It’s a frigid winter day in December of 1942 at the C&NW’s Proviso Yard in Chicago. Jack Delano spied these engine-men attempting to thaw the air pumps on their steamer. Burning a bit of cotton waste against them hopefully will do the trick.
One of those new newfangled diesels meets a steam locomotive at the Chicago Union Station. The time is January of 1943, and that modernistic train is the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy’s Denver Zephyr. This train ran between Chicago and Denver, with service commencing in 1936, and running until 1973. The route was 1,034 miles and the train generally covered the distance in 16 ~ 16-1/2 hours.
Photo by Jack Delano
Jack Delano has recorded a worker putting the finishing touches on a rebuilt C&NW caboose down at the rip tracks. The location is the Proviso yard in Chicago, Illinois, and the time is likely early 1943. Number 12432 has probably never looked better, and I’m sure it’s conductor is ready to move back in!
Jack Delano has ventured down to the locomotive servicing facilities to see what goes on there. And here we see Viola Sievers washing down the running gear of C&NW steamer #3034 at the end of its run. Washing the locomotives was not only for the pride of the fleet, but also so that the machine could be properly inspected for problems and defect.
With the war going, the manpower shortage created thousands of jobs for the women, and they stepped up to even the toughest and dirtiest jobs that had to be done.
The year is 1943 and we’re on the Indiana Harbor Belt line. Switchman Daniel Senise is seen waiting for the movement after lining a switch while at work in an IHB railroad yard. Jack Delano photograph.
For quite a few months now I’ve had a flurry of “rail fans” registering with the Post Notifications sign-up that shows in the sidebar at right. Virtually every day I get anywhere from one to a dozen new folks who can’t wait to be notified of new posts. It’s pretty obvious they’re just some sort of spammers, or otherwise have nefarious intent. I’ve tried several ideas aimed at thwarting this, but they obviously haven’t worked, and the problem just increases as time goes by.
Therefore, I’ve deleted the post notification sign-up on the sidebar. It will still show up for folks that wish to leave a comment on a post as a checkbox on the comment form. Or in your comment you can indicate that you’d like to subscribe and I can manually add you.
We’ll see how this goes for awhile. Hopefully it’ll solve the problem, though I wish I didn’t have to make it harder for folks by doing this. But I’m just tired of checking the blog two or three times a day in order to delete these characters.
To my friends and followers out there, I hope you have some wonderful family time during this holiday season, and I appreciate very much your interest in this humble blogging adventure.
-Jack
It’s 1942 and photographer Jack Delano secured this shot of an 0-6-0 switching locomotive taking a spin on the turntable in the Illinois Central’s yard in Chicago, Illinois.
The year is 1942, and the location is Chicago, Illinois. Jack Delano has captured this Illinois Central steamer as she visits the coal chute.
Some of my favorite rail images came from a gentleman named Jack Delano. While not specifically a rail photographer, he left his mark back in the early 1040s with a series of photographs he captured while employed by U.S. government’s Office of War Information, Farm Security Administration as part of their photography program. Two of the railroads he covered extensively were the Chicago and Northwestern, and the Illinois Central.
One of the things I really like about his photography is the way he captures the human element into many of his compositions. In this image, we can study the unique interior of this freight crew’s C&NW caboose as they are making the run between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa.
Back in the summer of 1973 I attended the NMRA national convention in Atlanta, Georgia, aptly named Peachtree ’73. It was a fine convention, and in addition to the usual fare, the convention hosted a double-headed steam excursion.
But there was another steam-up that caught my attention as well. And here it is: a working replica of the Best Friend of Charleston locomotive, along with several coaches. It was interesting to see it ramble down the street.
The original locomotive, built in 1830, was said to be the first U.S. built locomotive for actual railroad service. Unfortunately it suffered a boiler explosion six months after being placed in service.
This replica is one of two that exist.
-Jack
Last Saturday my friend Ron Findley and I drove up to Jackson, Louisiana to watch the steam-up scheduled for the day. This is the home of the Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroaders, and one of the club features is a nice elevated loop for the live steam buffs in the club. This day was host to a number of folks from out of state, and we delighted in seeing several new faces at the event.
Just heading out on the mainline after our arrival was this beautiful F scale D&RGW K-36 2-8-2, pulling a short passenger train over the line. An F scale (1:20.3) steamer is quite large, and the sounds are awesome!
Shortly afterwards, a Great Northern class S-2 4-8-4 took to the rails, seen here hauling a freight train with several perishables in tow. She had to make speed to arrive at her destination in a timely fashion!
Perhaps the most interesting thing run yesterday was this Schnabel car. It appears to be a model of the Westinghouse car, WECX 800, which I believe to be the largest Schnabel car in service. She sports 36 axles! These cars are used to transport very large and/or heavy loads. The car splits in the middle and the load is placed between the halves. In essence, the load virtually becomes a part of the car. The model was built with the aid of 3D printing, and is almost complete, with only the need for lettering and perhaps a detail or two.
And below we have a tidy little passenger train being hauled by what (I believe) to be a British 2-6-2. She is running on the portable loop seen in the background of a photo above, and was a sweet running little thing . . . a pleasure to see. Trevor, if you’re watching, this one’s for you 🙂
These are just a few of the locomotives performing during this day; quite a few others ran as well. I’ve posted photos previously of others that I’ve seen in earlier years, and a search should yield those posts if you would like to see them.
-Jack
Continuing our coverage of the 745’s shake down run, we pan around as the train sashays by on this balmy February morning at a leisurely 10 mph. And we’re rewarded with a nice open end observation car following up the rear of the train. Note the kerosene marker lamps resplendently displayed in the traditional fashion.
