Actually, that's back where the railroad is away from the highway, between Shattuck, Oklahoma, and Higgins, Texas. It won't matter to most here, but maybe -- just maybe -- there is someone here who has ever lived in Canadian, Miami, or Pampa, Texas and they might be puzzled by the scenery, since Hoover is down in the Canadian River cedar breaks, just off the caprock. Jack Delano might have been worn slick from riding freight trains for hours and hours, and possibly had become tired of taking notes after each sheet of film was exposed. The helper might have been added at Waynoka, for Curtis Hill.
I love seeing these photos of my Home Road in its glory.
@MartyE posted:
Not a happy looking train crew, by any measure. Thanks for posting, Marty.
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Not a happy looking train crew, by any measure. Thanks for posting, Marty.
Yes, they look like they were all business and were being delayed by the photographer. But there might also be a back story. They all lived in a small town and could have been related by blood, marriage, or divorce. There might have been interpersonal issues relating to religion, politics, money, or whether they preferred Fords or Chevrolets. Maybe they were called for a drag that would pick up and set out cars all the way to Waynoka and get run around by two or three other crews, while the crew behind them got called for a hotshot.
Notice the badges on the Conductor's and Brakeman's caps. Santa Fe operating rules in that era required Conductors and Brakemen to wear their badge while on duty, in freight service as well as passenger. Everyone is carrying a pocket watch, a fountain pen, and a pencil. Two crew members wear neckties, making one wonder whether the caption identified the Brakeman and the Fireman backwards.
Their engine is a 4000 Class 2-8-2, a pretty strong engine of that wheel arrangement, easily capable of keeping the train running across the prairie at Santa Fe's then-maximum speed of 45 MPH for freight trains.
@Number 90 posted:Yes, they look like they were all business and were being delayed by the photographer. But there might also be a back story. They all lived in a small town and could have been related by blood, marriage, or divorce. There might have been interpersonal issues relating to religion, politics, money, or whether they preferred Fords or Chevrolets. Maybe they were called for a drag that would pick up and set out cars all the way to Waynoka and get run around by two or three other crews, while the crew behind them got called for a hotshot.
Notice the badges on the Conductor's and Brakeman's caps. Santa Fe operating rules in that era required Conductors and Brakemen to wear their badge while on duty, in freight service as well as passenger.
Their engine is a 4000 Class 2-8-2, a pretty strong engine of that wheel arrangement, easily capable of keeping the train running across the prairie at Santa Fe's then-maximum speed of 45 MPH for freight trains.
Lotta “what ifs” and “coulda beens” above, Tom. Doesn’t make them look any happier😜😜😜
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Lotta “what ifs” and “coulda beens” above, Tom. Doesn’t make them look any happier😜😜😜
Just how "happy" would you expect to see Railroaders in 1943, after at least two years of war stress?
Happy enough that they’re stateside, and not in combat in the PTO or ETO. That’s war stress!
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Happy enough that they’re stateside, and not in combat in the PTO or ETO. That’s war stress!
You really have no idea about the "stress" that Railroaders, and railroads, were under during the war years. Just because they were not in combat, and getting shot at, doesn't mean that Railroaders were NOT "stressed". I was born in 1942, and once old enough to understand, I can remember my father's VERY long hours at the Pennsylvania RR, and he wasn't even in the Operating Department.
That AT&SF crew photo was taken in the month and year that I was born, and I just imagine that they--like most railroaders and industry workers at the time--were all business, and not much inclined to be subject to "smile for the camera" moments. Everyone in the U.S. was pretty much focused on the war effort at the time, including youngsters who gathered materials that could be used for that ongoing and very serious effort.
I also thought about what they might have been thinking about at the time and it reminded me of my father. He was a fireman on the New Haven (trained on steam and diesel), right after WWII and the railroad life was not for him. He was low on seniority, so he often got called whenever someone was needed. He used to complain that he was too busy to spend all the paychecks that were stuffed into his pockets.
So, we may have some tired railroaders, maybe some less than happy railroaders, etc. God bless them all wherever they may be nowadays.
Thanks for posting, Marty.
Tom
Santa Fe established Navajo rail replacement gangs every spring, and cut them off in the fall. This was a source of good relations between the Navajo Nation and the railroad until the BNSF merger. Railroad wages were appreciated on the reservation. The railroad gave them a week off and a ride back to Winslow or Gallup each month, and then picked them up and transported them to the work location. They were excellent at laying rail.
Most spoke English but would not do so in the presence of non-Navajo railroad employees. We supervisors talked with the Navajo in charge -- we called him the chief, but I am not entirely certain what was his official standing within the Navajo Nation -- and he would communicate with the workers. Over a span of 22 years, a couple of them spoke English to me, but only small talk, such as "It will be good when the afternoon rainstorm season starts." "Yes, I look forward to it."
The Santa Fe Navajo steel gangs were legendary for their excellent work.
A couple more...
April 1943. "Baltimore, Maryland. A local delivery truck (last seen here) on South Howard Street."
and
March 1943. "Kiowa, Kansas. An Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe rail detector car. These cars are actually traveling scientific instruments, which not only detect faulty rails but also record the place and extent of the defect."
This one is unique! Click on the links on the Shorpy page too!
Washington, D.C., circa 1919, somewhere along M Street. "Big naval gun of type used in France." These 14-inch, 50-caliber railway guns, deployed to France toward the end of World War I, had a range of 24 miles.
@MartyE posted:
What a GREAT photograph! Note the special Machinist's Hammer the Inspector is holding in his right had. The various machined diameters on the head, plus the length of the head, are used for making all sorts of "known dimension checks". Also, the inspector uses the hammer to tap on bolts & rivets in order to determine whether they are properly tightened.
Those special Machinist's Inspection hammers are still used today when inspecting diesel units, and I still have mine hanging on a hook in the garage.
"Lynchburg, Virginia -- railroad station."
It's always fun to go to Google Maps and see what still exists...
Wilbur Chocolate is still made by Cargill, under the Wilbur name.
Great photos Marty, Thanks for taking the time to post them, Merry Christmas.
@MartyE Marty, nice photo. I like the long shed. I wonder if that was part of a lumber yard, and not part of the factory? To the right, we see an open-sided building that one might see in a lumber yard. Either way, the shed/ramp is very interesting.
Thanks for posting.
Tom
@PRR8976 posted:@MartyE Marty, nice photo. I like the long shed. I wonder if that was part of a lumber yard, and not part of the factory? To the right, we see an open-sided building that one might see in a lumber yard. Either way, the shed/ramp is very interesting.
Thanks for posting.
Tom
If you go on Google Maps that "long shed" structure is still there although it looks like it's repurposed and updated but the foundation is still there. Not sure about posting the Google Map image but here is the link to the street view.
These are a great look at how things were at that time.. Thanks for posting! 
@Mark V. Spadaro posted:Wilbur Chocolate is still made by Cargill, under the Wilbur name.
And the remnants of the branch still run by the ex-Wilbur Chocolate plant as well as by the Animal Trap Company of America, makers of Victor mouse traps. The now severed line ends nearly at the Victor plant where it used to continue through Ephrata and connect with the other end which now ends just outside of Ephrata.
A picture of the Victor plant during that era is also on Shorpy from the LOC collection.
A nice shiny engine. I noticed the wheels on the front truck don't match for whatever reason. One is spoked and the other is solid.
Happy New Year everyone. Thanks for posting it Marty.
Tom
Marty, Very nice. I had never heard of that before. Even with grease, I would imagine that track gets a lot of wear. This is the prototype version of our test rollers, I guess!
Tom
@PRR8976 posted:Marty, Very nice. I had never heard of that before. Even with grease, I would imagine that track gets a lot of wear. This is the prototype version of our test rollers, I guess!
Tom
Yeah I was hoping our resident engineers would weigh in on this photo. Maybe @Hot Water or @Rich Melvin.
OK, Marty! Here we go. Thanks for the invite.
When a locomotive shop did a full overhaul on a locomotive's running gear, there were hundreds of bearing clearances that had to be right. The crown brass bearings on the axles, the main rod, the connecting rods, and the eccentric rod bearings, the bearings in the valve gear, the clearances in the crosshead, and several other points all had to be correct within a few thousandths of an inch. If even one of those clearances was off by a few thousandths, it would cause problems in the running gear. Those problems would typically show up in the form of excess bearing heating, as the "tight" bearing ran hotter than its neighbors. Conversely, a loose bearing will make noise that should not be there.
Running an engine for a few miles on a slip track allowed the shop forces to confirm that everything was right and that nothing was loose or running hot. Better to discover a problem in the yard on the slip track than 100 miles down the road somewhere, blocking the main track.
@Rich Melvin posted:OK, Marty! Here we go. Thanks for the invite.
When a locomotive shop did a full overhaul on a locomotive's running gear, there were hundreds of bearing clearances that had to be right. The crown brass bearings on the axles, the main rod, the connecting rods, and the eccentric rod bearings, the bearings in the valve gear, the clearances in the crosshead, and several other points all had to be correct within a few thousandths of an inch. If even one of those clearances was off by a few thousandths, it would cause problems in the running gear. Those problems would typically show up in the form of excess bearing heating, as the "tight" bearing ran hotter than its neighbors. Conversely, a loose bearing will make noise that should not be there.
Running an engine for a few miles on a slip track allowed the shop forces to confirm that everything was right and that nothing was loose or running hot. Better to discover a problem in the yard on the slip track than 100 miles down the road somewhere, blocking the main track.
So how reliable is greasing the track? Was the locomotive contained some how in the case of actually grabbing the rail?
@MartyE posted:So how reliable is greasing the track? Was the locomotive contained some how in the case of actually grabbing the rail?
When testing on a slip track, the locomotive is chained to the track.
Even if the grease was worn away, there is no "grabbing" of the rail. If the grease wore away, it would be just like a wheel slip when out on the road. Once the wheels start to slip, the friction between the wheels and the rail is so great that there is actually a tiny pool of molten metal between the wheels and the rail. That's why an engineer has to react quickly and slam the throttle shut to stop a slip. Here's a good example, with yours truly at the throttle:
Drivers spinning without grease on a slip track would not grab the rail, but they would quickly wear a dip in the rails as the drivers ground away at the rail with no lube.
