Last week we saw some aerial views of the C&NW’s Proviso yard near Chicago. I’ve a few other aerial images that Jack Delano recorded while in the Chicago area. This first photograph is of the C&NW freight house located in the Proviso yard. It’s a cold day in December of 1942, a year after the beginning of the U.S. involvement in WWII.

In the foreground are old passenger cars used as living quarters for some yard workers and itinerant help.

This next view was taken in April of 1943 at the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the “Milwaukee Road”. Their reporting mark was MILW. This is the Galewood yard and that appears to be their freight house at center, with the actual yard at left.

Note the interesting mix of wood and steel boxcars in use at this time.

And in November of 1942 Mr. Delano recorded this image of the Illinois Central yard in Chicago. The vapor plumes on this frosty day reveal the locations of several steamers hard at work around the yard. In the distance a couple of the retarder operator’s towers are seen. These are used to control the gravity descent of cars rolling down the hump. You can read about them in this post.