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On the road back to California from Florida, May 28, 1956. Cropped left side of image as it had the "end of roll" light leak. I'll bet the train was long enough for my dad to stop the car, get out the camera and have my mom pose. View full size.
The train in the background is a "camp train" made up of bunk cars and an a possible former "Troop Kitchen" car from WW2. The bunk cars are converted from old wooden-sheathed box cars. A track crew would live in such a train while working on a large project in a remote area.
The kitchen car matches this except it has had hinged sun awnings added over the windows.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=troop+kitchen&id=E1DDE8A4A6F1FA08A82...
The identification as this particular model of kitchen car is not quite 100% certain, but the car with the stove pipes visible on the roof is certainly a kitchen car of a similar type if not identical.
No rush to catch that train, it's a set of camp cars used by a production track gang, parked on a siding. These itinerant track maintenance crews would move around the railroad, working a few weeks at each location before moving on. They would replace every N-th tie, change out rails, clean ballast, and realign the track. Every tie used to have a date nail driven into it giving the year the tie was installed, and all rails still have the year of manufacture marked on the side. The tank cars contained water. These cars appear to be Santa Fe (AT+SF).
These production gangs are even more prevalent now, but they now use mobile home bodies mounted on flatcars. Modern production gangs are highly mechanized, with many more machine operators than laborers.
This is taken on old RT66/Interstate 40on the east side of Gallup, New Mexico (view North) with Church Rock and signature sandstone formation in the background. This view is also seen briefly in the movie "Grapes of Wrath" as the Joads travel west.
The car model year might be 52 or 53. Having no panoramic windshield eliminates newer model years. A beautiful car nevertheless.
[It's a 1953 Buick Super. -tterrace]
When you could name every make of car from a block or two away. Like the new commercial says "That doesn't look like a Buick." And that is too bad because in the 50's they looked so much more appealing than they do now.
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