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January 1939. "Railroad tracks. Williamson County, Illinois." Photo by Arthur Rothstein for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
I grew up in southern Illinois, one county over from Williamson. I can tell you that, especially in winter, these tracks (which run approximately parallel with old Route 13) and the landscape around them look exactly the same today. Bleak, but kind of beautiful.
This image perfectly portrays the rural midwestern landscape that has all but vanished except from my memories of growing up in northwest Indiana.
This may be my favorite Shorpy, artistically, since I have been a "member" with the one exception of the annual Christmas Party picture and the accompanying comments. Thank you,
~ ZeissMan
The rather distinctive snaking of the track appears to go with a spot just a bit north of the Harrison-Bruce Sports Complex on the eastern outskirts of Herrin, on a CB&Q line that the town history says was built in 1906.
Dangerous curve ahead where the Grim Reaper waits.
Neighbors would be looking up the phone number for 911 these days if they seen that character.
Hrm. Most likely the Chicago & Eastern Illinois tracks, though it might be a short line still in use. (Rail faces are shiny not rusted, indicating current traffic; brush growing through the ballast and eroding ballast itself suggests maybe not a main line.)
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