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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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