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January 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago, Illinois and Hammond, Indiana. Locomotive coupled to caboose." Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Seeing how the smoke/steam is entering the caboose this train is/was/has making/made a reverse movement. Three short blasts of the whistle will let the crew and everyone else in the yard that she is about to make a reverse movement.
Pretty scary picture. It looks like a sci-fi movie from the '50s, with a one-eyed monster lurking in the door.
A reasonable guess is we’re looking into the headlight of CNW 1381, one of over 300 class R-1's (4-6-0) built for the carrier by Baldwin and ALCO. Assuming the guess to be correct, Delano was probably riding with the crew of 1381 in interchange service between Proviso and Blue Island, taking Harbor traffic to, and CNW cars from the IHB. Apparently one running R-1 (CNW 1385) survives (recently restored) at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum, North Freedom, Wisconsin.
The beast behind the door. The atmosphere is enhanced by the steam or smoke.
Ah the bat... I worked for Penn Central railroad and can testify that even into the 70s, those bats were standard issue for train crews.
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