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<p>[quote user="wanswheel"]</p> <p>Still I wonder who was the actual photographer of "The Fair Engineer?" Perhaps it was C.S. Jackson.</p> <p>Excerpt from <i>The Railway Age</i>, February 7, 1902</p> <p>C. S. Jackson has been appointed official photographer of the Chicago & Alton, and is attached to the passenger department. The line of his work will be somewhat different from that of photographers employed by other roads. It will be part of his duties to photograph terminal facilities, docks, freight equipment, freight platforms, scenery, passenger equipment, bridges, accidents, etc. The value of his services was demonstrated recently when a fire occurred in the union depot in Chicago. Within three hours after the occurrence the photographer presented to the officials photographs showing the full extent of the damage, and next day the officials of the Pennsylvania lines in Pittsburg received similar photographs. The photographer's principal work at this time will be in connection with the engineering and mechanical departments.</p> <p>Excerpt from <i>The World's Work - A History of Our Time </i>(1902)</p> <p>A NEW USE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY</p> <p>A Western railroad has found a new use for photography. The road in question uses it as a substitute for written reports, whenever possible, and also not infrequently for tours of investigation. It conveys necessary information clearly and swiftly; it simplifies supervision. Any great undertaking may be superintended by the use of such a system. Indeed, it has already been found expedient to alter plans on the strength of information given by the photographic reports. The photographs tell what has been done better than any written description, and they constitute a continuous record of the progress made in structural undertakings.</p> <p>In order to show the magnitude of the undertaking, the duties of the official photographer of the Chicago & Alton Railroad may be given, for the Alton, so far as known, is the first road to perfect a system, using it both in the constructing department and in the operating department. The bureau was established under the new plan November 1, 1901, and this was the work assigned to it: </p> <p>For the engineering department -</p> <p>1. A complete set of "progress pictures," taken at stated intervals, of all construction work along the right of way, including track-laying, filling, grading, ballasting, curve-eliminating, bridge-building, crossing-work, depot-building, shop-building, and culvert and subway construction.</p> <p>2. A complete set of "progress pictures" of all work not along the right of way that is being done by, or for, the company. This includes reservoir construction and miscellaneous engineering work, such as the revetment along the Missouri River near Glasgow, Mo., to prevent the washing away of the roadbed.</p> <p>3. A complete set of "progress pictures," showing the resources of the road in the way of crude building material and how they are used. A good illustration of this is a set of stone quarry pictures, beginning with the unquarried stone (that also shows the extent of the quarry) and carrying it through all the various changes until it is used for the road-bed or for buildings. The condition of quarries and gravel pits is also made the subject of periodical photographic reports.</p> <p>For the operating department -</p> <p>1. A complete set of photographs of every mile of the road, showing every curve, grade, crossing, side-track and switch.</p> <p>2. A complete set of photographs of every signal plant on the line, showing each movement of signals.</p> <p>3. A complete set of photographs of standard signs, which vary in shape according to the purpose for which they were erected, and thus may be recognized even when the wording can not be discerned. In addition to mile-posts, section-posts and whistling posts, these include signs for depots, crossings, yard limits, city limits and county lines.</p> <p>4. A complete set of photographs illustrating the book of rules which governs the operation and protection of trains.</p> <p>For the mechanical department -</p> <p>1. A complete set of photographs of all classes of equipment and motive power.</p> <p>2. "Progress pictures" of locomotives, cars, etc., that are being built, rebuilt or repaired.</p> <p>3. Photographs showing changes and improvements in the shops.</p> <p>For the legal department -</p> <p>1. Photographs of the conditions after any wreck or other accident.</p> <p>2. Photographs of the exact situation at any point where a legal controversy is likely to arise. In this connection it may be said that the legal department frequently has use for the pictures taken for other departments.</p> <p>The official photographer obviously has no sinecure. He has the best possible equipment and the very best results are expected. Like the soldier, he must be always in readiness for marching orders. The use made of his results may be shown by that of the pictures taken of the Missouri River revetment work.</p> <p>The revetment was made essential by the encroachments constantly made on the roadbed near Glasgow, Mo., by the eddying river. The Government tried ineffectually to protect the banks. The railroad then undertook the task, beginning with a photograph. This was to show the existing conditions, as a basis of comparison for the future. The photograph was dated. At regular intervals thereafter photographs were taken to show the progress made, until the work was completed. That these are of great value to the directors and other officials, to whom they are regularly submitted, will be easily appreciated; but they also have another value. The work, which involves weaving and sinking great mats that will hold together (and also hold the rock filling in place) under stress of any rush of waters, is most interesting to civil engineers and students, and even to laymen. The actual photographs show the details better than any diagrams or drawings, and a complete set of them already has been requested by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the students. In no other way except by watching the work, can so clear an idea be gained.</p> <p>In the same way the record of the construction of a bridge or a depot or a culvert is kept, and when the undertaking is great enough to warrant it the photographs of the plans are later bound in a separate book. Thus they serve a double purpose: first, they keep the directors informed; second, they become a history valuable for reference in connection with any proposed changes later or any similar work in the future.</p> <p>Over the Missouri River at the same town - Glasgow, Mo. - near which the revetment was done, was an old bridge, the first steel bridge of its kind to span such a river. A new and better one was desired; but traffic must not be interrupted. The old one was of three spans, with a long approach that was practically a two-span bridge in itself; the new approach was to be shorter and the new bridge longer, with four spans instead of three. Naturally the directors and all the high officials took a deep interest in the undertaking. Under former conditions occasional trips would have been made to the scene, but the photographic bureau made this unnecessary. The construction history of the bridge was always on file, and in addition photographic reports were made directly to the interested officials. To the query, "How's the bridge at Glasgow getting along?" an answer could be given by displaying a photograph and saying, "That was the status of affairs Thursday of last week." It had been customary, after written reports, to say, "Well, let's take a run out and look at the bridge itself." Now it is easier to have the bridge brought pictorially to headquarters. Furthermore, the work demonstrated that a photographic history of the construction of the old bridge would have helped in replacing it.</p> <p>The photographs are of use as well in the matter of repairs. They elucidate plans and specifications; they give information showing where the work dragged and where it was rapid. In some instances they actually show methods, as in the case of the track elevation in Chicago, where the tracks were raised one at a time and a little at a time, until, when the task was half completed, they resembled a series of terraces or enormous steps. They answer the questions: "How was the task accomplished?" "How long did it take?"</p> <p>So far, this railroad scheme is available for any large structural undertaking; it may soon be a regular feature of such enterprises. In Government affairs it might be of immense advantage, if properly systematized.</p> <p>The other details of this railroad scheme, however, are not capable of such general application. They deal with the instruction of employees and the operation of trains. Every mile of the right of way is photographed, for one thing, in order that every employee may become reasonably familiar in advance with any new run to which he may be assigned. This makes the men more readily interchangeable than usual. Then the photographs of the standard signs and the interlocking signal stations and the photographs illustrating the book of rules are transferred to colored stereopticon slides and sent out with the instruction car. This is kept constantly moving over the road, and regular classes are held, with compulsory attendance of employees. The men are advised of every new development in motive power, every change (no matter how slight) in the right of way, and every detail in the operation of trains. In illustrating the book of rules alone, there are more than a hundred photographs, showing trains in every possible combination of circumstances; and the trainmen are informed what to do in each case. In examinations the slides show the position of trains or signals in certain instances, and the trainman is called upon to tell what, under the rules, he would do in each case. It is the best kind of instruction.</p> <p>"This feature of the work," according to Mr.<b> </b>Dudley Walker, of the Chicago & Alton, "has proved invaluable in keeping the men constantly alive to the needs of the road and to their own opportunities. This alone is enough to warrant the maintenance of the photographic bureau. But in other respects the results have been all that were anticipated. The President inspects all photographs taken, each officer examines the pictures of his particular department, and any one else to whom they can be of any value may see them. We have found by experience that the photographic report frequently enables an officer, while sitting at his desk, to direct the work being done, order changes, remedy defects, and even to make new plans - in short, to take such personal supervision as would not be possible otherwise without frequent trips to the scene. Nothing else could give them so much information so clearly with so little loss of time."</p> <p>The rest of the work of Mr. C.S. Jackson, the official photographer of the Alton, is more like what is done for all roads. In case of an accident it is his business to get to the scene at the earliest possible moment. The question of improved rolling-stock and other facilities for handling business is of so great interest to shippers that all roads see that they are duly enlightened by pictures. The same is true of scenery and anything else that has an advertising value. Mr. Jackson looks after all this, too; he has put a series of pictures illustrating the operation of a great railroad on stereopticon slides for the entertainment of the public. These are sent from place to place in a special lecture car, with a lecturer to explain them, and the cost is charged up to the advertising account.</p> <p>Photographic advertising, however, is old. Systematic photographic reports are not. Their field is large.</p> <div style="clear:both;"></div> <p>[/quote]</p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Wanswheel,</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thanks for finding and posting that information. That is an amazing account of how much C&A embraced photography in that early era. It sounds like they photographically documented every single detail of the physical plant including every mile of track, showing all the features including curves, grades, signals, grade crossings, switches, etc. I wonder if C&A was unique in this extensive application of photography, or if many or most roads did it. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have done a lot of historical research on the Minneapolis & St. Louis RR, and learned that they had historical archives with phtotographs of nearly every piece of equipment, every building, bridge, track features, etc. Their photographs went all the way back to nearly the beginning in 1871. Unfortunately, it was all discarded as trash shortly after the C&NW bought them out in 1960. There were stacks and stacks of large format glass plate negatives that they threw away. </span></span></p>
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