Shorpy has been on a Train Kick this year. Updated 3/2/2025

@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.

5/5/2024

Chicago, Illinois. In the interlocking tower at Union Station. It is here that all inbound and outbound traffic is controlled. The men work entirely by the board, hardly ever looking out of a window to see an actual train.

Lots of switches to control = lots of stress and headaches! Hope they had enough Asperin.

Tom

@MartyE posted:

5/5/2024

Chicago, Illinois. In the interlocking tower at Union Station. It is here that all inbound and outbound traffic is controlled. The men work entirely by the board, hardly ever looking out of a window to see an actual train.

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

IMO a really good one today!

Chicago, Illinois. One of the Pennsylvania Railroad's giant '6100' class [T1 prototype] engines pulling out of Union Station on the 'Manhattan Limited' run.

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...

Freight operations of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad. Grain elevator and mill at a siding of the Harbor Belt's Blue Island Yard south of Chicago.

Blue Island Yard of the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad with view of the icing platform.

Beaumont, Texas. Wartime occupational replacement by women in men's traditional jobs. Lady in signal tower who operates block signals for railroad crossing.

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.

New Britain, Connecticut, is home to many essential war industries. A woman railroad crossing watcher letting down the gates until the train passes.

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!

October 1942. "Tulsa, Oklahoma. Loading rack at the Mid-Continent refinery, Tulsa station of the Great Lakes pipeline." Photo by John Vachon, Office of War Information.

December 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Icing a refrigerator car in the freight house at a Chicago & North Western railyard." Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.

December 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Locomotive over the ash pit at the roundhouse at a Chicago & North Western railyard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information.

More Shorpy...

March 1943. "Fort Madison, Iowa. Mr. H.D. Tyres, yardmaster on the route of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad."

Marty,

Thanks for posting. Things that I noticed right away...no visible calendar and a very clean desk.

Tom

@MartyE posted:

Shorpy is back!

December 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Locomotive over the ash pit at the roundhouse at a Chicago & North Western railyard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information.

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

And another...

March 1943. Kansas City, Kansas. "Argentine Yard, Santa Fe R.R. -- Night view of the departure yard on the route of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway."

Great photos!  Would like to see more on the eastern part of the US.

And another...

March 1943. "Kansas City, Missouri. Produce freight yard used by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad."

This is a good one...

March 1943. "Albuquerque, New Mexico. Men working on the firebox of an engine in the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad locomotive shops."

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

April 1943. "Detroit, Michigan. Freight cars in railyard seen from above."

April 1943. "Detroit, Michigan. A huge pipe section loaded on a flatcar."