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The Old Mill: 1899
... Streetview. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/25/2017 - 11:25am -

Green Lake, Wisconsin, circa 1899. "Old mill at railway station." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. The Mystery of the Two MillsThe Brooklyn flour mill, owned by John B. Vliet, was in business before 1865. Sometime in the 1870s it was damaged by fire. In order to get the mill running again as soon as possible, Vliet borrowed more money from the original lender, Washington Libby. Libby eventually gained ownership through default, although Vliet continued to operate it. It was out-of-business by 1925—the date of the photo below (note the 12-over-12 double-hung windows). It was torn down in the early 1950s to salvage the wood inside. The second photo is a water side view of the building. The Brooklyn Mill is often misidentified as the Sherwood Mill, which was built by Anson Dart and John C. Sherwood in nearby Dartford (now Green Lake) in 1849. However, the Sherwood Mill (also know as the Dartford Mill) burned down before 1875 and was never rebuilt. The mistaken identification is made because the Brooklyn Mill sat near the Green Lake Station depot on the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac Railroad (later the Chicago & Northwestern) line, which is out-of-sight of the mill in the main photo at top (location A on the map below). In 1975 the depot was relocated to downtown Green Lake and opened as a museum for the Dartford Historical Society (location B). The depot's new location just happens to be directly across the street from the site of the old Sherwood Mill, so it is easy to look at a modern map and see an old mill site and a railroad depot, and assume that they are the subjects mentioned in the original caption. The Dartford Historical Society has a great bunch of folks who helped untangle the mystery. Still around?My first thought was that this building would make a great and imposing post industrial loft style home. A shoreside property, too. Is it still around? Couldn't find it on Google Streetview. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
Tumbler: 1910
... (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cleveland, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/30/2012 - 11:03pm -

Cleveland, Ohio, circa 1910. "Rotary coal car unloader." Don't try this at home. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. How TypicalThe quintessence of steampunk. Big LightThe lamp at upper right in the picture is so foreshortened, it looks bigger than the men! Unusual design Most rotary dumpers rotate the car in place and dump into a chute. This one pulls it up an incline until it reaches the chute and empties it. The pegged incline is visible below the men and the operating cables stretch from the wheels at the upper left to the bottom of the cylinder. What ingenuityThis one has me itching to dig out my Meccano kit and build a model of it myself. It May Look SteampunkIt may look like an industrial dead end but this sort of rotary unloader is still popular technology in places where you transfer coal from railcars to ships. The reason is simple enough - with an open hopper car it is quicker to turn the railcar over and empty it that way than to allow the car to drain through the hatches at the bottom of the car. This means you can load more tons per hour and the time the ship is in harbour is minimized. These days you can even empty the hoppers without uncoupling them from the train. In the days when grain was transported by boxcar a similar technology was used at coast terminals to empty the boxcars, but it wasn't nearly as efficient. Interesting WiringYikes! The wiring on the lamp to the right clearly wasn't inspected to today's electrical code. Of course it's a minor hazard compared what might happen if a cable broke on the car unloader. Timothy Long's Coal DumperCompared with the previously seen Brown Hoist tipper, this car dumper required the railroad tracks to be elevated significantly above the dock level. Scientific American, 1895 A Coal Car Dumping Machine Great progress has been made during the past two years in loading and unloading vessels for shipment, and most especially is this true at the lake ports, where it is necessary to handle with great dispatch cargoes of iron ore and coal. The old method, which existed for years, was principally hand work, and the cost of unloading coal by hand was about twenty-five cents a ton. The coal was transferred from cars to vessels by slow working cranes, which could do but little in the course of a day. At many ports there were not even cranes, and wheelbarrows and "navvies" kept a vessel tied many hours at dock when she might have been on her way making something for her owners. Of the many efforts which have been made to perfect machinery for doing this work, none seem to have met with the success reported of the Long dumping machine, recently perfected in Cleveland by the Excelsior Iron Works Company, and which is shown in the accompanying illustrations. At a very recent test on the docks of the N. T., P. & O. Railroad in the city of Cleveland, this machine actually made a record of unloading three ordinary railroad coal cars into a vessel in three minutes. The coal was what is known as ordinary lump Massillon, and it was transferred from the cars to the vessel with absolutely no assistance other than the handling of this machine. The machine is the invention of Mr. Timothy Long, a practical designer who has been connected with the Excelsior Iron Works for a number of years. The car dump consists mainly of a large cylinder, with an inside diameter of 11 feet, and an outside diameter of 16 feet; the length being 40 and the circumference 52 feet. It is set 28 feet above the level of the docks, but on a level with the company's tracks, one of which runs through the cylinder when the latter is at rest. The coal-laden car is set in the cylinder by means of a switching engine; and by the time the car is detached from the train, it is clamped firmly by means of a beam running along the side. This beam acts by hydraulic pressure and the car is held rigid by four iron clamps which fall upon the top of the car's sides, and which are firmly held in place by keys fitting in cogs. These clamps act automatically when the cylinder begins to roll. This clamping process is the work of an instant, and, by means of a lever worked from the end of the cylinder, an engine on the dock level is started. This engine has a cylinder 30 inches in diameter by 19 feet stroke of piston, and a single stroke is all that is necessary to roll the cylinder up an inclined plane into the position shown in one of the engravings, when the coal rolls out compactly into the chute. When the coal leaves the car, the chutes stand out horizontally, which prevents the coal acquiring any momentum. As soon as the cylinder begins to roll back, the chutes are gently lowered by means of another engine on the dock level, and operated by a man standing between them, until the coal is allowed to pour gently into the hold, the breakage being thus reduced to a minimum, which is something less than when it is handled by being shoveled into buckets and then dumped into the hold by means of "whirlies." Both the cylinder and chutes are operated by means of wire cables, and the operation of the whole machine is so simple as to add greatly to its value, there being no complicated machinery to get out of order. The cylinder is made absolutely accurate in its movements by a series of four inch holes being bored in the perimeter near each end of the cylinder, which fit upon cone shaped pins on the inclined track. This gives all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of a cogwheel arrangement. The great points in favor of the Long car dumping machine are as follows: The machine operates rapidly; it empties cars of all sizes, in any order, without adjustment being necessary; and the coal breakage is reduced to an absolute minimum. The machine is comparatively cheap as to its first cost, and is economical of operation. The construction, while solid, is not complicated, and can be erected at low cost. Only three men are required. These are the engineer or fireman, a man to operate the cylinder, and a third to operate and control the movements of the chutes. The machine has duplicate boilers, one for use in case of emergency; but the entire apparatus is operated with only 80 pounds of steam. The stoppages usual to any new type of machine have, of course, occurred, but the changes necessary were very trifling in character, and in no way reflected upon the usefulness of the machine. "Great clouds of coal dust"Video clip of one of these giant contraptions in use. (Library of Congress) From Edison films catalog: Shows how a full carload of coal is loaded into a vessel every thirty seconds at the great Erie Railroad docks, Cleveland, Ohio. Great clouds of coal dust rise as each car is unloaded. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cleveland, DPC, Railroads)
Banana Boat: 1903
... 1970. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, New Orleans, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 4:39pm -

Circa 1903. "Unloading bananas at New Orleans, Louisiana." An alternate view of this scene. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Reminds me of my former officeI counted 57 people in the scene around the "reefer", 17 of them were leaning, posing, smoking pipes, and watching all the others doing the actual work, nothing has changed. Union JackThe ship being unloaded is flying the Civil Ensign of Great Britain. This merchant flag has the Union Jack in the canton and a red field. Note the thicknessof the doors of the refrigerated rail car in the foreground. Also note that all the longshoremen are white. Southern cities generally had competing black and white longshoremens' unions. Wooden Railroad car...and moreAs a railroad historian, the wooden reefer car grabbed my attention- Arched bar trucks, outside body hung brake beams - outside of the airbrake line this car could have been built in 1880. The Fruit Growers Express and Continental Growers Express were owned by Armour & Co. and they operated until the early 20th century when they were broken apart in a nasty monopoly case. As a labor historian, I was bemused by the relatively few African-Americans unloading fruit. The New Orleans water front was controlled by a number of unions, mostly segregated (hey! it was 1903! That any at all were integrated is amazing), but a set of agreements had been setup by the Port's Council of Unions which set quotas for the workers supplied by the 'black unions' and 'white unions'for any particular job- the work gangs should have been more mixed up if it was a normal crew. This workforce is largely European. This leads me to suspect that this may be an image taken during one of the fairly common labor strikes. The companies (Railroad and Fruit shippers) would hire strike breakers among the recently arrived immigrants to replace the union workers during the strike. These jobs were very desirable. The union wages for longshoremen was 40 cents an hour in 1903 New Orleans compared to that of railway cargo handlers at around 30 cents an hour. Both groups would work unloading and loading fruit. This was a good wage in 1903 (a beer was 20 cents) and a blue-plate dinner was 75 cents (no payroll taxes either) and these jobs were in high demand. This photo (and its other view) lead me to believe that these are at the Thalia Street Wharf just down river from the Garden District in New Orleans. The loafers are a mixture of foreman, a coat watcher (who apparently likes bananas (look at the peels), and probably a few stevedores (labor brokers).. Lots of WorkNew Orleans is and has always been a different place. It's a city in the South, but not a "Southern city" in the sense of the often fairly accurate stereotype. There were businesses and organizations composed entirely of blacks, others that were white, and a few that were integrated. The groups dealt with one another fairly freely but didn't mingle as individuals, and while black and mixed groups were somewhat lower-status than those of whites it wasn't by much. There were many wealthy and middle-class blacks, who held their own in the general society. This arrangement survives today, at least somewhat, visible in the "crewes" who set up the Mardi Gras floats and extravaganzas. As ajlcary notes, before the general unrest and union consolidation of the Thirties, the New Orleans waterfront was organized along those lines. There were many small Unions, each represented on the Council of Union leaders. As recently as the late Sixties, there were groups continuing the tradition within the overall subhead of the ILA. Union leaders tended to assign them to work as groups, rather than as individuals. It is never wise to judge events in New Orleans by the standards of, say, Atlanta or Birmingham, especially on the basis of a vignette. Unloading a banana boat in the days before useful mechanization involved several different tasks, some nastier than others, and during the unloading the groups involved would trade off after the breaks. It's entirely possible that, at the moment the photograph was taken, there was a black Union "diving" in the hold (the nastiest job) and a white Union "passing", that is, on deck transferring fruit along the deck (the easiest work), while the mixed group we see "docks", loads the freight car. An hour or so later we might well have seen the white group docking, the blacks passing, and the mixed group down in the dark, dirty, tarantula-infested hold. Another hour might have produced another tradeoff, and most of the people we would see on the gangplank and dock would be black. United Fruit CompanyStack logo of the steamship is that of the United Fruit Company which ceased operations (at least its fleet did) in 1970. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, New Orleans, Railroads)
Emporia Junction: 1943
... early spring wind blowing. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/06/2014 - 1:28pm -

March 1943. "Emporia, Kansas. Passing Emporia Junction switch tower as the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe train pulls into the yard." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. Track DiagramTrack diagram for Emporia Junction tower along with a bit of history here. Mechanical Bits and BytesYou are looking at the 19th century's equivalent of a computer - mechanical style. That large building, or "tower" is the CPU. Inside, at the operators level upstairs, are several dozen 4 foot long levers - the equivalent of a keyboard for input. One or two of each of these levers is connected by a system of rods and levers, called piping, to control the position of a railroad switch or signal up to half a mile away. This piping can be seen running from the base of the tower, on supporting rollers parallel to the tracks. At the remote switch, the motion of one lever would set the position of the switch, and the second lever would control a locking mechanism to assure that the switch had thrown properly and to lock it in position so it wouldn't accidentally change position under a moving train. Downstairs in the tower was a system of vertical movable tappets, one for each lever, with a horizontal matrix of movable locking bars interfaced to the tappets. At the junctions of the tappets and locking bars there were notches cut into the tappets into which dogs on the locking bars could fit to lock or unlock the tappet. Dogs could be set as IF-THEN, OR, XOR, NOR, WHEN, and AND logic, to prevent setting up conflicting routes for train movements through the "interlocking" limits of the plant, and to allow the proper setting of signals to convey routing and speed information to the engineer of an approaching train. A Solid State computer- VERY solid! LarryDoyle states the case very well. One minor detail: not all mechanical interlocking machines had their locking vertically below the floor; some had a horizontal 'bed' behind the machine. This type of interlocking was known colloquially as an 'armstrong' plant - nothing to do with a Mr. (or Mrs.) Armstrong! I can speak from a very mild dose of experience - I am helping to restore such a tower in East Stroudsburg, PA. It is not connected to anything, but even so, my arms get tired. I love Jack Delano train photosThis is where my old head lays as I do miss the big steam days. Gosh, I’m working on a HO brass 4-8-4 Northern right now. I remember it well!When I was 18 I worked for British Rail as a conductor guard (as it was known back then) and I remember the tower and having to visit one on my training course. I also remember the old style signals you see in this photo. One of my tasks as a conductor guard trainee was to alight the tower when one of the signals failed and set off cap detonators on the tracks to warn the oncoming trains. I never had to do this, fortunately, since the signals were well maintained by the signalmen who religiously made sure they worked well all the time. Thanks for stirring such wonderful memories. Computer trains Many thanks to "signalman" and "LarryDoyle". I lived by yards in Chicago and would occasionally see men at the end of trains throwing switches. I thought that was how it was done, period. To see such a complex integrated system back in the forties....well, I never knew. Thanks once again to Shorpy and followers for this fascinating piece of historical knowledge. KansasHow evocative! I can almost feel the early spring wind blowing. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Lake Front Depot: 1899
... from Y2k compliance. (The Gallery, DPC, Milwaukee, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/15/2018 - 6:59pm -

Milwaukee circa 1899. "Chicago & North Western Railway Station." Romanesque Revival structure on Lake Michigan completed in 1890; demolished 1968. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size. PinocchioLooks like the clock tower has been telling lies. Fond memoriesIn the late '50s/early '60s, downtown Milwaukee was a fun place to be, and the CNW depot at the foot of Wisconsin Avenue was part of it. My girlfriend and I would stop in there occasionally to use the restroom or have a meal while bumming about downtown, waiting for a movie to start or just sightseeing. By 1965 trains were routed through a new depot. Milwaukee County had purchased the site in 1964, with the thought of using the land for a freeway interchange. Fortunately we were spared the folly of it all. The depot was demolished in 1968, and it was a sad sight to witness. It was her time though, being in the state of disrepair it was in. Her main lines have since surrendered to becoming bicycle and hiking trails. If I believed in ghosts I would spend endless hours looking for a ghost of a 100mph CNW 400, thundering north along the lake shore, headed for the twin cities. Demolished in 1968Was located at 901 E Wisconsin Ave, what the area looks like, today: It was a wonderful building - inside - and outIn 1968, just before this building was demolished, I found a door that had been left open, so I went inside. Probably this was true of many railway stations of that era, but the main hall was marvelous and grand, but peeling and sadly broken. Days later they began knocking it down, before I got a chance to go back into it to take some photographs. What replaced that beautiful structure is entirely forgettable, but then I haven't been back there for over a decade. I doubt that much has changed since then. OOPS! I forgot about the art museum. It's pretty good, but not 100% exactly the same location as the train station. Late adopters?The locomotive at left and the coach at right appear to still have link-and-pin couplers. The coach looks like it might have an air brake hose; the resolution is inconclusive, but why would that change not have taken place at the same time as the knuckle coupler retrofit? They have, at most, a year or so to comply with the Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893. The locomotive looks like a 4-4-0, and those were on their way out anyway, so that might explain the lack of change, much like the aged semiconductor manufacturing tools that I remember in 1999 being labeled as exempt from Y2k compliance. (The Gallery, DPC, Milwaukee, Railroads)
Railyard Rollers: 1905
... clearings. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 2:50pm -

Gulfport, Mississippi, circa 1905. "New Orleans supply yard, Union Naval Stores. Shipment of rosin and turpentine." 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size. Can't get enough turpentine photos!The gum naval stores industry as practiced before WWII is now mostly forgotten, but was once a Really Big Deal in the longleaf pine belt that stretched from North Carolina to the Gulf coast of Texas. Sadly, most of the longleaf pines are gone now, and several species dependent on the pine forests-- for instance, the ivory-billed woodpecker-- are gone for good. Those barrels would have been made and filled with turpentine and rosin distilled in small batches at camps located way out in the piney woods, by men working under absolutely medieval conditions. The ones working to pay the company store were lucky compared to the ones who were convicts leased from local law enforcement. I've seen most of the more widely available turpentining images, but this is a new one on me-- thanks for running it, Dave. LunchtimeThere appears to be a lovely young lady bringing some lucky gentleman his lunch bucket, and much prestige from his comrades. Hard labourfor those guys. It looks hot after maybe some recent rain, the barrels sure look heavy and there's a few hours left yet. Looks like there's refreshments being bought over by the youngster on the right. Thanks for the info Thad, I never knew about turpentine's origin such as shown above. Even the Lionel Lines1950s model barrel loader was more mechanized than this. WWWaaa - ter boo-ooyyyBring the buck-buck-bucket here! I remember that song so well, I could hear it in my mind when I saw this detail. Never thought abut how rail cars wereloaded by hand before. The sunken rails, two men on a barrel, wooden rails to roll them on, all fascinating! Safety firstThe bridges over the rail trench are noticeably lacking proper railings. 1 safety demerit! Good, I'm starved.Here comes lunch! As far as the eye can seeJust how many hundreds of thousands of barrels of rosin and turpentine could possibly be needed? And for what purpose, painting? [Used in the manufacture of soap, paper, paint and varnish. More on the "naval stores" industry, and the origin of the term. - Dave] Turpentine Forests Washington Post, Sep 15, 1902. Turpentine Forests. Their Rapid Destruction Threatens the Ruin of a Great Industry. From the New York Commercial. The first organization of turpentine men, known as the Turpentine Operators and Factors' Association, which recently held its first annual convention in Jacksonville, Fla., was confronted by the question of complete annihilation of their business, due to the ruthless tapping of young trees and the rapid depletion of the pine forests. Ten years ago Norfolk, Va., was the great naval stores port of the United States, five years ago Charleston was the center of the industry, two years ago Savannah, and now Jacksonville, and next Tampa and then — what? Prof. Herty, of the United States Department of Forestry, has been called upon and was present at the convention. Newspapers in the South have presented able articles on this same subject for years, but the writer has seen young trees no thicker in diameter than eight inches boxed; once, twice, yes three times, so that a step ladder was used for the top boxing and the strip of bark left was insufficient to gather the sap to feed the tree. The life of a turpentine tree after the first boxing is about two years. That means that after the sap has been taken the third time the tree must either be cut for timber or it dies. A trip through the pine forests of Georgia and Florida will demonstrate the reckless manner in which the boxing has been done, and, worse still, where clearings have been made, no effort has been made to check the growth of scrub oak and saw palmetto which effectually choke the young pine rearing its head where its parent stood. Gradually the operators have been driven south, and to-day it is estimated that at least one hundred camps are located in Florida alone, and about fifty camps in Georgia. Nine hundred operators were at the convention. Each man has either bought or covered with options more or less pine forest, and in spite of his knowledge of what the future will bring is rapidly killing the goose with the golden egg. The end is near in the turpentine and rosin industry. A few more years will see a tremendous rise in these commodities, and no effort has yet been made to restore the depleted forests of Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, North Caroline, or Northwestern Florida. The "fat pine" is indigenous to these States, it grows rapidly, but is easily exterminated by the more sturdy plants which spring up in the forest clearings. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
Train Wreck: 1900
... indeed, built with blind lead drivers. (The Gallery, Railroads, Wright Brothers) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/12/2018 - 10:26pm -

1897-1901. "Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton R.R. train wreck below Dayton, Ohio." 4x5 glass negative attributed to Wilbur and/or Orville Wright. View full size. CounterintuitiveThough not standard construction, quite a few 4-6-0 and 4-8-0 type engines, such as we are herein viewing from underneath, were built with blind leading drivers, as it was felt that the four wheel leading truck provided sufficient stability to obviate flanges on them, even at high speed. Omitting this flange allowed the locomotive to better negotiate very sharp curves and turnouts at slow speed in yards and enginehouse areas. Lack of this flanged driver was not a factor in this "head-on" collision. This was the result of a dispatching error or of misinterpretation by one of the engineers of the timetable or of the dispatchers instructions. It's truePeople DO love to stare at a train wreck. 3 ThingsThere are three things I noticed. The blind drivers (no flanges) are on the leading drive axle. All the ones I've seen would have been on the center axle. The monkey wrench laying next to the rail is identical to the one I have that came from The Milwaukee Road many decades ago. The joint bolts in the rail have the nuts all on the same side. Standard practice now is to alternate sides. I assume the idea is to prevent them from all being sheared off by a derailed wheel. The bolt heads are a button type that a wheel would slide past without damage. Is This Not Their Father's Wreck?Isn't this the October 20, 1897 wreck between the southbound Toledo and Cincinnati Express, and the northbound freight 30 of the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton on board which was Bishop Milton Wright, the father of the famous Wright Brothers? See this. Front drivers were never blindOnly some very early rigid framed 4-4-0's of the mid 1800s experimented with using blind front drivers to negotiate sharper curves. It was not a practice continued on other locomotives as swinging pilot trucks would not keep a blind front driver on the rails. On larger engines in the early 1900's blind center drivers were used but in following years better lateral motion devices and improved track geometry all but ended the practice. Once a locomotive was well wore in it was still possible to drop a blind center driver off the rails on a sharp curve and many locomotive rebuilds included putting flanged tires back on. More than likely in this instance in the moments preceding the wreck the brakes were applied sufficiently to heat up the tires on the locomotive which expanded them and they have come off the wheels. As you can see the side rods have been removed and likely the loose tires from the front axle have been removed or broke during the wreck. Monkey wrenchI also have a monkey wrench like the one that Alan spotted. It is all forged and machined. The adjuster has square threads and the wooden handles were hand fitted as well as if they were done by a gunsmith. Modern tools do not compare. A Line of ____Upper right background, there is a line of objects giving the appearance of a string of box cars. Small cabins, maybe? [Looks like a split-rail zigzag fence. -tterrace] This is also trueWhile it is evident that the side rod on the upper side of the lead driver set was sheared off in the collision, the lower side shows no sign that anyone made any effort to remove the side rod nor the tire. Engines were, indeed, built with blind lead drivers. (The Gallery, Railroads, Wright Brothers)
Over the Oconee: 1941
... - Dave] (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Jack Delano, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/17/2019 - 3:32pm -

November 1941. "Greene County, Georgia. Railroad tracks across the Oconee River." Medium format negative by Jack Delano. View full size. What Are the Odds?Like many others, my first speculation at seeing the barrels along the tracks was that it was in case of fire, but why would a train be more prone to catch fire on a bridge, as opposed to solid ground tracks? [Um, they're worried about the tracks and the bridge catching fire, not the train. - Dave] Shouldn’t there be water barrels all along railway lines if the danger of fire was so prevalent? Also, just having a bucket to attempt to propel water on the burning locomotive would be an act of futility indeed, given the limited draw of water from the barrels. A man could only draw about a half of a full barrel effectively before the water level became difficult to reach. The collective spitting on the blaze by crew - and passengers, should there be any - might be just as effective. I’m sure other group efforts to extinguish a blaze come to mind, do they not, gentle reader? Another reader questioned if the railway was elevated. If it isn’t, I bet those knee high telegraph lines to the left afforded a lot of problems of their own: cattle getting tangled up in them; local kids playing on them; you know, typical stuff. Fire causes: embers falling or flying sparksBy the end of the 19th century wooden bridges in Europe and North America were generally replaced by iron constructions. High maintenance costs of the uncovered bridges and several fires due to embers falling or flying sparks from the engine banned wood as a construction material for bridges in the guidelines of several railway companies, restricting it to branch lines only. Quote from The Influence of the German Railways on the Birth of Modern Timber Engineering Click here to view a wooden bridge collapsing caused by a fire. P.S. Many commenters put questions that are already put, or even answered. So my advice: "Read below the lines." [That's not why all the comments are asking the same question, Alex. Maybe you can figure it out! - Dave] Guard railsI think that the two sets of guard rails serve a slightly different purposes. LarryDoyle is right that the outer set (call 'em "timbers" if you like) is unusual in design and look like they are meant to stop a train from sliding laterally off the bridge. The inner set serves a different purpose, though. Their main function is to support the weight of a derailed train and to spread that weight out over multiple ties to avoid a structural failure. The wheel flanges on a heavy locomotive or train car are essentially rotating blades, with all of the train's weight on a series of 1" long chisel-shaped curved spines, which could easily chew through a wooden tie, particularly if a series of wheels passes over the same spot as a moving train derails. These guard rails support the axles or whatever part of the truck comes to rest on them, and spreads the weight over the structure so that the ties don't give way and train doesn't fall through the bridge or hit its structural parts. If the inner rails were truly meant to stop lateral movement, they would (should?) have been affixed to the ties with proper chairs or base plates, and have been closer to the running rails, maybe 1.5" or 2" away. You can see what I mean in the picture below, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Subway_System#/media/File:BMT_100_Nostalgia_Ride_(19329819685).jpg. There is a guard rail in the middle of the tracks, and a "keeper rail" close to the inside running rail. The keeper rail pushes back on the wheel flange if the trail starts to derail, and forces the truck back into alignment with the curve. Note how strongly it's affixed to the main rail and the track bed. The barrels of waterare for a fire, and the inside set of rails so the train does not fall off the bridge on derailment, I've often wondered was ever a bridge saved by those barrels? Now Lake OconeeThis appears to be just east of the railroad bridge over the Oconee River with the Carey Station Road crossing in the distance. Guard RailsIv'e never seen a bridge with "guard rails" arranged like this one. In the middle of each triad of rails are the two running rails, which are really the only rails that you ever really want to use when running a train. The other four rails are for safety in case of a derailment. The innermost pair of the six rails seen are guard rails, nearly always found on bridges, spaced about 6" from the running rails so that a derailed wheelset would drop into the space between them and be held from rolling sideways and going off the side of the bridge. The outermost pair of rails are called guard "Timbers" and serve the same purpose as the inner guard rails. Can't have too much safety. The guard timbers are usually just that - timbers bolted to the ties. this is the first time I have ever seen old rails tipped on their side and used as guard timbers. Unusual. A lot going on hereI'm anxiously waiting for an expert to explain what the features are for beyond the track and ties. Are those burn barrels for lights? Dual useThat's an interesting configuration. A narrow gauge rail on the same ties as the main line. Questions Questions QuestionsOK, what gives with the multiplicity of rails, the "sideboards," and all the barrels? Looks like this section of track is elevated, or is that an illusion? Flood plain? BarrelsI suppose, from the absence of a lid, those are water (not sand) barrels for fire suppression from stray embers. Inside would be a bucket with a rounded bottom so as to make it useless for households. Otherwise wooden trestles would be always burning down. Tough on litter?Why are there so many trash cans? Barrels and tracks?Okay, railroad buffs: What are the barrels for? And I would think that the tracks are set for two directions, two rails and an electric line for each direction, but obviously not in use at the same time... Yes? Barreling along the track.Okay all you railroad buffs, I'll bite. What are the barrels for? Do they hold sand for rail traction in the winter? For fire in case the trestle catches fire? Also, why the double sets of rails and what are the outboard uprights for? Water Barrels? Are the barrels there for water in case the trestle catches fire? Just CuriousWhat are the barrels for? Anybody know? [They're full of peach pits and cigar butts. - Dave] (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Tank & Barrel: 1903
... when rolling. (The Gallery, DPC, Florida, Pensacola, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/02/2016 - 5:59pm -

1903. "Plant of the Consolidated Naval Stores Company, Pensacola, Florida. Resin and turpentine." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative. View full size. WiredAny idea about the wires surrounding the tank? Lights? Lightning rods? Where are the signs? There should be about 100 "No Smoking" signs plastered all over the site. Wooden barrels (dry and aged, from appearance) filled with turpentine, or pitch, and heated in the sun and exuding all sorts of aromatics, the site is a fire hazard awaiting the match. Given that Florida is the "Lightning Capital of the World", I would suspect the conductors are for lightning dissipation. If the array had been a bit closer, I would have thought it might make a Farady Cage, which would be an excellent lightning protector. As it is, circling the top, and repeating the circle down the side of the tank multiple times, there is a conductor to ground close at hand for lightning to connect with surrounding the tank. Only question I have is that the diameter of the wire is so small, and would likely vaporize if it had to pass common lightning amperage. The lightning protection wires on a 100-year newer building(well, 90)in Atlanta at the 20th+ floor were almost the diameter of a large "Magic Marker" tube, a common office item for comparison. That shown appears to be common barbed wire, not the 'thumb size' of modern conductors. Sacrificial barrels on storage barn It appears the half-dozen or so barrels on the peak of the roof of the building in the background are decoys for lightning. Here in GA, we have decoy trailer parks for tornadoes to scatter, leaving the real ones untouched. I suspect both work just as well at their task. Roof BarrelsThose barrels on the ridge of the roof are water-filled, and very effective, immediate fire extinguishers. We saw these mounted on sawmills here until the 1960s. In the era of self-sufficiency, these were about state of the art. I think your sacrificial trailer parks are probably just a placebo for your community, but these barrels were very much on the front line of fire protection. [A lot of these rooftop barrels and pails were filled not with water but sand. - Dave] I suppose sand would be a better choice in some instances. But, I'd rather pump up water than lug up sand! Where there's pine, there's turpentineThe pine forests of the southern US were the main source for turpentine and "naval stores" during the late 19th and early 20th century. Southeast Texas provided its share of pine trees to the naval stores market, to the point that a town in Jasper County was named Wenasco [trade name for the Western Naval Stores Company]. Cheap railroad?Can anyone address the two parallel lines of wooden boards down the middle of the barrel storage area? An inexpensive "railroad" for carts carrying barrels, perhaps? Barrel trackThe barrels, owing to their shape, will self-center and roll the length of the 'track'. Thus no cart is necessary. So 'roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun' (as the song says). The barrel shape with a 'belly' also made them much easier to turn when on their sides because of the narrow contact patch one person could easily roll them around. Newer steel and plastic drums are primarily designed for handling with carts or lifts and depending on weight can take a couple people to get them to turn when rolling. (The Gallery, DPC, Florida, Pensacola, Railroads)
A Fork in the Railroad: 1943
... closed side of the frog. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/04/2013 - 3:05pm -

March 1943. "Sumnerfield, Texas. Brakeman running back to his train on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad between Amarillo, Texas, and Clovis, New Mexico, as it is ready to start again, after having waited in a siding." Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size. FencesThere seems to be one too many fences, if they're to keep cows from straying. The same field fence ought to serve to protect the road and the tracks. Almost homeI'm a former Easterner, gone native to the desert Southwest thirty-some years ago. Driving I-40 from NC, one is choking with green. In west Texas things fully open up, and you finally see horizon all around. This was once the western edge of Dust Bowl country; to some it still looks desolate, but to me it looks like home is just up the road. Excellent clarificationsJack Delano's caption confused me, too, because of the switch being lined for the main track. The clarifications submitted by swaool and Larry Doyle paint a perfect picture of what is going on. Another thing that caught my eye is that the caboose is not yet clear of the fouling point, which explains in any case why the brakeman is running. I'm not a frequent commenter, but I do read what others say. There sure are a lot of knowledgeable people here at Shorpy! Same as it ever wasI've driven across a good deal of this country over the years, but never have I seen country as open and unobstructed to the horizon as west Texas and eastern New Mexico. You can drive for hours and just not really see anything other than fence posts for as far as the eye can see. I'm willing to bet that this view hasn't changed much in the past 70 years. Thanks to Delano and DoyleAnother great photo of the plains and trains by Delano and a wonderful explanation by LarryDoyle. The wait is just beginningMore likely that the brakeman (or flagman) has just lined the switch back after his train pulled into the siding. He's running to catch the caboose, as his train will pull down to the other end of the siding to wait for the opposing train, or to be run around by a faster train going the same direction. SummerfieldNot Sumnerfield. May be labeled Sumnerfield, but it's actually Summerfield, Castro County, Texas. Flat Pair Signals, againAnother exhibit of Santa Fe's Flat Pair signal system: Square blade semaphores with number plates, which every other railroad in North America considered an oxymoron. See post of 3/20/13, https://www.shorpy.com/node/14899. Also, note the frog (the point where the two rails intersect) at the bottom edge of the photo does not have flangeways, in either direction. This is a spring loaded frog - each wheel passing through pushes the interfering rail aside. The brakeman is running, not to get back to his train that has stopped, but rather to catch up to his train that is not going to stop, proceeding slowly away from him. The conductor is likely standing next to the photographer on the rear of the caboose, ready to "pull the air" and stop the train, but only if the brakeman stumbles. A rare picture of an everyday scene, repeated across the country thousands of times a day, every day, for over a century - Now, seen no more. Thanks, SHORPY, for posting this gem. The way it looks, nowGoogle now shows a six lane highway, a large Prairie Skyscraper just off to the right of the siding signals, and the overhead view shows a giant oval of track to service the grain elevator. View Larger Map A further bit of explanationOur train has "Train Orders" from the dispatcher (or, without specific orders we may just have the timetable showing where opposing scheduled trains are due) and must take this siding get out of the way for the opposing superior train. The engineer of our train and stops just short of the pictured switch o enter the siding. The front brakeman, also called the "headman", walks ahead of his engine, unlocks the switch ("turnout") to route the train into the siding, gives a hand signal to his engineer to "come ahead", and our train starts slowly ahead. He climbs aboard the engine as it passes by into the siding. The conductor in the caboose and the rear brakeman, also called "flagman", have copies of the same orders that the engine crew has. From this paperwork the flagman knows that there will be a meet with the opposing train, and that he must restore the switch for the main track to permit the other train to use the main track and proceed forward. The flagman and the conductor go out onto the rear platform of the caboose - the conductor stations himself at the "emergency brake valve" (in case the flagman stumbles) and the flagman stands on the bottom step of the caboose, on the OPPOSITE side of the track from the switchstand. Years of experience has taught him which side of the track every switchstand is located, and he knows that if gets off on the opposite side that he cannot inadvertantly throw the switch ahead of time and accidently derail his own caboose! The engineer knows exactly how long his train is. He has a list showing him the number of cars in the train and their lengths, and experience has taught him how far it is to every landmark, so he knows not only where his engine is, but also where his caboose is! He slows to a walking speed as the caboose approaches the switch. As soon as the caboose passes over the switch, the rear brakeman steps across the track, realigns the switch for the main route and locks it. He then runs ahead to catch up to his caboose, and at this moment Mr. Delano immortalized his image on film. When the engineer nears the other end of the siding, he stops and waits for the opposing train to pass. Then the proceedure is repeated and our train returns onto the main, and our rear brakeman makes another "dash" to catch up with his own caboose on the main track. (Note that on the Santa Fe with flat pair signals he need not realign the switch when it is marked with a letter "S", as in the photo, to indicate that it is a spring switch. The engineer may "run thru" the switch and it will re-align itself.) Amazing! All done safely without front end/rear end communication, nor communication with the opposing train. Hundreds or thousands of times every day across the continent. And, the dispatchers communication to our crew telling us all this was expected to happen was as simple as a Train Order stating, "EXA 567 WEST MEET EXA 2651 EAST AT MILBORN". From that simple statement, everyone else knew what his job was. -LD Switching switches and fencesThe letter "S" on the switch stand probably means "Spring", when a train exits that end of the siding, a Head (front end) Brakeman doesn't have to throw the switch, the train's wheel flanges do the job, and the spring pushes the points back in place. The extra fence on the left is probably to protect the railroad from wandering cattle on the side road, the field fence only protects from cattle out standing in their field. Another Delano grand slamAs already pointed out, the switch is definitely a ‘spring switch,’ so designated by the letter “S" on the stand. There are two ways to go through a switch: facing point and trailing point movement. The Delano train had approached the switch as a facing point move, so called because the train faces the switch points as it comes near. Even though the switch is spring loaded, that characteristic is of no benefit to the Delano crew as the switch springs keep the points lined for the main. Hence, the switch must be operated by hand for a route into the siding, and restored for the main by hand once clear. Were Delano headed in the opposite direction, from siding to main, the spring loaded benefit would come into play. Even though the switch is lined for the main, coming out of the siding the wheel flanges compress the point springs such that the switch provides a perfectly safe route to the main. In such a case, the movement constitutes a ‘trailing point’ move. Historically, main line switches were by rule required to be lined for the main once a train was clear of them. Today, in dark track warrant territory a crew can be granted permission to leave a switch ‘wrong’ by checking box 21 on their track warrant. Computer assisted train dispatching will force a line 19 on opposing authority for a different train, requiring it to stop short of the switch before hand operating it. Spring into actionFor those not lucky enough to get a locomotive ride and view a spring frog in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWIB2iF6ld4 Sorry about the shaky video...I only had a few seconds to get the camera up and running. This is video of switching done on the Oregon Pacific Railroad taking a loaded reefer car into the Helico spur in Milwaukie Oregon. I would have expected that the AT&SF spring frog would have had a larger gap for the main than what is shown to keep wear down. Spring frogs are one of the nicest things to operate over while on the main. My speeder on several runs have ran main-main over these at speed and they are just the smoothest thing. Such a pleasure compared to other regular frogs. Also, here is a photo from the L.A. area of an old Pacific Electric spring frog where the main line has the wide opening and the siding (to the left) has the closed side of the frog. (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Mightiest Electric: 1924
... same. (Technology, The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2014 - 3:07pm -

June 1924. Washington, D.C. "Largest and most powerful electric locomotive in the world being exhibited by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway and the General Electric Co." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Monarch of the Rails Washington Post, June 25, 1924. Free Exhibit Giant Electric Locomotive Don’t fail to see this Monarch of the Rails—the pride of the “Milwaukee” road at New York and Florida Avenues, Washington, Wednesday June 25 and Thursday June 26. These mighty electric locomotives, made by the General Electric Co., haul the Olympian and Columbian, famous Trans-Continental trains, silently, smoothly and speedily for 649 miles over the Rocky, Bitter Root and Cascade mountain ranges. Steps and platforms will be erected to enable visitors to go through the interior and a staff of well informed representatives of the C. M. & St. P. Ry. and General Electric Co will be in attendance to explain details. Admission Free. To Puget Sound—Electrified. Proud to be "Bipolar"The five Milwaukee Road Class EP2 bipolar electric locomotives ran from 1919 to 1961, with a major rebuild in 1953. One has survived and is on display in St Louis. Amazing beasts. Bipolar locomotivesThese locomotives used an unusual transmission system, which is to say, none whatsoever. The rotor and the wheels were mounted on the same axle, so that the whole thing moved up and down together. The arrangement was very quiet and avoided wear on driving gears or rods; the drawback was that there could only be two stator poles, so each motor was relatively low powered compared to what was achieved with more conventional motors. Every axle you see is driven except for the ones on either end directly behind the pilots. They were articulated seven ways from Sunday, with four trucks supporting three body sections. One survives, in St. Louis. Steamless in SeattleYes, the "Milwaukee Road" ran electrics to the Pacific Northwest from the early 1920s up to the early 1970s. "...When these sections were placed in full electrical operation (Harlowton [MT] to Avery [ID] in 1917 and Othello [WA] to Tacoma [WA] in 1920) they represented the first long-distance electrification in North America and were the longest electrified lines in the world. " Unfortunately, they never completed the gap between the two electrified routes (Avery to Othello). The electric locomotives were phased out and supporting infrastructure removed--just before the 1973-74 oil crisis (!) See this article. 1953 RebuildDuring the rebuild of 1953 the Milwaukee bought 12 EF-4 and EP-4 replacements from GE. The 12 were part of an original order of 20 ordered by Stalin and bound for the Soviet Union but with the Cold War increasing the sale was blocked. The Milwaukee offered to buy all 20 from GE but it's BOT refused to go along but ultimately the Korean War and a coal strike led the BOT to approve the purchase. The irony was that Milwaukee first offered $1M for all 20 locomotives and spare parts but when finally allowed to buy the units only 12 still remained but the price remained the same. (Technology, The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Railroads)
Western Union: 1931
... on the right. (The Gallery, Irving Underhill, NYC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/16/2013 - 8:39am -

New York, 1931. "Western Union Telegraph Building, West Broadway. Ralph Walker, architect." The hulking Art Deco pile now known as 60 Hudson Street, a TriBeCa landmark. Photo by Irving Underhill. View full size. Technology changing with the times.Ralph Walker designed two buildings for old-economy telecommunications that are still being used for new economy telecommunications over 80 years later. The Western Union telegraph building here is now a major internet hub for NYC and the entire world. His other masterpiece, the Barclay-Vesey building, was designed for AT&T long distance traffic in 1926 and is now the world headquarters for Verizon Wireless. Sixth Avenue ElThe elevated train in the foreground is the Sixth Avenue El, built around 1880, which ran over West Broadway in this part of lower Manhattan. Service ended in late 1938 and the structure was demolished soon after. While New York had an unfortunate habit of closing elevated lines when no replacement subways were available (Second Avenue El 1940, Third Avenue El 1955, Jamaica Avenue El 1977), that actually wasn't the case with the Sixth Avenue El, as the IND subway under Sixth Avenue made it largely redundant. In addition, while the other els were perfectly serviceable despite their ages, the Sixth Avenue El was in rough physical condition and would not have been usable for much longer without massive renovations. For years after their demolition, rumors persisted that scrap metal from the Sixth and Second Avenue els had been sold to companies in Japan, which incorporated the steel in weapons used against the United States in World War II. It got to the point that the city actually had to hold an official inquiry into the issue. The rumors turned out to be about as true as the rumors that full-grown alligators live in the city's sewer tunnels. 2 Black HolesAnyone know what these two asymmetrical openings are for?: 1. About halfway up the facing side of the building, between the 3rd and 4th windows, is a small black rectangular opening. 2. To the left of the 2nd row of windows from the top is another rectangular opening, with a small window in it. Neither of these has a balancing twin in sight. Metropolis of TomorrowStrongly evokes the work of Hugh Ferris, the man who made chiaroscuro poetry out of the New York 1916 setback law. Dual Addresses60 Hudson occupies the entire block bounded by West Broadway and Hudson, Worth and Thomas streets. Other buildings in this category have street addresses on both major streets. The AT&T Long Lines Building of the same era started with an address of 24 Walker Street and when expanded the address (for the same building) was changed to 32 AOA ( Avenue of the Americas) but the Church Street side shows an address of 316 Church Street over the entrance. Thus the West Broadway vs Hudson Street addresses. 60 Hudson is part of the Lower Manhattan communications/Internet hub. AT&T's 33 Thomas Street is two blocks away. Verizon's 140 West Street and the former AT&T Long Lines "NY-2/NR," now also a "telecom condo" at 32 AOA, are also a stone's throw away. Black hole solutions?The one on the 10th floor appears to be a vent of some sort, probably to exhaust heat from electronic equipment. It has been closed now, but the repair is clearly visible from the street with Google Earth Street View. The one near the top of the building is a small window, maybe for a top executive's bathroom judging by its location. Companion Buildingthis is a cell phone picture of the at&t building on sixth ave. it is shot from the street in front of the western electric building. the fiber optics that connect the two buildings were threaded through the old pneumatic tubes that used to carry the telegraph traffic between the at&t and western union networks. Speaking of telegramsIndia has the world's last operable telegraph service. But not for much longer, as it is scheduled to be shut down next month following the sending of a ceremonial last telegram. Internet hotelDuring the late 80s I was the account executive for the electrical contractor that did a large share of the renovation of 60 Hudson from a public utility communication building into a large Internet and private telephone (Sprint and MCI) hub. I watched with great dismay as Western Union was slowly dismantled and finally put out of business both by corporate stupidity on the part of WUTCO and by corporate raiders. Western Union was way ahead of its time in communication technology. They basically invented the fax machine, were the first to use fiber optic for communication, home-built the first digital telephone switch (it looked like something out of Star Trek ) and were the first private entity to launch communication satellites (Westar 1-6). That building holds a lot of memories for me. One last comment: in my exploration of the building I came upon the roller skate repair shop; at one time they employed young women as skaters throughout the building to deliver messages. They were truly the Google of the 1920s. I ApproveThe Bull City Boy likes the Bull Durham painted wall sign on the right. (The Gallery, Irving Underhill, NYC, Railroads)
Ironmen: 1905
... smokestack. (The Gallery, A.P. Godber, New Zealand, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/01/2014 - 12:21pm -

        Petone Railway Workshops circa 1905. H class steam locomotive, 0-4-2T type, for use on the Fell system on the Rimutaka Incline. NZR 199 built at Avonside Railway Workshops in 1875, went into service on the Rimutaka Incline in January 1877, written off and preserved in March 1956. One of more than 2,000 train-related glass negatives, now in the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library, taken by New Zealand Railways employee and amateur photographer Albert Percy Godber (1875-1949). View full size. Sure built them wellI'd have to say, 79 years of service is pretty remarkable. Personal BestI've been in service since 1934 -- that's 80 years! Lumpy LocoAll the sheet metal looks shiny and smooth except for the cab sidewalls. It looks as if it was attacked by a massive hailstorm, or did the crew have a coal-throwing melee? [Parking lot door-dings. - Dave] Service LifeIf you have a machine shop and a foundry, you can keep a locomotive like that going practically forever. Of course, after a long enough period, the only original part on it might be the number plate. Double StacksA feature normally seen only on locomotives with four cylinders and double sets of drivers: mallet, simple articulated, or beyer-garret types, all of which are far larger than this tank engine. In this case each cylinder had its own exhaust nozzle. Strange. Well maintained machine, I give it that. H classWikipedia has the history. The reason that the H class lasted 79 years was because they were unique; using the Fell system to propel trains over a 1:15 incline. The end came in 1955 when the Rimutaka tuneel was built. Much more to discoverThe Loco has Stepenson gear - not uncommon 1875, but almost obsolete in 1956. The Loco seems to be under steam. It seems, that steam is coming out a source in front of the cab. Has anyone here seen a H class from near: Is there a safety valve or any other steam outlet on this place? Near a working safety valve nobody would stood so relaxed. 80 Years of service is for a well-maintained steam loco not uncommon. In Germany (Isle of Ruegen) there are several engines this age still in all days use, and in Romania (I've been there several times in the 90's) I also met engines built by Krauss Linz in the 1890's. The dents in the cab could come from something rude loaded fuel. Dents in cabAfter thinking long and hard, I came to the conclusion that the dents in the cab side panels were put there deliberately to stop the panels vibrating when the loco reached speeds that achieved resonance in them. Imperfections such as dents break up resonances in large flat panels. Long service lives, double stacks...79 years in service is nothing unusual for a steam loco outside the US. When I started my apprenticeship I was working on engines that were all close to 100 years old. As ElViejo notes, if you have a well-equipped, well-staffed workshop you can keep them going for a long, long time. As for the double smokestacks, Lost World is incorrect in saying that only 4-cylinder articulated engines were normally fitted with these. Many modern rigid engines in the US and the rest of the world had them, to improve draughting and reduce cylinder back pressure. Union Pacific 844 is a good example. And as for Garratts, the only examples to have double smokestacks were the Algerian passenger Garratts, and the related engines in Senegal and the Ivory Coast, all built by Societe Franco-Belge. All other Garratts had single stacks. H199 has double stacks because it has two independent sets of cylinders, one for the adhesion engine, and one for the Fell system grip wheels. Each set of cylinders had it's own blastpipe and smokestack. (The Gallery, A.P. Godber, New Zealand, Railroads)
Elmhurst Depot: 1899
... at www.winnetkahistory.org ) (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/09/2016 - 1:50pm -

Circa 1899. "Chicago & North Western Railway station, Elmhurst, Ill." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Another Left Handed RailroadThe Duluth Missabe & Northern, later incorporated into the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range, now part of the Canadian National, also considered itself to be a left hand railroad. On double track, trains ran on the left hand track, and all signals were placed to the left - even on single track. Some of these signals still remain. Tie PlatesThere are no tie plates to spread the load of the rails to the crossties (sleepers to our European friends). Some of the ties look the worse for wear because of this. According to Wikipedia, tie plates came into use around 1900, just about the time of this photo. It izIt is indeed the tap for the circuits into the station; but a bit more than that. I can see five lines which can be opened - see the insulators on bars, so the wire comes in from (say) the east, runs into the station, comes back out, and heads west. That is, the wire is not continuous past the station, but both sides go into the station. I would expect that the box contains primary lightning arrestors for each wire dropping into the station; secondary arrestors may be in the station. With this arrangement, circuits can be patched from one wire position to another. Also remember that telegraph was the usual communication system at the time of this picture. It iz....answersignalman, Thank you for the info! Makes sense now. I wonder if the 'thick' wire is just a thick ground or contains the two lines headed down to the station. I would think it as a ground as it is just too thick for two small lines. WhatizitSo my family and I have extensive telephony background, and personally I have that and railroad background, but still, what is the item on the telephone crossarm that looks to be rectangular, about 3 feet long with a pitched roof with one thick cable exiting the bottom? Is there a name for this and what is its purpose? I agree there are lines going from the insulators into it, so it may be some sort of permanent tap for the stations telegraph/telephone. Even so, seems to be overdone for a simple splice. As a child I used to take the train there... on Saturday mornings in the winter to play ice hockey at the YMCA several blocks away. Where did those fifty years go? A Scratch-builder's ParadiseIf you model train scenes, in any gauge, this picture is a veritable goldmine! Such wonderful details would keep the poor modeler busy for many a snowy evening. Positively stunning. Keep up the good work. Left-Handed Train Operations on the C&NW RailwayIn the deep background you can just make out two trains that illustrate one of the most peculiar features of the Chicago & North Western Railway, the fact that its trains operate on the left hand track, rather than the right hand track. This practice continues to this day, which makes the C&NW (now part of the Union Pacific system) the only left-handed railroad in the USA. The explanation for this unusual practice usually goes like this: "The first component of what was to become the Chicago & North Western Railway was the little Galena and Chicago Union Railroad Company. Tracks were laid west from Chicago to Geneva, where the first station was to be built. The company built the station on the north side of the tracks where most of the people lived. This saved passengers the inconvenience of having to cross the tracks to go home. When traffic required double tracks, the only place to lay new rails was south of the original single tracks. Since the stations were used primarily by passengers waiting to travel into Chicago, the company decided to run east-bound trains on the old track so riders would not have to cross the tracks to board—a dangerous process." (From Tom Hermes, "Why Does Our Train Run on the Wrong Track?" Winnetka [Illinois] Historical Society Gazette, Fall 1996, reprinted at www.winnetkahistory.org) (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads)
Saranac Lake: 1905
... a back-up method of lighting. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/19/2018 - 7:08pm -

Circa 1905. "Saranac Lake central station, Adirondacks, N.Y." With a locomotive of the Delaware & Hudson Railway. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size. Brushing UpStuck in the pillar roof supports all the way to the right in the image, is that a brush, or maybe a squeegee? At first I thought it was a loose or broken structural member, but it looks more like a platform maintenance tool, stored up there until needed. The D&HThe Bridge Line to New England and Canada For snow or to knowI also noticed the item that perpster commented on. My first guess is that's a kind of snow shovel. You hold on to the long board, and use the two flat boards at the bottom to clean snow off of the platform. You could probably shove a little of it over the far platform edge onto the tracks and not impede the trains; you could shove a lot of it over the near platform edge without hurting anything. My second guess (which I think is less likely) is that it might have been some kind of marker or sign post. The two flat boards sit on the platform, and by itself, maybe it tells passengers about where the train would stop (so they don't wander all the way down the platform at random). With another sign hung on the long board, it might direct passengers to the first-class cars, or give the destination of the whole train. Tri-CocksVisible thru the cab window are three valve handles arranged in a diagonal pattern. These are the tri-cocks - every steam locomotive has 'em. Knowing the level of the water in the boiler of a locomotive is THE MOST important safety duty of both the engineer and the fireman on every steam locomotive. A glass tube, mounted in the cab, on the boiler (two on most engines) shows the engine crew exactly where the water level is in the boiler. The duties of both the engineer and the fireman include looking at the water glass every 15 seconds to be sure it is within the "safe" range. The tri-cocks are a secondary check, to assure the accuracy of the waterglasses. Opening the top valve should emit steam. Opening the bottom valve should emit water. The middle valve could be either steam or water. If not - find out why. NOW! You may be only seconds away from a boiler catastrophy! Old Mother HubbardThe locomotive is of the Camelback or "Mother Hubbard" variety - they had wide fireboxes to burn anthracite coal, necessitating moving the cab for the engineer forward - the fireman remained on a platform at the rear. Pintsch Gas Lighting?Beneath the platform canopy are what appear to be Pintsch Gas lighting fixtures. The view is not clear. It's possible that there's also an incandescent lamp on each fixture, between the two gas lamps. Having gas-light "backup" was not uncommon in the early days of electric light. In 1905, Saranac Lake may well have had an independent electrical system not yet connected to a grid. This would justify a back-up method of lighting. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads)
Scollay Square: 1905
... in the history of Boston. (The Gallery, Boston, DPC, Railroads, Streetcars) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/30/2014 - 10:59am -

Boston circa 1905. "Scollay Square Station." Drug store sodas 5 cents -- "None Better." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Boston's TenderloinThe great comedian Fred Allen said that in 1912. Also that "If the Boston of those days was as proper and conservative as the high-button shoe, the average man's answer to conservatism was Scollay Square. Scollay Square was the hot foot applied to the high-button shoe." Within the square were many vaudeville theatres including the Beacon, the Palace, the Comique, the Bowdoin Square Theatre and the Old Howard. Also two museums, Walker's Nickelodeon and Austin and Stone's. The latter, at the corner of Howard St., had by 1912, been a landmark for thirty years, made famous by P. T. Barnum. It was the ultimate freak show Mecca of the day. The Nickelodeon was a penny arcade and shooting gallery, but for 10¢ extra over the regular 5¢ admission fee, you could see the "Big Girl Show". The Old Howard became the leading amusement emporium as Austin & Stone's declined, serving up burlesque and vaudeville. Along with the entertainment, there were several eateries such as Higgins' Famous Oyster House, the Revere House, the Grotto and the Daisy Lunch. In the Higgins' cellar was the Bucket of Blood, a poolroom for the betting crowd. The Square apparently was the place to be around the turn of the century. By the 1950's, when Allen wrote this book, it had pretty much achieved ghost town status. But reading his description of Scollay Square as well as other places played a big part in my attraction to Shorpy. The high resolution pictures of that bygone era bring those descriptions to life to a great degree. It's a shame this photo wasn't taken on a busy afternoon near Austin & Stone's or the Old Howard. Origin of "Charlie on the MTA"It was a political jingle from a 1949 Boston Mayoral race: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_A._O%27Brien (Fares on the MBTA are going up today, July 1.) AwningsWhatever happened to the fold up and down window awnings, do they still make any? Is that a Woolworth's 5 and 10 I see at the bottom right? Frugal New EnglandersNow that's what I call a bargain -- a ten-cent seegar for seven cents. Where his wife handed Charlie a sandwich.Scollay Square vanished to typically destructive urban renewal in the early 1960s, but the station survives in the "M.T.A. Song" about "the man who never returned" from his subway ride. The song was popularized by the Kingston Trio in 1959, but it was actually written ten years earlier. The resurfacing of Scollay UnderBostonians will know that the Government Center MBTA station, which sits roughly in this same location, is currently closed for two years for renovations. During the renovations they've uncovered some of the original tile mosaic signs from "Scollay Under," which was the subway line that you see the headhouses for in this photo (so called "Under" to distinguish it from the streetcar line that stopped at street level - note the "2-Car Stop" sign in the photo). The plan is to keep them and include them in the station redesign, as they've done elsewhere in renovated stations where the tiles were uncovered. But nothing can bring back the buildings of Scollay Square, alas. Get Charlie off the Train?Charlie's wife handed him a sandwich at the Scollay Square Station, but I've always wondered why she didn't hand him a nickel, too, so he could get off that train. Two different stationsThe subway station entrance in the foreground is the entrance to Court Street station in the East Boston Tunnel while the more ornate entrance is for Scollay Sq station. The two stations were on the same level but separated by a thin wall of concrete. Scollay Under, mentioned in one of the other comments, would not exist until 1916 when Court St. station (much of which still exists but is inaccessible) was closed permanently. Stone powered time machinesI decided to pursue the name "Geo. M. Stevens, Boston Mass." shown on the turret clocks and found some conversation and history. Clocks powered by long ropes and stone weights in wooden crates. The National Association of Watch and Clock- http://mb.nawcc.org/showthread.php?70961-george-m-stevens-turret-clock Not Much LeftThe only buildings depicted in this photograph that are still in existence are the brick building at the left edge, housing the drug store at street level, and the Suffolk County Courthouse, which is the building directly in the middle, with the columns and the clock. The space where the drug store was once located is now a branch of Bank of America, but the rest of the building is still pretty much untouched - a fine, old, red brick office building, with lots of nice masonry detail. The Courthouse was expanded, with some extra floors added on, sometime shortly after this photo was taken. More recently, the entire building was completely renovated and made the home of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Appeals Court. Everything else in the photo is gone, and lively, old, honky-tonk Scollay Square itself was replaced by the vast, paved, soul-less desert of Government Center - one of the uglier examples of urban "renewal" in the history of Boston. (The Gallery, Boston, DPC, Railroads, Streetcars)
Steel City: 1938
... Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Boats & Bridges, Pittsburgh, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/02/2020 - 4:26pm -

July 1938. "View of city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." The Wabash Bridge over the Monongahela River. Medium format acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein. View full size. Lee Kee car park It's easy to see how the vehicle parking was arranged on the Mon wharf. Drips and dribbles from countless crankcases, transmissions and differentials have left their mark. This is also seen on the concrete highways up to the present. When I started riding motorcycles in the early seventies my father warned me not to ride the middle of a lane when it first started to rain. Slippery as hell he said. He had been a motorcycle MP during WW2 and knew of what he spoke. Troubled Bridge Over WatersThe bridge was built from both banks, but the merger failed and the center of the bridge collapsed. Ten workers died. Construction was also plagued by smallpox, bad weather, and strikes. The bridge was completed in 1904, but its owner, the Wabash railway line, fell into receivership in 1908. By 1931, the bridge was used only for freight traffic through the downtown terminal. When the terminal burned in 1946, the bridge became useless. It was demolished in 1948. Rosenbaum's Department StoreI see so many interesting signs: The Kelly & Jones Co. (Pipes, Valves and Fittings), Champion Coal, Somers-Fitler & Todd Co. (Machinery & Supplies). But the one that really caught my eye was the biggest: Shop at Rosenbaum's. Corner of Liberty and Sixth, photo taken in 1937. The car parking looks very scary.The car parking looks very scary. It stands at big angle. Gone But Not ForgottenThe Wabash bridge and terminal just at the end of the bridge were part of Jay Gould’s Alphabet Route railway in the early 1900s. After two fires in the terminal in 1946, this line was abandoned and the bridge was torn down in 1948. The bridge piers still stand and the Wabash’s connecting tunnel under adjacent Mount Washington is now a high-occupancy vehicle route into Pittsburgh. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_and_West_Virginia_Railway Wabash Pittsburgh TerminalThe Wabash terminal is the long, dark bar like building to the left of the bridge -- that’s the trainshed, and the adjoining building with the cupola was the headhouse of the station. It was unusual (but not unique) for a station that size, in that the tracks were on the second story. Out of the picture to the left was a small elevated freight terminal, which some sources suggest was originally meant to carry the railroad across the city, to a never-built route to link George Gould’s projected transcontinental system with the New Jersey port cities. Some things never changeThe Pittsburgh waterfront changed significantly after the war with the addition of the feeder expressways (The Parkway East and West), as well as the removal of any industrial remnants during the "Renaissance". But at least one block of buildings on Fort Pitt Boulevard is almost completely intact. The building with the Champion Coal sign is gone and is now a surface lot. But the rest of the buildings in that block between Market and Wood are all still standing. And the fairly large building at the corner of Smithfield and Fort Pitt is still there (dark building at the extreme left). But the masonry has been completely cleaned and the architectural highlights are actually light stone. The Smoky City really did wreak havoc with the furnishings. (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Boats & Bridges, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
When Chic Met Shabby: 1958
... opus. Although it used a narrower gauge than standard railroads it carried freight in addition to passengers. The Southern Pacific ... PE ran on standard gauge tracks, just like the steam railroads it interchanged freight cars with. And it was - from 1911 - a wholly ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/17/2019 - 9:14pm -

Somewhere around Los Angeles circa 1958. "Aluminum Group furniture (chairs, ottomans, tables) designed by Charles Eames for Herman Miller Inc." Large format negative from the Office of Charles and Ray Eames. View full size. No Reading, No ParkingIt's the parking lot for the Christian Science Church Reading Room, currently located at 132 Brooks. Nice FurnitureI guess I'll just sit down over here on the pavement. PolaroidNote the Polaroid Land camera on the table at right. Frequently used for test shots made before the final large-format exposures. The result?I was wondering what photos from this operation would look like. The shot at the foot of this 1959 print ad from eamesdesigns.com looks about right. http://eamesdesigns.com/library-entry/the-big-idea-in-herman-miller/ WarningIf you park in my reserved private spot, your furniture will be towed. Charles and RayI think Charles Eames is the man standing with his foot on the ottoman and Ray Eames is the woman standing off to the side next to the lone chair with the jacket draped over it. I love these chairs. I have two in my living room. Though designed in 1958 (originally intended as outdoor furniture), they are still in production today and seem to be everywhere on TV. For example, Jon Stewart's guests sit on them (the "secretarial" model). [That is Ray Eames, at any rate. -tterrace] Not That ShabbyThe roof on the left side is actually pretty chic. I suppose the dog was providing security. Eames StudioSince the Eames Studio at that time stood at 901 Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice, this shot was probably taken near the corner of Abbot Kinney Blvd and Main Street. Which would mean we're looking down Main, toward Hammond Lumber, which, as far as I've been able to discover, stood at 616 Main Street, in Venice, about where it ought to be in the photo. Retro Love that old furniture. Note the stray dog on the side there. [He's leashed to the bumper. - Dave] This view was takenlooking north from Brooks Avenue. Holdren's Auto Service was at 165 Brooks, so the Eames studio was immediately east, as mamiyaman notes. Who Framed Roger Rabbit has the answersThe rail spur leading into Hammond Lumber may seem out of place, as there aren't any train lines in the area. It's actually a spur off of the Pacific Electric streetcar line, also known as the Red Car system. Even today the right of way in Venice is still visible on aerial photos. Yes, the same Pacific Electric whose demise was a plot point in Mr. Rabbit's opus. Although it used a narrower gauge than standard railroads it carried freight in addition to passengers. The Southern Pacific Railroad operated the freight service under Pacific Electric's name. Passenger service to Venice had ended several years before the date of this photo, but freight service continued until the early 1960's. A Brilliant Collaboration! For an absolute treat don't miss...The American Masters Documentary on Charles & Ray Eames: "The Architect and the Painter". Pacific ElectricPE ran on standard gauge tracks, just like the steam railroads it interchanged freight cars with. And it was - from 1911 - a wholly owned subsidiary of the Southern Pacific railroad. PE was standard gauge,the LA railway (yellow cars)was 3 ft. 6" narrow gauge. They shared dual-gauge trackage for parts of their systems. (Cars, Trucks, Buses, Charles & Ray Eames, Los Angeles, The Office)
Montrose Newsies: 1940
... papers. (Remember them?) (The Gallery, Bicycles, Kids, Railroads, Russell Lee, Small Towns) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2018 - 12:55pm -

September 1940. "Distributing newspapers off the morning train to newsboys at the railroad station. Montrose, Colorado." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. EssentialA bicycle for a paperboy. I made more money per paper on non-subscription sales, hawking them in public, but the bulk of my papers were delivered to houses on my route, and I couldn’t have done it without a bike. Breaking news: Still there! In the bagThe newsie about to depart doesn't use a strapped shoulder bag to hold his papers. Must have a flat route or be really gifted riding with one hand. Also, I seem to remember seeing grocery delivery trucks using those insulated canvas bags (against the wall) to transport frozen food, especially ice cream. They must have done okay at melt prevention. Small TownWith Montrose's population at fewer than 5,000 in 1940, we may be looking at that town's entire cadre of newsies here. The bikesremind me of the ex-service Parachute bikes, Model BSA 'Airborne folding para troops bicycle,' that were left by the Canadian troops in southern Netherlands (Zeeland) after the liberattion of our country in 1945. People could buy them. Heavy-Framed Bicycles with Balloon TiresNote that these bicycles have a heavy-duty frame with the top horizontal member doubled ! Not two thin tubes side-by-side, but rather two full-size tubes, one above the other. They weigh perhaps twice what a modern bicycle weighs! I learned to ride in the 1960’s on a hand-me-down Elgin Four-Star from the 1930’s which was very much like the bicycles depicted here. While I cannot positively identify these newsboy’s bikes as Elgin’s, the resemblance is very strong, including the two curved bars extending front the top of the steering tube to the axle ends. (These were purely decorative, as far as I know.) The scene seems like a bit of Americana that happened every morning in many towns for many decades: The morning train from the nearest large city unloaded bundles of papers etc. from the baggage/express car onto a high-bed, high-wheeled Railway Express Agency pull cart. The REA Agent then brought the cart to the street side of the depot and the bicycles and small local delivery trucks converged on it. The performance might be repeated again if there were evening papers. (Remember them?) (The Gallery, Bicycles, Kids, Railroads, Russell Lee, Small Towns)
Through to Morgantown: 1905
... (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/15/2017 - 3:33pm -

Circa 1905. "Pittsburgh, Penna. -- the Monongahela wharves." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size. At the wharfboat.In the lower left is the Rose Hite (second boat with that name) built in 1895 at the Howard yard in Jeffersonville, Indiana. A bit of a mystery, according to Way's Packet Directory -- the pilot house was moved forward of the Texas deck after the boat was renamed Gracie Childers in 1908. The boat facing us is the Queen City, built at Cincinnati in 1897. A very posh boat with top finishes and fittings, it catered to Pittsburgh's finer citizens. Her hinged stacks are laid down to run low bridges. The Rose HiteThe Rose Hite may have been a bit of a hard-luck boat. She was recorded as being involved in a collision on the Evansville district of the Ohio River in 1896 (no information on damage to either boat). She collided with the towboat John F. Kuen (or Joe P. Klein; newspaper accounts differ) in 1905 on the Monongahela near Brownsville, PA, and sank with the loss of either four or five crew reported drowned. She was raised and continued to operate on the Monongahela river system until 1907, then was sold in 1908, renamed the Gracey Childers, and moved to the Cumberland River. She burned in September 1909 at Paducah, Kentucky. Floating wharf buildings?Curious if those large structures were "floating" so as to rise and fall with river levels (spring flooding, ice flows, heavy rains)? I can't see them hard piered to the river bottoms as they are pretty close to the water line. A bridge too farThere seems to be bridge abutments on either side of the river. Could it be there was a bridge planned but never constructed? Yes they float.Typically called wharfboats, the offices of steamer lines would be built on barges or older steamboat hulls. They would rise and fall with the river on poles driven into the riverbed. Anchor lines to the levee would provide additional security. Bridge abutmentsThey are probably the beginnings of the Wabash (Railroad) Bridge built between 1902 & 1904, possibly fitting the "Circa 1905" caption. There's a lot of long lens compression in this photo, but everything seems to fit with a vantage point somewhere near the current Smithfield Street Bridge, looking northwest toward the second Point Bridge (1877-1927 trussed eyebar/"suspension"), with the Duquesne Incline visible just beyond the left end. The current Fort Pitt Bridge wouldn't obstruct this view until ~1959. If so, the more robust final versions of the Wabash Bridge piers still survive its 1948 demolition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabash_Bridge_%28Pittsburgh%29#/media/File... (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
The Bi-Pass: 1908
... adhesion. Sound plausible? (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/16/2011 - 9:35pm -

Holyoke, Massachusetts (vicinity), circa 1908. "The Bi-Pass, Mount Tom Railway." Here we see the railway's two "elevating cars," named after Rowland Thomas and Elizur Holyoke. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Cable carI think it is a cable car, on an incline. The two cars counterbalance each other. The trolley pole probably is for lighting. Of bigger concern, if you look at the wheels, it appears to be derailed. Might be an illusion, but it sure looks like it is on the ties on the right side. [The car has two sets of wheels -- inboard and outboard. - Dave] Mechanically inclinedMaybe a traction fan can help me with my confusion here. We can see the trolley pole deployed, and we can see bonding wires running around the fishplate right in front of the car, so at first glance this looks like an electric system. At second glance there are rollers immediately in front of the car and that middle cable looks like it's been gripped cable car style. Is this some sort of mixed system with cable assist on the steep grades, or is it a cable system with auxiliary power for lights etc.? Hybrid carsIt looks like it is electrically powered through the bypass area but otherwise a cable system. It's unusualbut it appears to be an electric system with an auxiliary cable. The driver has his left hand on an early "K" series controller, which you wouldn't find on a cable car. The trolley wire hardware is also typical of a 600v electrification scheme, rather than simply for auxiliary power. I see why the car has two sets of wheels - so it can negotiate the cable crossings in the passing loop, but I suspect they're only on the side closest to the camera. I'd assume the other car has them on the other side. The passing loops were most likely biased so that the cars always ran on one side only, which would also explain the twin trolley wire. Dead Weight Balance Science Abstracts, Royal Soc. of London, 1899. Electric Railways of Springfield and Holyoke, Mass. (Street Rly. Journ. 14. pp. 415-423, 1898.) The Mount Tom mountain-line, which rises 700 ft. in 4,900 ft., with a maximum grade of 21½ per cent., is worked by two cars connected by a 1¼ in. cable over an 8 ft. return sheave at the upper end of the line. There are no winding engines to drive the cable, but each car is equipped with two G.E. 1,000 motors, the cable being used only to balance the dead weight in the cars. The low wiresAs noted earlier in a related post, the wires down near the rails are for the motorman's telephone. OperationThe type of car here is interesting in that only one set of wheels are double flanged. This is always the outside set of wheels, riding on the rail which does not break. The design allows the cars to make use of the "switching" system without need of actual pointwork; while at the same time pass over the running cable for the second car. Mt. Tom operation explainedComments from H. Raudenbush: I think I just figured it out. It definitely falls under the heading of a Austrian saying “Warum den einfach wenn komplizierte auch gehts” (Why make it simple when it can also be complicated) It’s a counterbalanced trolley rig. Each car has traction motors, but the grade is too steep for normal adhesion working, so the cars are tied to the two ends of a cable. The cable must pass over a sheave at the top of the line, but unlike a funicular/incline, that sheave is not powered. At the passing siding, the rope for one track has to cross rails of the other track. This is done crudely, by having a gap in the closure rail of the turnout. To get the car over this gap, the overhanging wheel is picked up by an auxiliary rail, which is probably higher than the normal rail. You can see the auxiliary rail beside the gap in the running rail. The car hides the switch points or equivalent. Since the frog has flangeways, it appears that the normal wheels on both sides have normal flanges. (On some funiculars, each cars has double flanges on one side, no flanges on the other side. Then neither points nor frog are needed at the turnout). You can see the cable attached to the near car, and the carrying sheaves for the cable along the track. Those wires bracketed beside the track must have some function, but I’m not sure what. Possibly contacted by a shoe on the car, maybe they control the switch points. With the two cars at the ends of the cable, no signals are necessary (as long as the rope doesn’t stretch too much!) That angle iron on a big timber in the middle of the track beside the cable, might be the equivalent of a Fell Rail, used for braking; brake shoes could clamp to it and provide braking independent of wheel-rail adhesion. Sound plausible? (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads)
The Turning Point: 1910
... (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Railroads, Travel & Vacation) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/03/2012 - 4:06pm -

Colorado circa 1910. "Crystal Park autoroad trip. Pike's Peak and Cog Road from Inspiration Point, alt. 7945 feet." At the end of the road, a handy turntable. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Now I get itMy mom has similar pictures from the Dakota Badlands, snapshots from the 1940s. As I child, I could not understand what was so everlastingly fascinating about rocks and trees. Walls of Paradise The Packard, 1910. On Mountain Trails Eight Thousand Feet Above Sea Level, Packard Trucks Fitted with Sight-Seeing Bodies Beat the Colorado Burros at Their Own Game To Crystal Park in the heart of the Rockies is the scenic trip advertised by the Crystal Park Company of Colorado Springs. Five Packard sight-seeing cars are used on the route, one leaving every hour from Manitou. From Manitou to the Gateway of Crystal Park is a steady climb of 2248 feet. One mile of road covers thirty acres of ground, winding in loops across the face of the mountain, and in one place completing a double bow-knot. To make possible this wonderful scenic trip, the company has built its own road up the mountain. This road is carved out of the solid rock and is as smooth a highway as you will find wherever your travels may lead. On leaving Manitou the road leads straight to the mountains. Almost at once the tourist reaches a country as wild and rugged as any ever travelled by Zebulon M. Pike on his first famous visit to the Colorado Rockies. … Crystal Park itself was purchased from the estate of the late John Hay, Secretary of State under McKinley. It was in a log cabin in Crystal Park that Secretary Hay sought seclusion while writing his story of the life of Lincoln. Until the advent of the Packards but few tourists have visited this beautiful natural playground in the heart of the Colorado hills. Forest and Stream, Vol. 81, 1913. I made up my mind to one thing, that it did not matter how often I visited Colorado Springs in the future. I would never attempt another trip by auto to Crystal Park, till the auto company that controls the road up the mountain had so thoroughly barricaded the sides of the road next to the walls of those deep gulches, and deeper cañons so as to make it impossible for the auto to go off into one of them, either face foremost, backward, or sideways, no matter what happened to it. I have always had a great desire to be in an exceedingly calm state of mind when I am called to give an account to the Great Judge. I have no desire in the world to go by the way of an auto over a precipice 100 or 500 feet deep, or to be ushered out by means of a cyclone; hence my great caution. -G.S. Wyatt. Seeing the Far West, John Thomson Faris, 1920. Up one of the canyons reached from Manitou leads the Crystal Park auto road. By tremendous zigzags it climbs Sutherland Canyon, where Pike the explorer succeeded in outwitting pursuing Indians, up the rugged slope of Eagle Mountain, to a point under Cameron's Cone. Loops, hairpin turns, and a steel turntable help in the conquest of the mountain. The road affords views so different from those spread out before those who go to the summit of Pike's Peak that both trips are needed to complete the vision that waits for those who would persuade the Walls of Paradise to yield their secrets. Crystal Park Auto TripsThe charabanc, or sightseeing bus, is a Packard truck from about 1910. Colorado did not issue license plates or register vehicles until 1913 so there are pre-state municipal license plates on the back of the bus. I find the fact that someone actually built a turntable on a mountain very novel. When I was young, I was shown an old garage in a very nice neighborhood that had a turntable inside. This enabled the owner's wife to never need to back the car out of the driveway. There is an excellent website with more photos of this road trip here: http://historiccrystalpark.blogspot.com/search?q=turntable (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Railroads, Travel & Vacation)
Growth Spurt: 1912
... move). (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/29/2017 - 7:16am -

Along the Monongahela circa 1912. "A group of skyscrapers, Pittsburgh." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. "River Combine" "River Coal"Pacific No. 2 was a steam powered stern wheel towboat of 570 gross and 416 net tons, with a length of 176 feet, a breadth of 32 feet, a depth/draft of 5 feet and a crew of 35. Owned by the Pacific Coal and Towboat Company, Captains Joe and Ab Gould and later Captain W. J. Wood, Pacific No. 2 was built in Pittsburgh in 1893 using the steam engines from the former steam towboat Lioness No. 2 which was built in 1869. Pacific No. 2 continued towing until retired about 1913 and was dismantled two years later at Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. The hull was converted into a barge and in 1920 was used by Follansbee Bros. to haul cement. In 1899, responding to economic conditions, disruptions in the coal industry, and the frequent loss of towboats and barges (often by collision with bridge piers) the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company was formed, absorbing the assets of most of the independent towboat companies. The amalgamated companies initialed their towboats and barges with the letters “RC” for “River Combine” or “River Coal.” The Pacific No. 2, prior to the “RC” logo: Very different skyline, but --That's the Smithfield Street Bridge on the right. Some of the buildings below Wood Street (first street to the left of Smithfield) remain today. Wabash BridgeOn the left is the Wabash Railroad Bridge that served the small station visible across the river. Trains reached this location through a tunnel under Mt. Washington (where, undoubtedly the photographer was standing when the photograph was taken). The tunnel is now used for vehicular traffic. It may not come as a shock to Shorpy visitors that the train station burned in 1946. The bridge was removed in 1948; in the modern view supplied by Kozel you can see one of the the still-standing ghostly piers of the bridge. Collier Nr 4Any idea what the Collier Nr 4, left side of photo, might be? It looks a lot like a coal mine headstock, but the location sort of precludes that it is a mine shaft (but anything is possible)! Perhaps a barge loader/unloader? Thanks! (In afterthought, I realized that a mine would be a COLLIERY, a barge or ship a COLLIER). Collier is a CollierCollier Nr4 probably is a collier, a boat for handling coal, in this particular case, vertically. We've seen on this site photos of New York Harbor with floating grain elevators, for handling smaller particles. Shove Me TimbersLooks like the locomotive lower left edge of photo just made a shove move on the four blurry box cars. The loco and 2 attached cars are only slightly fuzzy, indicating they had just about come to a stop when the shutter opened, while the four box cars picked up speed from the shove as the shutter remained open. Looks like one of the crew was on the ground directing the move (visible near the door of the white box car where the train was uncoupled for the shove move). (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Heavy Lifting: 1910
... I'm not sure which type. (The Gallery, Cleveland, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/30/2012 - 10:41pm -

Cleveland, Ohio, circa 1910. "Brown hoist machines." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Monsters!You have to love the Industrial Age, when machines were monsters and man was nothing more than their caretakers. It must have been a sight when all these machines were running. One really has to appreciate how things got done a hundred years ago. Bridge Tramway Plant "Brownhoist," Brown Hoisting Machinery Company, 1905. Bridge Tramway Plants A Bridge Tramway plant generally consists of three or four "Standard Bridges," mounted side by side on suitable rails, each machine operating one hatch of a vessel. Two of these bridges are supported at their back ends on a double back pier; the other bridge or bridges are supported singly on single back piers. BRIDGE. The bridge-girders are built of steel and iron, of our patent construction, designed to give the maximum strength with the minimum weight of material, with all the members made of such shapes and so arranged in the trusses as to offer the least possible surface to wind-pressure. Owing to the exposed locations where these machines are generally used, the question of wind-pressure becomes of the greatest importance. … FRONT PIERS. Each bridge is supported in front by an independent single pier of "A-frame" construction, built of steel mounted on wheels, and running on a single line of rails; each bridge is connected to the front pier (and back pier) in such a manner as to permit the front end of the bridge to be "skewed" or moved sidewise, to suit the hatches of a vessel without moving the rear end. This front pier is generally arranged to be moved by handpower by means of cranks geared to the track-wheels; but this is also done by power when desired. BACK PIERS. The back piers are built of steel and are mounted on wheels, and move on a track consisting of two lines of rails of suitable gauge, laid on the surface of wharf parallel to front of same. The back piers can be moved independently of the front piers by either hand or power. The double pier, containing the engine-house, is always moved by its own power. HINGED APRON OVER VESSEL. Each machine is provided at its front end with a hinged apron of suitable length for extending the trolley tracks of the machine over the hatch of a vessel. This apron is hinged so that it can be raised in a vertical position when not in use, thereby keeping the front of the pier or dock entirely free and unobstructed, so that vessels with masts may come alongside. When the vessel is tied to the dock the aprons are lowered and adjusted to the hatches by moving the front piers. This hinged apron is generally raised by a hand-winch, but can be made to raise by power. … HOISTING- AND CONVEYING-MACHINE. This machine, also called the "trolley," runs along a track suspended from the bridge, between the girders, and from the farther end of the hinged apron, over the vessel, back to the rear end of the cantilever extension. This trolley, together with its suspended bottom block, hook, or grab-bucket, is attached to the hoisting- or pulling line, and its motions are under perfect control of the operator by means of suitable levers in the operator's house. Conversion.Looking at the locomotive on the left, I'm left to think that this is a conversion from a tank locomotive or camelback. The low slung boiler and high steam dome (as well as its position) suggest such a conversion, though I'm not sure which type. (The Gallery, Cleveland, DPC, Railroads)
The Braidwood Bunch: 1904
... between those two points. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/06/2016 - 7:04pm -

Circa 1904. "Depot at Braidwood, Illinois." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Another name for BeeGuy's listAs a preteen I rode the GM&O's "Gulf Coast Rebel" from St. Louis, MO to Waynesboro, MS a few summers without parental accompaniment. (No detour to Braidwood.) Still waitingFor the last train to Braidwood: Now home to the Braidwood Historical Society. Chicago & Alton RouteOn the main line 57.3 miles south of Chicago. Also a junction with a spur off of a branch that ran between Joliet and Coal City. Later this road became the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, route of such passenger trains as "The Abraham Lincoln" and "Midnight Special". DepartureThe depot was moved from its original location (the website doesn't say when although the photos of it being moved were uploaded in 2012) 4 Photos Attractive SpiresThis prosaic building had been given a lot of interesting architectural details, such as the roof brackets, the bargeboards, and most of all the wooden spires. Note that the two-spouted wooden water tank in the background has a matching spire. Pretty spiffy ! The tall windows let in plenty of money-saving natural light. The size of the building, the train order signal, the large doors, signage, and the two baggage carts, one standing ready at each end of the platform, suggest that this was a multipurpose building which handled train order operations, passengers, checked baggage, Western Union telegraphy, Railway Express parcels, and perhaps also Less-than-carload freight. It would be interesting to know more about the track served by the far water spout of the water tank. Was this just a siding, or was Braidwood a junction point? LCL freighthouseThe right half of the building was the “freight house.” The large door giving access provided ample room for the freight handlers (with a union craft of their own in later days) to wrestle large pieces of LCL freight (perhaps a piano from the Sears Catalog) into the structure until the consignee could arrange a pick-up. There is probably a door on the back side of the building that an LCL boxcar was spotted at for unloading larger pieces of freight. Large and cumbersome LCL freight required too much time to unload while sitting on the main, so the entire car was simply left to be unloaded at convenience. In railroad parlance, the track would have been called a “house track.” It would have a main line switch at both ends, making it possible for both northward and southward trains to spot and pick up as necessary. The water spout over it is a mystery. Actually Braidwood was not a junction with any branch or carrier. The south switch for the branch to Coal City was at Gardner, and the north switch going back to the main was at Elwood. Braidwood was almost exactly half-way between those two points. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads)
All a Board: 1899
... here. (The Gallery, DPC, Industry & Public Works, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/09/2016 - 5:12pm -

Minnesota circa 1899. "Winona, a sawmill plant." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Warning!Customers are enjoined not to remove boards from the bottom of the stack. Please summon a sales associate for assistance. Not Near the WoodIs that some sort of burning beacon at left? A common industry back thenWhen the woods of the Northeastern US were depleted in the 1880's, loggers turned their attention to NE Minnesota, the northern half of Wisconsin, and Michigan's UP. River junction towns like Minneapolis, Stillwater, and Winona became sawmill towns as White Pine logs were brought down the rivers for milling. This was some of the finest lumber ever cut, and in 1899 the supply still seemed endless. As the loggers moved north, so did the sawmills, especially once steam replaced water for power. Duluth, Ashland, and Virginia MN became sawmill towns. The trees weren't endless. Using the primitive tools of the day loggers managed to all but clean out the White Pine in the northern halves of three states by the early 1920's. Attempts to replant the White Pine using seedlings from Europe were met with failure. These new trees brought White Pine Blister Rust with them and pretty much sealed the fate of the species here. There were also massive forest fires after logging. All of the slash (branches and tops) were left loose on the ground and once dry, burned like gasoline. Only a few small stands and scattered individual White Pine trees remain today, replaced primarily by Aspen, the first growth after logging in these parts. Most of the older homes in the Midwest were built with lumber from these stands, including almost all of the farm houses in the Great Plains that replaced the old sod huts. As the logs ran out the families that owned timber and logged, like the Weyerhausers and Boeings (yes, that Boeing, and that's a story in itself), moved to either the Pacific Northwest or to the southern states to continue the family businesses. We still occasionally see a huge White Pine stump, a deadhead log poking up out of a lake, or a logging railroad grade from the logging days in the woods here. (The Gallery, DPC, Industry & Public Works, Railroads)
Actually Eckman: 1938
... resemblance. (The Gallery, M.P. Wolcott, Mining, Railroads, Small Towns) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/08/2019 - 11:29am -

September 1938. "Coal mining town of Welch [i.e., Eckman], in the Bluefield section of West Virginia." Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size. Bluefield section of WelchFatal Powder Blast The Washington Post, District of Columbia December 15, 1906 Bluefield, W. Va., Dec. 14. — An explosion at Eckman today of 10,000 pounds of powder, which was being transported on three mine cars from a freight car to the powder house of the Pulaski Company, resulted in the death of one, the fatal injury of two, and the serious injury of eight others. Three of the injured are women whose homes, near the scene of the explosion, were wrecked. The dead: Joseph Steel, 19, died on the way to the hospital Fatally Injured: Alex Finney, 36 Mrs. George Johnson Seriously Injured: Edward Mullin, 22 Felix Harduett Mrs. Mary Forbes T. Hairston George Bland, 22 Oscar Cowns C. W. Case Mrs. Mary Rhoads Wrecked Houses Take Fire The wrecked houses took fire, and the scene was soon thronged with people. Timbers and empty powder cans were scattered over a large area. The men were on the powder-laden cars and the women were in the houses nearby. The powder was in tins, and was moved from a freight car to the magazine, when sparks from the motor wheels or current from the motor set it off. The houses nearby were torn into splinters, and the detonation rocked the entire village. In a few minutes hundreds had congregated and engaged in fighting the fire, which broke out as soon as the explosion occurred. Some of the wounded were horribly burned, several of them lost their eyes, and the flesh hung in tatters from their bodies. Note: According to the web site of the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training, this explosion killed 4 employees and 2 individuals on the surface near the mine. Dichotomy Stunningly beautiful country up that way. Absolutely dangerous and difficult way to live. Going BOOM!About this time, a Mr Nobel realized that if you mixed highly volatile nitroglycerin with clay (or other inert substance) you created, what came to be named dynamite, which is so safe it take a strong primer to set it off. The E.I. duPont company began production and promoting it. The rest is safe blasting history. [Check your facts. Alfred Nobel died in 1896. Dynamite was invented in the 1860s. - Dave] EckmanAs Walter’s post would indicate and ex-N&W voices state, this photo location is of Eckman, WV. Flatiron SouthIt seems one of Shorpy's favorite buildings had a son who settled in West Virginia. He is not as tall as dad but you can see the resemblance. (The Gallery, M.P. Wolcott, Mining, Railroads, Small Towns)
Garage à Trois: 1940
... least a panoramic simulation: (The Gallery, Railroads, Russell Lee) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/27/2020 - 9:58am -

September 1940. "Locomotives in roundhouse. Durango, Colorado." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Now ain't this the berries!(as my late grandfather used to say) We have a wild assortment of D&RGW head-end power waiting here: #459 was a class K-27 “Mudhen” Mikado (2-8-2), built by Baldwin in 1903 as job #21936. She served on multiple divisions of the road, and was eventually sold to Ferrocarril Nacional Mexicano, which renumbered her and converted her to standard gauge. She was finally scrapped in 1963. #375 was also Baldwin-built and also from 1903. A C-25 Consolidation (2-8-0), she began life as Crystal River Railroad #103; the Rio Grande bought her from CRR in 1916 and numbered her 432, changing to #375 in 1924. As a purchase rather than a factory order, 375 was the only representative of class C-25 on the road. She met the scrapper’s torch at Alamosa, CO in 1949. #268 still survives, though I’m not sure that was a good thing. She was built in 1882, again by Baldwin (construction number 6002), as a Consolidation. She had a tiny firebox—her grate was only 14 square feet—and only developed 16,000 pounds at the drawbar, from which her class number of C-16 came. She was such a light weight that she could only work branch lines (Crested Butte, Baldwin, Lake City) and the main line to Montrose, which almost no one else used. She was also used to pull the wrecking train that dismantled the Crested Butte branch in 1955. After that, #268 went on static display in Gunnison with a gaudily inappropriate paint job. Eventually, she was refitted in colours more appropriate to her age and station, and now is on exhibit near the Gunnison Pioneer Museum. 268 is still with us Built in 1882, it is currently at the Gunnison Pioneer Museum. No. 268 was used in the filming of the movie "Denver & Rio Grande" in 1952. Missed OpportunityBack in 2002, I spent several hours with Allen Harper, owner of the railroad, interviewing him about the Missionary Ridge Fire. He was very interested to learn that I was a steam locomotive geek as well as a wildland firefighter. So he gave me an open invitation to be an honorary fireman on one of the trips to Silverton. If I remember correctly, he said, "If the engineer likes you, you'll shovel 4 tons of coal on the trip. If he doesn't like you, you'll shovel 7 tons." Fortunately or unfortunately, I never had a chance to take him up on his offer. Keep talkingWithout you "old geezers", all the knowledge of old locomotives, cars, appliances, vintage magazines etc. would vanish. You are the treasure of this site. The More Things Change.....Same place (maybe), same scene, different century: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2020/04/colorado-photos/610141/#img19 Now in Trois-DOr at least a panoramic simulation: (The Gallery, Railroads, Russell Lee)
Utility Boy: 1913
... is easier to judge by. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/28/2012 - 1:16pm -

November 1913. Orange, Texas. "General Utility Boy at Lutcher & Moore Lumber. 'I'm 14 years old; been here one year. Get $1 a day.' He runs errands and helps around. I saw him pushing some of these empty cars. Exposed to the weather and some danger. In the sawmill and planing mill I saw several boys who might be under 15." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. A dollar a day$1 a day sounds terrible to modern ears, but it had considerable buying power at the turn of the last century. My CPI calculator only goes back to 1913, and even then $1 had the buying power of $24 today, so in 1903 it was probably a few dollars more. Not bad for a kid in those times. More on Pulling Slabs I was 19 and working my way through college in Southern Illinois and worked at a lumber yard for over 2 years. The worst job I had was to unload a full boxcar of various length and width boards. I "rode the forks"(of the fork truck)up to the top of the load, which was only 3' from the top of the inside of the car and was, in Summer, around a furnace in temp. Each board had to be passed out to the waiting forks, and then sorted by length and width on the ground. It took two of us 10-14 days to do a car. But, I was 19 and not 14. I made $1.40/hr, and at least back then one could still work their way through college. And, I had mostly much better jobs at the yard, like waiting on customers and then driving delivery. Regardless, I tip my hat to that tough little 14 y/o. I hope he found other opportunities in this industry along the way. Pulling slabsMy late father used to tell the story about his days as a teenager working in a sawmill in the hot Florida woods before he got drafted into WW2. "Pulling slabs" was the hardest most miserable job he ever had before or since. At the time he was on his high school football team and was 6 feet and 210 pounds and a pretty tough guy (he thought). But that job broke him and he quit after a week. He said he was actually glad to see the letter from Uncle Sam. A Dollar a Day is How Much?To put this into some sort of perspective this 14 year old was paid $1 a day. Presumably he's working a full day, because that's what kids did in those days. And that that day wasn't your namby pamby eight hour day in a forty hour work week. it was more than likely a twelve hour day or more. So what rivlax's $24 today (actually according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics says it's $23.27) is pretty close to $2 an hour. Or to convert it back to the wages of the time (because the kid wasn't getting modern wages he was getting wages of the period) the kid is getting paid $.083 and hour. Yes just a fraction over 8 CENTS an hour. Not good for anyone at any time. Groovy Wheels?The wheelsets have outside flanges. Isn't this kind of unusual or are the wheels double flanged (grooved)? The Shadow KnowsRe: Groovy wheels Those look like standard wheels to me. The shadows are falling in such a way as to seem like flanges over the track. (Notice where the boy's shadow is.) That plus the usual lensatic effects of these large format cameras. The wheel on the rightmost cart is easier to judge by. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Railroads)
Compleat Angler: 1901
... locomotive type. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/12/2015 - 8:48am -

Circa 1901. "Bridge over the Susquehanna at Pittston, Pennsylvania." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. The view today courtesy of GoogleView Larger Map Why is the bridge on one side of the supports?I am wondering why the bridge is on only one side of the supports. Would another track have been put beside it eventually? Or was this how they were constructed-- I notice that the side holding up the track seem reinforced with stone coming down at an angle. Fishing For?Bullhead catfish or sunfish I'm guessing, since he's still-fishing. Bullheads on bottom, sunnies if he's using a float. The smallmouth bass so sought after on the Susquehanna these days had probably not been imported yet--they're not native. Carp were only beginning to become unwanted guests in America's rivers. CamelbackThe locomotive on the bridge is a type called a Camelback. The engineer and brakeman sat in a cab that straddled the boiler in the middle of the locomotive. The fireman had his own shelter at the rear to transfer coal from the tender to the boiler firebox. The reason for this design was that they burned local Anthracite coal which is very high in fixed carbon. It burns hot but slowly, like charcoal. To get enough heat to power the locomotive the firebox had to be almost as wide as the locomotive, making it impossible for the engineer to see ahead from a rear mounted cab. The solution was to put the cab ahead of the firebox. I've fished exactly where he is, probably 80 years later.Technically this fellow is sitting in West Pittston, not Pittston itself, which is what you're looking at across the river. West Pittston and Pittston are two separate towns, with different school districts. So we Wyoming Area Warriors considered the Pittston Patriots our sworn enemies. Of course back then, the worst you did to your enemy was maybe TP the trees in their front yard. That always showed 'em! Regarding the fishing, he's probably fishing for his dinner. Many years later, we caught a lot, but never ate them, since the river these days is pretty, but not necessarily something you want to eat out of. And one final thing for jaylgordon-the bridge abutments are slanted like that on the upriver side, to allow debris flowing downstream to more easily roll off and not get stuck on them. Bridge SupportsThe Pennsylvania Railroad and her subsidiaries would typically build bridges in this manner, with a piling wide enough to accommodate two tracks; but only place one track over the bridge. The reasoning, at least for the railroad, was that if traffic or demand ever became such that a second track needed added; it was simply easier to plunk a new bridge down on the extra width. This also meant that the existing line would not need to be closed during the construction. The locomotive in question looks to be one of the PRR's 4-4-0 camelback types, though it's possibly a 4-6-0. (Can not tell from the angle.) Here is an image of the possible locomotive type. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
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