@Hot Water posted:Note the rivets, holding the steps to the inside of the vertical support leg, facing the camera.
Yes, didn’t notice that. Thx.
Lots of switches to control = lots of stress and headaches! Hope they had enough Asperin. 
Tom
@MartyE posted:
Really interesting. Never having been in the Chicago Union Station Interlocking Tower, is this the tower that controlled the south side, i.e. CB&Q etc., or the north side, i.e. C&NW and Milwaukee Road?
EDIT:
I have since found out that this is the Harrison Street Tower which controls the south portion of Chicago Union Station, for the station platforms to the CB&Q and PRR coach yards.
@PRR8976 posted:Lots of switches to control = lots of stress and headaches! Hope they had enough Asperin.
Tom
Actually not as stressful as you would think (certainly NOT like an air port control tower). Having made a number of trips into the DL&W Hoboken Terminal Tower during the morning in-bound commuter rush in the late 1950s, there is definitely LOTS of "activity". However, there was always one or two Signal Maintainers "on duty" in order to assist in any potential "delays".
@Hot Water posted:Note the rivets, holding the steps to the inside of the vertical support leg, facing the camera.
So, this appears to be a somewhat unusual ladder, on the inner part of the structure (seems to also lack railings) that I guess led to a trap door in the floor.
Tom
Marty, Look at the steam coming out of its stack...All of your posts have been very good and interesting, some just a little more interesting than the others!
Thanks for posting the links for us.
Tom
@PRR8976 posted:Marty, Look at the steam coming out of its stack...
.....Tom
I'd like to see a smoke system for models that looks like THAT, yet is harmless, produces no smell, residue or condensation, and dissipates in 3 seconds. Well, I can dream.
@MartyE posted:Missed a few days...
Blue Island Yard of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad with view of the icing platform.
Icing platform of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad. Blue Island Yard south of Chicago.
San Augustine, Texas. Story of a small town. The waiting room in the railroad station.
Chicago, Illinois. Switchmen riding one of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe diesel switch engines.
Never checked out this thread until today. Good stuff.
Shorpy is back!
Marty,
Thanks for posting. Things that I noticed right away...no visible calendar and a very clean desk.
Tom
@MartyE posted:
I looked up the M4 class on the cab to find they were 0-8-0 switchers on the C&NWs. For modelers, note the canvas (rear of cab and over window) to keep out the cold on the cab and the low hanging piping that one might think would get fouled/ snagged while operating.
No signs of global warming on that December day in Chicago!
Thanks again for posting.
Tom
Great photos! Would like to see more on the eastern part of the US.
Thanks for sharing this image @MartyE .
While I love steam locomotives, it sort of sums up the hole extra, excessive costs of steam locomotive maintenance while this one has been stripped down to the rivets and will need to be reassembled. I almost missed the other 2 workers on top.
Tom
Marty, Thanks again for posting. Both are interesting for modeling purposes. Note the soldier (just above the boxcar), with his rifle, patrolling the yard, in the second photo during WWII.
Tom
@PRR8976 posted:Marty, Thanks again for posting. Both are interesting for modeling purposes. Note the soldier (just above the boxcar), with his rifle, patrolling the yard, in the second photo during WWII.
Tom
There is so much to see in these photos, especially the second.
GREAT STUFF Marty!
Please note military man with rifle on left border of second photo Marty has linked. Wonder what he was watching for/protecting?
Not sure if it's been posted here, but here's a great one!
Chicago, Illinois. One of the Pennsylvania Railroad's giant '6100' class [T1 prototype] engines
One last one from this series...
April 1943. "Detroit, Michigan. A section of a boiler on a flatcar."
I love these old pics! Thanks for posting!
@MartyE posted:
Just saw this. Few observations about this pic...
I was born (March 1952) and raised in KC KS/MO. We moved back to mom and dad's "Fatherland" (Arkansas) in January of 1969. I saw the ATSF Argentine Yard many, many times via 18th Street overpass as well as along the yard on side roads. (Can vividly remember Zerbra Stripe FM switchers switching in the yard among many other memories.)
As for this pic:
What I find the most interesting are the "lantern tracks" imprinted on the time exposure on the right side of the picture. Obviously, some cars and/or cuts of bled-off cars have been kicked or set against the previous cut, and the Brakeman had gone down the cut and laced-up the air hoses. The effect of the oil lantern swinging while walking as well as being used in-between the cars is fascinating.
Also, I'm wondering if that is an earlier version of the 18th Street overpass than was in my era? If so, then the position of the photographer and cars could be in the general location of what would become the massive Argentine Yard diesel locomotive servicing area. However, that picture may be further west and thus not the same area.
Andre
Here is a really good one!
"Waynoka, Oklahoma. Oil and water derricks near the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad roundhouse."
@MartyE posted:Here is a really good one!
"Waynoka, Oklahoma. Oil and water derricks near the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad roundhouse."
Super photo! However, the title is misleading as those are NOT "derricks".
@Hot Water posted:Super photo! However, the title is misleading as those are NOT "derricks".
I don't write the captions for the webpage. You can certainly comment on their site and maybe they'll fix it.
Marty,
Thanks for posting. Note the boxcars on the adjacent track to the right, with no doors and no roofs.
Tom
They are on Fire this week...
March 1943. "Shopton, near Fort Madison, Iowa. Locomotives in the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway roundhouse.
A couple of comments on the last two Shorpy photos:
- The photo of the "part of the car shops" is the Rip Track, where cars with en route defects are repaired, as well as some home road car repairs. Rip stands for "Repair In Place" meaning the repair was not so serious that major work would be required. Wrecks and frame failures, etc., had to go to the car shop. If a car in a train in the yard was found to have a defect during the 500 mile train yard inspection, it would have been switched out of the train, sent to the Rip Track, and, after repair, would have been forwarded to destination in a later train. Foreign road* car repairs were charged according to a manual published by the Association of American Railroads. Home road cars were given periodic maintenance at the Rip Track.
- In the Fort Madison (actually Shopton, IA) photo, the device mounted on the pilot truck frame of 4-6-2 3438 is the drive unit for the speed sensor of the cab signal system. Santa Fe used cab signals (called Automatic Train Control by ATSF) between Fort Madison and Chicago. The mechanical (hydraulic) speed recorder in the cab was normally driven by a cable drive from a small wheel resting on one of the drive wheels, or a cable drive off of a trailing truck axle.
* Foreign road car: Any car not owned by the railroad handling the car, in other words, all other railroads as well as private owner cars.
Marty, All very interesting. Lots of paper and hanging paper. With all the clutter he still manages to have a clear working surface in front of him to pperate his telegraph. The combination of headset and voice tube/microphone can't be too comfortable considering he needs to move around. Not too much is clean, except... I liked the hanging clean, gleaming pocket watch, under the mirror! It really stands out. There is also a hanging tobacco can under the lamp, something you don't see anymore (my dad smoked so it also stood out to me). What looks like a cannon ball or shot put, is maybe is a paperweight to control his paperwork (from the fan to the right)?
Thanks for finding and posting.
Tom
The tobacco can on the telegraph sounder was an old telegraphers trick to increase the volume of the sounder. Very neat picture.
@PRR8976 posted:Marty, All very interesting. Lots of paper and hanging paper. With all the clutter he still manages to have a clear working surface in front of him to pperate his telegraph. The combination of headset and voice tube/microphone can't be too comfortable considering he needs to move around. Not too much is clean, except... I liked the hanging clean, gleaming pocket watch, under the mirror! It really stands out. There is also a hanging tobacco can under the lamp,
Just my opinion but, I believe that empty tobacco can is not "hanging", but is attached to the sounder device, and is thus acting as a "sound enhancer".
something you don't see anymore (my dad smoked so it also stood out to me). What looks like a cannon ball or shot put, is maybe is a paperweight to control his paperwork (from the fan to the right)?
Thanks for finding and posting.
Tom
