October 1942. A painter cleans the tail section of a P-51 Mustang fighter prior to spraying with olive-drab camouflage. North American Aviation plant, Inglewood, California. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.

October 1942. Final assembly for a B-25 bomber at North American Aviation, Inglewood, Calif. View full size. Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.

October 1942. Cowling and control rods are added to motors for B-25 bombers as they move down the assembly line at North American Aviation, Inglewood, Calif. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.

February 1943. Readying a "Vengeance" dive bomber for landing gear installation at Consolidated-Vultee, Nashville. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.

Mating operation on a C-87 transport plane just before it comes to the pre- assembly line at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant, Fort Worth, Texas. October 1942. View full size. Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem.

Fitting the tail of a C-87 transport plane to the wing center section in the fuselage mating fixture at the Consolidated Aircraft plant, Fort Worth, Texas. October 1942. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem.

Wing center section of a Liberator bomber at the Consolidated Aircraft plant. October 1942. View full size. Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem.

Santa Fe freight about to leave for the West Coast from the Corwith Yard at Chicago. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. This is the freight Jack accompanied from Chicago to California in March 1943, taking many pictures along the way for the Office of War Information.

Classification yard at the Chicago & North Western Proviso Yard. December 1942. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.

Santa Fe R.R. train stopping for coal and water at Laguna, New Mexico. March 1943. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.

Santa Fe R.R. westbound freight stopping for water at Melrose, New Mexico. View full size. Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. This is one of about a thousand pictures Jack took for the Office of War Information in March 1943, riding a freight from Chicago to California. Most of them were in black-and-white. He used a Graflex Speed Graphic press camera that took 4x5 inch film.

General view of one of the Chicago and North Western railroad yards at Chicago. December 1942. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.

Vernon Brower riding the footboard of an Illinois Central diesel switch engine at the South Water Street freight terminal, Chicago. May 1943. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.

Shorpy is moving to a new server tonight, so there may be times when the site is unavailable. See you when we get back! 4x5 Kodachrome transparency of Civil Air Patrol plane (Stinson 10A) at Bar Harbor, Maine, by John Collier, June 1943. Full size. A couple more here and here.

Chicago & North Western RR worker putting the finishing touches on a rebuilt caboose on the rip tracks at Proviso Yard, Chicago. April 1943. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.