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Lux Aeterna: 1943
... he hears couplers banging. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/02/2014 - 12:30am -

March 1943. "Brakeman Jack Torbet, sitting at the window of the caboose pulling out of Waynoka, Oklahoma, on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad." Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. Brakeman's signal lampI was surprised to see that the brakeman's lamp is exactly the same as a Burlington Northern lamp that I have from the 80's. The only difference is that mine is made of orange plastic with clear plastic cage over the bulbs. Same bulb layout, same hoop handle, same shape and probably the same 6 volt lantern battery inside. These were used to signal the engineer from trackside like in the Jack Delano photos. Fiat lux dupliciterNice contrast between the lamp still run on kerosene (or other liquid fuel) versus the signal lantern on the table corner being battery-powered. The lantern is on its guard/stand with the lens facing down; the ring is the carrying handle, if you were wondering. Everything looks pretty sturdy including the thermos that could *gasp* actually keep things hot or cold for a reasonable time. Authentic KromerTorbet’s cap is a genuine Stormy Kromer, still made to this day. In the early 1900s one George “Stormy” Kromer was driving steam locomotives for the CNW Railroad in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. His search for the perfect cap was futile, so he had his wife, Ida, make him one. Next thing you know his conductor wanted one, and the rest is history. 42 years oldJohn Allen Torbet was born in Iowa on 18th September 1901 the son of the Reverend Walter and Anna Lytle. He married New Jersey born Helen Carver (1908-1996) around 1930 and they had 3 children. The 1940 census has the family living at 225 Palm Drive, Piedmont CA where Jack was earning $1800 a year, working a 56 hour week. He died in Butte County, CA in 1988 A gorgeous pictureThe kerosene lamp, the dark interior, the darkness outside, and the bored and/or pensive expression on the man's face all combine to produce an evocative picture. Photoshop out the blurry high-powered flashlight on the table, and it would be perfect. Slack actionHe will take all of that stuff off the table once he hears couplers banging. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Midnight Special: 1943
... I am truly an old geezer! (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads) ... 
 
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)
Night Game: 1950
... Cars, Trucks, Buses, Cleveland, News Photo Archive, Railroads, Sports) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/24/2020 - 12:15pm -

June 30, 1950. "Cleveland Municipal Stadium during Cleveland-Detroit night baseball game." Photo by Carl McDow. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection. View full size. Cleveland 11, Detroit 3There were 50,882 in attendance that night -- a good crowd, but far fewer than the 86,563 who saw the Indians sweep the Yankees in a doubleheader. That's generally accepted as the record for Major League regular-season games, although the Dodgers, playing in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, had as many as 92,000 fans at the 1959 World Series and 115,300 for an exhibition game against the Red Sox in 2008. A greater AmericaThese people had lived through WWII and the Great Depression and many had survived WWI and the Spanish Influenza. I wonder what they would have thought of their descendants, 70 years later, banning events such as this and even mandating draconian rules about private household behavior because of a virus. I believe they would have wondered why they fought so hard to keep the Kaiser, Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini and their dangerous ideologies out of this country. [In 1918, during the Spanish Flu epidemic, Major League Baseball cut its season short by a month, with the last game played September 11. Over a dozen college football teams sat out the season. The Stanley Cup finals were canceled. And people didn't complain, because they weren't a bunch of selfish, whiny babies. - Dave] Sorry Dave, I love this site and you do a great job, but you're wrong on this one. The whiny babies are the ones who are too afraid to defend their Constitutional rights as they continue to disappear day by day. Anyone who believes that what America has been forced to give up in 2020 is all because of a virus is terribly naïve. [If only you had been there to guide them! - Dave] It's past timeOh to be among the crowd in a major league baseball stadium again on a muggy night, hot dog and frosty Coke in hand, cheering for the boys of summer. Of course I prefer Wrigley Field some 350 miles to the west, but at this point I'd take Detroit at Cleveland and consider myself the luckiest girl on the face of the earth. All That Green!I grew up in North Central Ohio as a Tribe fan during the late 50's and early 60's. I can clearly remember my first trip to Municipal Stadium, walking up those steps to the inside of the stadium and seeing that incredible green baseball field for the first time in person! Yes Dave you are RightMy Father, a veteran of three wars beginning in Jan 1941, would agree with you Dave. If he taught me one thing it was to sacrifice for the well being of others, even if this meant a temporary suspension of your freedoms, and in thousands upon thousands of cases of service men and women, your very life. America the selfless seems to have become America the selfish. Thank You DaveDave, you couldn't be more correct with your description of how some American citizens have acted throughout the pandemic. Shameful at best. Like has always been said, "it starts at the top". Selfish, whiney babiesDave, I think the "selfish, whiney babies" comment was uncalled for. I agree with KAP about rights. It's easier to take away rights than it is to get them back again. However, even if I didn't agree with him I wouldn't insult him for it. KAPYikes, I didn’t think we’d get into this on Shorpy, but here we are. The view from Canada, where the country is not burning up with covid in the same uncontrolled manner as it is in the US, is that everyone has to buy in to the measures. I don’t like wearing a mask, and I don’t wear one outdoors, but everyone does it indoors in stores and public places, and that’s just the way it is. It’s an all-or-nothing thing, and you need buy-in from everyone. If you want, you can carry on about rights and freedoms all the way to the grave. All you have to fear is fear itselfSorry, Dave. I love the site, but my freedom and liberty is 1000 times more important than your irrational, ignorant fear. It is not selfish to stand against tyranny. We've known scientifically for 100 years that masks are useless, and we had story after story about the uselessness of masks ... until March, when everything suddenly flipped. Why? Because masks are not about science, they're about social control. I believe you were formerly part of the major media, so it's not surprising that you don't want to believe that it's completely corrupt and a single-party controlled propaganda machine. Yet, that is the truth. It's been so long since we've had a full-scale fascist/communist authoritarian attempt at a takeover of power that we think those people just went away. They didn't. We forgot that the normal, historical state of the world is a constant struggle against tyrannical people. The selfish ones are the appeasers. [Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth ... -- Dave] I agree ...... with KAP, and I doubly, triply agree with Groucho. https://spectator.us/salem-thanksgiving-coronavirus-panic-safetyism/ 8.7The US has 8.7 times the population of Canada. If we take the number of covid deaths to date in Canada (11,689) and multiply by 8.7, we get the number of deaths the US ought to have had to date: 101,694. But the US has had over twice that number of covid deaths to date: 267,528. I do believe it might be a matter of public measures and committed leadership. The US is an amazing country, but it has dropped the ball on this one. Whose House is This?The last time I checked, this was Dave's house and he didn't ask anyone what they thought about his comment to KAP. The person who needed and received admonishment is KAP, who ridiculously compared a public safety measure to the invasion of fascism and destruction of our Constitution. KAP clearly didn't study history enough to remember that during the Spanish Influenza outbreak it was common for local public health officials to quarantine people in their homes. It was for the public good and the law allowed it. And I've never read that people in quarantine whined about their Constitutional rights being taken away. You want to talk about taking away our Constitutional rights -- why do we have to wear seatbelts? That really is a matter of personal choice. But we lost that right, not because of fascism, but because of insurance companies. Therefore: insurance companies are destroying the Constitution! Concerning One's RightsI get tears in my eyes when I see people call the efforts to keep the virus from spreading a loss of their rights. Nobody has the right to spread an illness. And if everybody would just wear their masks, observe social distancing, and wash their hands frequently, we might not have strictures about gatherings now, we might not have our hospitals and the healthcare workers strained so badly, and we might not have so many people grieving the loss of friends and loved ones. I love Shorpy and have done for many years. It is a lovely place to visit, in good times and bad. Yet even here, the horrible division that afflicts this country rears its ugly head. And I get more tears. Everybody, please, just care a little for each other. The view from the front lineMy job is to intubate your trachea and breathe for you when you are no longer able to do so yourself. I hope that none of you ever need my services. And I wish that this situation was as simple as allowing you to exercise your "Constitutional rights" but it makes no sense when doing so potentially causes harm to others while benefitting you in no particular way. And as I show up to work each day, all I can do is try my best to protect myself from the selfishness and ignorance of others while keeping the victims alive and hoping to see their recovery. It helps to be able to enjoy Shorpy at the end of the day - thanks Dave! And Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Stunningly beautifulThis image is amazingly beautiful. The lights are liquid, pouring out and washing down on the players. Stunning. Familiar Nameshttps://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=195006300... Box score brings back memories of these guys, all of whom I had in Topps or Bowman's bubble gum cards, sold in packages of five cards plus the gum. Believe the ScienceThanks Dave for your clarification to KAP about pandemic events then and now. The problem of not believing the truth is a serious one. Did people lose rights after the 1918 pandemic? Gosh don't know what it would have been... Folks, as a physician and a scientist I implore you: Believe the science. Wear your mask. Social distance. As Dr. Fauci has said, I don't know how to make you care about one another. There is no more a "Constitutional right"to recklessly infect others with a deadly virus, than there is to drive a car while drunk, or to yell "fire" in a crowded theater. "Selfish, whiny babies" is a charitable description of the anti-maskers who are primarily responsible for the deaths of 2,000 Americans a day. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Cleveland, News Photo Archive, Railroads, Sports)
Bonus Tracks: 1906
... Methodist Church. (The Gallery, D.C., DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 11:14am -

Washington, D.C., circa 1906-1910. "Switch yards, Union Station." The third and final part of our panorama. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Pano put togetherFor your viewing pleasure. Click here to see pano Hover your mouse over the image for a menu to download the full sized picture. A Room With a ViewThe Penhurst Apartment, your Haven of Rest, conveniently located near public transportation. Refrigerated StorageLooks to be some sort of heat exchanger over on the right. Ammonia chiller, maybe. VestigesWhile the Penhurst is gone (tracks for Metro's Red Line run where it used to be), the stone bollards and wrought iron railing along First Street survive: View Larger Map Plenty Light & Hot WaterThe Penhurst Apartments was one of about a dozen apartment buildings owned and managed by the Alonzo Ogilvie Bliss, a civil war veteran of the Tenth New York Calvary. Newspaper ads neglected to mention the noise and smoke of the adjacent rail yard. Rent in 1906 was $20 for a four room apartment. Today's picture would not quite be the same as H street N.E. now passes over the rail yard. At the time of the photo, H street passed through a long tunnel underneath the yard, as several of the streets to the north still do. The Penhurst Apartments were located at 48 H St. N.E. so that gives a pretty good alignment for where the H street bridge is now. An intermodal transport center and public parking structure now covers this portion of the yard. Developments rights have recently been sold for all the remaining airspace above the rails. Classified Ads, Washington Post, Jun 28, 1919 The Penhurst, Apartment 30 - Two or more rooms, furnished or unfurnished; south front; plenty light and hot water. Washington Post, Jan 5, 1920 Penhurst Apartments Burn Lives of dwellers in the 22 apartments in the Penhurst, 48 H street northeast, were imperiled yesterday when a fire originating in the elevator shaft spread to all floors of the Building, cutting off escape of a number of tenants by the stairway. Damage is estimated at $20,000. When the fire first started the emergency hose was brought into use, but failed to function, and before the fire apparatus arrived on the first alarm the flames had gained such headway that two additional alarms bringing out thirteen additional fire companies were sent in. ... Tallest Building in the USAI think I spot the Washington Monument poking its head over the Government Printing Office on the right side of the frame. At the time of this photo, the Washington Monument (169m) still held the title of the tallest building in the United States, holding off a challenge from Philadelphia's City Hall (opened 1901) by just 2 meters. EquipmentThe heat exchanger mentioned below may have been used to cool compressed air which was used to operate the many switch machines that move the "points" -- a favored method used by the Pennsylvania Railroad in its larger terminals. Ammonia was also injected into the compressed air to help prevent freezing. Washington Union Station was opened on October 27, 1908, so these photographs probably date very near to that date. A Stitch in Time...Here's the whole panorama stitched together larger: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/414627/union-station-pano.jpg Re: Shorpy LandmarksTo the left of the Government Printing Office is the tall thin spire of the Metropolitan Methodist Church. (The Gallery, D.C., DPC, Railroads)
Expect Delays: 1939
... (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Railroads, Rural America) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/28/2017 - 7:54pm -

January 1939. "Highway in Franklin County, Illinois." Medium format negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Illinois backroads.I was stationed at Chanute AFB in Champaign County, Iliinois in the early '70's and my friends and I all had street legal dirt bikes that we rode all the county and environs. It was all farm roads and four digit state roads, mostly unpaved, that allowed us to go just about anywhere without traveling on a paved road for miles. Great fun! Two signsI think I'd turn around, head back the way I came and not take any chances. L.E. DirdenLoren Edgar Dirden was born in 1890 in Carmi Illinois and died in 1967 in Franklin County Illinois. A draft card from 1941 can be found in a document called "Old Mans Draft Cards, Franklin County Illinois". He was 51 at the time. "Expect Delays"This is where any road gets interesting! Terrible TwosdayWell, between this and the foregoing Private Entrance: 1936, it looks like a good day to have pulled the covers over one's head and maybe try it again on Wednesday. Canary in a Coal MineFranklin Co. was a bustling hub of mining when this photo was taken. More than a dozen mines operated then, including the one seen in the background here, providing rapid count growth in the early part of the 20th century. It also made for a poignant tie to the sign in the photo, "Prepare to meet thy God," as 119 miners lost their lives at the Orient #2 mine on Dec. 21, 1951 due to a methane gas explosion. There was only one survivor. Going PostalThe front mail box belongs to an H. Butler. In the 1940 census, there was a Hershal Butler living on an "improved road" running west from Hwy 37 and near the Bethel Church, still extant on a route now bisected by I-57. In between the main route and that rural road was the Orient #2 mine mentioned in a prior comment. It's a fairly safe bet that the mine from the 1951 Franlin Co. tragedy is the one depicted in the background here. Fortunately for H. Butler, he was not amongst its victims. He died in 1949. Mail box questionThe smaller mail boxes with the flapper make sense. One can padlock the box at the top and still receive mail kept from prying eyes. I cannot see what the purpose of the ability of pad locking the type like the large one and getting no mail. Bombs? [That assembly at the front top of the box isn't for a lock - the lower section serves as a handle for opening the door and also as a latch to secure closure when engaged with the upper part. A lock requiring the carrier to have key in order to deliver mail into a box isn't permitted. -tterrace] (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Railroads, Rural America)
Here Comes Carbon: 1910
... (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cleveland, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/30/2012 - 7:58am -

Cleveland circa 1910. "Freighter W.W. Brown taking on coal." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Museum QualityThere's still one of these loaders that lifts the RR gondola car up by elevator to dump to the loader shute in Ohio, I can't recall which port, but there are several that push the gondolas up a hill and turn them over to load ships from a similar loader along the southern shore of lake Erie. The one at Toledo is quite busy. Tipper.This is really interesting. It's a type of "rotary" dumper. Well, not rotary, but you get the picture. Operation was rather interesting. Cars would be pushed onto the dumper, locked down, and then lifted up where the machine would slowly rotate to dump the car. In this case it looks to be a gondola car other than the usual hopper you would expect. Harry T. EwigW. W. Brown was built in 1902, lasted until 1964 as the Harry T. Ewig. The elevation print for her 1939 conversion to a crane ship is on the wall at Brennan's in Grand River OH. Long service life is common on the lakes. There are several 70 year old boats in active service, 2 recently scrapped at 80, and one from 1906 still working. I was out on a similar steam powered dumper in the early 60's, before the liability crisis hit - "OK, be careful!" Strange to see a full size modern hopper car hanging upside down... W. W. Brown *Built February 1, 1902 Bulk Propeller -Steel U.S. No. 81803 3582 gt -2778 nt 346' x 48.2' X 24' * Renamed (b) BALTIC -US -1920 (c) JOHN W. AILES - US - 1922. (d) HARRY T. EWIG - US -1926 Converted to crane ship in 1939 Cut in half and reduced to two scows in 1964. On October 29, 1965, both scows broke tow on Lake Michigan. Bow section struck Frankfort, Mich., breakwater and sank; stern section grounded at Christmas Cove. Vessel officially removed from documentation on January, 1966. Source: maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca Complete history of the WW BrownHere's a website that documents the complete history of this ship, with many pictures included. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cleveland, DPC, Railroads)
New Arrivals: 1920
... (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Chris Helin, Railroads, San Francisco) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/23/2016 - 12:59pm -

San Francisco circa 1920. "Grant Six touring cars after unloading." Latest tenants in the Shorpy Garage of Ill-Fated Phaetons. 5x7 glass negative. View full size. AutoboxesStandard boxcar roofs were to soon become a bit higher than this, and autoboxes eventually could hold three cars; there were two internal racks that held a car each on a slant, and then the third car was fitted through the side door and stashed between them. This was horribly inefficient to load and unload, in the 1950s the flatcars used by circuses grew a permanent second deck to turn into the autoracks we know today. It's hard to tell since we can't see the other end but given typical 1920s car length they probably fitted two Grants in a boxcar. Autoboxes are still around, though, because the extended side opening is useful in moving car components from factory to factory. RO/ROAlso noticeable about the auto box car on the left is that the box car floor is level with the ground. This suggests slightly sunken tracks, or slightly raised ground around the tracks for roll on / roll off loading/unloading. Auto boxcarsThe pair of boxcars on the left have end doors to load and unload automobiles easily. They retained the side doors, and could also be used as conventional equipment. The others in this view are likely the same. And interesting thing about the far left car is it's early steel construction- must be the latest development. The corrugations in the metal doors are to stiffen them up. Neat look at an opened door on one of these. More cars for your dollar.In 1920 these cars sold for $1,595.00. I count 10 radiator caps for a total value of about $15,950.00. About the cost of modern inexpensive import. All 10 cars probably filled two specialized automobile hauling railcars. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Chris Helin, Railroads, San Francisco)
DeLand Links: 1905
... quite a backup at #9. (The Gallery, DPC, Florida, Railroads, Sports) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/15/2021 - 4:04pm -

Circa 1905. "Golf -- College Arms Hotel, DeLand, Florida." Back before golf carts, there was the golf train. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size. Gone.Razed July 1946. Fifty bucks says I can make the green… while wearing a hubcap on my head. The height of luxuryIn the early nineteen teens the hotel advertised: "The equipment is modern and complete, including elevator, electric lights, steam heat and long-distance telephones in every room. Many of the rooms have private baths; others have hot and cold running water ... The entire property is fully equipped with automatic sprinklers, making the buildings as near fireproof as is possible." It had a ladies' parlor, music room, sun parlor, writing room, billiard room, pool, barber shop, and manicure parlor. Guests were entertained with two concerts a day in addition to dancing and afternoon tea that took place in the common areas. The rail car in the image reflects the planning that went into the hotel. There was a special spur that ran from the main line of the Atlantic Coast Line to DeLand, directly to the hotel. This spur enabled the well heeled to arrive in style and park their private Pullman rail cars immediately adjacent to the hotel. Others preferred taking the train from Jacksonville to Smyrna and thence to Orangeville where they would detrain and take a carriage the rest of the way along a road paved with shells. Among the hotel's many famous guests was President Calvin Coolidge in early 1929, who was in the area to dedicate a local tower. During World War II the hotel was turned over to the military for housing of officers stationed at a nearby air base. Unfortunately the grand old lady suffered terribly from wear during the war years and she never reopened as a hotel. In 1946 her new owner decided to sell of the furnishings and raze the hotel. Razed, not blazedThe story of this turn-of-the-century wooden hotel is unlike that of so many others seen on Shorpy, because it does not include a devastating fire. Worn out during World War II by army aviators staying there while flying out of a nearby airport, its new owners razed it in 1946. Every head in this photo seems covered by a hat, yet none of those hats is the world-famous style of the Philadelphia-based hat company that shares the name of this winter hotel's 1905 owner - John B. Stetson. Stetson College in DeLand was the college to which the name "College Arms" refers. Hats off to himBuilt by and controlled by John B Stetson. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cfm-images/2876/ Never again... will I complain about the groundskeepers at my local club. Or slow play. That's quite a backup at #9. (The Gallery, DPC, Florida, Railroads, Sports)
Minute Service No. 6: 1925
... I guess. (The Gallery, D.C., Gas Stations, Natl Photo, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 11:34pm -

1925. "Texas Co., Third Street & Florida Avenue N.E." One in a series of photos, evidently commissioned by Texaco, of service stations in and around Washington, D.C. Here we have the added attraction of a speeding train. View full size. It's the PitsLooks like a couple of outdoor oil-changing pits just to the right of the building. Found the spot - If not the building[How interesting that the concrete border around the planting bed along the sidewalk is the only vestige of the place to survive. Also, note the train going by. - Dave] View Larger Map Brand confusionIf the photos were indeed commissioned by The Texas Company (Texaco's formal name until sometime in the '30s), why does this station sell Standard/Amoco gasoline? I've seen photos of rural gas stations in the '20s where multiple brands were sold. I'm not sure when national marketers began demanding brand exclusivity. But I don't see a bright red Texaco Star anywhere here. [Texaco paid National Photo to take these pictures of Washington area gas stations. A few were Texaco stations; the majority were not. - Dave] Ghost trainTo the right of the gas station itself, look under the raised track signals. [As noted in the caption! - Dave] QuestionsWhat are the 3 items standing to the left of the building? They appear to have valves/switches on the body and then some kind of hose devices attached to the top of each. They remind me of air or lube lines but where they are makes no sense for those uses. They each have signs/instructions on them too. Next point - any one know why so many pumps in this and the following photo? Eight pumps for this station seems like a lot given how many (few) cars might have been needing gas at a given time. Perhaps the gravity feed gas in these pumps made a fill up a long task? [In 1925, the motor vehicle population of the U.S. was 20 million cars and trucks -- 10 times what it was in 1915, when there were relatively few gas stations, and hardly any with multiple pumps. So with a 1,000-percent car-population increase in just a few years, demand for fueling capacity was great. A pump back then dispensed only one grade of gasoline to one car at a time. The average four-island station today has eight pumps with three hoses on each side for a total of 48 hoses able to serve any of three grades of gasoline to 16 cars at a time -- the same number of pumps, but double the 1925 station's capacity. So eight pumps in 1925 really wasn't that many for a big-city gas station. The "three items" are air hose towers. - Dave] Gas PricesI've noticed in Shorpy pics of gas stations that no matter what time they were taken, that adjusted for inflation, the gas always seems to be around $3 a gallon. Makes me wonder. Out of gas, full of boozeWhat clearly used to be a gas station now is a liquor store, but the trains still roll by under the same signal bridge (semaphores are now passe, though). Possibly part of the property retains an automotive theme in the form of a small used car lot. [That sign in the window (advertising denatured methanol for use as antifreeze) certainly was on the mark! - Dave] Minute Service Washington Post, Sep 28, 1924 Gasoline Station Will Cover Square on Florida Avenue Several sales of large properties were announced by Allan E. Walker & Co., Inc., yesterday. … The American Accessories Company purchased the entire square on Florida avenue between Third and Fourth streets, extending though to N streets, and will erect thereon a gasoline filling station and accessory store, adding another link to the group of Minute Service stations. The property was purchased from Warren Brenizer in connection with the office of Joseph I. Weller. Elsewhere on Shorpy: Minute Service Station No. 1. Minute Service Station No. 2. Minute Service Station No. 3. Minute Service Station No. 5. Minute Service Station No. 8. Magnetite lampThe street lamp in this photo is not an arc lamp or an incandescent lamp but a GE magnetite lamp. These lamps operated by creating an arc between a solid carbon rod and a rod made of magnetite. They could operate for several months without trimming, maintenance, or replacing the rods and were the next evolution of mechanical arc lamps beyond the carbon arc lamp. These lamps were used only on outdoor installations as they produced toxic gasses in their operation. Magnetite lamps were introduced around 1905-08. Because of their proven reliability, some stayed in service as late as the 1940s or early 1950s Most conventional carbon arc lamps were removed from service around 1910. Photo below shows a magnetite lamp in the Folsom Powerhouse Museum in Folsom, California. Ghost Owner, Octane, and PricesJust to the left of the car filling up on the far right of the photo...you can make out a wisp of a motorist! And are those prices on top of those pumps? If so, I paid about that amount in the early 1970's! Could be octane ratings I guess. (The Gallery, D.C., Gas Stations, Natl Photo, Railroads)
Track Star: 1938
... as a "yard goat." (The Gallery, John Vachon, Omaha, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2017 - 9:22am -

November 1938. "Union Pacific yards. Omaha, Nebraska." Medium format negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. UPRR 2-8-2's numbers 1928 and 2121If I read the locomotive numbers correctly, they are #1928 and #2121. Both had the 2-8-2 wheel arrangement. #1928 was retired in 1949, while #2121 soldiered on until 1957. Source: www.utahrails.net Puzzles That complicated trackwork is called "puzzle switches", even by professional railroaders who work with them every day. PuzzlesI commute by rail. There's one of these puzzle arrangements coming into South Station in Boston. Some number of tracks coming in and another number of platforms, not all tracks can get to all platforms (I think), and each track change requires some amount of linear distance to accomplish. The amount of distance available is limited, since we're in an urban environment, with highways over, under and around us. The number of switches and shacks holding the control equipment is impressive, but the person who makes it all work sits in a little 8x10 hut surrounded by PCs. I guess it's less puzzling for the computer. Still, it's impressive when your train hardly ever has to wait for the switches to set up -- we almost always go straight out or in, and within a minute of "on time". Name TrainScript on the side of the coaches identifies this train as The Challenger, an economy Chicago-LA train devised by the UP in the 1930's to lure travelers back from the highways. It's in the process of being switched and reassembled, probably cutting a dining car in or out. The 1928, a low-drivered freight engine, is not the road power. That honor will likely go to one of UP's new 4-8-4 types. I agree with Lost WorldNote the pilot on engine 1928: it is the type that they outfit switch engines with, so the brakeman can step on and off easily. Looks like 1928 will be spending the rest of her days as a "yard goat." (The Gallery, John Vachon, Omaha, Railroads)
Union Stockyards: 1941
... (The Gallery, Agriculture, Animals, Chicago, John Vachon, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/06/2020 - 12:23pm -

July 1941. "Union Stockyards. Chicago, Illinois." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. View from the El platformAt the very bottom of Vachon's image is the Exchange station platform of the Chicago Elevated rail transit line that served the Stockyards. You can see a billboard for Clorox bleach, among others. Here's how it looked if you were standing on the Exchange station platform. It is interesting to note that men were riding horses among the pens. The View Is Fine Depending on the WindIn one of his radio shows, penurious comedian Jack Benny bragged he was staying at the Stockyards Plaza hotel while his cohorts wasted money staying up town in the Ambassador East or the Drake. Requiem for some heavyweightsI thoroughly enjoy John Vachon's work. There are aspects of this photograph that are immensely pleasing from an aesthetic standpoint. But probably not if you're a cow. "How sad, to leave Chicago. I have had such a wonderful week."John Vachon's letters to his pregnant wife Penny sent during his week in Chicago at the end of June 1941 reflect a combination of emotional peaks and valleys. Expected by FSA to spend his time photographing cattle and produce, he experienced and photographed intriguing Chicagoans in many settings, and loved wandering through the Institute of Arts and seeing nightly movies (including, on this trip, Citizen Kane). Yet he was practically broke, wearing through his clothing, and neglected by a seemingly uncaring boss back in DC (Roy Stryker) who was slow to pay him, communicate to him, or to even like the negatives he was sending back to the office. This particular series of his letters to Penny appears, in full, in "John Vachon's America" (on Google Books). Stockyard InnIn the late '40s and early '50s, a day at the annual Chicago Boat Show with my parents was always followed up by dinner at the Stockyard Inn. I was just a kid, so I don't remember what I had, but it must have been good because I still remember how I looked forward to eating there. What I remember most was that I always wondered if it was going to smell as bad inside the restaurant as it did outside, but apparently it didn't, because my most two vivid memories from over 60 years ago are how bad the neighborhood smelled, and how much I looked forward to dinner at the Stockyard Inn! (The Gallery, Agriculture, Animals, Chicago, John Vachon, Railroads)
Crossing Guard: 1943
... of those. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Jack Delano, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/12/2014 - 5:05pm -

March 1943. "Topock, Arizona (vicinity). Military sentry stationed at a bridge over the Colorado River along the Santa Fe Railroad between Seligman, Arizona, and Needles, California." Photo by Jack Delano. View full size. How in the worldcan you tell this is a shotgun? What software are you using to blow up this picture? [Distinctive profile. -tterrace] He Means BusinessSomething you don't often see in pictures. The guard is armed with a pump shotgun, probably either a Model 1897 or a Model 12. Most often you'll see soldiers on guard duty armed with an M1 or occasionally with M1903. There may have been other guards here armed with rifles to deter saboteurs at a distance, but this guy is ready for close-in defense. Sentry duty shotgunI think the guard is armed with a pump action shotgun. I've read that shotguns were often used on various guard and protection details during the war. Red Rock BridgeThis is Santa Fe's Red Rock Bridge, completed in 1890, and due to be replaced with a new bridge just two years after this photo was made. This then became the US 66 bridge for another 20 years. More here. Hot DutyThe last time I was in Needles, the temerature was 119 degrees. I felt like I was going to die walking between my air conditioned car and the air conditioned gas station. This is not the place where you want to be standing outside in battle fatigues and a steel helmet. This poor soldier may have screwed up somewhere else in order to draw this grueling duty. 6 Rails Across the BridgeWhy 6 rails across the bridge? Gantlet track. There is double track on each side of the bridge, which was built when a single track was sufficient for the traffic on the line. Traffic increased to where it became necessary to double track the line, but as a cost savings the bridge, only wide enough for a single track, was retained. Rather than put switches at each end of the single track segment, the bridge was laid with gantlet track. The two rails of each of the tracks for each direction were merged together about 6" apart. Counting from the left, the first and fifth rails are for trains in the approaching direction. The second and sixth for trains moving away from the photographer (as in, the caboose seen beyond the bridge.) The two center rails are guard rails, as a safety measure common on all bridges in case of derailment. My Two PelletsCall me a scatterhead, but that barrel looks too thin to be a scattergun barrel. In other words, it's hard to gauge but it seems too thin to be a shotgun barrel. AFAIK sentry duty shotguns in WWII were 12 gauge. That barrel looks no bigger than a .410, if that. I think I figured it outIt's a .30 cal. Springfield shotgun. Light And DistanceI'm no expert in photography, but I'd say the reason the barrel looks so thin is because of the effect of light, background and distance on a cylindrical surface. I've seen this before on items much closer. By the way, the barrel has been shortened to 18 to 20 inches, just right for up close shooting. I don't know if this was factory done or done by an armorer in the field. After looking at it more, I'm also not sure it's a Model 12 or a '97. The forearm looks a little fat for those. Could be a Mossberg. [Here's a closeup. -tterrace] Three pumpsI can't find a record of any Mossberg shotgun being used by the US military in WW II, so the choices are: Winchester M1897, Winchester M12, Remington M31 The picture (on screen, at least) is too bad to tell for certain. If I had to guess I'd say it was the 1897. If it's possible to see the receiver and grip on a high quality print, one can tell for certain. The M1897 has an exposed hammer and a flatter, longer grip section than the M12 between the receiver and the top of the stock. The M12 and M31 are easy to tell apart. The Browning Auto 5 was also used, but the weapon in the picture is definitely not one of those. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Fatal Stroll: 1902
... are fascinating reads! (The Gallery, Bizarre, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/22/2020 - 3:07pm -

1902. "Lizzie Bourne monument, Mount Washington, White Mountains, New Hampshire." Miss Bourne, who succumbed to exposure, was just a few hundred feet from the summit house when she expired on that blustery September night in 1855. 5x7 glass negative. View full size. Still thereI have made several climbs up Mt Washington and have seen the Lizzie Bourne monument. Amonoosuc Ravine trail. Mt. Washington is not forgiving. Many who underestimated it are now dead. https://www.nhmagazine.com/mount-washingtons-fatalities/ The Devil's ShingleThe worker is descending on the Mt Washington Cog Railway. Workers would ride these wooden slide boards down the mountain until they were banned by the state. They were equipped with brakes but were built for speed! Death on Mt. Washington: The Tale of Lizzie Bourne"Along with two relatives, her cousin Lucy Bourne, and her uncle George Bourne, Lizzie tried to climb Mount Washington without a guide. They left the Glen House, at the bottom of the mountain at about 2 PM. About 4 PM they had made it half way to the top." "They walked up the carriage road as far as they could, but because they had started up late, they still were not at their destination when night fell.  Lizzie was wearing the usual apparel for women of her time, which hindered her movement.  They then experienced a violent gale. Quickly becoming cold and confused, she died from exposure about 10 p.m. Note: it is also believed that possibly she also had an unknown heart condition contributing to her death." "When the sun rose, her companions sadly realized they were only a few hundred yards from the summit house. Her family built a monument near the spot where Lizzie perished." https://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2008/01/15/death-on-mt-washington-the-t... Lizzie had no chanceI sat on the veranda of the Mt. Washington Hotel a few summers ago and watched that cog railway go up the mountain. It was a glorious sunny day, so it's hard to imagine the severity of the storms that hit the summit, resulting in 200-plus mph winds. Poor Lizzie, on foot, had no chance when she was caught in one of those. Crazy way to travelLooks like fun. Until it’s not. (Also can’t get out of my head the image of the legless beggar of olden times, swinging himself forward over the pavement with a brick in each hand.) Not Without Peril:150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire by Nicholas Howe Read about her and countless other hapless souls who greatly underestimated the challenges they faced when they set out on a hike woefully unprepared for the sudden weather changes that can occur instantly, even to the very recent past. It's very much like Over the Edge, about people who constantly lose their lives in the Grand Canyon just because of simple mistakes. Both are fascinating reads! (The Gallery, Bizarre, DPC, Railroads)
For Them, Bombs: 1943
... 100,000 per day. (The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads, WW2) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/18/2014 - 8:20am -

        Pretty much a taboo sentiment these days in mass-transit hubs. Sequel to the poster seen here. January 1943. "Chicago, Illinois. Union Station train concourse." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. Still in use--and a very beautiful room waiting for your Amtrak trip. Today, pew-like benches make up a sitting area with a sandwich shop/ bar around the corner. I think it was built for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Perfectly situated downtown, super-easy walking distance from the Sears Tower or whatever they call it these days. Actually, it's long goneThis part of Chicago's Union Station, the concourse, was demolished c. 1970 to make way for a new office building. Saint al is thinking of the Waiting Room, which is actually in a separate building and was reached by a tunnel under Canal Street (see the signage in the other picture posted above). The Waiting Room is still a magnificent space; it was famously featured in Brian De Palma's 1987 film "The Untouchables," where a baby buggy bounces down a marble staircase during a shootout reminiscent of the famous Odessa Steps scene from Sergey Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin." The concourse was also impressive, featuring exposed steel columns and arches rather than the finished marble versions found in the Waiting Room. The concourse's replacement is a dingy low-ceilinged space that gives access to the trains, but it reminds me all too much of that other architectural massacre, New York's Penn Station. Union Station: 2014My photo below shows the same location as the 1943 photo. The grand hall is gone, but the busy train station persists underground. The arched doorway in the center of the 2014 photo is in about the same spot as the arched doorway in the 1943 photo (with the illuminated sign reading, "Adams St. Street Cars" and "Jackson Blvd. Motor Buses"). It may be exactly the same spot, but it's not the same stonework. Today Union Station serves 130,000 commuting passengers per weekday on Metra trains, plus an average of 10,000 Amtrak riders. This actually surpasses the World War II traffic of about 100,000 per day. (The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads, WW2)
Temple of Transport: 1910
... and when I have some success! (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Railroads, Streetcars) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/18/2017 - 2:17pm -

Circa 1910. "Bird's-eye view of Penn Station, New York City." Also a bird's-eye view of someone's underwear and diapers. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size. Pier 59"If the nearer 4-stacker is, however, the White Star liner "RMS Olympic", she'd be docked at Pier 59..." Pier 59 was at 18th St, wasn't it? That liner isn't at the foot of 18th St-- the tower just left of it is atop DL&W's Hoboken Terminal, and you can draw a straight line from the camera position to the tower that was rebuilt in the same position a few years ago. The liner looks to be at Pier 56, at 14th St. I'm guessing Pier 59 is the one just right of the Hudson County Courthouse-- the second pier right of that dark square churchtower just right of the four-stack liner. Caught NappingThe original "roofie." Cleaning the Water Tank?Looks like two girls with ladders and a chair, perhaps a broom or pole ... would they be cleaning the open tank or checking water depth? Ca. 1910 or June, 1911 perhaps?I just love these types of photos, so much rich detail and near-endless entertainment to the curious eye. In the left upper corner I see a few sets of 4 funnels belonging to some of the contemporary ocean liners. If the photo was indeed taken in 1910, the bigger one nearer to us on the Manhattan side would have to be either the "RMS Mauretania" or "RMS Lusitania", the only 4-funneled ocean liners at that time whose smoke stacks were spaced evenly. Further off in the distance, on the other side of the river in Hoboken, are 4 funnels spaced in pairs of 2-2, indicating a German express liner, possibly one of the bigger ones, like North German Lloyd's "Kaiser Wilhelm II" or "Kronprinzessin Cecilie". If the nearer 4-stacker is, however, the White Star liner "RMS Olympic", she'd be docked at Pier 59 and the earliest this photo could have been taken would be June 21st of 1911, the first time the "Olympic" was in NYC after her maiden voyage. However, the funnel proportions and some barely visible deck structures make me think it's the "Mauretania". Befuddling funnel riddle (almost) solved@Timz: I would say that based on your comment, you helped me identify those four funnels as belonging to one of the fast Cunarders. I've been staring at grainy enlargements of the area and still can't positively say which one of the two it might be. Those things are important, you know! 4 Stack ObsessionI'm a long time browser of the site.... so first THANK YOU. This picture and trying to identify the four stack liner has me obsessed with solving the riddle. I'll update if and when I have some success! (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Railroads, Streetcars)
Fast Mail: 1912
... (The Gallery, Harris + Ewing, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/20/2008 - 10:45pm -

"1912. Post Office. Hupp Automatic Railway Service." Another look at the Hupp system for mail transfer to and from a moving train, this being the upload part. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Just like in old cartoons!I remember seeing this type of contraption depicted in old cartoons from the 1960s, but never thought it would be an actual way of loading mail sacks into moving trains! Fascinating! Taft Inspects the MailThe patent database has numerous entries assigned to the Hupp Automatic Mail Exchange Company. None, however, seem to match the photographed devices exactly. The National Postal Museum has a 4 minute film, Mail by Rail, which shows some mail cranes in action. Washington Post Aug 1, 1912 Taft Sees New Mail Device Watches Operations of Invention to Receive and Deliver From Trains President Taft, accompanied by Maj. Thomas L. Roads, military aid, yesterday afternoon motored to Chesapeake Junction, on the Chesapeake Beach Railway, near the District Line station, to inspect personally the working of an automatic mail delivering and catching device. President Taft made a critical examination of the appliances, both on the ground and the equipment inside of the mail car of the test train of the Chesapeake Beach Railway. He made a trip on the train inside the mail car and watched the automatic device deliver and take in the mail, the train running at a speed of approximately 40 miles an hour. Later he took position on the ground near the appliance, and saw a rapidly flying train pick up and deliver the mail pouches. He was deeply interested. P.J. Schardt, president of the Railway Mail Clerks' Association; Mr. Hupp, owner of the device, and W.F. Jones, president and general manager of the Chesapeake Beach Railway, were present. High mail pickupWhen I was a kid in small town Texas (Alma) in the 1940s, the trains picked up the mail with a similar device. I use to love to watch the mailman hook up the hourglass shaped mail bag to the holding device and swing it out close to the track. When the train sped by, a V-shaped bar extended from the mail car would catch the bag in its small center and pull it off the arms. At the same time the man in the mail car would kick the incoming mail bag out the door. I remember how much our mailman would bitch when the man in the mail car was late kicking the bag out the door and he would have to walk some ways down the track to find bag on the ground and in the tall weeds. I would like to find a video of this device in action on the net. Has anyone ever seen such a video? (The Gallery, Harris + Ewing, Railroads)
Echo Cliffs
... Incredible. (The Gallery, DPC, Landscapes, Photochrom, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/04/2014 - 1:26pm -

"Echo Cliffs, Grand River Canyon, Colorado." Photochrom print published in 1914 from a glass negative taken many years earlier by William Henry Jackson, whose Western views, developed in his railcar-darkroom, formed the basis of Detroit Photographic's holdings in the company's early years. View full size. Great photo!I would love to see more photochromes on shorpy, autochromes too. IntriguingI know there were color photographs years before Kodachrome, but I never knew they were available at the turn of the century. Or was this print hand-colored? It looks fantastic! [The original photograph was black-and-white; colors were added during the printing process. -tterrace] Glenwood CanyonThis is Glenwood Canyon, western Colorado (about 15 miles from my home). Grand River is now called the Colorado River. The railroad tracks are still there and heavily used by Union Pacific freight trains (mostly coal) as well as Amtrak passenger trains. Interstate 70 follows the canyon on the opposite side of the river. This is one of the most picturesque stretches of interstate highway anywhere in the U.S., and truly a marvel of engineering. How it workedA tablet of lithographic limestone called a "litho stone" was coated with a light-sensitive surface composed of a thin layer of purified bitumen dissolved in benzene. A worker then pressed a reversed halftone negative against the coating and exposed it to daylight for 10 to 30 minutes in summer, or up to several hours in winter. The image on the negative caused varying amounts of light to fall on different areas of the coating, causing the bitumen to harden in proportion to the amount of light. The worker then used a solvent such as turpentine to remove the unhardened bitumen, and retouched the tonal scale of the chosen color to strengthen or soften tones as required. This resulted in an image being imprinted on the stone in bitumen. Each tint was applied using a separate stone that bore the appropriate retouched image. The finished print was produced using at least six, but more commonly 10 to 15, tint stones, requiring the same number of ink colors. So: the original photographic negative was used to "expose" specially prepared lithographic stones, which were then etched and engraved by hand to modify them as required for each different ink color. Then the stones were used in succession to print the 6, 10, or 15 ink colors that appear in the final product. Just two wordsThere are just two words for this Echo Cliffs colorized photo -- Incredible, Incredible. (The Gallery, DPC, Landscapes, Photochrom, Railroads)
Here's Lucy: 1908
... (The Gallery, DPC, Factories, Pittsburgh, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 2:42pm -

Pittsburgh circa 1908. "Carnegie Steel Company, 'Lucy' furnace." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Recycle 1908 styleThat is a very up-to-date string of coal cars in the background. All steel cars show Keystone Coal to be a very modern operation. In the foreground is several stretches of disconnected narrow gauge plant track, with a string of cars and wheelsets nearby. These plantracks would change location quickly, as needed. But what really interests me is that arch-roof former baggage car lettered American Bridge of NY. That car could easily be forty years old here.It likely was used by AB to carry rigging and supplies for their projects, although it may no longer be in use. To its right is a short ex reefer. [The hinged doors give away its former occupation. The windows cut into it indicate other uses by ABNY.] Its odd, double archbar trucks were popular on New York Central lines for a time. Broken WindowsWell, I guess bridges shouldn't have windows, anyway. The tradition at U.S. SteelThe tradition at U.S. Steel is to name furnaces after wives of the President/Chairman. Lucy Coleman Carnegie was wife of Thomas M. Carnegie. Where was Pittsburgh, anyhow?The Lucy Furnace was named in honor of Andrew Carnegie's sister-in-law, Lucy Carnegie. Located on the Allegheny River at 51st St, it was dismantled in 1937. The Romance of Steel, 1907. By Herbert N. Casson The Rise of Andrew Carnegie … In 1873 two new furnaces had been built, now famous in the iron world as the Lucy and the Isabella. The Lucy belonged to the Carnegie company, and the Isabella to a combine of Pittsburgh iron men. These furnaces were of equal size, and belonged to rival owners. They began at once to race in the production of iron, and their amazing achievements for the first time attracted the attention of all countries to Pittsburgh. The average output of a furnace was then fifty tons a day. There were wild hurrahs at the Carnegie company's works in 1874, when, for the first time in the history of ironmaking, the Lucy turned out a hundred tons of iron in one day. In England the news was received in silent incredulity. To believe that a single furnace could pour out twenty-two thousand dollars' worth of iron in a week was too much. Where was Pittsburgh, anyhow? And who was this Carnegie who made such preposterous claims? … A second Lucy furnace was built in 1877, and the Carnegie company operated both until the organisation of the Steel Trust. During that period of nearly thirty years they produced more than three million tons of iron—enough to give four pounds apiece to every man, woman, and child on the globe; enough to pave a road seventy feet wide with iron plates an inch thick from New York to St. Louis. … There is nothing idyllic about the Lucy furnaces. They have received no honours, no medals, no monuments. They have inspired neither artist nor poet. Yet for thirty-three years, for every hour of the day and night, they have been untiringly making the useless into the useful, magically transforming the ore into a ceaseless stream of that metal which is immeasurably more precious to civilisation than all the gold and silver and rubies and diamonds. (The Gallery, DPC, Factories, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Cloud Mountain: 1943
... ability. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Landscapes, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/15/2013 - 8:14am -

March 1943. "Coming out of the mountains on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe between Vaughn and Belen, New Mexico, into the Rio Grande River Valley. In the distance is a quarry on the mountainside where the railroad gets its rock for ballast." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. Belen Harvey HouseBack up the track in Belen the ATSF depot still stands and is used by BNSF and Amtrak (though that segment is in danger of losing Amtrak service). Right next door is a Harvey House that now (thankfully is preserved as a museum). Those cattle guardswe referred to in Alberta as Texas Gates. Yep, that's what it isCattle grids similar to this are common in Australia. They stop movement of all animals, as animals won't step on something with a sharp top edge, or even a rounded top, such as pipe. Generally, about a 3" gap between the grid strips also provides a barrier, because animals are fearful of gaps where they put their feet. Grids built with spaced rail line are also used in Australia where strength is needed, such as a grid on a road used by heavy trucks. However, I've seen a grid where one of the narrow boards on the angled side section, fell down onto the grid - and 345 sheep walked out over the grid, in single file - as sheep do! Never knew about the double rail - thanks for that interesting info! Is this a cattle grid?I'm curious: I guess this wooden construction is built to hold back cattle or deer but how does it work? It looks like the iron strips make it hard for a large animal to cross, but I don't understand these wooden triangles. Wouldn't a straight fence be simpler? Can anyone shed some light on this? Inner railsThe inner set of rails over the trestle are a safety device, designed to make it less likely that train cars will overturn and plummet off the trestle in case of a derailment. The wheels on one side of a derailed car would be caught between the regular rail and the inner rail, with a bit of luck keeping the car upright. Inner rails are sometimes called Jordan rails. I'm not sure why, but presumably it is not related to the Hashemite Kingdom. Still ThereFound it. 20 miles southeast of Belen and we're looking south here. The track makes a short S-turn here and this is the middle of the S. You can see the eastbound curve up ahead. Looks single-track then but twin-tracks now. The quarry is still there but looks to have been abandoned long ago. EDIT: SouthEAST of Belen, not southwest. Sorry for any confusion! Other worldlyThis almost surreal photo showcases the mystical, mysterious side of the well-named Land of Enchantment. Cattle gateI believe we're looking at a cattle gate here. Barb-wire to either side of the tracks, barriers, and the funny looking treads on the road-bed. I've been told that cattle don't like to step on these "treads" and that's what keeps them on the other side of the gate. LocationThe bridge is the one at 34.457N 106.5038W http://binged.it/1b0hrrN Cattle guard...It appears to be a cattle guard, as I have always heard them called. They work because cattle are afraid to walk over the open grid they create. the triangles on the ends are just so the cattle don't walk around it, but it still give clearance for the train. A fence would mean the train would have to stop and open and close a gate each trip! I don't know if they work for deer or not, but rather doubt it given the deer's leaping ability. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Landscapes, Railroads)
The Railyard: 1942
... up freight trains. (The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/02/2014 - 8:47pm -

November 1942. "Chicago. Looking toward the north classification yard and retarder operator's tower at an Illinois Central railroad yard." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. watch your step!Those rungs on that steel later seem awfully far apart; maybe to keep kids from climbing them when no one is around. I believe that "horseshoe" is a handle for the turnbuckle to tighten the band around the pole. It's very likely we’re looking at the Illinois Central Markham yard located in Homewood, Illinois (south Chicago). The yard is still there, about a mile west of Halsted Street underneath the Chicago bypass (I 294). Today it’s used primarily as an intermodal facility, the two humps having passed into history a long time ago. It's a long way to the outhouse!Just my luck! I climb all those steps and—wham, gotta go visit the outhouse!(centrally located, at least) Must have been quite a challenge during those Chicago winters! How about that "Good Luck" horseshoe hanging over the horizontal ladder brace? Just waiting to fall off and konk somebody on the head! Good luck, indeed... Working at The Hump.I had a summer job back as a yard clerk in college working at the Burlington's Clyde humpyard (near Cicero) back in the 1960's. My job was to stand at the top of the hump and staple a routing card on every card that went over the hill. I can still remember the screech of the retarders on hot, quiet nights and the slamming of the couplers when the cars connected at the bottom. Never did figure out quite how the retarders calculated how much pressure to apply to the wheels to get just the right speed, regardless of car weight or whether it was rolling to the end of an empty track or one that was nearly full. One of life's little mysteries. Boy, does this bring back memories. Mindless job, but a cool experience. Classification yardalso known as a "hump yard" a fairly complicated system of people, machines, and know-how to make up freight trains. (The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Hung Out to Dry: 1939
... and 12th. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, NYC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 10:50pm -

April 1939. "Jersey City and Manhattan skyline." 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. You may find yourself living in a railroad flat... right next to the Erie Lackawanna tracks. Those trains cars were still in service until the 1980s, and durable old warhorses they were. What is most striking - and horrifying - to me is the amount of particulates and soot in the air. I sometimes forget how densely covered with coal soot, diesel exhaust and oil-furnace smog cities would be on an overcast or air-inversion day. It sure didn't help the tubercular. Tuberculosis was still a scourge, and would be until the invention of Streptomycin 5 years later (also in New Jersey, at Rutgers.) You'd think that with that view of the skyline (when the day was clear), Jersey City would have been a bunch of Manhattan strivers. But it was mainly port guys, Irish longshoreman who would defend their territory with fists and bats. It was as gritty as it looks. Any Bets?It is a good chance this picture was taken on a Monday. Back in the day that was the day to do the washing, mending, and ironing. White SalePeople certainly wore a lot of white clothes. Erie RailroadAs mentioned previously the passenger cars, which were dark brown like the old U.S. Mail boxes and mail trucks, belonged to the Erie Railroad, whose eastern terminal was there in Jersey City. NJ-NYC commuters, like my father, would take the ferry across the Hudson River, weather permitting, and the "Hudson Tubes" subway (now PATH) under the river when the weather was bad. In 1960, the Erie Railroad merged with the Lackawanna Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, at which time they switched their terminal to the Lackawanna facility in nearby Hoboken. One of the most interesting characters in U.S. political history was Frank "I am the law" Hague, who reigned supreme as Jersey City Mayor from 1907 to 1947. Poor QualityThe shots of '39 Jersey City are interesting in that it appears Arthur Rothstein was 1) using an inferior camera; 2) an inferior lens on a good camera; 3)poor quality film; 4) poor quality development. Be interesting to know which. There are other photographs by Rothstein using a 35mm camera that are quite up to standard; and his medium and 4x5 works are masterpieces. [His 35mm camera was a Leica. - Dave] Jersey SootyWith all that smoke in the air, I'll bet their clothes were gray by day's end. Makes you wonder what the difference was between air quality then and now. Clothesline pulleysI'll bet if you went to the back windows of those tenements today, you'd still find the pulleys attached to the windows. You can still find the poles in the back yards, and the pulleys on the windows in Brooklyn. All they need are new ropes. A very earth friendly way to dry your clothes! That's where the well-to-do now liveIn this era, that part of Jersey City is making a comeback as the heir-apparent to well-to-do apartment living. Many of the old factories have been converted to condos, including the former Hague-built Jersey City Medical Center (too far to the west to be in this photo). Most of the buildings in the foreground - the ones that survive - have been converted to apartments, much in the manner of the better areas of Brooklyn that were of the same vintage. Part of the distant area in the photo is now know as Newport Center, and several of the old blocky warehouses are now tony condos for commuters via the nearby PATH into Manhattan. No where near as sooty as it was even in my childhood in the 1950's. I'm trying to find out what that greek-columned building was/is - it looks familiar to me, but I am not sure of the exact location and haven't had any luck finding it on Google - I think it's on Marin Drive or Grove Street, north of the Holland tunnel, just on the JC side before Hoboken. I'll just have to keep looking. "The muggers are mugging the muggers"Jersey City has always been a dense, gritty city with its share of slums. However, it was a pretty safe city until the 1960s, when things started to deteriorate. My grandfather, who lived in the Greenville section, used to say "Jersey City is getting so bad, the muggers are mugging the muggers." He wasn't far off. While it's a little safer today, there are still many parts of the city where you don't want to be walking at night. And the majority of the buildings date from the late 19th and early 20th century. Fortunately, the misguided highrise public housing projects are coming down (Currie's Woods, Montgomery Gardens), and the JC waterfront is being built up to the point where its skyline has overtaken Newark's as the best in the state. The spillover from Manhattan that started in the '80s to escape the high cost & taxes continues today. Jersey CityThe intersection at the far left right above the trains is Jersey Avenue & 10th Street. The park is Hamilton Park. The building with the columns is not there any longer. Nor is the building with the kind of cupola adjacent to the park. But you can make out Harborside Financial Center in the distance, that was the key. Most the other industrial buildings in the distance are gone. Photo probably taken from the roof of the Erie warehouse bounded by Coles, 11th, Monmouth, and 12th. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, NYC, Railroads)
V: 1942
... rest of the city. (The Gallery, Marjory Collins, NYC, Railroads, WW2) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/05/2012 - 7:10pm -

August 1942. "Crowds at Pennsylvania Station, New York." Medium format negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size. Sentimental JourneyAlthough it is apparent that all the men in uniform have an appointed destination and mission to accomplish, one has to wonder where all the other people are headed with children and cardboard suitcases. There seems to be no business men getting on these trains as one would see at Grand Central Station. I was in a similar line with my mother at the same place just one year later when my grandmother died in Pennsylvania and we took the night train to get there, my first experience as a youngster with a family death. Quite unforgettable. V for Victory, and moreThe “V for Victory” banner dominating the background includes, as you see, the Morse code for the letter: three dots and a dash. Early in WW II the letter began to be used as a rallying signal, expressed by holding up one’s first two fingers with the intent of showing defiance to the Nazis. The BBC took this idea and created its V for Victory campaign, which continued through the war and essentially was used by all Allied nations and their armed forces. Mass communication then, obviously, was by radio, and the BBC gave a sound to the campaign for its broadcasts into occupied Europe by using the opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. I have no idea if this choice was some wry British humor or what, but Beethoven, of course, was a German. [It was used because the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth are three short notes and a long (da-da-da-daaaa), which corresponds to the Morse code for the letter V. -tterrace] [Ahem. That's what I thought I was saying in my first sentence, but I forgot to include the part about the notes.] As a very young child during the war I traveled through Penn Station quite often and remember two details: the hundreds of model airplanes hanging from the ceiling (black Bakelight plastic aircraft recognition models, identical to a few I had at home) and the crowds of troops arriving and departing, as this photo illustrates. To this day I wonder about the fate of that uniformed generation of Americans that I saw; for some it had to be their last few steps on home soil. Next weekend my wife and I will be in Penn Station en route to a place without question much nicer than the destination of many of the military men and women who visited there, all those years ago. glass tileThat glass tile floor provided light to the tracks below. You can still see some portions of it looking up at the ceiling of the NJ Transit tracks. Vault LightsNote the glass prism vault lights imbedded in the floor, which were used to illuminate the room underneath. As a kid I remember seeing these in San Francisco, but I think most large cities had them. There's an interesting web site that tell the full story at: http://glassian.org/Prism/Vault/index.html You could make millions!Every person in this photo could have become a millionaire if only he or she had the sudden thought: "Hey! Why not build wheels into these suitcases?" Dinner in the DinerBack in the 1980s, I belonged to a singing group that performed for many "snow birds" in the Phoenix area. One of the favorite songs of our audiences was "Chattanooga Choo Choo", which includes the lyrics: "You'll leave the Pennsylvania station 'bout a quarter to four, read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore, dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer, than to have your ham and eggs in Carolina" As one of the oldest in the group, I had to explain what it meant, and keep reminding the other ladies that it wasn't "dinner AT the diner"! I was the only one who could remember dining cars on trains. In the early to mid 1960s, at 9 and 10 years old, I really didn't think much COULD be finer than dinner in the diner, during a cross-country train trip! On a more serious note, I would love to be able to hear what experiences each person in this photo was having, that day, and in the next few years. Certainly, everyone in it was affected by the global war in some manner. He's not ordering two more Pimm's CupsHere's Winston Churchill in one of his iconic images, flashing the V for Victory sign. LIRRThe Long Island Railroad also uses Penn Station as its NYC terminus. At he time this picture was taken it was the best route to that Shorpy favorite, The Rockaways, on the Queens County Shoreline. After a 1950 fire on the tracks running across Jamaica Bay, in Broad Channel, the LIRR felt that the line was too costly to operate and they sold it to NYC and in 1956 it became the IND Subway System's Rockaway line. That opened up those great beaches to the rest of the city. (The Gallery, Marjory Collins, NYC, Railroads, WW2)
See Grand Caverns: 1930
... (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/27/2015 - 1:08pm -

Circa 1930. "Vice President Curtis at Capitol with steam car." Which, as evidenced by the news item below, encountered a bit of trouble during its stop in Washington. National Photo Co. Collection glass negative. View full size. Auto Locomotive Leads to Arrest Man to Be Tried for Using Car For Advertising Railroad. The Washington Post -- May 17, 1930         Albert E. Lentz, of 501 Twelfth street northwest, will be tried in Police Court next Thursday on charges of using a motor vehicle for advertising purposes and of driving an automobile with view obstructed.         The latter charge was placed against the man after traffic officials had inspected the vehicle, a locomotive on an automobile chassis, at the Traffic Bureau. The vehicle, which is used to advertise the Norfolk & Western Railway and the Grand Caverns of the Shenandoah Valley, was driven to the Police Court Building and was inspected by Judge Isaac R. Hitt before the case was continued.         Lentz was arrested yesterday morning on Madison Place Northwest by Sergt. Milton D. Smith and Policeman J.R. LeFoe, both of the Traffic Bureau. First Native American Vice PresidentCharles Curtis was the first person with significant acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the two highest offices in the United States government's executive branch. I was not asleep in history and I had never heard this before. Guess they didn't mention it. He served under Herbert Hoover, who Shorpy showed us recently was the first president to regularly invite African-Americans to the White House. This makes me believe more than ever that Hoover's reputation would be much better if it were not for the Depression and the Bonus Army mess. Unobstructed view...... of the car with an obstructed view. Buick-based?http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/tag/locomotive-automobile/ (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo, Railroads)
Brakeman in Black: 1939
... say BRAKEMAN. - Dave] (The Gallery, Dorothea Lange, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/25/2018 - 1:02am -

June 1939. Carlin, Nevada. "Brakeman on the Union Pacific Challenger." Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. 40.709083N, 116.117243W -- looking SWIn 1939 Dor0thea Lange apparently, like Arthur Rothstein, drove across Nevada along the Lincoln Highway (now Interstate 80) taking pictures. In the town of Carlin, where B Street crosses the railroad tracks going south to West Main Street seems like it might have been the location where this particular image was photographed -- her camera pointed roughly southwest. A second train track now runs alongside. I wonder if the base of the tall old signal tower is the white electrical box there now. Does he have all his fingers?A brakeman's job was historically very dangerous with numerous reports of brakemen falling from trains, or being run over or crushed by rolling stock. As rail transport technology has improved, a brakeman's duties have been reduced and altered to match the updated technology, and the brakeman's job has become much safer than it was in the early days of railroading. Individually operated car brakes were replaced by remotely-operated air brakes, eliminating the need for the brakeman to walk atop a moving train to set the brakes. Link and pin couplings were replaced with automatic couplings,and hand signals are now supplemented by two-way radio communication. BrakemanMy uncle, who was a conductor on freight trains, said there were many accidents with the loss of limb as well as life. He would relate that in the station house you could see limbs laid against the wall when the injured were brought in. As a conductor, he would walk the roofs of the cars in all kinds of weather conditions and set the brakes on the cars individually as well as the brakeman. He was employed by the Pennsylvania RR for 49 years and had the run from Pittsburgh to Oil City, PA. Western PacificCamera is looking SW, but the curve is the one at 40.71047N 116.107W, on the Western Pacific. In June 1939 train 88 was due out of Carlin at 1143 PST. The sign down there likely says West Carlin One Mile. Passenger Train ConductorPart of a passenger train conductor's job was to be a brakeman. That job included "lining a route" for the train he was assigned to. The conductor in the picture is part of the train crew assigned to the "Challenger", a named train on the Union Pacific Railroad. A brakeman on a freight train would not be wearing a uniform like the one in the picture. [Their caps say BRAKEMAN. - Dave] (The Gallery, Dorothea Lange, Railroads)
Iron Ore on Erie: 1900
... of things. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Mining, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/25/2016 - 10:09am -

Circa 1900. "Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway ore docks, Ashtabula, Ohio." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Clean, but ...Am struck by how clean this busy site seems to be. Of course, those massive piles of iron ore are a rust-red color and that tint might prevail all across the scene. A really fine steel industry shot. Glad you put it up. Cranes?How did those Crane like thingies in the background work? When You're Out of Schlitz ...That little Schlitz private owner refrigerator car was the prototype for one of the most popular Walther kits for kids like me, whose parents could only afford a Marx 027 set. At 36ft long in real life, it scaled down small enough to go around the 027 curves, and still let an impecunious kid build a "proper" piece of model rolling stock. I still have mine. I'm often reminded of painters and paintings on this site. Today it's Charles Sheeler, particularly the smaller sized version. [Tiny Charles Sheeler is one of my favorites, too. - Dave] "Cranes"I think those are actually movable sets of elevators/conveyor belts. They transfer the material (coal) from one side and then dump it into the piles you see. They move side-to-side (into and out of the page in this picture) to service different parts of the yard. I think there are elevators/bucket lifts on the input side that puts the material on the belts which climb then the stuff falls off the free end. Still thereThe docks are still there, with ore trains and big piles of ore. Only the equipment has disappeared. I imagine that a modern loader can move a third of a carload in one scoop. D for dedicatedThe Lake Shore & Michigan Southern gondolas have the letter D prefacing the car number. This told car checkers the car was in dedicated service so not to be taken off its current route. In this case mine to pier to steel mill over and over again. The ore bridges were a step up from the whirley cranes but soon have competition from massive Hullet unloaders with their grasshopper-like dipping legs. The ground looks clean since this was an area where only the most foolish non-railroader would tread and drop trash. There is little in this photo that a safety inspector would praise. Those crib retaining walls being a first concern. Short-lived lighthouseThe lighthouse at the left side of the picture dates this to between 1897 and 1904, the latter date when these facilities were doubled in size and a whole new terminal was built for the Pennsy. It served as the rear light of pair to guide ships into the harbor. With the expansion a new tower was built in the new section, and that was all she wrote for this one. More "Cranes"Those structures do not have conveyor belts - if you look closely, you can see a few of the buckets at various distances from the ship. There are small 'trolleys' which move along the bridge-like structures, one on each. Each trolley caries a bucket (probably clamshell) which can reach into the ship's hold, remove some ore (or coal, but I suspect ore), raise it up, and then move either over the large piles, or over railroad cars to dump the load. Rebuilds...The hopper cars on the far right look to be rebuilds from earlier composite hoppers. Composite types had metal frames, and wooden sides with metal bracing. These cars, however, look to be of an all metal construction. While not overly common in 1900, all metal construction hoppers were starting to come into use. The cars had a longer life span than the wooden composite types, and actually ended up being cheaper to operate in the grand scheme of things. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Mining, Railroads)
Big Boumi: 1923
... www.ecborail.org (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/20/2014 - 7:30am -

"Past and present in locomotives. Eckington Yards, June 4, 1923." A closeup of the locomotive seen here yesterday in the Baltimore & Ohio rail yard during the Masonic convention in Washington, D.C. The big engine wears the livery of "Boumi Temple," a Baltimore Shrine lodge. 5x7 glass negative. View full size. Over a BarrelThe barrel more likely contained water for the boiler. There may have been a small box for coal, but small and early locos didn't stray too far from a source of fuel. Water was a bigger concern, so it was almost always carried on the engine or in the tender. EL-3?By all accounts that is exactly a variation of the EL-3, except for that forward stack, which doesn't seem typical for the class. Amazing march of progressThe smaller locomotive is very interesting to see in detail. It says it was built in 1832; that makes it one of the earliest steam engines to run on rails in the country. But it was not the first; that honor corresponded to another 0-4-0 locomotive known as "Stourbridge Lion", which was built in 1828 and was imported from Britain. This is a very, very early design concept. A vertical boiler, two vertical cylinders, moving beams and shafts, inside "crankshaft" style axles -- this thing, in its time, was capable of pulling one or two small cars for short distances and at a very low speed, but it must have been an impressive sight to behold! I wonder if they took more pictures of that old locomotive. EL-1B&O 7100 was an EL-1 class 2-8-8-0 Mallet compound, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1916 - the EL-1 classification is legible on the builder's plate in the full size view. Subsequent EL-2, EL-3 and EL-5 class locomotives were very similar. Most were converted to simple articulateds starting in 1927. More On These LocomotivesThe 7100 is class EL-1, built by Baldwin in 1916. The little engine is the Atlantic, but it really isn't the Atlantic. The original Atlantic was built in 1832, taken out of service in 1835 and scrapped. This locomotive was originally named the Andrew Jackson. These engines were called grasshoppers in early parlance because of their drive mechanism, and the Atlantic was the first of them. The A. Jackson was the only one left by the 1890s, when B&O wanted to send an early locomotive to the world's Columbian Exhibition, so they turned the Jackson into the first grasshopper, the Atlantic. It now resides in the B&O museum. The original Atlantic was built in 1832, of 2-2-0 wheel arrangement, and weighed 6.5 tons. The is an 0-4-0 built in February of 1836. (Source: B&O Power, Sagle and Staufer, 1964) Shriners and MasonsJust some clarification from one who has traveled east, and also travelled over the hot sands. Masons belong to Lodges. Shriners belong to Temples. All Shriners are Masons, but all Masons are not Shriners. These cars and locomotives hauled Shriners to a convention of some sort. No, we do not and never have secretly or openly ruled the world. Single smokestackThes engines were Mallet-system compounds when built, with a single blastpipe and smokestack. When they were converted to single-expansion engines they were fitted with dual blastpipes and stacks: http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/bo7120s.jpg Fuel barrelI assume that the barrel was filled with coal for the vertical boiler. I wonder where the engineer stood to operate this engine, it was probably dangerous as all hell with the exposed operating mechanism. The Pioneer The wooden passenger car in the middle right edge of the photo is a replica of the 'Pioneer'. From the B&O website: "When the B&O began operation in 1830, its trains were pulled by horses. Constructed by Richard Imlay, the "Pioneer" was the first passenger car on the Baltimore & Ohio and was one of the first passenger cars produced in the United States. The "Pioneer" carried the B&O board of directors on the railroad's first run to Ellicott Mills on May 22, 1830. In 1836, the B&O stopped using horses to pull trains, but kept horses in its stables at Mt. Clare until the 1880s to pull cars through the city. The original "Pioneer" was scrapped at an unknown date. A replica was constructed by the railroad in 1892 for the World's Columbian Exposition. It was also displayed at the 1927 Fair of the Iron Horse." Another replica of the Pioneer is on display at the B&O Railroad Museum: Ellicott City Station. The station is the oldest surviving railroad station in the US. www.ecborail.org (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Railroads)
Noon Whistle: 1905
... still exist. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2012 - 3:59pm -

Newport News, Virginia, circa 1905. "Noon hour at the shipyard." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. OYSTERS.If I've learned anything from this site is there's probably an oyster house within walking distance, and on the sign, the word "oyster" ends with a period. [Looks like like oysters on that cart. - Dave] Where are the lunch pails?One might assume that the workers are on their lunch hour, but something is missing: lunch pails and foodcart vendors. Perhaps there are diners and bars across the street. The workforce seems reasonably well-dressed for a manufacturing operation. Lots of coats and ties. [A food vendor is in the middle of the picture. Wouldn't the lunch pails be inside the factory gates? Workers who brought their lunches would have no reason to leave at noon. - Dave] I suspect that many of these workers are going to "drink" their lunch at a local bar. If the vendor pictured is selling oysters, I would hope they are on a bed of ice, but I see no drippings on the road - and no one lined up to buy his goods. [I suspect most of these guys are going home to eat, and that anyone who made a habit of liquid lunches would be fired. - Dave] Oysters a la cart. I would not be surprised if there were an Oyster cart there by the main gates to the Yard. That area of the James River was at one time a fertile area for oyster-men to do their harvesting. In fact, there are still some areas of the James where they still work the oyster beds. The days of the independent Oyster-man are about gone. Rush hour trafficThis picture looks to be taken at the main gate on 35th and Washington. Having lived in Newport News for 19 years I can say that this is still a common sight, albeit with many more people. The "yard" employs around 15,000 these days. When I first moved there in '76 it was around 30,000 on three shifts. If you are driving down by the yard at 4PM when the whistle blows for the end of shift you have two options. Drive like heck to get out in front of the pack, or find a bar someplace and wait for the rush to subside. Guillotine Non!I'd be quick walking under those raised gates! "Pick up a tin of lard!"I've been enjoying this site almost daily for well over a year but finally registered. First, thank you for this wonderful site. I always fall into the pictures here but this one looks so familiar! Many of those guys could almost be old coworkers I've known by looking at their faces in conversation. I only see about four women at first glance. The one I find interesting is the nearest just on the other side of the gate. She is peering in through the fence. Probably looking for her husband to pick up a tin of lard on his lunch (if she is anything like my wife). Great PictureWish my father was still alive, he used to work at the shipyard and would have gotten a kick out of this picture and would have known exactly where it was taken. I've never been there myself, but many of the buildings probably still exist. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
Inbox: 1912
... Junction . - Dave] (The Gallery, Harris + Ewing, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/27/2012 - 11:55am -

"Post Office Dept. Hupp Auto Railway Service." The download part of the Hupp mail-transfer system. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Zipping AlongMail traveling on trains meant that to sort mail to its destination, postal clerks needed to know what mail went on what train, not only for towns along its own tracks, but mail that had to be transferred to other train routes. To do that, they had to memorize train schedules. So, what happened when passenger train service dried up? Mail started going on trucks and airlines which could travel every which way, not bound by fixed tracks. In the early 1960s, the POD reorganized into a hub-and-spoke system, with large centralized distribution centers that served scores of surrounding satellite offices. "Early 1960s, hmm?" you say. "That's about when the ZIP Code came in, right?" Yep. That's what it was all about. The first three digits designated the hub, or "sectional center" post office. The ZIP Code was just the visible portion of a fundamental change in the way mail was transported. By the way, those rail cars didn't just carry sacks of mail; frequently they'd be carrying postal clerks doing enroute distribution - in other words, sorting the mail as they went chugging merrily along. The Hupp SystemI assume that the Hupp Automated system wasn't adopted by the Post Office Department. Most photos of RPO Mail Cars as late as the 1940s show the simple hand operated hook system that grabbed the mail sack, while offloading of the mail was done by a postal clerk in the car giving the bag a good solid kick that would send it flying clear of the train's backwash (air currents that would suck the bag into the side of the car or, worse, under the wheels of the train). The RPO cars were fully functioning postal sorting stations. Many of them even had a slot so that you could drop a letter or a post card in and it would be canceled sorted. It's no wonder that post offices in cities were build next to or across the street from the passenger station. [The Hupp System ended rather badly, when Albert Hupp was indicted for stock fraud. - Dave] Where?I wonder where the photo was taken. Note the electric RR on the left, steam RR with the Hupp apparatus on the right. [Probably Chesapeake Junction. - Dave] (The Gallery, Harris + Ewing, Railroads)
Ye Alpine Tavern: 1913
... has left this photo of the ruins. (The Gallery, Railroads, Streetcars) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 1:39pm -

Mount Lowe, California, circa 1913. "Ye Alpine Tavern on Mount Lowe Railway line." Our second look at this mile-high Swiss-style chalet that was the end of the line for passengers of the Mount Lowe scenic railway. As we saw in the video clip accompanying the previous post, excursionists got a spectacular ride for their fare (which in the railway's opening year of 1893 was a hefty $5). 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size | Continue reading Postscript: There's at least one other high-resolution view of the railway in the Library of Congress archive, for a total of three images, and there could be more to come. Although they were taken a century ago, they are in effect "new," having been digitized in April 2010 and put online in the past few weeks or months. Up until recent years or months most of these Detroit Publishing images have been effectively invisible for the better part of a century, existing only as negatives or as colored postcard views, which are something like low-resolution cartoons. Large-format prints, which were part of the Detroit Publishing business, have not survived in large numbers or were never made in the first place. It's only now, for the first time, that people are able to experience these views in the great detail afforded by the 8x10 inch glass negative format, thanks to digital technology, which lets us get a positive image of the negative without making a photographic print on paper in the darkroom, which is where a lot of detail gets lost. So the view you see on your video display right now on Shorpy is, for many if not most of these images, their much-delayed mass-audience high-definition premiere. Local and Long Distance!All this and a Bell Telephone! Would there be anything BUT "long distance" from this outpost? It is SO gratifying to see these hi-res pictures. I've been fascinated by the Mount Lowe Railway for most of my life, but as noted, prior published pictures lacked detail. I wish the tavern was still there.The hike along this route is one of my favorite in the L.A. area. There are signposts along the route giving a little history of the railway. The cuts through the granite as seen in the video clip are of course still there (minus the rail tracks) and look very familiar. It's a tough but rewarding hike that's quite accessible. The tavern would be a very welcoming stop if it was still there although my hike would probably end at that point (hic). StunningI love opening these up, a great present. How good would the prints look when they made them? [That's a good question. I should look for one on eBay. - Dave] Yesterday's FutureSurprising how modern this building looks, but then we've been seeing echoes of its design for the past hundred years. There's a timelessness to those tapered columns, the wall of glass and the strong horizontals of the deck.Good design doesn't go out of style -- that's why we still see Art & Crafts and Mission styles in our furniture, and some of us still build similar designs. Steve "Old Dusty" Miller Someplace near the crossroads of America Ye Alpine PostcardMore here. Topless TavernAt the base of the mountain sat Mount Lowe military Academy, where my father was a cadet in the 1940s. On their alumni website, a classmate has left this photo of the ruins. (The Gallery, Railroads, Streetcars)
Brakeman Capsey: 1943
... that looks quite similar. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads) ... 
 
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)
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