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Chicago, April 1943. "New York Central diesel switch engine moving freight cars at the South Water Street terminal of the Illinois Central R.R." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
That little brown building to the left is still there. Upper Michigan Avenue towers behind now (lower Michigan is on the surface behind it, and the Billy Goat Tavern (Cheezborger, Cheezborger, Petsi no Coke) is about a block to the left (south).
I worked in it as a shipping clerk in the late 1970's. It was a nice grimy little building with a clanky elevator. You would have to stand in the parking area underneath the elevated plaza at NBC Towers to take the same picture today, but it could be done. Just no train.
This locomotive is an EMD SW-1, built in the spring of 1941.
The can never be too many railroad or automobile pictures on Shorpy!
You can tell that coal was in heavy use. Look how grimy the cars and buildings are.
http://www.postwarlionel.com/cgi-bin/postwar?ITEM=622
It's not exactly the same railroad but the type, color and numbers match.
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