I decided to look at yards this week. These first few photos are similar in era (‘40s or early ‘50s) and similar in the general rolling stock “look”, but because they are taken from different cities, the make-up of the trains has a flavor of the traffic in that area. Then the later photos tend to fool me by a few years (?).
Pittsburg – city of coal and steel: This is a 1940’s pic of a yard near the steel plants in Pittsburg. Checking out the loads in the gondolas, there looks to be several gons with heavy strips – can’t tell if they’re steel or some other material. The car closest to the camera appears to be a flat with stakes holding the same strip load. Then there’s a row of gons with steel rod to the right, Quite a collection of loads further back, and some of the boxcars have open doors.
I don’t have the location on this pic, but there’s some large hills / mountains in the background. The one boxcar in the foreground is AT&SF, and the cabooses to the left appear to be AT&SF – so I’m guessing California, ‘40s or early ‘50s – probably southern Cal. Some rows of reefers are stuck between boxcars. And, there’s a nice strip of single dome tankers – probably petroleum products. The train to the far right is a mix of tankers and gondolas.
I got this photo from Pinterest originating with a blog discussing cars of the ‘40s & ‘50s. There’s quite a few outside braced boxcars that sets the time frame around or just after WWII. And the background and size of the yard immediately suggested Chicago to me. Further research showed that the photographer was Jack Delano who my source says took a lot of photos of the Proviso yard, outside Chicago, in 1942 and 1943. There’s lotsa boxcars, strips of reefers, and some long strips of hoppers and gondolas carrying coal.
This pic was taken from the same blog. But because it shows less of the yard and background, it’s harder to place the location. But same era – some outside braced boxcars and wood gondolas. I’d guess Midwest – and since it was found in the same blog as the previous, maybe Chicago again.
This pic is from the Southern Pacific yard in LA. The cabooses give away the railroad, although with all the Cotton Belt boxcars (St. Louis Southwestern Railway), I might have put the location in St. Louis or possibly somewhere in Texas. SP took over the Cotton Belt in the ‘30s. The abundance of 50’ plug door boxcars without roof walks pushes the scene into – my best guess – the ‘70s or later. There’s a ‘70s style auto-rack train towards the right. Yet the auto-racks don’t appear to be especially long – so I hesitate to go far into the ‘80s.
Similar in era – 1981, but actually from St. Louis in this photo. The caption for the pic centered around MP #2996, the GE U30C in the foreground. In fact, the entire row of locos appear to be GE U30Cs or similar. U30Cs were made from 1966 to 1976. So I would have bumped the photo back a few years into the ‘70s – but close. Check out the gondola loads – appears to be old ties. Notice how the color of the ties almost match the color of the gons. Also note the row of empty piggyback flats. This yard pic provides a good look at spills on the empty tracks – almost looks like sand or a similar substance that has been spilled from numerous trains over the years.
Let’s go back to the SP yard in LA, 1975. Again, similar era. Taken from the opposite side makes a difference in identifying the location. The structure on the far right sets the pic near the same location as the previous SP yard pick. Again, the photo caption was about SP #6750, a GEU25B in the center foreground. There’s a whole row of U-boats with a few additional ones scattered on the other tracks. I’m not great at identifying the couple other types of diesels on these tracks. Given that production of the U25Bs was 1959 to 1966, I tend to think the photo might be a late ‘60s pic. The row of boxcars sport the “Hydra-Cushion” lettering. SP along with Stanford Research Institute developed this cushioning system in the late ‘50s, and then the SP had car manufacturers produced the boxcars from around the early ‘60s through into the ‘70s. While the cushioning system was extremely successful in protecting freight during the test period, it became prone to system failures once car fleets went into service. So again, based on the U-boats and Hydra-Cushion boxcars, I would have pushed the date of this photo back into the late ‘60s.
The next two pics were taken by one of my favorite RR photographers, Parker Lamb. These picks were taken on the same day in Frisco’s Thomas Yard in Birmingham, AL in 1969. Both Frisco #725 and in the second pic, #714 are headed towards Memphis. So the two pics are from the same side of the yard, each one centered on opposite sides of the yard ladders, from near the bridge at the entrance.
You get a great view of the yard and surrounding area. The open sided auto-rack in the first pic give away the ‘60s era. Plus, there’s still roof walks on the cars. Though the pics are black & white, you can see the spills on the tracks, but can’t determine what color. Typical of Parker Lamb, each of these pics tells a story. And the details are phenomenal!
That’s all I have for now. Off to the local NMRA train show for the weekend (Division 7)!
Thx,
Kevin
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