Photos of Chicago railroads from the 1940s

[Angel Eyes]

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/10/color-photos-chicagos-rail-yards-1940s/571924/


Not much to add, just some cool pics from a bygone era.

[just Warren]

Nice.

I wonder what was/is more dangerous place to work, the flight deck of an aircraft carrier or a railyard.

[Scout26]

Proviso yard is still there.  It's now part of the Union Pacific. (They bought out CNW a few years back.  Which kinda screwed up UP because CNW trains ran on the wrong side.  Like how the Brits drive cars on the wrong side of the road.)   

South Water Street yard has been gone.  That land was to valuable (it's right in the Loop), and hasn't been used as rail yard since the 1980's.

It was where the original City of New Orleans ran out of/back to.    Amtrak still runs the City of New Orleans and a lot of the way it parallels I-57, so we frequently see (and some times run with it) when we are headed to/from Deer Camp or to visit family in Teutopolis.

[RoadKingLarry]

Nice.

I wonder what was/is more dangerous place to work, the flight deck of an aircraft carrier or a railyard.

Might depend on the era.

My maternal grandfather was a railroad worker. He was killed in an accident in a railyard sometime in the late '40s.

[K Frame]

I've seen the third photo a couple of places. Very striking.

[makattak]

Biggest difference in the freight from then to now?

Graffiti.

[zahc]

And dunnage.

[K Frame]

My Grandfather worked on the PRR from the early 1930s until the mid 1960s. Starting around WW II he became a freight conductor on the main line between Philly and Altoona.

Not sure when it was (probably during or just after the war) and he was hit by rolling boxcars, knocked under them and rolled along the track bed. He's not sure why he didn't lose an arm or a leg, but he was pretty battered up.

He was less than amused when he woke up in the negro ward at the local hospital. He was so covered in coal dust and grime that the hospital thought he was black...

[Fly320s]

Biggest difference in the freight from then to now?

Graffiti.

Spray paint was invented in 1949. 

[K Frame]

Spray paint was invented in 1949.  

What, the little tagger punks weren't dedicated enough to carry around an air compressor and spray rig to tag trains?

Lightweights.

[Fly320s]

What, the little tagger punks weren't dedicated enough to carry around an air compressor and spray rig to tag trains?

Lightweights.

Nah, the Graffiti Artistists Local 420 keep the free enterprise folks from working.

[brimic]

Cool pics.

[Perd Hapley]

Biggest difference in the freight from then to now?

Graffiti.

I thought it was the shipping container.

[Scout26]

Biggest difference in the freight from then to now?

Graffiti.

Containers...

[Angel Eyes]

... also switching from steam to diesel for locomotion.  A lot of the physical plant (roundhouses, turntables, coaling towers, water towers, sanding towers, etc.) became unnecessary.

[charby]

What, the little tagger punks weren't dedicated enough to carry around an air compressor and spray rig to tag trains?

Lightweights.

Dad worked 39 years for the railroad, he said most of the graffiti was created by the folks who worked the in the yards and shops.

[230RN]

... also switching from steam to diesel for locomotion.  A lot of the physical plant (roundhouses, turntables, coaling towers, water towers, sanding towers, etc.) became unnecessary.

I guess I'm confused about the sanding towers.  Don't the diesels use sand, too?

The photos are a great combination of art and documentary.

Caption:

"8. Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks at the Proviso yard, photographed in April 1943 "

What are rip tracks?

[Doggy Daddy]

...Graffiti Artistists Local 420...

ISWYDT   

[Scout26]

Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks at the Proviso yard, photographed in April 1943 "

What are rip tracks?

Google is your friend:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIP_track

[grampster]

We had a very large Pere Marquette and Chesapeake and Ohio yard near where I grew up in Wyoming, Michigan.  Huge roundhouse and blacksmith shop.  A lot of the kids I grew up with worked in the yards and one buddies dad was Yardmaster and buddies older brother wound up Yardmaster after his dad retired.  Several folks were killed or injured there every year
We kids knew all the engineers and their engines.  We watched as the old steam engines gave way to the diesels.  We hopped freights and road for 20+ miles over to Holland, Mi. on Lake Michigan and then hook a freight back home.  RR bulls were always chasing us and we knew many of the hoboes and bums who road the rails.  There were a couple of camps along a creek and the Grand River that ran nearby.  Some of those guys were pretty scary. 

As I think back my childhood in the late 40's and 50's was a shining time.  We had the train yards, a couple huge dumps to pick and to shoot rats, a creek and a river to build and ride home made rafts and fish, Gypsum mines that ran all over the place and gypsum strip mine ponds to swim, fish, trap, play hockey on in the winter along with the bottom lands, meadows and woods to play army and cowboys and Indians, and later to hunt small game.  There were nearby hills to ski and sled in the winter as well as steep streets in the hills to run our home made carts down.  There was the huge excelsior plant nearby with millions of logs piled into huge pyramids.  Two spectacular fires there and lots of logs to swipe to build our rafts and build our camps.

[MillCreek]

I bet all those railworkers in that era were exempt from the WWII draft for being essential personnel.  My Dad was exempt by virtue of being the projectionist at the local theater.  He was considered essential since showing newsreels were one of the main ways that people got the news back then.  He still signed up for the Naval aviation cadet program as soon as he graduated from high school at age 17 and went off to fly for the Fleet.

[K Frame]

I bet all those railworkers in that era were exempt from the WWII draft for being essential personnel.  My Dad was exempt by virtue of being the projectionist at the local theater.  He was considered essential since showing newsreels were one of the main ways that people got the news back then.  He still signed up for the Naval aviation cadet program as soon as he graduated from high school at age 17 and went off to fly for the Fleet.

Many of the railroad workers were, yes. But that didn't stop a lot of them from going into the military and becoming part of the Military Railway Service.

My Grandfather, a freight conductor, was in his late 30s when the war started, so he wouldn't have been a draft target, at least initially, but his job position would have exempted him.

Here's a pretty neat article on the Military Railroads in WW II: https://armyhistory.org/railroaders-in-olive-drab-the-military-railway-service-in-wwii/

My other Grandfather was a mechanical engineer and worked in critical materials plant (spun rayon, which was in HUGE demand). He received his draft notice to report for his physical in mid December 1941. He had checked in and taken off his clothes when someone called his name, told him to get dressed, gave him an II-B exemption card, and told him to go back to work.

[K Frame]

... also switching from steam to diesel for locomotion.  A lot of the physical plant (roundhouses, turntables, coaling towers, water towers, sanding towers, etc.) became unnecessary.

Sand towers are still in use. Diesels have sand tanks.

http://monroeeng.com/me_tanks.htm


This is the old coal tower at the Enola yards in Pennsylvania just a few miles from where I grew up. Always wanted to go into it. Never could.

[HankB]

When I was a kid, I grew up half a block from the GTW tracks in Chicago. I was witness to what must have been one of the very last regular passenger services with a steam locomotive - I remember my Dad and I frequently would take a walk to the RR crossing and wait for what he called "The Canadian Express."

I was too young to remember any details about the steam locomotive pulling that train, but I DO remember the intense disappointment I felt when, one day, the train came by pulled by an ordinary diesel locomotive.

It just wasn't the same . . . 

[K Frame]

A few years ago... late 1980s, early 1990s, there was a series of passenger train excursions run along the old PRR mainline using 1940s era cars and a steam locomotive. I wanted very much to go on it, but it was way too expensive for a new college graduate. Got to see it pass by a couple of times. Very neat to see.