Over these past months we’ve seen a number of photographs recorded by Jack Delano during his visit to the Illinois Central’s yard in the Chicago area back in November of 1942. While roaming around, he spotted this interesting composition of wheelsets sitting outside of one of the shops. Inspecting the original high resolution image, I can see that the majority of these wheelsets are old, coated with the typical mixture of oil and dirt. Note the presence of older ribbed back wheels in this mix. In the distance are what appear to be new wheels. I wonder if these used wheelsets will be reconditioned or simply scrapped. I suspect that those beyond a certain age will be the latter.
A steam powered crane is seen in the background loading (or unloading) wheelsets in a wheelset flatcar. At left and center there are stacks of what appear to be bridge components, one of which is similar to a turntable bridge, though it looks rather short for that purpose. And the I.C. mainline can be seen in the distance, with a couple signals visible, as well as the telegraph line.
cool
Dan Watson posted an interesting comment on Facebook concerning these wheels:
“Cast-iron wheels (the ones with the ribs) were generally re-melted and cast into new wheels. They were not generally re-machinable, because the treads were “chilled” when cast, which causes them to be much harder than the rest of the wheel. By this date, chilled Iron wheels were being replaced by steel wheels, and would be eventually outlawed for interchange service.”
-Jack
Wish I had All those in HO.
Now that is what I Call “American made”.