The Hump Yard Tower

We’re inside the hump yard tower in the Chicago and North Western’s Proviso Yard at Chicago, Illinois. The Towerman, Mr. R.W. Mayberry, is at the controls, and he will line the appropriate switches to direct each car coming down from the hump into it’s assigned track. He’ll also tweak the retarders which will control the car’s speed as required as it descends to it’s final destination. This is state-of-the-art railroading in May of 1943.

Photo by Jack Delano

R.W. Mayberry, Towerman, C&NW Railiway

3 thoughts on “The Hump Yard Tower

  1. Hmmm, I had to check on that, so I zoomed in on the original (very large) file. Nope, no tie . . . just the way his shirt is folded over and creating a shadow.

    -Jack

Comments are closed.