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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)

Refrigerated Freight: 1943
... DaveB Still there; now part of BNSF Argentine Yard is still in Kansas City, Kansas. Today it is part of the Burlington ... of the smokestacks visible between the oil tanks and the railroad yard seem to have survived. The large warehouse on the east side of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/27/2013 - 7:09pm -

March 1943. "Santa Fe R.R. yards and shops, Argentine, Kansas." 4x5 Kodachrome by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Nice framing!Delano lowered the lens center considerably, to get lots more of the interesting foreground and place the horizon high on the print, while keeping the camera level.
Try that with a standard lens on your digital cam!
DaveB
Still there; now part of BNSFArgentine Yard is still in Kansas City, Kansas.  Today it is part of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and is the biggest yard in their system.
View Larger Map
I am pretty sure this view is looking mostly east; the elevated roadway crossing the tracks at the upper right is probably 42nd Street.  The oil tanks visible at the upper left are still there as part of the Sinclair pipeline terminal; its modern address is 3401 Fairbanks Avenue.  The hills at the upper right are on the south bank of the Kaw River.  It's kind of hard to see, but the river crosses from left to right near the top of the photo; there is a truss bridge just about visible among the smokestacks, which I think is 18th Street.
Today, the elevated portion of 42nd Street extends further north (to the left in this picture) and only "comes down" to connect with K-32/Kansas Avenue.  The house on the west side of 42nd Street here, and all the plowed fields between the tracks, are no more; all of this belongs to BNSF and has various tracks and buildings on it.  None of the smokestacks visible between the oil tanks and the railroad yard seem to have survived.  The large warehouse on the east side of 42nd Street at the right of the picture is gone; there is a lot full of shipping containers where it was.
The modern BNSF offices (4515 Kansas Avenue) would be just out of shot to the left of the picture. I-635 runs parallel to 42nd street on the west side; it crosses over the yard about where the railroad light tower is on the upper right of this picture.
Eight years after this photo, a lot of this would be underwater; this link has photos from the 1951 flood.
The Argentine neighborhood was named for a silver smelter that operated there in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  It closed before World War I.
Probably taken from the elevatorI looked up the other Delano photos of Argentine yard and I started to wonder how he got the angle for this shot.  After a bit of Google Earthing, I think he was probably standing on top of the grain elevator seen here.  (The elevator won't show up on Google Maps, but if you look at the early-90s image on Google Earth, it was still there.)
(The Gallery, Kodachromes, 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)

Midnight Special: 1943
... train about to leave the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad yard for the West Coast." Medium-format nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/28/2013 - 12:23am -

March 1943. Argentine, Kansas. "Freight train about to leave the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad yard for the West Coast." Medium-format nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
AT&SF # 31672-8-2 "Mikado" type. Lost in a flood in 1952 and now sunk in the Kaw River in Topeka, KS.
What a Flood!The ATSF Argentine yard is in Kansas City.
The Santa Fe placed several old engines on its bridge over the Kansas River (sometimes called the "Kaw") in Topeka to try to keep the bridge from being washed away during the 1951 -- it was 1951, not 1952 -- flood.  It didn't work.  The engines weren't salvaged after the flood and reportedly parts of them could be seen in the sandbars at low water levels for years.
The ATSF bridge wasn't on the main line, but the Rock Island also lost its Topeka bridge during the flood, which was on its main line to the southwest. The city also lost two of four street bridges over the river.
The water reached the street in front of my house, and we had to pump water out of the basement, but the house was up the hill a bit and wasn't otherwise affected.  It was the biggest flood ever in Topeka.
Steam at nightThere's an interesting technicality in this shot. The time exposure to ambient light means that there are light trails from the loco lights and a lot of motion blur in the steam, the train alongside and so on. However, the long burn time of the flash bulbs meant that there's motion blur in the flash part of the exposure, too.
[This isn't a flash shot. The illumination is from lights mounted atop tall standards in the yard. - tterrace]
1 month oldMarch 1943: I would have been 1 month old. These Jack Delano railroad shots are fantastic moments in time. I can hear the hissing of steam, the smell of the exhaust and hot grease; the plaintive call of the steam whistle as I lay in my bed on a cold winter night. As a boy who spent his childhood summer days sitting by the tracks, these photos stir up a whole bunch of poignantly fond memories. I waved at the engineer who always waved back. As the caboose brought up the end of the train, they are now extinct, passed, the conductor would acknowledge my wave as he sat up in the cupola. If I were lucky, there was another engine coupled at the rear behind the caboose and another engineer to salute. I cherish the fact that I was born early enough to have witnessed steam locomotives as part of the passing scene. However, I regret the fact that I was born way too late to have been a steam locomotive engineer. Yes, I am truly an old geezer!
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Low Rider: 1942
... roundhouse at the Chicago & North Western RR's Proviso Yard." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War ... the pits are still 1940's era. We now service Long Island Railroad diesel engines. In the photo subject's day, the majority of the oil ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2012 - 4:45pm -

December 1942. "Worker inspecting a locomotive on a pit in the roundhouse at the Chicago & North Western RR's Proviso Yard." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Change your oil?With all the oil and fumes around especially in an open pit below the locomotive, I would sure be concerned about the small open flame.  What is he doing? They had electric trouble lights then!
CombustionYou do realize that he is under a steam locomotive, there is a very large fire above his head in the firebox, which has many a ton of coal burning...
The FlameHe is checking for air leaks -- if the flame flickers it shows a leak. He's not under the firebox. The fire is banked when the engine is in the roundhouse.
Not so bad!I work in a steam-era roundhouse. In fact the rails on the pits are still 1940's era. We now service Long Island Railroad diesel engines. In the photo subject's day, the majority of the oil fumes present would have been from lube oil, which would not be particularly combustible in such a non-enclosed environment. Even today, with an abundance of lube and diesel oil fumes, we quite routinely have a need for ignition sources (grinders, welders, torches etc.). I have however, heard many a story of the roundhouse roof frequently catching fire due to cinders from the engine smokestacks! I'm also, by the way, a volunteer fireman.
TorchI think the torch is just for show in this picture. Yes they did use a flamed torch fro checking the air lines for air leaks but there are no air lines at all on any steamer that would be located where this man is standing.
(The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

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)

Frosty the Brakeman: 1943
... Illinois. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. The Chicago & North Western Railroad yard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/06/2013 - 8:28pm -

January 1943. Chicago, Illinois. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. The Chicago & North Western Railroad yard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size.
Shhhh, can you hear it?If you're very still and quiet, you can hear, in the crisp cold air, the crunching of the snow under his feet.
Frosty ID'dThe man is Louis Zerkel, rear brakeman.
Blue IslandLooks like Delano is looking northish; the creek bridge just beyond the brakeman is at 41.64368N 87.68441W
http://goo.gl/maps/LYr51
Love the unique architecture of the signal bridgeI have never seen one quite like that before. You'll note Louis Zerkel, rear brakeman, is carrying a flag as he returns to the caboose, probably having protected the rear of his train. The photographer is standing on its rear platform.
I love all the steam quite evident on this brisk winter day. Most of it is emanating from the engine pulling that freight train across the railway bridge in the upper background.
Railroading, unlike just about every other mode of transportation, operated 24/7 regardless of the weather. It would take an extremely major set of weather conditions to stop train movements. However, I must salute those operating personnel who worked outside both on the ground and in the cabs of steam locomotives. It must have been brutal.
Keep those Jack Delano railroad photos coming. They are an historical and irreplaceable treasure!
(The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Clovis Man: 1943
... his locomotive out of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad yard." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. Smokin' ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/17/2009 - 8:36pm -

March 1943. "Clovis, New Mexico. D.L. Clark, engineer, ready to start his locomotive out of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad yard." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size.
Smokin'That's a clovis cigarette, I assume.
Poetical, ain't itI just like saying "Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe."
BNSFAT&SF merged with Burlington Northern (formed when the Chicago Burlington and Quincy merged with the Great Northern) to form the Burlington Northern Santa Fe a few years ago.  The famous round logo of the AT&SF morphed into a green logo (the green coming from the BN logo).  It's a somewhat sad but fascinating thing to trace the evolution of railroad names as they merged themselves out of existence over the last several decades.
Engineer DadI wish that I had a picture of my father at work -- he was an engineer on the Pennsylvania RR from the 1940s until he died in 1951, when I was less than a year old. I have family pictures of him but none of him in his railroad environment.
Fighter pilots of their day.My dad grew up during the Great Depression. They did not have much except people to look up to and admire. The train engineer was one. He expressed how they were awed by how one or two men could operate such a modern marvel. Then, I remember being awed by my dad when he told me these stories of how he and his friends would spend hours at the railyard just watching and enjoying the sights and sounds of these magnificent bygone machines of fire and steam.
I can relate to your sentiments DoctorKMy grandfather was a 'hogger' on the Canadian Pacific.
He had the only job I ever really dreamed of having.
He died when I was about 7; I wished he had lived long enough to show me the roundhouse and yards out of which he operated.
(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)

Knock Knock: 1943
... 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago, Illinois and Hammond, Indiana. Locomotive coupled to ... of the whistle will let the crew and everyone else in the yard that she is about to make a reverse movement. (The Gallery, Jack ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/07/2013 - 12:24pm -

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.
ThumperAh the bat...  I worked for Penn Central railroad and can testify that even into the 70s, those bats were standard issue for train crews.
Monsters Inc.The beast behind the door.  The atmosphere is enhanced by the steam or smoke.
Land Train"Candygram!"
CNW 1300 series locomotivesA 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 Crawling EyePretty scary picture. It looks like a sci-fi movie from the '50s, with a one-eyed monster lurking in the door.
3 short blasts of the whistleSeeing 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.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Polar Express: 1942
December 1942. Proviso classification yard of the Chicago & North Western Railroad. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. Footsteps Galore Just an incredible amount of footsteps in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/30/2012 - 10:03pm -

December 1942. Proviso classification yard of the Chicago & North Western Railroad. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.
Footsteps GaloreJust an incredible amount of footsteps in the snow - shows how much manual effort there needed to be to hook/unhook cars and make up trains.  Must have been a fun job (not to mention dangerous) in the winter!!
(The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Diesel Freight: 1943
... entering town along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between Winslow and Seligman." Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of ... of those old girls rotting away in the Union Pacific yard In Cheyenne, WO. Very Similar To 103 Very similar locomotive to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/23/2013 - 9:53am -

March 1943. "Flagstaff, Arizona. Diesel locomotive entering town along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between Winslow and Seligman." Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Color scheme You are correct, the blue and yellow was for freight and the silver and red was passenger. That isn't to say it was a hard fast rule, but there was different gearing on passenger locomotives for a higher speed.  
SighThere are a bunch of those old girls rotting away in the Union Pacific
yard In Cheyenne, WO.
Very Similar To 103Very similar locomotive to this Shorpy post from years past.
Perfect SolutionDiesels don't need water, which is why early diesel power flourished on ATSF, particularly in the southwest.  Locomotives like 2-8-2 3137 in background wouldn't last much longer in the arid divisions across Arizona, but she did have ten more years in her on the eastern divisions, not going to scrap until 1953.
Color SchemeConsidering the Santa Fe emblem and the engine number, I suspect Vonderbees has the correct paint colors for this locomotive. As a child growing up in Amarillo in the 50s-mid 60s I recall most of the Santa Fe engines I saw had the red and yellow paint scheme as shown in this previous Shorpy post rather than the blue and yellow scheme. Currently living less than two blocks from a BNSF line, I see lots of the red/yellow scheme though the red is more orange red than I remember as a child.
Rationing exemptionsEMD was the only manufacturer permitted to build diesel-electric locomotives during the war, even though diesels were what most railroads wanted. Having never built a steam locomotive, they were exempt from the War Production Board's requirement to use only old and well-proven technology. This special exemption gave EMD a huge advantage over Alco and Baldwin after the war. In the end, General Electric was and is the only company able to compete.
Much of their output was allocated to the ATSF, due to the water supply problems already mentioned.
[Electro-Motive was a division of General Motors, not General Electric. - Dave]
I meant that General Electric was and is the only locomotive manufacturer able to compete with Electro-Motive, until recently a division of General Motors.
Re: Color SchemeI always figured the blue and yellow color scheme was for freight trains and the red and yellow was for passenger trains. Does anybody know?
Nice styleThe front of this is how all the passenger diesels looked when I was a kid and I think it's still by far the most attractive design. I don't know why they departed from it.
Lectrogeek68 is basically correctin that General Electric was EMD's only true competitor until their roles reversed in the 1990s, and GE displaced EMD as the dominant locomotive manufacturer in North America.  In 2010 Caterpillar purchased what was left of EMD from a consortium of private equity firms who purchased the division from GM in 2005, and is seeking to reverse that.
I honed many a cylinder liner and rough cut more piston castings than I care to remember at EMD's McCook plant during the summers of my undergraduate college years.
At the end of their careersHere is a photograph of some sister locomotives stripped of various parts including their road trucks awaiting scrap.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Steel Wheels: 1942
... In the locomotive repair shops at an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/28/2013 - 11:31am -

November 1942. "Chicago. In the locomotive repair shops at an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size.
wheel shopThis is not a locomotive shop. It is a wheel shop and there are wheels from freight and passenger cars present. The wheelset under the hoist is a passenger car set. The gearbox between the wheels drives a generator which charges batteries for the car electric system.  Wheels need to be reprofiled due to wear or flat spots.
Industrial atmosphereJD was really a master at composing gorgeous photographs of quotidian subjects and this is no exception. What serendipity to have an arrow on the floor.
be sure you are SAFE, then go ahead with your jobThese look like freight car wheels, or non-powered locomotive wheels... they don't have the gear or traction motor that powered wheels would have.  (Yes, there were diesel-electric locomotives in and before WWII.  Just not very many.)
The wheelset to the right of the man standing, with the gearbox-looking thing in the middle of the axle and a pile of small parts on the floor in front of it, might be designed to drive an under-car generator.  Before locomotives provided electricity to the train, some passenger cars were lit by generators turned by their own wheels - sort of like a giant bicycle headlight.  Each car would have its own generator, and batteries for use while in the station.
I think the big machine with the electric motor on top is a wheel lathe.  Railroad wheels are made with a certain taper to the "tread"; this makes the train car center itself between the rails and go around curves smoothly.  After a while, the wheels wear down, and the train car will track badly; one fix is to re-machine the tread back to the proper taper, which is what a wheel lathe is for.
There are a few standard wheelset sizes for freight cars, so a lot of railroads keep a supply of new or rebuilt wheelsets (the assembly of two wheels and an axle) at big freight yards.  If a car needs new wheels, they hoist it up with jacks or a crane and swap the wheelsets - the old wheelsets go on top of a flat car.  When the flat car is full, it goes to a shop like this, so all the wheelsets can be inspected for cracks and re-machined in batches.  Cracked wheels and axles, and wheels that have worn so much that they can't be re-machined, are sold for scrap; often they are melted down and cast back into new railroad wheels.
Powered axles have a traction motor in the middle.  Sometimes these are swapped out complete just like non-powered axles, but sometimes the wheels are re-machined on the car.  There are wheel lathes that sit in a pit under the tracks; the train car is driven over the pit, a small section of the track is removed, and the lathe can machine the wheels while they are still installed.
The trolley crane, with exposed conductor rails, is a nice touch.  These days, there would probably be a long insulated cable feeding this crane.  Really big cranes (enough to lift an entire locomotive with) still have busbars like this, but they're buried under a lot of insulation.
Train Wheels.While visiting the U.P. Yard in Cheyenne I spied a flat car, tarp covered,
with a huge load upon it as the car was bent under the weight. The worker
told me it was a wheel lathe as this rail road maintains gorgeous steam
2-6-6-2's that are used.
The wheels on the engines and cars are of cast iron to which a steel "tire" with
flange must be shrunk fitted. Can you imagine turning an 80" locomotive
wheel so it is within .001" round? When the wheel is finished a steel "tire"
is then fitted by heating the steel disk so it expands over the wheel and locks
solid when cool... a very hard and precise job indeed!
One of Jack Delano's photos show a roaring hot tire just fitted.... take a look
by searching for: "Wheel of Fire".
Spicer driveThe name of this drive that powered the generators off the wheel axle is known as a Spicer drive.  It used generally two universal joints, a drive shaft, and a large generator to charge the onboard batteries, normally 32V.  The Spicer drive only effectively charged the batteries at road speed.
According to Amtrak's Standard Maintenance Procedure or SMP revised 3-4-2011, "Effective January 1, 2015, use of an axle drive for a generator system (either Spicer or belt) is prohibited at the time of the car's next PC-1 annual inspection, and the drive apparatus must be removed from the axle by that time."
So if you see one, get a photo of it as they will become more rare to see in operation!
Lathes, wheels, tyresAs an apprentice I spent some time in the wheel shop. I can't be absolutely certain, but that machine in the centre of the photo looks like a tread grinding machine - used to re-profile the treads of chilled cast iron wheels - rather than a wheel lathe. Wheel lathes typically have large headstocks and large diameter faceplates at both ends. 
As for loco driving wheels, by the 1940s US practice favoured the use of cast steel wheel centres. The preserved UP locos referred to have steel Boxpok wheels. The locos I work on have 69" diameter Boxpoks, which we re-tyred some back in 2003-4. On most locos I've worked on the tyres are not just retained simply by shrink fitting. Older locos with cast iron wheel centres have studs through the wheel rim, and more modern locos with steel wheels use a Gibson ring.
The car wheels in this photo appear to be multiple-wear wrought steel wheels, which were in very widespread use on passenger by 1942. These were one-piece wheels with no separate tyre. They could be machined when worn to restore the tread and flange profile.
(The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Boxcar Brown: 1942
... worker at the Chicago & North Western's 40th Street yard, examining paint samples used on freight cars and coaches of the railroad." Paint your wagon, or color-coordinate your caboose. Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. I ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/22/2016 - 10:46am -

December 1942. "Research laboratory worker at the Chicago & North Western's 40th Street yard, examining paint samples used on freight cars and coaches of the railroad." Paint your wagon, or color-coordinate your caboose. Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
I confessI don't know you, sir, and I don't know if I would like you if I did. But I confess: I envy you your lab coat.
I Get ItTwo considerations:
1.  Weather sustainability.  Some colors fade and disappear in adverse weather.
2.  Advertising.  It is important to companies to display their brand to the buyers (public) as much as possible.  
Decisions, decisionsPre-Pantone perplexity. 
Saving some workIf this photo had been taken in black and white, some reader here would colorize it!
I don't get it.Box cars are not cars or trucks. Why not just paint them the same color?
(The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Snow Belt Special: 1943
... 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. The train pulls out of the Chicago & North Western yard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/17/2015 - 9:39am -

January 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. The train pulls out of the Chicago & North Western yard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size.
This would bethe Proviso Yard of the C & NW, located about fourteen miles directly west of the Loop between Bellwood and Stone Park.  When I was a kid I'd ride my three-speed Hercules north up Westchester Boulevard and Bellwood Avenue to where the latter dead-ended at the yard.  Then I'd wander around within about the largest rail yard in the region watching mammoth freight trains being assembled.  Only in retrospect do I realize how dangerous that was.  The IHB's main line passed by a few blocks from my home, and I clearly remember steam engines of the Milwaukee Road, which had trackage rights on the IHB, chugging away pulling freight (usually northbound) amid heavy coal smoke with screeching whistles, in the early 1950s and maybe later.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Work, Read, Wash: 1943
March 1943. Barstow, California. "Railroad worker in the washroom of the reading room in the Santa Fe yard." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/29/2016 - 8:13pm -

March 1943. Barstow, California. "Railroad worker in the washroom of the reading room in the Santa Fe yard." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Santa Fe Depot and Reading RoomOh, the Santa Fe reading room. not the Reading Railroad reading room.
The Santa Fe Reading Rooms were hotelish facilities for engineers and employees on break between runs.
The Waynoka, Oklahoma, Depot and Reading Room:
https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/aviation/sfe.htm
SpittoonThese had to be high on my list of disgusting things seen in my childhood. Never envied the people who had to clean them or around them. 
WaynokaI have never been to the Barstow area but I have been to the Waynoka Santa Fe depot. It was several years ago that my sister, a friend, and I , mainly, went to eat at the Harvey House Restaurant there. At the time, I had no idea that Waynoka had played such a role in the history of transportation. The restored depot and the restaurant were very interesting and well worth the trip if you are in the area.
As an occasional home plumberI have to admire the sheer, brutal functionality of the plumbing; not only is it designed not to clog, but if it does clog it's designed to be unclogged easily. And you can get at the feed lines and cutoff valves, too.
Mystery fixtureCan anyone identify the fluted ceramic column at far right, raised up off the floor? Pedestal sink, drinking fountain?
Fluted ColumnI'll say that the fancy tile on the right is the edge of a floor length men's urinary convenience.  The concrete step probably holds the shallow basin at its base.
That mystery fixtureI encountered a row of these frightening floor length fixtures many years ago in a historic hotel, I believe in Wellsville W.Va, or thereabouts. Not just similar, but apparently identical.
Each unit includes 1 column, and there is an extra column tacked on at the free end. There is a separate cap at the top.  Our ancestors sure had a taste for the grandiose in bathroom fixtures.
As for the sink, this "S Trap" drain configuration far below the sink is generally illegal now, as it can siphon the trap dry.  The vent pipe connection must be only a foot or so below the sink, with the "J Trap" in between.
We ate a fine lunch in the grand dining room, but did not stay.  I looked on Google Earth and didn't find the hotel, may not have survived.  At the time, it was in the guidebook of historic hotels, along with such places as the wonderful Lafayette in Marietta OH.
I may have pix somewhere, but probably wouldn't want to post them.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Let's Chill: 1943
... plant at the end This photo, taken in the Santa Fe "B Yard" in San Bernardino Yard in 1973, shows the facility at the very end of the ... units which replaced the ice cooled reefers. Now, most railroad mechanical refrigerator cars have been retrofitted with the same style ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/30/2012 - 7:29pm -

March 1943. "San Bernardino, California. Cars being precooled at the ice plant. Air at a temperature of 20 degrees Fahrenheit is blown through the cars for 20 minutes in one direction, then in the other. Shippers specify the number of hours precooling required for their product." Photo by Jack Delano. View full size.
Now you know my nameBrings back a lot of memories, we also iced passenger cars before air conditioning on the C.P.R.  and this was in the 1950's on the Canadian prairies. aaahh memories!
Asbestos & CanvasBest pipe wrap ever.
Ice plant at the endThis photo, taken in the Santa Fe "B Yard" in San Bernardino Yard in 1973, shows the facility at the very end of the "icer" era. San Bernardino was also the main point for servicing the mechanical refrigeration units which replaced the ice cooled reefers. Now, most railroad mechanical refrigerator cars have been retrofitted with the same style of refrigeration units used on trucks, and the most modern cars use cryogenic cooling.
Comfort at the remove... When young, 50 years or more ago, I worked unloading freight cars, usually 20 pound bags of charcoal, in 80-90 degree summertime heat, the only respite was the occasional reefer. Whether vegetables or fish, we loved the frigid interiors, and lingered as long as possible on those jobs.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Spring Planting: 1943
... 1943. Chicago, Illinois. "Chicago & North Western RR railroad workers cultivating a little Victory garden at the Proviso Yard." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2012 - 4:42pm -

April 1943. Chicago, Illinois. "Chicago & North Western RR railroad workers cultivating a little Victory garden at the Proviso Yard." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
What an astounding photograph!Not only does it have an all-encompassing and horribly stark beauty but those guys are also planting with an innocent faith in a worthwhile return. I shudder to imagine what sorts of toxins may have been dumped there first, though, and that consideration very probably never crossed their minds. This is, in my opinion, one of the best photos I've seen on this site.
(The Gallery, Kodachromes, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Chicago, Jack Delano, WW2)

Locomotive Makeover: 1942
November 1942. "Illinois Central rail yard, Chicago. Locomotives in for repair at the roundhouse." Medium format negative by Jack Delano. View full size. You can corner her here This is not the ... is a 4-8-2, commonly known as a "Mountain" type. The railroad had 136 locos of this type, built by ALCo, Lima and the IC's own ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/26/2013 - 2:11pm -

November 1942. "Illinois Central rail yard, Chicago. Locomotives in for repair at the roundhouse." Medium format negative by Jack Delano. View full size.
You can corner her hereThis is not the round house, because there are no curves.  It must be the back shop, where more extensive repairs than ordinary maintenance are done.  Sometimes it really is in the rear of the round house.
"Head for the Roundhouse, Nellie.  He can't corner you there", doesn't work in this building.
High OverheadMost fans of steam -- among whom I must number myself -- must acknowledge that the ultimate triumph of diesel-electric units was due to their far less burdensome maintenance requirements in terms of both degree of difficulty and frequency.  The real divas were the streamlined steam locomotives, from which many square yards of cladding and fairings had to be removed before anything more advanced than routine preventive maintenance could be performed.  That being admitted, there was a romance to steam that diesels have thus far failed utterly to match.
Minor rebuildAll of the lagging is still on the boiler so they must be checking the boiler tubes and superheater while they rebuild the driver wheels.  It's amazing that the inertia of the connecting rods and just breaking can put flat spots on the "tires".
Tractor ID1920's Fordson with French and Hecht wheels and aftermarket high tenstin mag. and probably Handy brand seat.
Loco ID?Comparing to other photos of locos, I will guess this is a 4-8-4 Northern type.  Perhaps some real rail afficionados will chime in?
Illinois Central MountainsThe engine is a 4-8-2, commonly known as a "Mountain" type. The railroad had 136 locos of this type, built by ALCo, Lima and the IC's own Paducah shops. I can't be certain but it appears to be one of the ALCo built locos of 1926. The IC never had any 4-8-4s. 
(The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Brakeman Capsey: 1943
... car as the train on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between Belen and Gallup, New Mexico, waits on a siding." ... 20, I repacked journal boxes on the wash track at the UP yard in LA. It was dirty work. I always ended up soaked in oil. The packing had ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/11/2014 - 11:29am -

March 1943. "Acomita, New Mexico. Brakeman R.E. Capsey repacking a journal box of a special car as the train on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between Belen and Gallup, New Mexico, waits on a siding." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Jordan SpreaderIt's a Jordan Spreader, sort of a rail-mounted road grader.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreader_%28railroad%29
Originally used to maintain trackside drainage ditches, but in more recent times primarily used for snow clearing, as the wing blades can swing out and clear several tracks at once, or push the snow further from a single track to make room for the next storm. The wing blades were multi-jointed, to grade a ditch contour.
It has old-fashioned arch bar trucks, made illegal since the many bolts+nuts could loosen up and cause a derailment.  Probably survived on this spreader because it never left the home railroad in interchange service.  The trucks on the adjacent refrigerator car also had bolts, and would eventually be banned also.  Modern trucks interlock together like a nail puzzle, with no fasteners needed.
Modern railroad cars and locomotives use roller bearings exclusively, eliminating the need for frequent oil lubrication and messing with the cotton waste that was used as a wick.
Jordan Spreader ATSF 199234Found a 1948 picture, although not the best showing 199234 in San Bernardino October 25, 1948 after some modifications.
I did thisThe summer I was 20, I repacked journal boxes on the wash track at the UP yard in LA. It was dirty work. I always ended up soaked in oil. The packing had to be carefully installed so it covered the entire journal on the bottom. If it didn't it could cause a hotbox. It was a good experience. These days railroad trucks have roller bearings that don't need repacking.
Looks like a Jordan Spreader This is a device with outboard swinging wings to clear ditches or snow along the tracks.  Here is a photograph of a model that looks quite similar.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Chicago and North Western: 1942
... General view of one of the Chicago and North Western railroad yards at Chicago. December 1942. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome ... To the left it heads south to Bellwood. North of this yard (check out how big it still is today on Google Maps satellite view!) is ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 9:30am -

General view of one of the Chicago and North Western railroad yards at Chicago. December 1942. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.
RR ydI think it's Proviso YD and if you look in the background there's another overpass that Jack probally used in the previous picture, the large object on the flat car on the left shows up in the other photo as well
C & NW RailyardThat's the U.S. 12/20/45 overpass (Mannheim Road). To the left it heads south to Bellwood. North of this yard (check out how big it still is today on Google Maps satellite view!) is the Stone Park/Northlake area.
(The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Caboose Track: 1943
... track at the Chicago & North Western RR Proviso Yard." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the ... of War Information. No Graffiti! In all of the railroad pictures I have seen taken before 1990, I am pleased that graffiti ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2012 - 4:34pm -

Chicago, April 1943. "Caboose on the caboose track at the Chicago & North Western RR Proviso Yard." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.
No Graffiti! In all of the railroad pictures I have seen taken before 1990, I am pleased that graffiti does not seem to be present. I remain unimpressed with the "art work" I see on passing trains today.
(The Gallery, Kodachromes, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Night Train: 1943
... California. A view of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe yard at night." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano. View full size. ... examples of a locomotive type which was named after the railroad. They descend from the 2-10-0 "Decapod" type, to which the Santa Fe ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/07/2013 - 3:46pm -

March 1943. "Barstow, California. A view of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe yard at night." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano. View full size.
2-10-2 "Santa Fe Type"The Santa Fe steam locomotive 1691 in the photo, is one of the earliest examples of a locomotive type which was named after the railroad. They descend from the 2-10-0 "Decapod" type, to which the Santa Fe added a one axle "trailing truck" under the cab in 1903, for better tracking on the steep and curvy Raton Pass grade in Colorado and New Mexico.
This begot one of the most popular wheel arrangements in America for heavy freight service.
Maybe We'll Steam AgainThere's a group up at the University of Minnesota working with some 501c3 organization refitting a Baldwin to run on Biomass.  They think they can get better emissions, efficiency, and power than diesel once they get it right.  Even got themselves a website: http://www.csrail.org/.
It would be awfully neat if we could see these kinds of things again!
That Odd TenderThat slopeback tender behind the first loco was uniquely used on the Santa Fe, and was not original equipment on that particular engine.  It came originally attached to one of the 2-10-10-2 mallets used to push trains over Cajon Pass.  Built early in the century, they were the world's largest locomotives in their day, yet proved so impractical and labor intensive that they were short lived, like most behemoth locomotives produced in that era.  They were scrapped in the 1930's, and MAY have been (I don't have my Santa Fe books handy, so don't quote me on it) converted into two 2-10-0 types.
Engines died, but tenders, especially practical designs like the slopeback, lived on until the very end of steam.
Whale, not slopeThat type of tender was known on the Santa Fe as a whaleback. Slopeback tenders were typically used with switch engines not road power - though, as always, there were exceptions. The biggest problems Santa Fe had with the 2-10-10-2s were with their jointed boilers.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Snowy Joliet: 1943
... An important ancillary building once found in nearly every yard, but now less common, was the scale house. Most cars containing bulk ... to determine the weight for transportation charges by the railroad, and often for the charges the shipper would bill their customer for ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/24/2014 - 10:50am -

March 1943. "Joliet, Illinois. Leaving the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railyard." Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Can't quite make it outKeep the door closed when ??????????? cars.
[Illegible in the original. -tterrace]
Sign, sign, everywhere a signMy take:
 KEEP THIS DOOR
CLOSED WHEN NOT
 WEIGHING CARS
Mixed Signals?That looks like a train order signal.  Not motorized, each blade appears to be manually operated by means of a pipe that extends down each side of the mast to just above the ground and then... nowhere.  No trackside racks for delivering orders/messages on the fly, no telegraph office visible... are there any Santa Fe experts out there who know what this signal might have been for?
WestboundMr. Delano was looking back from the caboose of a westbound train; the view is actually NNE.  Des Plaines River/Sanitary and Ship Canal to the left, EJ&E bridge and Joliet Coke Plant in the background.
The Scale HouseAn important ancillary building once found in nearly every yard, but now less common, was the scale house.  
Most cars containing bulk commodities such as grain, coal, and such were weighed - both to determine the weight for transportation charges by the railroad, and often for the charges the shipper would bill their customer for the merchandise.  Every car had (has) the empty weight of the car stenciled on the side of the car, and the switching crew and a clerk would weigh each car, and subtract the Lt Wt (Light Weight, as stenciled) to determine the weight of the contents, and attach the scale ticket to the Bill of Lading.
Note that there are four rails past the scale house.  The Live Rails were for weighing the cars, the Dead Rails (or Bypass Rails) were so that engines could pass the scale without using the Live Rails, since their weight often exceeded the capacity of the scale.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Instant Message: 1942
... Illinois. These pneumatic tubes in the Illinois Central Railroad yardmaster's office connect him with the general office." ... the late 70s, just as the caption says: connecting several yard offices with the central office. I have to wonder if Milwaukee officials ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/26/2013 - 11:47am -

November 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. These pneumatic tubes in the Illinois Central Railroad yardmaster's office connect him with the general office." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
No new thing under the sunWe used a pneumatic tube system on the Milwaukee Road until the late 70s, just as the caption says: connecting several yard offices with the central office. I have to wonder if Milwaukee officials were ‘inspired’ by the IC device. The system we used was really not up to the task, and I suspect it came from some department store that had quit using it for handling sales cash. The three tubes, about a mile each in length, were all exposed to Milwaukee’s freezing, moist, winter air. Need I say more? One night a new kid on the block weighed about 100 cars, and he asked the yardmaster what he was supposed to do with the scale tickets. The yardie, never having read “How to Win friends and Influence People,” barked at the kid to put the XXXXXXX things in the XXXXXXX tube to Muskego. So the guy did. Without a canister. For about two weeks, every now and then a scale ticket or two would come fluttering into the main office from the West End. Yes, they reweighed the whole cut of scalers.             
Vital piece of equipmentThe ubiquitous coffee can is an essential piece of the apparatus. 
AirpunkThe lesser-known cousin of steampunk.
Scrap metalNever mind giving extra tires to Uncle Sam -- the quantity of iron in that tube machine looks like it would be nearly  enough to build a Sherman tank from. I wonder when it got scrapped.
Dress for successI am always amazed at how men and women during the war years always seemed to be well dressed at work, often despite their occupations. This man has dress shoes and well pressed, creased pants. My uncle, who worked for many years as a lithographer in NYC, would go to work in a suit and tie, change into work clothes in the printing company's locker room, do a day's work, then change back into his suit and tie for the trip home.
(Technology, The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Coal, Water, Sand: 1942
... up with coal, water and sand at an Illinois Central Railroad yard before going out on the road." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/30/2013 - 12:29pm -

November 1942. "Chicago. Locomotives loading up with coal, water and sand at an Illinois Central Railroad yard before going out on the road." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Yes, sand!The coal fuels the fire that makes steam from the water, and the sand, when dropped on the rail, gives the engine more traction. Most useful when the rail is wet, covered with snow/ice/leaves. Sand actually is essential to get over the railroad.
Legend has it an old B&ORR helper engineer dreamed up the idea circa 1840s, and rigged a box up on his locomotive with pipes to the rail. It worked so well the RR's quickly adopted it. He shoulda patented his invention. The newest computerized locos today still have sand boxes with pipes to the rails.
SandI was a brakeman on the Penn Central some years ago and we often switched out a couple of pipe yards that were at the bottom of a hill.  If it was early morning with dewy tracks, we would sand going down so we could make it back to the top of the hill.
(The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Harbor Belt: 1943
... 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. The train passes many ... them for any special messages." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. Wooden Dodo ... Island is still a manual interlocking, as is 3) Gibson Yard west end tower. At one point most, if not all, of these towers were ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/23/2014 - 6:52pm -

January 1943. "Freight operations on the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad between Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. The train passes many interlocking towers on the way and the conductor watches them for any special messages." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size.
Wooden DodoVirtually every track crossing of any importance had an interlocking tower guarding it; some were single story shantys, and some were massive brick or block structures. But most were very much like this one. As busy as this tower looks capable of, it likely was manned 24/7. 
The rods visible left of the track physically align switches, derails and even semaphore signals. More modern interlockings had electric motors to move these things, although I worked around such a plant as this well into the 1980's. 
Towers such as this are Dodo birds, or very nearly so. The function of protecting a level crossing,interlocking or a junction is today controlled from many miles away, and the towers have been falling all over the country for decades; if any are still in use for intended purpose, they are few in number.
InterestingI don't know why, but I love the wintry-scene railway photographs.
I am curious what the lines running along the track are, on the left.  Are they signal lines?  They seem too far away from the tracks to be an electric engine power source, and the supports would interfere with power engine power shoes.
>>>>>>> Thanks to Olde Buck!  They are control rods for signals and turnouts, which makes much more sense.  I've read that those controls took some muscle to use, and no wonder!
An Armstrong OperationWhen I was about 14 a tower man in Cumberland, MD let me try my hand at an interlocking lever. It wouldn't budge. The name is apt. That tower also had a timer which had to be set before any levers could be thrown, then each lever was locked in its new position until the timer expired after the next train passed. It was to make the operator think out his moves carefully, and prevent last minute changes.
I H B R RSeems the name went from  Indiana Harbor Belt Rail Road to Indiana Harbor Belt R R, to Indiana Harbor Belt, then to Harbor Belt finally on its later diesel engines it was just Harbor.
Location on "The Harbor."Looking to the northwest at McCook, the Santa Fe crossing. I recognize the jog in the mainline on the other side of the diamond. 
Manual interlockings The Harbor (IHB) had about a dozen or so interlocking towers back in the day, each one a busy place. I’m going to hazard a guess and suggest, for several reasons, the featured picture is the old IHB Ivanhoe tower, controlling movements of IHB and EJE traffic across the diamond about a mile east of Gibson at 160th Street. To the best of my knowledge: 1) Dolton Tower, controlling movements across the UP (north/south) and IHB (east/west) is still manned by an interlocking operator, 2) the GTW tower at Blue Island is still a manual interlocking, as is 3) Gibson Yard west end tower. At one point most, if not all, of these towers were "strongarm" plants. Remote controlled switches and signals have replaced the Stone Age technology, but the operator headaches can still be intense. He/she has to balance the interests and wishes of a yardmaster, a dispatcher, and a trainmaster, among others, each of which has their own priorities. Anyone who has ever worked a Chicago tower will know well what I speak of.
Attached is a picture of a strongarm operator lining a switch, one perhaps several hundred feet from the tower.  
McCook: Home of EMDJust on the other side of that aggregate pile in the background is General Motor's Electro-Motive Division, at 55th St. and old U.S. 66. All new EMD diesel locomotives delivered from this plant were handled by the IHB first. 
Manual interlockings photokreriver, what tower is shown in the photo you posted? It doesn't look like an IHB tower to me.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Thurston Lee: 1943
... into a dormitory at the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad yard." Medium-format safety negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/26/2012 - 9:56pm -

March 1943. Barstow, California. "Brakeman Thurston H. Lee (whose home is in Chicago) going to bed at the reading room in Barstow, California. This room has been converted from a billiard room into a dormitory at the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad yard." Medium-format safety negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
ConvertedYes, but the scoring system left in place...
I *love* that 16 foot ceiling!
Trying to figure out what Thurston is doing in Barstow. His apparel suggests he’s in passenger service, perhaps braking on the Chief or Super Chief out of Chicago. But if so, what‘s he doing in a bunk house---er, sorry, I mean  “dormitory”---in Barstow, some 100 miles east of the westward terminus of  Los Angeles?  Is he in freight service, thousands of miles from home? I doubt it.  
Not just the scoring system...They also left the high chairs along the wall.
The folding chair could sure use a little work though.
Harvey House leftoversThis dormitory area was made out of part of a converted Harvey House. If you can imagine it, the outside of this building looked like this:
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Field of Wheels: 1942
... axles outside the locomotive shops at an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Medium-format nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/04/2016 - 9:54pm -

November 1942. Chicago. "Wheels and axles outside the locomotive shops at an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Medium-format nitrate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Round and round she goesThese wheels show a mix of eras. The wheels with a "pie plate" backing are steel, as all railroad wheels are today (in the US, at least). The wheels with the ribbed backing are made of iron. Those ribs are actually cooling fins to assist in cooling wheels heated by braking action. 
Iron wheels date back to the earliest days of railroading. They had a bad tendency to develop cracks that, if left unresolved, would cause the wheel to break up. The railroads were constantly replacing such wheels. Old photos of shop facilities always show wheelsets all around that have been removed from cars. Iron wheels caused many wrecks and killed more than a few people over the years. It's a wonder why they weren't banned from interchange until the early 1950's.
Visible on the ends of the axles are the large brass bearings. These turned in journals filled with lubricating oil. The so-called friction bearings are now banned from interchange also. They have been replaced by roller bearings; much less maintenance needed. 
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)

Illinois Central: 1942
... Illinois. Engine taking on coal at an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano. View full size. Parts ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/21/2014 - 12:40pm -

November 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Engine taking on coal at an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano. View full size.
PartsThis is apparently a switching locomotive, as indicated by the sandbox (sometimes called a dome) atop the boiler in front of the cab, with it's sand delivery pipe running down the side of the firebox to deliver dry sand to the top of the rail behind the rear driving wheels for additional traction when starting to move a heavy cut of cars.
Illinois Central locomotives, such as this one, had very commodious cabs.
Small windows in the front wall of the cab, directly behind the sandbox, are to allow the engineer, and fireman, to see the color of the smoke as it is expelled out the stack - information important to maintaining the proper, efficient operation of the locomotive.
The three parallel pipes running out of the picture to the right, from below the engineers position in the cab, are air brake control lines.
The "broken grate" firebox (the bottom of which is indicated by the double row of rivets just below the air brake lines) is above the driving wheels, indicating that this engine was designed about two decades before this portrait.
The gadget on the side of the boiler, directly below the sandbox is the injector.  A simple, inexpensive, reliable, and miraculous device under the control of the engineer, that has been applied to every steam locomotive since the Civil War.  With no moving parts, it takes steam from the boiler (the pipe connection at the top), sucks water from the tender (the connection below, that runs diagonally below the cab), and forces that water forward (the pipe to the right) into the boiler!
This locomotive also has been equipped with a canvas awning above the engineers window (now, rolled up).  This enables the engineer to stick his head out and look back, during inclement weather, to see signals during switching movements.
Recently rebuilt 3600 class  2-10-0 locomotiveThe IC constructed 15 2-10-0 locomotives which were numbered from 3610 to 3624 over a period from 1939 to 1941. These were big engines that were pieced together from salvaged 2-8-2 and 2-10-2 locomotives.   The lack of a trailing truck under the cab makes this an engine unsuited for much switching work as the trailing truck helps guide the drivers thru curves and switches.   
(The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
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