside the upper and lower chains, the slack adjuster for the chain can be seen on the hinging axle arm. Threading the slack adjusters out on both sides will move the rear axle back, tightening the chain. Think of the chain on a single-speed bicycle, the rear wheel being moved back to tighten the chain. The rear axle would have to be kept at right angles to the frame to prevent undue tire wear and the truck travelling straight rather than at an angle. The much-larger driven gears can be seen through the spokes of the rear wheels. The differential, normally between the rear wheels inside the axle housing under a vehicle is inside the frame of this truck, the two small chain drive gears on it's outer axle shafts outside the frame rails. Heavy oil or chain lube grease would have to be liberally applied to the chain and the gears from time to time. Eventually, wear from constant forward motion, sand and grit thrown up by the wheels, and chain stretch would wear the gear teeth and the chain would catch, or jump, and the gears and the chain would have to be replaced. If a chain broke or jumped off the gears ( a la a single-speed bicycle again ) that wheel would no longer be driven nor have brakes. The radiator on this model of Mack was behind the sloped engine hood between the engine and the dash. The cooling fan was on the crankshaft behind the motor and blew cooling air out thru the rad cores and the louvers to each side next to the marker lamps. On top of the rad is the radiator cap with a built-in thermometer often known as a 'Moto Meter' which had a thermometer that showed red inside a bulls-eye as the engine and rad water heat increased. Operating a hard-rubber-tire truck over cobblestones, trolley tracks and bumpy roads would have been a real treat. Driving this truck in winter ice and snow, even with chains, would have been a nightmare, and COLD. Chain drive trucks, ( not only Mack marketed them ) albeit on pneumatic tires and with air brakes, were offered NEW into the early Fifties, their approach heralded by the rapid metallic clacking/buzzing sound of the chains gnashing around on their orbits. Another great photo on mechanics from Shorpy. Thank You. Nice!Mack trucks are from my hometown. I learned to drive a Mack just like that in the 70's, we had a 1912 but with a flatbed as a yard hack. It was a bonebreaker, you could only steer when it was moving. Oh god crank start was soo scary but kinda fun. No differential either, turning was crazy. No need for a windshield, it would not go faster than 20 MPH! and at that speed every bump and jolt was worse, it was like riding in an earthquake. Imagine trying to drive this beast, and having to manually advance the timing while steering, shifting, trying to stay in your seat and not crashing into anything. Next in lineI see a beautiful piece of machinery. I'd love to look under the hood and take it for a test drive. This old Mack.It's a nice pre-WWI, C-cab Mack AC. You can tell by the mesh covering the sides of the radiator. Newer models had louvers instead, plus a bigger radiator several inches wider than the hood. Apparently this truck was recently painted for the occasion; I can see several dents and mends in the hood. Its original color would have been "Mack green," a dark and rather nice shade. The paint was lead-based varnish. Those trucks carried the gas tank inside the cab, right under the seat cushion, a-la Ford T. Optionally you could get a wooden-framed, two-piece windshield that bolted to the cowl and the underside of the roof. Also worth noting, they already had adhesive tape back in 1920, and they used it to affix the photo to the sides of the cab. Turnbuckle stars!What? No one gets excited over architectural star turnbuckles anymore? Ach! You kids today! Scared Me!When I was a small boy in the early fifties I used to play in a closed coal/lumber yard near my home. One morning I ran around a corner and head on into one of these HUGE Macks - it scared the bejeebers out of me! I have never forgotten the look of that truck. Reid's AccidentEvery film book will tell you "Valley of the Giants" was filmed in Oregon, but it's just not true. The 1919 newspapers all say it was filmed in Humboldt County, California, and a review of the film--recently discovered in a Russian film archive--confirms it. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch of August 23, 1919 mentions Wallace Reid's accident in a "railroad wreck scene which was so realistically produced that Reid was injured in it and forced to take a vacation which gave him an opportunity to visit St. Louis, his 'old home town.'" (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Movies, Natl Photo)
Chicago & Alton: 1901
... Illinois Coal Handling Mazonia was the name of a railroad junction point. This was not a normal railroad coaling tower designed ... figuring, if there are 50 rails there at 130 pounds a yard that would be approximately 2,860,000 pounds. But how? A second to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/17/2020 - 11:19am -

Circa 1901. "Coaling station and water tank, C. & A. R.R., Mazonia, Illinois." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size. Construction photo?Everything looks new! (Coal towers would get dirty quickly from coal dust.) And I don't see any spout or water column from the water tank. That makes me think the work at this location is not complete. Curving tracksI’ve got a question for the railroaders. How do they make the rails to fit the exact curves of the specific location? Are the specs figured out in advance and the rails made to order and brought to the installation site? Or is there some on-site bend-y trick? Illinois Coal HandlingMazonia was the name of a railroad junction point. This was not a normal railroad coaling tower designed for supplying coal to locomotives, but the main function was for the handling and distribution of Braidwood Illinois/Coal City strip mined coal, some of which was re-loaded and RR shipped locally for local steam locomotive fuel, and some of which was shipped and distributed further out elsewhere. Note the "D-rail" in track, located near stairway which can be lined to protect mainline (out of sight on left) as coal is loaded into RR cars to haul to local RR coaling facilities for local RR locomotive fuel use. Water tank spout is out of sight on mainline side of tank. Laying trackRail especially in slight curves such as in this photo are not an issue as the rail is for lack of a better term, flexible in sideways bending. At curvatures not achievable by manpower alone there are portable rail benders, they are a triangular tool with a screw jack in the middle that hooks over the top of the rail and the jack pushes out in the middle and you move it up and down the track to get the desired effect of bend. The modern portable rail benders are hydraulically driven, or more likely the backhoe the rail gang is using works well also. Curvatures are also never made abruptly from a straight tangent of track or at a joint, instead they transitionally start out, gradually increasing to the necessary curvature to get where they are going to. The higher the intended speed in a location the larger the transition and the less the overall curve. At the time this picture was taken train weights had not increased to the point of needing tie plates to protect the wood ties from being cut into by the rail. That would change in the next decade or so as tonnage and size of the equipment increased. Its possible the mainline in the distance already had tie plates installed. Tracks CurveRail is actually quite flexible - has to be to stand up the the pounding of hundreds of tons exerted by each car or locomotive. Crews would use large lining bars to push the rail over into the right position and then spike down. No bendy trickAlthough made of steel, rail are quite (relatively) flexible. They lay out the ties on the ballast, and then, with tie-plates and spikes, make the rails conform to how the ties are laid. There are any number of videos on line which show the track-laying process. Curving railsRailroad rails are slightly flexible, but for a sharper curve, there are tools to bend the rails, either pre-ordered or on-site. Curved railEver seen a trainload of rail on its way to where it's to be laid? They used to carry quarter-mile lengths of rail-- maybe they're longer now. Dunno what's the sharpest curve they can bend around, but must be less than 500 ft radius. So the rail is at least that flexible, and doesn't need to be rolled to fit a particular curve. Dunno what the speed limit is for rail trains rounding curves, but they don't just inch around them. Maybe 20 mph on a ten-degree curve? Curves aheadHere's a video of a train with a quarter-mile of Continuous Welded Rail going around a curve: Curve commentsI love Shorpy. Such depth and breadth of knowledge, especially in the railroad dept. Thank you very much to alcosteam, Phare Pleigh, fdzug, jimboylan, Timz, and archfan for helping me understand how curved rail is laid. The video provided by archfan fairly blew my mind – I really couldn’t believe my eyes as all that straight rail slowly bent around the curve. A video worth a thousand words ... or moreWhat a remarkable illustration of the flexibility of steel rails. I had no idea. Another example of how this website can be entertaining and educational. Thanks to "archfan". Tons of railNever knew rails came in quarter mile lengths. Doing a little figuring, if there are 50 rails there at 130 pounds a yard that would be approximately 2,860,000 pounds. But how?A second to Captivated's comments. But one wonders how two rails held in place by 6-inch spikes can withstand the force of bending what appears to be a stack of 50 rails. Could it be the gradualness of the bend? The sometimes surprising mechanics of railroads (such as how they go around curves without axle differentials) is a reminder that railroads are the birthplace of engineering. Mind BendingThanks for the video "Archfan". I had never seen anything like that before nor thought it possible. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads)
No Left Turn: 1948
... one could still find their way around because Sunnyside Yard had floodlight towers, similar to the Detroit moonlight towers, and that ... Rail Yards, used today extensively by Long Island Railroad, NJ Transit and Amtrak (including a car washing station). A few ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/30/2013 - 12:18pm -

April 20, 1948. "E.R. Squibb & Son, Northern Boulevard, Long Island City, New York. Harold Burson, client." Note the abundance of antique traffic signals and signage. Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size. Nice ChryslerI dig the black Chrysler parked on the corner in front of the American Tire & Battery Co. BenchesI have seen many of those benches around and about. I think the WPA built quite a few of them. A really good idea because there was no need to replace the whole thing when one board was bad but I believe nowadays they have to bolt the boards down. Cross-streetsTo the left, 39th Avenue. To the right, Honeywell Street. Behind the photographer, 32nd Street. And if it wasnt sunny,one could still find their way around because Sunnyside Yard had floodlight towers, similar to the Detroit moonlight towers, and that might be one of them down Honeywell Street on the left. At one time Sunnyside Yard was the largest coach yard in the world. Also In Long Island CityThe Van Iderstine Rendering Company, founded in 1855 and at the time of this photo at 37-30 Review Ave, was the factory that rendered the fat and bones of the slaughter houses into tallow and grease. The worst by-product was an odor that infested not only Queens but the East Side of Manhattan as well. It's Always SunnyThe two big buildings on the right are still there. Not so the small building on the left. Looks like the Transit Authority replaced the below ground electrical works with an above ground facility on the triangle. The Honeywell Avenue bridge crosses over the Sunnyside Rail Yards, used today extensively by Long Island Railroad, NJ Transit and Amtrak (including a car washing station). A few hundred feet to the west are the Pennsylvania RR (now Amtrak) tunnels under the East River to Manhattan's Penn Station. The East Side Access Project is adding a direct link from Sunnyside Yards to Grand Central Terminal. View Larger Map Left to Right1946 Chevrolet Fleetwood Town Sedan, maybe a '46 Mercury in background, '46 Chrysler 4 door sedan, '41 Chevrolet Special Deluxe Sports Sedan (at center island), ?? Chevy 2 door, '48 Pontiac Deluxe Streamliner 4-Door Sedan. The former Squibb buildingIt's now known as the Center Building and will be 100 years old in a couple of years. It recently sold for $85 million, which may seem like a low price for a half-million square feet of Class A office space, but much of it is leased to city agencies at relatively low rents. The building to the right doesn't quite merit a name, and is known simply as 32-04* Northern Boulevard. It was built in 1931. Today it houses a self-storage warehouse, a rather low-value-added usage that is increasingly out of place as Long Island City becomes ever trendier. If present trends continue it'll probably be redeveloped into something else before long, such as expensive condominiums or a boutique hotel. Come to think of it, when the city agency leases in the Center Building expire they're not likely to be renewed. * = the 32 in the 32-04 address indicates the nearest cross street. To facilitate this address scheme the names of most Queens streets were changed to numbers in the 1920's. The old street names live on in some of the older subway stations, for example a nearby station on the 7 train, known as 33rd Street-Rawson. Van IderstineI currently work around 15 blocks from this location, it is amazing how LIC has and is still changing. Most of the industrial base is now gone and is being replaced with high end residences. I still remember Eagle Electric, where perfection is not an accident as per their enormous skeleton sign. Swingline stapler under the El that shook the entire block when their punch press came down. As far as Van Iderstines as mentioned by another poster their plant was on Newtown Creek ,their stack was under the Kosciusco bridge and if you were unlucky enough to be stuck in traffic on a hot summer day on the bridge you were in for quite a treat as the malaria yellow smoke that emanated from their plant enveloped your car. After close to 100 years of complaints the city finally managed to shut them down in the late 70's. But not to worry they have reopened in Newark under the Jersey Turnpike near the airport. That Triangular Tractis a gore. Cars1946 Chevrolet "Stylemaster" Town sedan in front of the Chrysler. The Chevy next to the '48 Pontiac Streamliner looks to be a 1947 Stylemaster town sedan. 32-04 Northern Blvd.the building to the right, was bought by food wholesaler John Sexton and Company in 1946. Now doing duty as a Public Storage location. As some of the other posters mentioned, will more than likely become high-end condos. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Gottscho-Schleisner, NYC)
The Pool Board: 1943
... 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. The engine crew, engineer and ... were the different rings, for example "HB Tower:2 short; A Yard:1 long,3 short; HX Tower:1 long, to which a wiseguy added, "...and one ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/29/2013 - 11:41am -

January 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. The engine crew, engineer and fireman report at the roundhouse office to be assigned their engine and given orders for the day. The cylinder at the left is the pool board; it lists the names of the men and the order and shift in which they will work." Photo by Jack Delano. View full size. Wooden box with crankAnyone know what the wooden box with a crank handle is on the side of the desk over the trashcan? Being over the trash suggests some sort of shredder, but it's hard to imagine what they would have that needs shredding. A little cranky?@Carey - that is a telephone ringer. Inside the box is a magneto which generates a voltage so the operator knows there is an outgoing call. I used to have one just like this, which had bells on it like the one on the desk laying horizontally. They put out a good kick if you wanted to play a joke on someone. One long waitThe crank is almost certainly a ringer for the phone system.The wooden box is in character for the elderly, in-house phone set ups. In the early 70's, B&O trackside phones in places had a crank on a wooden box with a mouthpiece from a Laurel and Hardy flick. Penciled inside the cabinet were the different rings, for example "HB Tower:2 short; A Yard:1 long,3 short; HX Tower:1 long, to which a wiseguy added, "...and one long wait!" To use the phone, first you'd pick it up and make sure it isn't in use, then ring the call for your party,the other end would answer with a short ring and then you talk by pressing a button. [this was to prevent background chatter; it was one big party line...] All of this was made antique collectibles by the radio, even to the removal of the phone lines themselves. With the callboard nearby, someone in this office is a crewcaller, so the in-house phone line is for talking to the dispatcher, the trainmaster, the engine facility, etc. There also is a phone line to the outside, and if a crewman was within a certain distance from this office, callboys would go out and call at their doors. My name was on a similar board back in the "analog era". I wish I'd saved my peg. State-of-the-Art CommunicationsThat box with the crank is a magneto generator that produces ringing current of about 108 v.a.c. It's matched up with the three oak ringers (one on the desk, two on the wall above the window), and the oak 3-hole jack box behind the archboard on the desk. These also work with the three selector boxes between the ringers on the wall. Apparently he has 3 phone circuits. He chooses the one he wants to use with the jack box. To make an outgoing call, he cranks the magneto. Incoming calls are announced by the ringers, and the selectors control when the ringers announce an incoming call for this office. Information about railroad telephone equipment of this era, including links to archived user's manuals, can be found here. If you see oneyou’ve seen 'em all. There must have been a written code somewhere that all railroads subscribed to regarding yard office ambience. They were all the same until recently. Wires and bells and speakers everywhere. Wooden floors, bare bulbs, block phones, doors that closed somewhat tightly, and restroom facilities that challenged the dignity of anyone other than a rail. (The old Humboldt Yard Office of the Milwaukee Road had a urinal that consisted of a large sheet of tin fixed to the wall that one [there were no women in those days] would pee against, and the urine would run down the tin into a horizontal length of rain gutter.) Although I can’t be certain, I’m going to guess the featured picture was taken at the IHB Blue Island yard. The two guys in the window are in their locker room, apparently waiting for a clearance and orders, or getting ready to tie up. Carbide lampThe bright image in the lower window appears to be a carbide lamp probably an oxweld they were extremely common for that time. Pool boardHow does the pool board work? Is it meant to be rotated when there's a shift change, so that the current shift is visible and the off-duty shift is on the "dark side"? What information is being represented? Why are the tags in pairs - is it driver/conductor teams? Does the column of tags with labels represent assignments to trains? Is the Pool In/Pool Out like the bench? Merch, baby!The Shorpy Store (TM) doesn't seem to stock that attractive Shorpy(R) brand wastebasket... that's a missed revenue opportunity! The tags.As this photo was taken in a roundhouse/engine terminal office, they'd be paired for an locomotive engineer and fireman. IHB in those days was a terminal/switching road, so the assignments would most likely be for switching jobs or transfer runs. Pool Board quick [?]On B&O at least, the engineers' pool and conductors' pools were separate. Since one pool had a few more crews than the other, this was necessary. Engineers pools included a fireman, and later, a trainee, while the conductors turns showed the head brakeman,flagman, and in 1943, maybe a swingman. If a position was vacant, no peg was there. Bulletins were issued weekly advertising vacancies on regular jobs/pool crew and new jobs. If you look to the right side of that board, those tags seem to show regular train or probably yard assignments; these would show the engineer, fireman, conductor [yard foreman on B&O] and the switchmen. In practice, if a man was off, i.e. sick or vacation, etc., his tag was removed from his regular assignment and shown in what ever status. Somewhere on that board are extra boards for engineers, road conductors, brakemen, etc. As these extra men are called, their pegs are placed on the appropriate job with its regular men; when their trip is over, they are marked back up on the extra list at the bottom. Note there is a window behind the board; this way a man can look at the board to see where he "stands" as he marks up, and see where everyone else is too. (The crews were kept on the other side of the window. Time slips, orders, etc. were handed through the "dutch window" above the caller's head.An experienced man could look this board over and tell you what job he's working tomorrow, and what job you're working too.[Sorry, Dave. This is about as quick as I could make this...] (Technology, The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Mike Evans: 1943
... "Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks of the Proviso Yard, Chicago & North Western R.R." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack ... what make me almost enjoy waking up and heading out to my railroad job each day! RIP Rip = Repair In Place -- A yard track where ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2012 - 4:44pm -

Chicago, April 1943. "Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks of the Proviso Yard, Chicago & North Western R.R." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. It's Willem Dafoe!...or his grandfather. Love this guy!Shorpy has provided us with such great pictorial evidence to chronicle the romanticism (real or imagined) of the rails. Photos like this are what make me almost enjoy waking up and heading out to my railroad job each day! RIPRip = Repair In Place -- A yard track where light repairs could be made. Classic Delano at his best! The tank is looking shabbyNo paint left on the tank. You don't see that anymore. But we still use helium cylinders that were made in 1943 in my radio astronomy work. RIP IIRip also = Repair, Inspect and Paint. John Henry was a steel-drivin' man...This photo reminds me of the song noted, due to the rough and ready character personified. The legend (although some believe it was based on fact) was that John Henry was a tall, strong, iron-willed, hard-working man who gave his "all" to building the railroads and boring through mountains to build the rail tunnels in West Virginia. When steam powered drills started being used, he challenged the steam drill to a race in building tunnels through rock. He DID win the race but died soon after from sheer exhaustion, prematurely ending his life by his superhuman effort. Good luck in trying to get this song out of your head, I've been hearing it since yesterday. I find Shorpys to be like Christmas, with new, happy surprises every day...thank you Shorpy. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Ashcans on Van Horn: 1935
... previous poster - this area is quite near the large train yard - on the edge of Price Hill, and was probably swallowed up sometime in the ... still exist...but haven't seen those others (except the railroad). 666 For Colds & Fevers I collect antique bottles, tins ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/12/2012 - 3:31pm -

December 1935. Hamilton County, Ohio. Vicinity of Cincinnati. Dwellings on Van Horn Street. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Carl Mydans. Judging by the graffitiAt least the gangs seem friendly... 666"666" is a medicine for colds and fever? Or a curse? That's a very vivid picture, though. You can just imagine walking straight ahead, on down the hill. [Cold medicine. - Dave] Van Horn StreetYes, sadly, I think so, Dave. This 1838 Bird's Eye Map of Cincinnati shows a Horne Street...but it likely predates Van Horn St, although it's in the general vicinity of Ward 20 (the 1900 census shows Van Horn in Precinct C and D of Ward 20). [Unfortunately, while nicely drawn, the 1900 Bird's Eye Map doesn't seem to include any names for streets, businesses, or points of interest.] The current Google satellite map indicates that there's an expressway about there...and major train tracks. It also seems that it was possibly in the amazing-looking Price Hill area. Can some locals share insights into Price Hill? Price HillI can share a bit of insight on Price Hill. Once upon a time was a nicer area, but now it's very rough - poor, violent and rundown. It's on the lower west side of the city, close to the river - a lot of cheap historic housing to be had, if you can stomach the crime and the overall depressed feel to the town. One of the famed "Seven Hills" in Cincinnati. Inclines were a big thing back in the day. Price HillAT was a bit harsh on Price Hill. It's really not a poor gang infested slum that AT described. For some reason that's how too many people think of Price Hill. I'm not sure if it's learned from the media or something someone puts together in their own mind. I'm not aware of a Van Horn St, but from the looks of the photo it could be taken from somewhere in East Price Hill. That's the part of Price Hill closest to downtown Cincinnati. If I had to guess, I would place it around Maryland Ave or near the bottom of Glenway Ave. Considering the street is so narrow and it looks like the the houses are not at street level on the left side, there are only a few places this could be. Maybe I'm not looking at the picture right? There was a time in Cincinnati when a lot of street names were changed from their German names to more Anglo-Saxon sounding names. Not that Van Horn sounds German, but it's possible the street name no longer exists. http://pricehillblog.com Here's a good page of pictures of the historic Price Hill Incline. And here are some photos I took recently from the other direction (looking down from the top of the hill, where the incline once stood). Van Horn?I live in Cincinnati and know the town well - however, I've never heard of Van Horn, nor can I find it online. It looks similar to some alleys I've been in, but I can't seem to place any landmarks. Any idea on how I could find it? [It's probably long gone. A lot of these old neighborhoods and streets disappeared in the slum clearance projects of the 1950s and 60s. You look where they used to be and find expressways and overpasses. - Dave] Price HillI made the comment on Price Hill. Sure, parts of Price Hill are fine, just like any town. But having worked there (near Considine, across from the police station), I can say with assurance that my viewpoint does not come from the media. I have to concur with previous poster - this area is quite near the large train yard - on the edge of Price Hill, and was probably swallowed up sometime in the midcentury. Van HornIf you draw an line from Carr at Dalton Street to Baymiller at Poplar, you might have an idea of the eastern boundary of the Ward/Precinct. Ninth Street was broken up to make room for the highway long ago - you can see a remnant of it if you search for Ninth Street West (9th St W) in 45203 on the map. That would be the southern boundary of the area. I assume Van Horn made up the northern part and the RR tracks the western. What we're looking at here is an area that time forgot - west of downtown/Over the Rhine and east of Price Hill. I don't know what they call that neighborhood now but I think the freeway killed it - not much there right now but a few factories/industries. Van Horn StreetThanks for the insights, links and pix. Van Horn is Dutch, and there are some other Dutch named streets/alleys in that vicinity (east of Mill Creek). The 1900 census shows Van Horn being part of the Ward 20, Precinct C boundary with Ninth, Baymiller and Carr...and part of the Ward 20, Precinct D boundary with Baymiller, Barr, RR, and Carr. I know Ninth and Baymiller still exist...but haven't seen those others (except the railroad). 666 For Colds & FeversI collect antique bottles, tins and other items and I just so happen to have an actual labeled, corked and sealed bottle of this medicine with the original contents. Yes, it is a strange name for a medicine, but many patent medicines back then had even stranger names as well as ingredients. 666 was made in Minneapolis, MN according to the (bright red and black, no less) label on my bottle. It supposedly cured colds, fevers, ague, catarrh, rheumatism and almost any other malady one could think of. Man, I would absolutely love to have one of those advertising signs for my collection! Another excellent photograph. ~ Boone H Van Horne AlleyVan Horne Street was in what is now Queensgate. It ran east to west between Seventh and Eighth streets and between Carr and Mound. That area is now completely industrial and there seems to be no trace left of Van Horne Street's existence. I think it was right behind the buildings put up in the 1960's on the south side of what is now West Eighth. In the Hamilton County Auditor's website, a lot of these properties make reference "Vanhorne Alley." Map here. Price HillCan you tell me anything about who the Considine was whose name is found in Price Hill streets, Considine Ave, Considine Lane etc? Can you say whether the lower part down by the river and east toward the railroad slot was Irish in the 1870s-1880s? email: ryan90274@yahoo.com (that stomach is scary) (The Gallery, Carl Mydans, Cincinnati Photos)
Bonus Tracks: 1906
... to mention the noise and smoke of the adjacent rail yard. Rent in 1906 was $20 for a four room apartment. Today's picture ... the "points" -- a favored method used by the Pennsylvania Railroad in its larger terminals. Ammonia was also injected into the compressed ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 11:14am -

Washington, D.C., circa 1906-1910. "Switch yards, Union Station." The third and final part of our panorama. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Pano put togetherFor your viewing pleasure. Click here to see pano Hover your mouse over the image for a menu to download the full sized picture. A Room With a ViewThe Penhurst Apartment, your Haven of Rest, conveniently located near public transportation. Refrigerated StorageLooks to be some sort of heat exchanger over on the right. Ammonia chiller, maybe. VestigesWhile the Penhurst is gone (tracks for Metro's Red Line run where it used to be), the stone bollards and wrought iron railing along First Street survive: View Larger Map Plenty Light & Hot WaterThe Penhurst Apartments was one of about a dozen apartment buildings owned and managed by the Alonzo Ogilvie Bliss, a civil war veteran of the Tenth New York Calvary. Newspaper ads neglected to mention the noise and smoke of the adjacent rail yard. Rent in 1906 was $20 for a four room apartment. Today's picture would not quite be the same as H street N.E. now passes over the rail yard. At the time of the photo, H street passed through a long tunnel underneath the yard, as several of the streets to the north still do. The Penhurst Apartments were located at 48 H St. N.E. so that gives a pretty good alignment for where the H street bridge is now. An intermodal transport center and public parking structure now covers this portion of the yard. Developments rights have recently been sold for all the remaining airspace above the rails. Classified Ads, Washington Post, Jun 28, 1919 The Penhurst, Apartment 30 - Two or more rooms, furnished or unfurnished; south front; plenty light and hot water. Washington Post, Jan 5, 1920 Penhurst Apartments Burn Lives of dwellers in the 22 apartments in the Penhurst, 48 H street northeast, were imperiled yesterday when a fire originating in the elevator shaft spread to all floors of the Building, cutting off escape of a number of tenants by the stairway. Damage is estimated at $20,000. When the fire first started the emergency hose was brought into use, but failed to function, and before the fire apparatus arrived on the first alarm the flames had gained such headway that two additional alarms bringing out thirteen additional fire companies were sent in. ... Tallest Building in the USAI think I spot the Washington Monument poking its head over the Government Printing Office on the right side of the frame. At the time of this photo, the Washington Monument (169m) still held the title of the tallest building in the United States, holding off a challenge from Philadelphia's City Hall (opened 1901) by just 2 meters. EquipmentThe heat exchanger mentioned below may have been used to cool compressed air which was used to operate the many switch machines that move the "points" -- a favored method used by the Pennsylvania Railroad in its larger terminals. Ammonia was also injected into the compressed air to help prevent freezing. Washington Union Station was opened on October 27, 1908, so these photographs probably date very near to that date. A Stitch in Time...Here's the whole panorama stitched together larger: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/414627/union-station-pano.jpg Re: Shorpy LandmarksTo the left of the Government Printing Office is the tall thin spire of the Metropolitan Methodist Church. (The Gallery, D.C., DPC, Railroads)
Amarillo Yardmaster: 1943
... back memories. My father was a yardmaster for the Erie Railroad in Meadville, Pa. in the 1950's and 60's. As a child I would go with my mother to pick him up after work and would go into the yard office. He was the westbound yardmaster and his clerk sat directly across ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/10/2012 - 4:15pm -

March 1943. Yardmaster at Amarillo, Texas, railyard. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. paperless officeNotice how neat and arranged everything is? Bet he knew where everything he would need was .... and could get to it faster than someone today with the best of computers. Atlas ShruggedRead 'Atlas Shrugged' recently - this picture pretty much fits my imagination's. YardmasterSure brought back memories. My father was a yardmaster for the Erie Railroad in Meadville, Pa. in the 1950's and 60's. As a child I would go with my mother to pick him up after work and would go into the yard office. He was the westbound yardmaster and his clerk sat directly across from him at a two big desks. The phone was just like the one he had to stay in touch with the other offices along the system to Cleveland. They had a big pigeonhole system that the waybills for the freight cars were kept in when they would make up the order for the cars and their destinations in the length of cars pulled by the engines. The office was a busy place and they had three shifts each day on both the east and westbound sides of the division yard. He worked the midnight shift for almost twenty years as the yardmaster. During the night in our small town we could hear the trains pumping the cars in the process of making up the trains even though we were several miles from the train yard. There were numerous trains each night in both east and westbound moving along the system between Chicago and New York. There was always a saying in our home that when we would hear a train whistle we would say, "there goes a new pair of shoes." As long as the trains were moving Dad had a job and money to support us all. Both of my grandfathers worked all their lives for the Erie railroad. It's sad now when we visit Meadville and see that the yard just barely exists. The yard office that I remember as a child is no longer there. The new yard tower that he moved to in the late 60's is still there but doesn't appear to be functioning. Thanks for the picture and the thoughts it brought back. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Going Nowhere: 1930
... Next stop, Willoughby! It looks like the old railroad car in that "Twilight Zone" episode. Is Comfy It IS more comfy ... in daily use: the stub that goes from the former Potomac Yard (and Conrail/Amtrak mainline) east into Old Town Alexandria, dead-ending ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/22/2012 - 6:43pm -

"Car interior. Washington & Old Dominion R.R." Our third and final look at Pennsy car 4928 on the tracks of the W. & O.D., whose right-of-way is now plied by commuters taking I-66 into Washington. 8x10 glass negative. View full size. Next stop, Willoughby!It looks like the old railroad car in that "Twilight Zone" episode. Is ComfyIt IS more comfy than a modern jetliner. I volunteer at a railroad museum where we refurbish and display old RR cars and have sat in many of these. The seats are like your couch at home; there is more than ample room to cross your legs and the passenger next to you can still get up and leave his seat without tripping over your legs. Some of the newer (1920s-30s) ones have pivoting seats that let the whole bench swivel toward the aisle. Like so many modern things, the "good" has been engineered out of it. We used to get things such as durability and ruggedness for free, but now it's all designed out as unnecessary, as exemplified by the sardine-can seating of modern airliners. [I'll bet airplane seats are pretty durable. And of course there's a reason airline seats are closer together. The per-mile cost of moving a pound of passenger through the air is much higher than it is on the ground. - Dave] ContrastWhile a bit seedy and mussed up, the interior of Old 4928 looks fairly decent. Like an old dowager queen waiting for a rescuer, hoping for salvation. But, alas, it probably never came and we are the worse off for that. The W&OD lives, sortaThe Washington & Old Dominion ran from Alexandria out to Purcellville in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Today, its right-of-way is a much-used bike path that stretches from the west end of Alexandria west, passing through wooded areas, suburban sprawl, and eventually rural stretches as it gets outside the Washington Beltway. It's a wonderful trail to ride. Most folks don't realize that one small (maybe a mile or two) of the RR still is in daily use: the stub that goes from the former Potomac Yard (and Conrail/Amtrak mainline) east into Old Town Alexandria, dead-ending as siding at the warehouses on the banks of the river. On a daily basis, two- and even three-engine trains of boxcars and coal hoppers pass by my office window, servicing the coal-fired Mirant power plant and the riverfront warehouses. With Old Town becoming increasingly an upscale tourist destination, it's nice to have reminders that it's still a working port! W&ODI-66 does not follow the W&OD Railroad. The W&OD's right of way is instead now a trail, from Shirlington to Purcellville. The right-of-way west of Purcellville was sold before the rest of it, so it will likely never extend further west than that. [I-66 uses two stretches of W&OD right-of-way through Arlington. - Dave] Looks ComfyThis car looks about 1000 times more comfortable than the coach seats in a modern jetliner (and the TGV trains in Europe for that matter). Doesn't look comfortableHard wooden armrests, scratchy fabric, no headrests, and no lumbar support all add up to uncomfortable in my book. All Aboard...When I was a child, and the Pennsylvania Railroad had not yet become Penn Central, there were still 1910-1938 era cars in use similar to this one. Far from being uncomfortable, they had soft mohair seats with very plush and pliable springs, and those seatbacks could be shifted to the front or back of each bench, allowing one to ride facing forward, back, or to create two adjacent seats that faced each other for a cozy group alcove. None I ever rode on had carpet runners like this one. They had linoleum or tile. The thing you cannot see in the picture is how noisy those very oldest cars were to ride in. The windows, when they were wood, banged, and the tracks were not yet welded into a seamless beam (done for the Metroliner in the 1970's), so at every segment of rail the windows rattled and the train went clack-clack-clack. The silversides of today are quiet and smooth riding, but they have none of the art deco and pre-WWI charm of these cars. Each train ride was an excursion into art history. You never knew in advance what art era you would be studying. W&OD TrailHere's a map showing the trail. (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Railroads)
California Here I Come: 1943
... freight about to leave for the West Coast from the Corwith Yard at Chicago. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack ... at War" which chronicled this trip and also contained many railroad photos from other parts of the country. The book is out of print but ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/17/2012 - 10:04pm -

Santa Fe freight about to leave for the West Coast from the Corwith Yard at Chicago. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. This is the freight Jack accompanied from Chicago to California in March 1943, taking many pictures along the way for the Office of War Information. CaliforniaIs this Delano still alive? Laurent Wiame from Switzerland... [Jack Delano died 10 years ago at the age of 83 - Dave] Thank youThank you for all the amazing color pictures by Jack Delano... California or BustI hope you have all of the pictures from Frank's trip from Chicago to LA, I certainly would love to see them. So Frank worked for the war dept? He sure was lucky to be able to travel across the country for his job and getting paid for it. Iron Horse at WarHe wrote a book entitled the "Iron Horse at War" which chronicled this trip and also contained many railroad photos from other parts of the country. The book is out of print but might be found on E Bay. Unfortunately, the book is in Black & White. That train isn't moving anytime soon!The train still has a blue flag hanging on it. That means that there is still someone working on it. Each worker puts a blue flag on the front end of the train (or on the track ahead of the train) and ONLY that man can remove it. Once all blue flags are removed, the train can then proceed. Jack DelanoMany thanks for these fabulous photographs. Just stumbled across them ... Delano was an artist of the finest caliber, and you honor him by posting these for future generations to enjoy. Excellent work. Jack from Chicago (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Factory Town: 1910
... me and you who built the Promised Land". We made their railroad bridges. We ran their driving wheels And the towers of the Empire ... It used to be an industrial area with a large train yard. Now it's filled with Ikea and other large stores and huge apartments. I ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2012 - 1:32pm -

Homestead, Pennsylvania, circa 1910. "Homestead Steel Works, Carnegie Steel Co." 8x10 inch dry negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. U.S. Steel - Tom RussellHomestead Pennsylvania, the home of the U.S. Steel And the men down at the Homestead Works Are sharing one last meal Sauerkraut and kielbasa, a dozen beers or more A hundred years of pouring slab, They’re closing down the door And this mill won’t run no more. There’s silence in the valley, there’s silence in the streets There’s silence every night here upon these cold white sheets Were my wife stares out the window with a long and lonely stare She says “you kill yourself for 30 years but no one seems to care” You made their railroads rails and bridges. You ran their driving wheels And the towers of the Empire State are lined with Homestead Steel The Monongahela valley no longer hears the roar There's Cottonwood and Sumac-weed inside the slab mill door And this mill won’t run no more. So, me, I'll sit in Hess' bar and drink my life away. God bless the second mortgage and the unemployment pay And my ex-boss, Mr. Goodwin, he keeps shaking my one good hand. He says "Son, it's men like me and you who built the Promised Land". We made their railroad bridges. We ran their driving wheels And the towers of the Empire State are lined with Homestead Steel The Monongahela valley no longer hears the roar There's Cottonwood and Sumac-weed inside the slab mill door And this mill won’t run no more. I used to live up the hillI used to live up the hill in Pittsburgh, back when this steel mill produced one-third of the steel used in the United States. It is now a shopping center, with a few pieces of machinery and a line of old smokestacks from the soaking pits left to mark the spot. The town of Homestead is pretty much dead at this point. Remembering PeteLittle boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky, Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes all the same. There's a green one and a pink one And a blue one and a yellow one, And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same. Mom's birthplaceThis photo may show the house where my mom was born. I can't wait to get a copy of it in her hands. The properties from 8th Street to the Monongahela were all bought up by the steel companies and torn down to accommodate expansion in the early 1930s. Thanks for providing this. Sic TransitHome of the epic 1892 strike that was the start of union breaking in the steel industry. The plant, eventually owned by US Steel, closed in 1986 and today the land is home to The Waterfront shopping center and Sandcastle Waterpark. ParticulatesI look at this and just imagine all the lung disorders in the nearby population. They must have waited for a holiday shutdown to take this shot. 100 years later.I'm using those same rollup bamboo blinds on my porch as the house in the foreground. Nice to see some things don't change! Shades of GrayIn 1943 when my maternal grandmother died, my mom took me to the small Pennsylvania coal mining towns (at that time) of Bradenville and Loyalhanna. I was very young at the time but I remember it clearly as it was my first long train trip from Connecticut to Pennsy, overnight. As we passed through many similar industrial towns, I could not help but notice that everything was gray, whether by plan or by the never-ending soot in the air. We stayed a week in a house just like these but the roads and "sidewalks" were charcoal gray dirt, all the homes were gray and for that entire week, so were the skies and everyone's emotions. Train tracks were everywhere and coal trains ran continuously. I'm sure it has changed now but this picture really took me back there to my gray period. Nice people though, ALL very kind, very hard-working and very giving. Ikea et alI know it's a given that much of the old development will, in time, be replaced with new. But how much we have lost over the decades in regards to industrial development. I can't see much to interest me in new development or office buildings, or high tech industrial. Driving through Emeryville, CA this morning I realized what a wasteland of totally new buildings it is today. It used to be an industrial area with a large train yard. Now it's filled with Ikea and other large stores and huge apartments. I could never live there. Found itThese houses still exist, but as others have already mentioned, the factories are gone. Based on the roof styles and the pattern of house construction, I found the houses. They're at the east end of E10th Ave. Since the time of the photo, four more houses on both the north and south sides have been added, but you can figure out which these are based on the roof patterns on Google Maps. The photographer was likely positioned on the rise at the end of the alley (Park Way). Taking a 'drive' down the alley you can see the backs of the two houses in the foreground - they're still the same. Houses in the background on 9th Ave also match up, though it appears that not all the lots were constructed, and since then some of the houses at the right end in the photo have been torn down, where Toth Carpet is now located. The row of flat roofed dwellings still exist, on 9th Ave and Andrew Street. It looks like the sidewalks might originally have been brick, which there is still some today. In front of most homes the approx. one foot wide area where the trees were planted is now sidewalk, though there is still evidence of that previously unpaved area. An earlier picture from the same spot!Isn't it amazing how clean the houses on the left side of the picture are? I can remember in the 1950s, going back to Ohio after a weekend at Grandma's (I'm a Whitaker boy) and watching the bath water turn a reddish brown -- I can't imagine what it must have been like to live in one of these homes. The mill under construction is immediately adjacent to 8th Avenue, and the intersection of 9th and Martha is plain to see. My mom was born in 1925 in a house on 4th Avenue, in what I suspect is one of the houses still visible in this shot. These photos were taken from an accessible bluff (lots of trees, though) just east of where 11th Avenue turns south to avoid going into the ravine. I'll try to get there this summer to get an updated photo of the area. The original can be found here and can be blown up to your heart's desire. (The Gallery, DPC, Factories)
Standard Service: 1939
... consisting of a few houses, general store , and railroad station ." Medium format acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the ... street) and it went past a grain elevator and a lumber yard. In the late 60s, my family moved to a house across the street from the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/14/2018 - 11:54am -

October 1939. "Lamoille, Iowa. A village consisting of a few houses, general store, and railroad station." Medium format acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Out of those three housesI sure hope someone or somebody had the sense to save that Red Crown gasoline globe. What a Gem. It's sort of a shameLooks like they had to put bars on the windows for some reason. You'd hope there wouldn't be theft in small town Iowa back then. Wig WagThis type of railway crossing warning signal is known as a wig wag, and you can see how it looked and sounded in this video clip. In earlier days trains were sometimes referred to as "the cars". 1937-1940 International truckI've always thought that was one of the most aesthetically-pleasing truck designs ever. The most famous example, of course, was the Merry Pranksters' bus, Furthur. Iowa HumorMy Iowa born father used to recite "Railroad crossing, look out for the cars. Can you spell that without any Rs? T.H.A.T " It wasn't funny back then either. Four Mystery RailsOf the four rails, the two used ones seem to interleave with the unused ones. That would happen with a switch but they don't seem to be diverging fast enough; also the unused pair is in bad shape. Progress?Not much growth in Lamoille in 78 years. Now they have to travel to the next town to go to the store, and there is no rail station to get there. At least the county jail is only a couple of miles away. Not Four Mystery RailsThose are two separate tracks. In a few places, you can see the ends of the ties under the far track. I suspect the near track is a siding, and not so well maintained (or used). More railsThere appears to be a third set of tracks (long unused) on the far side of the two more obvious ones. To deserve two sidings, this little burg must have had a bit significance to the railroad at one time. No crossbuckThe wig-wag signal was accompanied by a rectangular "Look Out For The Cars" sign in lieu of a crossbuck. The unused tracks may have went to a defunct grain elevator or some other business in town that needed a siding. Loomis, Nebraska, the town I grew up in, had a siding that went up to Commercial Street (Main street) and it went past a grain elevator and a lumber yard. In the late 60s, my family moved to a house across the street from the former lumber yard and the grain elevator was still there, unused. The track could still be seen going across Highway 23, but got buried when it got past the elevator. In 1975-76, the siding was taken out, the elevator burned down (as a Fire Department exercise), and the new scales for the elevator that was going up across the highway replaced the old elevator. Major arteryLaMoille wasn't a big deal, but that particular railway was - and is - a huge deal. It's the main east-west corridor through Iowa, now known as the Union Pacific Corridor. Shorpy and FSA fans will recognize many scenes up and down the route, including the Clinton rail yards and the Kate Shelley High Bridge (fifty miles to the west). A 2002 Iowa Department of Transportation study found that 58 trains per day passed by this particular crossing at LaMoille, and that it was the county's most dangerous rural crossing. The sign on the side of the storesays it also served as the post office. The barred windows might have been thought necessary for security there. Red Crown gasoline globe (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Gas Stations, Railroads, Small Towns)
I Think I Can: 1906
... [I did notice that Dave. However, coal has been the railroad's solid fuel choice for a number of decades. - Mal] The weather on ... it's still sitting in storage in the shops at the rail yard at the foot of the mountain. Kilroy That's probably his first ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 3:11pm -

Circa 1906. "Engine, Mount Washington Railway, White Mountains, New Hampshire." The little engine that could also serve as a portable pizza oven. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. New Hampshire's Cog Railway"The Cog" as it's known has been (during the summer) delivering passengers (mostly tourists) to the summit of Mount Washington since July 3rd 1869. Soot spewing coal fired boilers have been largely replaced with cleaner diesel units, although coal is still used on some early morning ascents. The boilers are canted as in this photo so that they'll be level during the steep ascent and descent. [You'll note that this engine is not coal-fired. - Dave] [I did notice that Dave. However, coal has been the railroad's solid fuel choice for a number of decades. - Mal] The weather on top of the summit can be among the most severe in the country and is where the world's record wind speed of 231 MPH was recorded. Hence the mountain's timberline is at only 4,000 feet. Train quesitonProving I know very little about trains. Is it supposed to be stuck up in the air that way? Railway to the MoonThis engine served on the cog railway that still ascends to the 6,288 ft summit of Mt. Washington. It is the oldest rack-and-pinion rail system in the world (1869). Before construction, the project was derided as a pie-in-the-sky "Railway to the Moon." So it truly was the little engine that could! The numeral 1 on the engine identifies it as the rebuilt "Mt. Washington," originally named "Falcon." Incredibly, it's still sitting in storage in the shops at the rail yard at the foot of the mountain. KilroyThat's probably his first appearance, behind the tender. That bend?T'was like that when we took it out dis mornin'. Honest. Not On the Level!The reason the locomotive boiler is on a 'slant' in regards to the frame and cylinders is that when the locomotive is working and climbing on the way to the summit, the water and firebox within will be more or less horizontal on the grade. The large dome accumulated steam well above the level of the water. As wood was the fuel, a long smokestack with a large opening at the top which is covered with a screen was applied to catch sparks and help prevent fires along the right of way. The screen has a latch so it could be opened. Wood is easy to fire, burns clean, and leaves little ash. Coal has more heat value by weight, and was used in later years. Unlike most of the other locomotives featured on Shorpy, this one does not need sand for traction nor has piping or a sand dome for sand application. The spoked locomotive wheels riding on the rails are not powered, the movement supplied by large pinion gears driven by the four external steam engines, the gears' teeth mesh with the teeth on the horizontal rack between the running rails. The teeth of one of the 'cogs' or pinion gears can be seen above the front spoked wheel and frame. There appears to be a band-type friction brake below the front coupler operated from the cab by the long reach rod and lever. The operating handle for an injector to put water into the boiler can be seen inside the cab side window. Thank You. Leaning Into the WindThese cog railway locos have slanted boilers because when they are climbing the hill, they want to boiler level to prevent "priming", that is, water getting into the steam pipes (very bad). The Pikes Peak locomotives were similarly slanted. [In other words, the boiler is level when the engine is ascending or descending the grade. Note that the passenger car stays on the uphill side and that the loco always faces "up," with descents made in reverse. - Dave] Kilroy was here?I wanted to see Kilroy so bad that I ran my computer up to 400+ on the zoom and still couldn't find him. Oh well, I love this cog railroad and it is definitely bucket list worthy. Dave, thanks for the location pic and I don't know how I missed this guy. One of the neatest trips in North AmericaI am lucky to have been able to take this trip three times. All with steam power. One one trip; we hiked to the Lake of the Clouds Hut, and back. Awesome views. My last trip, we saw snow at the summit in late July. The TV station was still broadcasting when I was there. The weather guys up there were fascinating. Everybody should do this once if you can. ThanksThanks to everyone for your input. This is why I consider Shorpy such an education in so many areas. Fond memories of a trip up Mt. WashingtonThe summer I was 13 I rode the cog railway up Mt. Washington with my parents and brother. On the way up my brother & I stood in the aisle of the car and found ourselves leaning forward at such a steep angle I thought I'd pitch forward on my face. We also visited the famous flume. What great fun! I loved New Hampshire. Thanks for the memories, Dave. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads)
Yardman: 1942
December 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. In the Proviso Yard roundhouse, Chicago & North Western Railroad." Nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/11/2022 - 5:33pm -

December 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. In the Proviso Yard roundhouse, Chicago & North Western Railroad." Nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. Man!What a glorious and proud face. I wish a name could go to his Shorpy memory. One hard workin' manWhat a great person to have as a neighbor. He's not looking for hard workHard work just seems to find him. And he's not afraid to get his hands dirty. I think it's called charismaI just did a cursory review of the other Jack Delano photos posted. I cannot find another where the subject was taken out of their element and posed the way this man was. It wasn't just because of his good looks or cool hat. Even in this eighty-year-old photograph, you tend to lock eyes with the subject and see someone who is very contemporary. Dave, thanks for putting the Jack Delano link in my post. It's a treat to see his photos presented like that. The one of Roy Nelin stands out, also taken December 1942 at the Proviso Yard roundhouse of the Chicago & North Western R.R. Jack Delano was having a really creative day. A Face... full of character: integrity, perseverance, and good humor. Ready for the Saturday Evening Post coverHe looks like he'd been posed by Norman Rockwell. (The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Needles: 1943
... A general view of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe rail yard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. ... wonders about vertical clearances on the Santa Fe Railroad. Especially on the main lines, they were so generous that some tall ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/23/2013 - 5:33pm -

March 1943. "Needles, California. A general view of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe rail yard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. Can you say HOT?I spent a long month in Needles one summer day. Seared in my memory. Pun intended. How High?Marmarinou wonders about vertical clearances on the Santa Fe Railroad. Especially on the main lines, they were so generous that some tall steam engines had retractable smoke stacks that only had to be lowered to clear the engine house doorway! That line was an early route of double stacked intermodal containers. Herr HitlerYou think that you can defeat this country? Just try. Shovellin' SandIt looks like the two laborers in the gondola car in the foreground are emptying sand that will be used in the locomotives. This is put into a sand hopper and dribbled onto the track to provide traction when rails are wet or a combination of weight and grade are causing the drivers to slip. I'll wager that this photo was taken from the top of the sand tower, which is used to load this material into the locomotives. Unless a lot has changed in railway technology in just the last few years, diesel-electric engines still use sand for this purpose. Speaking of shovelsSpeaking of shovels, that excavator (I would have called it a "steam shovel" as a kid) on the flat car really adds uniqueness to this photo. It seems to be higher than anything else in the yard. I wonder how high was the limit for rolling stock on this line? As usual Delano hits another grand slam. There’s a lot in this picture to study: the pole lines and signal bridge in the distance, numerous switches, what appears to be a track full of cabooses over yonder, the two guys laboring in the sand…among other things. One has to wonder which way the Lima power shovel (diesel by all appearances) is going. The sheet metal shows some signs of wear suggesting she’s not new. The routing card would tell us if we had super duper resolution. Before IBM and RFID technology each railcar had a hand written card stapled to it (visible on the shovel and four cars it’s coupled to) indicating either it’s online (not the internet kind…) destination or off going junction, with successive interchange points and carriers listed. As well, a waybill followed the car wherever it went, usually in the possession of the brains…I mean conductor. We used to call a yard plugged like this “straight across,” the only way in being by parachute. Of course WW 2 was in progress and I’m sure that alone accounted for much of the traffic. Lima shovel, UTLX tank carMany interesting bits of equipment in this photo - the Lima shovel is perhaps a model 404? Lima Locomotive Works were one of the big three US loco builders, but it was their Shovel & Crane Division that kept the company going during the 1930s. The tank car next to the shovel is also interesting. A Union Tank Car narrow frame car, these dated back to 1907/08. They were the predecessor of UTLX's well-known Type V or 'Van Dyke' frameless cars. There's also a smallish 3-dome tank car further along the cut, which I'd love to see more of. Apart from using sand to improve adhesion, oil-burning steam locos also used sand to clean out accumulated soot from the tubes and flues. Typically there would be a small container of sand carried on the front of the tender, so the fireman could scoop sand from it and throw it into the firebox through the peephole. More About Locomotive SandDash Riprock's comments about sand being used in locomotives, including the present day diesels, leaves out one of the more important reasons those men are shoveling the sand. The sand they are shoveling is wet and before it is deposited into the locomotive, it must be totally dry. When I worked on the railroad, we had a large gas fired stove with a hopper on the top. Men hand shoveled sand 24 hours per day from a bin into the top of the stove. As the sand dried it dropped by gravity into a bin below the floor. Then the dried sand was blown by compressed air into hoppers high above the locomotives, where it fell by gravity into the locomotive. The intense sand blasting that the stove received every day meant that the life expectancy of a stove was only a few months before it had to be replaced. That was about an eight hour job, as I recall. Today, pre-dried sand arrives in hopper trucks and hopper rail cars and is blown directly into the locomotive using compressed air. The Santa Fe Passenger carsSanta Fe introduced the El Capitan train Chicago to Los Angeles long before double stack intermodals. The El Capitan was the precusor of Amtrak's western route cars. Earth moving equipmentSomewhere in my emails there was a picture of a coastal gun being delivered on the West Coast during WWII. It showed the gun and earth moving equipment like the one in the above picture. Note that the shovel has loose cables and there is a bulldozer and scraper on the other track. Also look at the lumber in the gondolas. This must have been some sort of construction going on a short distance away, not an interchange move. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Bridges of Pittsburgh: 1905
... to be numbered 301, but can't quite make out the number, railroad initials or wheel arrangement. If this is the Monongahela Railroad ... Of interesting note is the combination and coach in the yard near the Atlantic (4-4-2) locomotive. Though more than likely they are ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/28/2012 - 4:55pm -

Circa 1905. "Pittsburgh from Mount Washington -- Monongahela River with Smithfield Street Bridge and Pan Handle Bridge." Panorama made from two 8x10 inch dry plate glass negatives. Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Little engine that couldThe steam locomotive bottom left has me wondering. Upon magnification it appears to be numbered 301, but can't quite make out the number, railroad initials or wheel arrangement. If this is the Monongahela Railroad the initials could be PRR or P&LE. They did acquire two class D-3 locos in 1904 and 1905 with a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement AND they were numbered 301 and 302. Then there was a 2-8-0 arrangement purchased in 1903 if the number is 201. Oh well, regardless of identity it certainly looks like an "engine that could" do its duty. Topography underneath the cityWhat I love about this shot is you can see the topography that lies beneath all the buildings of Pittsburgh today. The HillGreat shot of the East side of the city. Long before Boulevard Of The Allies and the Parkway took over the landscape. Those barren hills to the North are now home of Pittsburgh University. And there's a great bike trail where those rail cars and the mill once sat. This is all less than a mile from my place. I never get tired of looking at the old shots of this city and seeing how it has evolved into what it is today. LOTS to LQQK at!!!That is just a totally awesome photo right there with lots and lots of stuff to look at. Just the railroad stuff (my favorite subject) can amuse one for hours. All those passenger and freight cars and rail served industries and in 1905 they probably kept track of where everything was and where it was going than they do now with computers, GPS tracking and less rolling stock and rail served industry! In looking at the sky, though, one should be glad we DO have an EPA now. Of course, I suspect there may be just as many pollutants in the air now, it's just that we have cleaned them up so that you can't see them or smell them as well. [Your suspicion is incorrect. The air here was much dirtier a century ago. - Dave] I suspect you're right. --RJ-- Air QualityMeasured not in picograms per cubic liter, but in lbs. of cinder per cubic foot. Holy moley - that is dirty-ass air! The little engineis a 4-4-2, presumably a P&LE class E-1 engine. Jim CrowOf interesting note is the combination and coach in the yard near the Atlantic (4-4-2) locomotive. Though more than likely they are currently in storage, it's probable that the cars came off a train oriented like that. You saw that type of orientation quite often in the time of segregation, with black riders being placed in the section forward of the baggage compartment, and whites riding in the rest of the train. This gave rise to calling the orientation "Jim Crow." It would later be applied to special "Jim Crow" cars which had the baggage compartment in the middle of the car and passengers on either end. (Panoramas, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Fossil Fuel: 1920
... (except Metro underground). Does anyone know where the railroad tracks in Rosslyn used to be? [Parts of I-66 were built on the ... electrified for part of its history. The W&OD had a yard along Lee Highway adjacent to today's Key Bridge Marriott. (The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 4:28pm -

Washington, D.C. "Penn Oil and truck." A relic of the Carboniferous Age circa 1920. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. DriveshaftI wonder where the driveshaft is. Perhaps this is a portal-type axle where the driveshaft is high into the frame and the the power is converted to the axle via some kind of drop gear mechanism. Otherwise we'd see it angled down from the engine to the differential near the center of the rear axle. Power AlcoholSounds a lot like ethanol, and yes, you're right. It's not working out. Lower mileage, maintenance worries for the engines, and higher food prices. Steve Miller Someplace in a cornfield near the crossroads of America Rosslyn?If this is the main storage depot for Penn Oil, it would be located in Rosslyn, Va. This was the site of two spectacular fires: one in 1925 and another in 1927. Papers refer to the location as on the old Alexandria road. Not sure what that would be today. There were apparently other tank farms in the area too, so it must have had some rail connection. I don't think there are any tracks in the area now (except Metro underground). Does anyone know where the railroad tracks in Rosslyn used to be? [Parts of I-66 were built on the Washington & Old Dominion R.R. right-of-way. - Dave] Alternative fuel 1920s-styleThis photo and this one reminded me of a passage from the 1925 book The Romance of the Fungus World in which the authors, R.T. and F.W. Rolfe, predicted that alcohol would soon replace petroleum for use in combustion engines: "The advantage of alcohol over petrol for this purpose lies principally in the fact that whereas the world's supplies of petroleum, and therefore of petrol, are being gradually exhausted, the supply of Power Alcohol is practically inexhaustible. It is only limited by the earth's capacity of producing plant growths whose products are amenable to the fermentative processes which yield alcohol." I assume that didn't pan out .... DriveshaftThis truck most likely had a worm gear rear axle. This places the driveshaft high on the axle housing. And yes, ethanol doesn't work any better today then it did back then. Looks like it took a real man to power that steering wheel. Tracks in RosslynRosslyn was also served about this time by the Pennsylvania RR, on a branch that roughly parallels today's Metro Blue Line from Rosslyn to the Potomac Railroad bridge. There were also three electric lines running through Rosslyn, in addition to the W&OD, which was electrified for part of its history. The W&OD had a yard along Lee Highway adjacent to today's Key Bridge Marriott. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Gas Stations, Natl Photo)
Plymouth Breaker: 1901
... accommodate the officials who were doing the inspecting of railroad facilities. The inspection engine could run alone while on business, ... to buy it that way as it could be picked up at any coal yard or even a hardware store. (The Gallery, DPC, Mining, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 2:30pm -

Plymouth, Pennsylvania, circa 1901: "Plymouth coal breaker." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Mechanical DevicesThey may be taking over in the operation of the breaker, but somebody is going to have to do some serious shoveling to unload those boxcars! And it looks as if this is an accepted method as there are several flat cars full of ready cut boards waiting at close hand. I can't imagine what the purpose of the gondola/flat car combo can be for. There seems to be another set in the loading shed and one farther down the other side. Very perplexing! Perhaps they are processing so fast that they need to use every available car until they can acquire or manufacture new gondolas? The Parrish BreakerThis photo appears on Wikipedia under "Plymouth, Pennsylvania" and is identified as the second Parrish Breaker. Here, as everywhere else Popular Mechanics, 1908 Largest Coal Breaker in the World The huge coal breaker at Plymouth, Pa., known as "Nottingham No. 15," is the largest in the world. Its capacity is 1,000 cars of a size large enough to carry an equivalent of 7 tons of finished coal each. Not more than 200 ft. from the breaker is a shaft 350 ft. deep from which one of these cars arrives with coal from the mines every 20 seconds. Here, as everywhere else, mechanical devices are superseding manual labor. In the old-style breaker at least 150 men and boy pickers were employed, but in this breaker a spiral coal-picking machine has made it possible to dispense with at least half of that number. The breaker cost $200,000. [Note: the breaker pictured above may not be the one described in the Popular Mechanics article. Nor does it appear to match any of the other PA anthracite breakers cataloged at this site.] Plymouth commentsThe boxcars are likely outbound. Some anthracite customers ordered coal in boxcars, as there was less pilferage. (Note there is another boxcar under the breaker). Looking at the hi-def image, a locomotive is seen in the distance that appears to be an inspection engine. It has a high cab with the bell mounted on the front end sill. There probably are several business cars behind it; difficult to see at this distance. An inspection engine indicates a visit from the "brass." The grounds were spruced up ahead of time for sure. Camelback LocomotiveThe type of locomotive in the back isn't an "inspection" locomotive as another poster called it, but is instead a camelback. This type of locomotive was somewhat common in the early 20th century, but fell out of favor due to people fearing they weren't safe. They still hung around in places like yards and industrial applications; but generally speaking they died out. Only one has been preserved in working condition. Inspection LocomotiveThe high cab roof, along with the bell mounted on the front deck, says inspection locomotive, an entirely different animal compared to a camelback. The oversize cab was necessary to accommodate the officials who were doing the inspecting of railroad facilities. The inspection engine could run alone while on business, but often hauled private or business cars, as appears the case here. BTW, at least two camelbacks have been preserved: DL&W No. 952 4-4-0W at St. Louis Museum of Transport, and CRRNJ 4-4-2W at B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. "American" camelbackShilo would seem to be correct. The construction of the engine more resembles an early "American" type camelback. Not American 4-4-0, but instead this type of locomotive. The PRR owned six of this class of locomotive, with the B&O having 50. Only one has been preserved of this class, though it is not in running condition. Due to its construction, it is not unexpected for them to be mistaken for inspection trains, which were a very different beast entirely. This type of locomotive was rendered obsolete by 1910, due to improvements in boiler design. By then, most had been withdrawn from service or rebuilt into "conventional" cabbed locomotives. Also, only one "modern" Camelback, Reading Company 0-4-0 No. 1187, survives in operable condition. The remaining preserved locomotives are lacking in nature, with Baltimore & Ohio Railroad 4-6-0 No. 173 suffering from a cracked boiler crown sheet and failed boiler certificate, and Central Railroad of New Jersey 4-4-2 No. 592, having been severely damaged when the roof of the museum gave way under heavy load in 2001-2002. Lastly, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western 4-4-0 No. 952, is in no condition to operate, missing may integral parts, and B&O Camelback 2-8-0 #173 (Of this class in the photo) Being too old to consider repair and operation. BoxcarsCoal shipped in boxcars, rather than hopper cars, was shipped in fifty pound burlap bags. Usually sold in the larger cities to customers who preferred to buy it that way as it could be picked up at any coal yard or even a hardware store. (The Gallery, DPC, Mining, Railroads)
Lackawanna: 1900
... and Western example that operates on the Strasburg tourist railroad in Pennsylvania. The "Camelback" design, which straddled the cab over ... cab and if on the engineer's side, the engineer also. In yard service they were much safer because of the lower speed which was not so ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 6:30pm -

Scranton, Pennsylvania, circa 1900. "Group of Lackawanna freight engines. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R.R." Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Anthracite Road MastodonsDL&W 807 and 811 are 4-8-0 "Mastodon" or 12-wheeler types, not a very common arrangement in America. Many are familiar with the Norfolk and Western example that operates on the Strasburg tourist railroad in Pennsylvania. The "Camelback" design, which straddled the cab over the center of the boiler, allowed the exceptional width of the Wooten firebox, which burned lower BTU anthracite coal from Eastern Pennsylvania. Mother HubbardsThe Locomotives in the picture were also called "Mother Hubbards" among other names. They were discontinued from freight service because if a side rod broke, it would wipe out the cab and if on the engineer's side, the engineer also. In yard service they were much safer because of the lower speed which was not so likely to break a rod and sling it through the cab. The fireman was in a much safer place back there behind the boiler, but not so nice in the case of bad weather. Phoebus SnowHis coverall stays clean and white, Upon the road of anthracite. GeolocationGoldsmith Bros. were at 304 Lackawanna Avenue or about the intersection of Lackawanna and Penn. Proper LubricationOur mustachioed friend stands ready to cure what oils you. ScrantonI can see the Dunder-Mifflin building in the background. "Where do you work-a, John?""On the Delaware-Lackawan!" Used to have that song on an old Mitch Miller record. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads, Scranton)
The Carbon Kid: 1938
... three brothers were often told to take burlap bags to the railroad tracks and pick up as much coal as possible that had fallen off the ... Grandfather is arrested for picking up coal in the rail yard after he pushed it off of a rail car. The following month, Grandfather's ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/14/2015 - 1:34pm -

September 1938. "Coal miner's child breaking up large pieces of coal to take home. Pursglove, Scott's Run, West Virginia." Photo by Marion Post Wolcott for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Coal miners' kidsThis was apparently very common in coal country in the early 20th century and before. My mom was a coal miner's daughter born in 1910 in Bradenville, Pa. where her father worked the mines and she and her three brothers were often told to take burlap bags to the railroad tracks and pick up as much coal as possible that had fallen off the train cars as they rattled along. They used it to heat their homes in the frigid Pa. winters and her mom would cook with it. When I was very young and went there to my grandma's funeral, I well remember the miles and miles of the most train tracks I've ever seen and coal scattered everywhere. We who are living today have no real idea of how very hard life was in earlier times. He's going to look sharp in dress bluesWe grew up hearing the family was so poor that Grandfather would pick up coal off of the train tracks. Fast-forward 85 years, through the wonders of newspaper archives digitization: a 15-year-old Grandfather is arrested for picking up coal in the rail yard after he pushed it off of a rail car. The following month, Grandfather's name appears on a U.S.Marine Corps muster sheet at Marine Barracks Port Royal, South Carolina (now Parris Island). The beginning of the Sergeant Major's 40-year adventure. Fred FlintstoneThe early years. They almost arrested himthen they found out he had squatter's rights. ShortsI had an outfit like that as a child. Get up, get in and that's it! Coal cars rumblin past my door...Both of my parents grew up poor in western PA "coal patch" towns. Every time I hear the song "The L&N don't stop here any more" I think of the wonderful stories of the hard luck years they endured. How I would give anything to be standing along the "sulfur crick" with rusty old Pennsy H21 and GLa hopper cars of coal (like those in the W Va picture) rumbling by. "I was born and raised in the mouth of the hazard holler... Coal cars rumblin past my door.. Now they're standin in an empty row all rusty And the L&N dont stop here anymore" Not Only CoalIn the post-war 40's my brand new parents lived in a little rental house on a 15 MPH curve of the local highway. Hundreds of produce trucks would make that turn every day - most at speeds exceeding the recommended 15 MPH limit. This usually caused anything loaded above the top of the truck bed to roll off and into our yard. Late afternoon would my folks and most others from the neighborhood gleaning the assorted veggies FOB. Thrown in jailMy father got thrown in jail for picking coal off the tracks, Easter Sunday 1928. He was 15 - Delano, Pennsylvania. Not just yesteryearSpringfield, Missouri has a coal fired plant and it is illegal to pick up coal along the tracks. Seems they had a problem with people getting too close to the trains. Marion Post WolcottMarion Post Wolcott never seems to disappoint. She really had a great eye and fabulous technique. Not just "roadkill"It was (and probably still is in the dirt-poor parts of the world) common to glean traffic lanes for "roadkill", so to say. The even harder version is people going though mine tailings for tidbits of coal, ore, or whatever may be useful. My dad recalls gleaning fields for wheat, rye, whatever ears the farmers' workers had lost or missed during harvest. [edit: not my best day, spelling wise ;-)] (The Gallery, Kids, M.P. Wolcott, Mining, Railroads)
Mazonia: 1900
Circa 1900. "Chicago & Alton Railroad. Signal station and crossroads at Mazonia, Illinois." 8x10 inch glass ... for this interlocking tower. Each operating point on the railroad had a unique code assigned to it. Re: Iron Mountain Baby What ... those "clickity-clack" joints, but industrial and older yard tracks still have the angle bars (splice bars) and bolts joining each ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 3:50pm -

Circa 1900. "Chicago & Alton Railroad. Signal station and crossroads at Mazonia, Illinois." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Iron Mountain BabyThe boxcar behind the tower is from the St Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, which is famous in railway folklore for the Iron Mountain Baby. Route 66About 26 years later Route 66 would follow alongside the northern Illinois part of the Chicago & Alton RR from Chicago down to Springfield. Do RR folks know why the wires are running so close to the ground on the right? I assume the covered raceway covers the mechanical links to switches behind the photographer. MZThe "MZ" sign designates the telegraph code for this interlocking tower. Each operating point on the railroad had a unique code assigned to it. Re: Iron Mountain BabyWhat a great story! Thanks for the link! The photos and meticulous work restoring and adjusting them make this site a wonderful resource, but the comments often enhance the stories immensely. Just one more thing I love about Shorpy! No PlatesWhat wonderful detail of track construction at the turn of the century. This photo still shows that they were not using tie plates (metal plates placed between the crosstie and rail to make the structure more stable and keep the rail from cutting into the ties). Amazingly, other than the rail becoming heavier and larger through the years, most of the other features of construction remain to this day. Main lines have mostly gone to continuous welded rail these days, eliminating those "clickity-clack" joints, but industrial and older yard tracks still have the angle bars (splice bars) and bolts joining each length of rail. There also has been little improvement in the design of those crossing frogs, where the steel wheels still must bang across about an inch gap in the rail used to accommodate the flanges of the rails for the crossing route. Cable conduitI've only been in one railroad switching tower in my life, and that was nearly 50 years ago, but I'm pretty sure the switches were all mechanically operated. So those "wires" along the track are probably the cables running from the operating levers (you can just see the tops of them in the tower's windows) to the switches. Flag Stop?There's no town here, and probably never was one; that mass of trees conceals a great expanse of marsh. Lacking my 1948 Handy Railroad Atlas I couldn't tell you whose line cut across the C&A here, but in any case the track is gone. If you look at the Google aerial view you can just barely find a trace of it to the northwest. There's still a junction here, though: the line that bends off to the left (see the semaphore to the left of the handcar) is still there. The wires down on the ground most likely controlled the signals; it looks a bit haphazard but I don't think there's enough room under the boards to put rods for everything. Gandy Dancersfixing the track, and those cables on the left are to operate switches down the track, in the foreground you can see where the cables go under the track to the opposite track. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads)
Big Boumi: 1923
... seen here yesterday in the Baltimore & Ohio rail yard during the Masonic convention in Washington, D.C. The big engine wears the ... "Pioneer" carried the B&O board of directors on the railroad's first run to Ellicott Mills on May 22, 1830. In 1836, the B&O ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/20/2014 - 7:30am -

"Past and present in locomotives. Eckington Yards, June 4, 1923." A closeup of the locomotive seen here yesterday in the Baltimore & Ohio rail yard during the Masonic convention in Washington, D.C. The big engine wears the livery of "Boumi Temple," a Baltimore Shrine lodge. 5x7 glass negative. View full size. Over a BarrelThe barrel more likely contained water for the boiler. There may have been a small box for coal, but small and early locos didn't stray too far from a source of fuel. Water was a bigger concern, so it was almost always carried on the engine or in the tender. EL-3?By all accounts that is exactly a variation of the EL-3, except for that forward stack, which doesn't seem typical for the class. Amazing march of progressThe smaller locomotive is very interesting to see in detail. It says it was built in 1832; that makes it one of the earliest steam engines to run on rails in the country. But it was not the first; that honor corresponded to another 0-4-0 locomotive known as "Stourbridge Lion", which was built in 1828 and was imported from Britain. This is a very, very early design concept. A vertical boiler, two vertical cylinders, moving beams and shafts, inside "crankshaft" style axles -- this thing, in its time, was capable of pulling one or two small cars for short distances and at a very low speed, but it must have been an impressive sight to behold! I wonder if they took more pictures of that old locomotive. EL-1B&O 7100 was an EL-1 class 2-8-8-0 Mallet compound, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1916 - the EL-1 classification is legible on the builder's plate in the full size view. Subsequent EL-2, EL-3 and EL-5 class locomotives were very similar. Most were converted to simple articulateds starting in 1927. More On These LocomotivesThe 7100 is class EL-1, built by Baldwin in 1916. The little engine is the Atlantic, but it really isn't the Atlantic. The original Atlantic was built in 1832, taken out of service in 1835 and scrapped. This locomotive was originally named the Andrew Jackson. These engines were called grasshoppers in early parlance because of their drive mechanism, and the Atlantic was the first of them. The A. Jackson was the only one left by the 1890s, when B&O wanted to send an early locomotive to the world's Columbian Exhibition, so they turned the Jackson into the first grasshopper, the Atlantic. It now resides in the B&O museum. The original Atlantic was built in 1832, of 2-2-0 wheel arrangement, and weighed 6.5 tons. The is an 0-4-0 built in February of 1836. (Source: B&O Power, Sagle and Staufer, 1964) Shriners and MasonsJust some clarification from one who has traveled east, and also travelled over the hot sands. Masons belong to Lodges. Shriners belong to Temples. All Shriners are Masons, but all Masons are not Shriners. These cars and locomotives hauled Shriners to a convention of some sort. No, we do not and never have secretly or openly ruled the world. Single smokestackThes engines were Mallet-system compounds when built, with a single blastpipe and smokestack. When they were converted to single-expansion engines they were fitted with dual blastpipes and stacks: http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/bo7120s.jpg Fuel barrelI assume that the barrel was filled with coal for the vertical boiler. I wonder where the engineer stood to operate this engine, it was probably dangerous as all hell with the exposed operating mechanism. The Pioneer The wooden passenger car in the middle right edge of the photo is a replica of the 'Pioneer'. From the B&O website: "When the B&O began operation in 1830, its trains were pulled by horses. Constructed by Richard Imlay, the "Pioneer" was the first passenger car on the Baltimore & Ohio and was one of the first passenger cars produced in the United States. The "Pioneer" carried the B&O board of directors on the railroad's first run to Ellicott Mills on May 22, 1830. In 1836, the B&O stopped using horses to pull trains, but kept horses in its stables at Mt. Clare until the 1880s to pull cars through the city. The original "Pioneer" was scrapped at an unknown date. A replica was constructed by the railroad in 1892 for the World's Columbian Exposition. It was also displayed at the 1927 Fair of the Iron Horse." Another replica of the Pioneer is on display at the B&O Railroad Museum: Ellicott City Station. The station is the oldest surviving railroad station in the US. www.ecborail.org (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Railroads)
The Red Caboose: 1943
... touches on a rebuilt caboose on the rip tracks at Proviso Yard, Chicago. April 1943. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by ... track or tracks in a rail yard where locomotives and/or railroad cars are set out for minor repairs without removing the units from ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/30/2012 - 10:02pm -

Chicago & North Western RR worker putting the finishing touches on a rebuilt caboose on the rip tracks at Proviso Yard, Chicago. April 1943. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. CabooseGreat photo, Jack takes really terrific RR pictures, has he ever contributed to Trains or Railfan magazines? [This picture is over 60 years old ... Jack died 10 years ago at the age of 83. - Dave] KodachromeEarly Kodachrome looked so good. Color film these days has too much contrast. Re: Kodachromeyes, i have noticed most of the pictures taken in the 40s that i have seen on this site are more crisp than the ones taken now! American railway jargon is aAmerican railway jargon is a bit of a mystery to me. Can you tell me what "rip tracks" are? Rip tracksRIP track From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A RIP track (RIP is an acronym for repair in place) is a designated track or tracks in a rail yard where locomotives and/or railroad cars are set out for minor repairs without removing the units from service, sometimes without even removing a freight load from the car. In some yards, a RIP track may be used for staging locomotives or "bad order" cars for major repairs. Some yards may have more than one RIP track to serve both functions. Jack DelanoJack Delano was not a railfan per se. I am not sure he was even particularly a photographer by trade. He was a beneficiary of government funds during the FDR era. Fortunately he was sensitive to the drama of the railroads. Interestingly, some years ago I attended a concert by a Cuban clarinet / saxophone player named Paquito d'Rivera. The music was more or less jazz/classical fusion and one of the pieces was composed by Jack Delano, who moved to Puerto Rico after the war. So Delano was a true artist in more ways than one. Dave Nelson (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Xanadu: 1897
... octopus Many of the streets in my city were named for railroad barons, including Flagler. Two Major Reasons for Florida's ... name of our college newspaper. The fountain in the court yard doubled as a way to aerate the water, which otherwise smelled of sulfur. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2012 - 7:57pm -

St. Augustine, Florida, circa 1897. "The Ponce de Leon, Alcazar and Cordova hotels." Glass negative by William Henry Jackson. View full size. In Xanadu"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree, where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man down to a sunless sea." I stayed here last summer and my room was right over there (pointing at an unseen window on the back of the current Casa Monica Hotel). St. Augustine is an amazing little place with the most fascinating history and architecture, but these three gigantic buildings command the attention of the whole town. You just have to see it for yourself to know what I mean. Check out the lightning rods on the leftNo comment Interesting to me for aInteresting to me for a couple of reasons. I'm from the West and we usually associate Jackson with Western Landscapes. So it's interesting to see pix from the East. Also, I understand that these were hotels built by th Atlantic Coast Line Rail in order to build up the area and hence business for rail. I remember when I was a child in the fifties dreaming of exotic places that Florida was one of the LEAST populated states in America! Gargoles?I like the decorative spouts which I think were used to drain rainwater from the open second floor veranda. They also came in handy for pouring molten lead upon attacking Seminoles. Flagler's Florida East Coast RailwayThe Ponce de Leon and Alcazar Hotels were built by Henry M. Flagler, the founder of the Florida East Coast Railway, the first rail line to reach Palm Beach, Miami, and eventually Key West. He employed the fledgling architecture firm of Carrere and Hastings (designers of the New York Public Library) to design both hotels, as well as two churches and Flagler's house in St. Augustine. The Cordova Hotel was not built by Flagler, but he bought it a few years after it opened. Long tentacles of the rail octopusMany of the streets in my city were named for railroad barons, including Flagler. Two Major Reasons for Florida's Population Increase after WWII-Mosquito Control -Air Conditioning In the last year, though, Florida's population has decreased slightly, presumably due to the recession. (Orange County--Orlando--was originally Mosquito County.) Ponce De Leon is now Flagler CollegeThe Ponce De Leon hotel today is Flagler College. It still looks remarkably the same. Judging by the photo angle, it was taken from the open-air arches outside the 4th or 5th story circular ballroom. I graduated from Flagler College in 1981, and my dorm was was on the third floor, about the same place as where the photo was taken. One day while exploring, several of us tried to make our way up to the ballroom (it was closed off those years, rumor had it that the floor was full of zodiac signs), but we couldn't get past a locked metal gate at the top of the elevator shaft. The once opulent hotel rooms were our dorms. At the time I was in school, each room still had a fireplace with carved cherubs on the mantle, but all the fireplaces were closed off. (would you trust a college student with a fireplace?) Our dining hall was the hotel's dining room, with hand-carved chairs (more cherubs), a gilded ceiling (since restored) and Tiffany glass windows. It's quite a place. It also has (had?) what we were told was the first poured concrete in-ground pool in the country. We students used it between classes and on weekends. Yes, those are gargoyles on the drain pipes, that was the name of our college newspaper. The fountain in the court yard doubled as a way to aerate the water, which otherwise smelled of sulfur. The Ponce was quite the place for the swells to stay during winter until Flagler built his railroad farther south and built other hotels. (The Gallery, DPC, Florida, W.H. Jackson)
Traffic Channel Control: 1942
... (IBM 402) of the machine pictured one afternoon in the railroad yard office I worked in. I was making small talk with a train conductor while ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/22/2014 - 9:57am -

June 1942. Washington, D.C. "U.S. Office of Defense Transportation system of port control and its traffic channel control." IBM printer connected to a punch card machine. Photo by Albert Freeman, Office of War Information. View full size. Back when you could see the bitsThis mechanical computing machinery helps us to see how far we've come in the last 70 years. Every bit of data is big enough to see on the punch cards, and every signal path is visible on the programming plugboard. Yet, somehow, they used this stuff to get the job done. Precious memoriesNotice the toggle switch on the tray receiving the processed cards. If too many cards come from the hopper above, the steel plate in front of the cards will nudge the toggle switch to "Off" and shut the machine down. I was running a job on a variant (IBM 402) of the machine pictured one afternoon in the railroad yard office I worked in. I was making small talk with a train conductor while running the job, and the phone rang at the other end of the office. I took the call as I watched the conductor bid me farewell with a wave, and went back to the printer. It was dead. I tried a few tricks I knew and finally gave up, calling for a service rep from IBM. The guy came in and never opened his tool kit. He walked over to the printer, looked me straight in the eye, and flipped the toggle switch to "On." Then he sat down and did his paperwork, never uttering a word all the time he was there. Never knew I could feel so small. The conductor had turned the switch to "Off" while I was on the phone. A week or two later it was my turn. Paybacks are sweet. The frame at the end with the mini entrails is the program. Our office had about five or six of these things hanging on the wall, each one for a particular job. Safety First!If you were not very careful your tie could get sucked into the card punch machine. Our company mandated ties for all computer operators but this rule was put to the test one day when the supervisor was fixing a misfed card and got his tie snared in the machine. He was down to the last inch or so of his tie before a co-worker shut down the machine no doubt saving his voice from being several octaves higher the rest of his life. The next day there was a sign posted: "Ties, if worn, must be tucked into shirts." It's a tabulator.Don't know the model number, the ones I worked on were of a later generation. Data from 80-column punched cards were printed in neat columns on the printer. The plugboard to the left of the machine is used to program which card columns map to the printer character positions, for example: card columns 1 - 10 are printed in positions 20 - 29 on the printer. The ones I worked on could calculate running, intermediate and grand totals for specified card fields and also print running page and column headers. In the early 1960s the functions of this sort of machine were taken over by the newer, cheaper IBM mainframes (1400 series, for example) using the RPG program. RPG was basically a report generator program which allowed the mainframe to emulate a card tabulator and sorter. I dare say there are still some older IBM sites running ROG programs under some sort of emulation. Doing her bitA competent, assured, and lovely young woman doing a skilled task for the war effort. What a wonderful contrast to the KKK twit in the previous post. Dave, did you sync 'em up like that on purpose?? From Many, OneThere is cautionary narrative here for the tyrants of the world. It is just a few months after the attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War 2. In Europe and the Orient, the Axis powers and their minions are busily impressing multitudes of subject peoples into slavery, building munitions, roads, fortifications and the like. (And those are the lucky ones -- the ones not starved, gassed and incinerated.) Yet here in America is this lady -- a civil servant almost certainly the descendant of slaves herself, now the master of this latest arcane and inscrutable mechanism from the International Business Machines Corporation. Calmly overseeing the scheduling of, let's say, the departure of Liberty Ships from their East Coast ports to destinations in England and the Soviet Union. And thousands more like her, gathering in their makeshift offices across the United States, day after day slowly and methodically planting the seeds of Hitler's doom. It's an IBM 405 alphabetical accounting machineThis machine seems to have been able to process up to 150 cards per minute, or 80 alphanumeric cards per minute. It could make sums of data stored on cards, and print the results on wide paper. Moving to the machine on the right, it's interesting to note that the frame was made with curved legs, then the machine's rectilinear covers were cut out to fit around the legs. Ear protection?I wonder, how loud was this contraption in full swing? In the spirit of the seasonThis reminds me of the last day before Christmas Break in college. Every year this guy would come in to the computer lab and submit a job with three drawers of punch cards. About 30 minutes later, the line printer would start playing Christmas carols. With harmony. First came punch cards...and then came punch card wreaths and stars at Christmas. I wonder how long the cards existed before someone folded them into Christmas decorations. [Here's an example from 1966. -tterrace] (Technology, The Gallery, Albert Freeman, D.C., The Office, WW2)
Conductor Cunningham: 1943
... 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. Getting his waybills, Conductor ... Island Chances are good the location is the Blue Island yard office. The rolled paper looks like stored train lists that came over ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2016 - 10:36am -

January 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. Getting his waybills, Conductor Cunningham telephones his yardmaster with the number of cars he has to handle and where the delivery is to be made." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. Poster in the upper rightBuy Bonds! Win the War! oh REAL-ly@Kcamp I know Adolph Treidler worked out of New York, but when he made that poster he must have been using a reference photo from the Norfolk & Western, because that's one of the better portraits of a Y6 Class I've seen, in the foreground. Paper rolled into cylindersI wonder what the function was for the paper rolled into cylinders in front? [I'd say print-outs of previous schedules, bundled for convenient storage. -tterrace] Also, you never see anything with scissor extensions anymore, they're the most steampunk thing ever. American ingenuity at workCoffee can used as a lampshade. Gotta love that. Poster in Upper LeftAdolph Treidler poster from the early 1940s. I like my coffee lightA pot light made from a coffee can (from 1943) will look great hanging over any kitchen island. Going to add it to my list of options. Blue IslandChances are good the location is the Blue Island yard office. The rolled paper looks like stored train lists that came over teletype machines. Notice the two tubes (left side of image) that carried waybills, train lists and such over the pneumatic tube system to various offices within the yard. Gibson in Hammond Indianamight also be where this pic was taken. The IHB had their main offices located there, along with a big hump (Classification) yard. The Indiana Harbor Belt at Gibson is where the billing offices processed and mailed out their accounts payable. Tube jobLove pics having anything to do with the 40's and trains. The pneumatic tubes remind me of a summer job I had once at a large wholesaler. I worked the central tube room and distributed the tubes to stations all over the building. Fun job and the learning curve was a straight line. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Always Be Careful: 1942
... Giant diesel-electric locomotive at Illinois Central rail yard." The safety message comes to us courtesy of Engine 9205A. Photo by Jack ... cow/calf lash-ups never became a common sight in American railroad yards. EMD TR Evidently with a B unit attached. It's a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/14/2013 - 9:48am -

November 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Giant diesel-electric locomotive at Illinois Central rail yard." The safety message comes to us courtesy of Engine 9205A. Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. Two engines, single cabDirectly behind the lead engine, there is what was known as a "mule". These cabless units were used when the consist dictated that more motive power was needed, but not necessarily more crew power. Novel idea, and something that couldn't be done with steam engines because of the manpower needed for each engine. This locomotiveis actually 2 locomotives called a cow and calf, they are A & B, the A being the cab unit the B has no cab and is controlled by the A unit, I think IC had only two of these locomotives and were used in switching duties. I am amazed from this photo to find out these type of diesel locomotives even existed let alone the cow/calf type. Forward or backward?It is usually not difficult to tell which way a steam engine is pointed, but when diesels came along things got more complicated. Out on the road, a train has a designated direction, and when it moves in that direction it is considered to be moving "forward," but what about engines doing switching, either out on the road or in a yard? They have no overall direction, they shift back and forth constantly. Hand signals, whistle/horn signals, even verbal instructions are based on either "forward" or "reverse." But looking at an engine like this one, how do you know which is which? In this case, you could tell by which half has the operating cab (the "A" unit), but that would not work in most cases. The solution was to label one end of every diesel locomotive with the letter "F", signifying that as the "front" or "forward" end. On this engine, it would have been on the outside corner of the frame, right next to the steps, hand railings ("grab irons"), and that old, anachronistic "pole socket." I think you can just barely make it out in the full-size view. Cow and CalfAn EMD TR1 cow and calf unit. One of only two pairs built by GM Electro-Motive, both purchased and used by the Illinois Central. Giant?Hardly. The units are switchers being used in duty on the hump. The cab-less unit behind is known as a slug, or less commonly as a calf, and is controlled by the other using a primitive multiple unit connection, these being the nascent days of diesel technology. Such cow/calf lash-ups never became a common sight in American railroad yards. EMD TREvidently with a B unit attached. It's a switcher, I wouldn't call it "giant". Locomotive and slugWhat you're seeing here is two locomotives. Illinois Central 9205A is a 1000hp EMD NW2 built sometime after 1939. The trailing unit is almost certainly an NW2 but without a control cab and it remains attached to an "A" almost all the time. No milk from this cowThese are Electro-Motive model NW-2 locomotives, rated at 1000 hp each. Note the trailing unit has no cab. This combination was known as a "Cow and Calf". They were kept together, with the engineer seeing equally well in both directions. The Chesapeake and Ohio Rwy had a set of engines, nos. 9552-9554-9557 just like this, only theirs had two "calves"; thus they were called a "Cow and a Herd". [I'm not kidding...] They were sent to Baltimore where one unit was taken taken from the set and assigned to another controlling unit. They were powerful, but I didn't care for them otherwise. No more footboards.The safety slogans are located just above the footboards, which are now illegal due to the inherent danger of crewmen riding at the end of a locomotive. Southern Pacific also used this slogan above their footboards, in addition to "Think Safety Always," "Watch Your Step," and "Look and Live." TR1 Cow and calf mountainrev's identification of this loco is correct, it's an EMD TR1. Two sets were built in April/May 1941 for the IC, rated at 1350 hp for each unit. They had the machinery of EMD's pioneering FT cab-unit freight locos in a switcher carbody. Later renumbered 1350A&B and 1351A&B, they were scrapped in 1967. Multiple unit control technology was hardly primitive by 1941 - it had been around since the 1890s, and applied to diesel locos since the 1920s. (The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
The Wrong Side: 1938
November 1938. "Houses along the railroad tracks. Omaha, Nebraska." Photo by John Vachon for the Resettlement ... the present-day Amtrak station, which abuts a former rail yard. It is also just west of railroad tracks that run north-south along the west bank of the river. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2017 - 9:26am -

November 1938. "Houses along the railroad tracks. Omaha, Nebraska." Photo by John Vachon for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Omaha? Are you sure?Couple of my Omaha friends and I have been trying to site this shot, but are striking out. First, we have not found Gross Manufacturing in any of the City Directories for the 30's - either before or after 1938. Next, we see a UP and a C&NW box car in the upper left, but the locomotives in the upper right look like CB&Q engines. We are not objecting to the scene as depicting Omaha poverty in the '30's, but are trying to place the buildings and location. No doubt Vachon was photographing in the area of the UP and CB&Q yards in and near the Missouri River (witness the coal-fired power plant earlier) but this shot is tough to place! Some of that turkey's descendants roam my neighborhood even today!!! Lucky TurkeyI'm amazed the gobbler managed to get that big in this neighborhood. He's definitely living on borrowed time. Omaha, Sure?@rcadog: The 1940 Omaha White Pages lists Gross Mfg & Box Co at 610 Leavenworth (ATlantic-9414, if you had a nickel). On today's Google Maps, 610 Leavenworth is between 6th and 7th Streets, about a quarter mile west of the river, and just north of the present-day Amtrak station, which abuts a former rail yard. It is also just west of railroad tracks that run north-south along the west bank of the river. Perhaps the elevated structure in the Shorpy image that ends to the right of the Gross building was a track (or road) leading to/from a bridge over the river. A period map of Omaha might provide the answer. John Vachon, storytellerWow! This scene just about has it all -- forlorn woman, old cars, derelict buildings, turkey, scrap pile, outhouse. Got to be a country song in here somewhere. Bad pressOmaha has not been getting a lot of good PR on Shorpy these last few days. Very slovenly. Cold ComfortI sure hope that small square structure in the left foreground with the lattice work isn't the "necessary". It's going to be awfully cold in Omaha during the winter while using that thing. Gross Manufacturing Co.Merged with Disgusting Products in 1952. Paint and tarpaperWhen looking at Depression era (or even some later) pictures of buildings, I am always struck by the fact that tarpaper is substituting for shingles, and the walls clearly haven't been touched by paint for a long, long time. Even abandoned homes in places like Detroit don't seem to show that level of neglect today. Agreed that those turkeys are living on borrowed time, or their owners are quite vigilant! For those wondering, Yes - this is Omaha in the picture. I found out for sure now that this picture is 100% taken in Omaha. In the attachment of this comment is a picture of this same area but from a different angle. The Harriman Dispatching Center can be seen on the top left of the picture. When you zoom in, you can see the distinct brick patterns that are above the windows. A zoomed-in shot of the brick pattern can be seen in the second attachment, and can be compared with the pattern of the top left building in the first attachment. This means that this picture from 1938 is located where the Conagra Brands buildings are today. It’s Omaha! I was looking myself, but thanks to another Shorpy user, we can confirm it’s Omaha! https://www.reddit.com/r/Omaha/comments/e566he/omaha_ne_during_the_depre... (The Gallery, John Vachon, Kids, Omaha, Railroads)
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