Jack Delano visited the city of Du Bois, Pennsylvania back in September of 1940. He took this panoramic view of the shop facility there, and the housing located on the hillside adjacent to the yard. There was no information recorded about this scene beyond the date and location. And I’m not very familiar with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad which we are seeing here.

I’m speculating that this might be a deadline for steam locomotives. There is a line of empty locomotive tenders in the foreground. And virtually none of the locomotives behind this have their tenders. Several have their stacks capped, and at least one has the back of the cab boarded up. We can see a traveling crane at left-rear, so outdoor heavy lifting is done here. But I can’t spot any locomotive being cut up. So the mystery remains for me.

I notice a good bit of laundry hanging on the lines in the background, so assume we aren’t near a large yard. Indeed, the only hot locomotive appears to be the shop switcher. You can click on the image to see a much larger version if you wish to study it. Feel free to comment if you can shed more light on this scene.