Heh, gandy-dancers without hi-viz jackets or helmets and no crane or hi-rail vehicle in sight.
The dry-erase markers were for the "turnover", which is the white board to the right. In Tower A, the emptier the turnover, the better I liked it.Nearly everybody else used a pencil (hence the sharpener) to check off the cars on the sheets (to the left of the turnover) as they went by. The pens down there are mine, used to make notes on freight equipment for my own use. I did not feel the need to check off the cars, as I was watching the train itself closely enough not to lose my place (it really ticked off the guy who was training me, because he couldn't keep track of where we were!). It worked all right for me, even when we were breaking up large cuts of look-alike cars.The woodwork above the board was done by one of the expert craftsmen employed as a Car Retarder Operator (no, it wasn't I). The back of that entire assembly was leaning on the winow glass. It's not level because the board itself had been raised in height after the sheet-holder was built. Tower A was the only tower that had anything like this--the lower towers used clipboards for their sheets and (much more elaborate) turnovers. It worked in Tower A because that was the only tower where looking straight ahead out of the windows would yield you nothing important--the switches and retarders were all to your right or to your left. In the lower towers, a view straight ahead yould give you your group retarders, and most--but not all--of your switches were on the downhill side of those. You always had to look at youe swithes as you were throwing them, as most of them (all of them, in the early days) were not protected by circuitry to prevent them from being thrown under a car.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
blhanel FINALLY!
FINALLY!
Boy does that wooden shelf above the train sheets look like one I built. Used it for tools to restore home's high ceilings. Had it hooked on a Baker's rack.
blhanel CShaveRR Brian may have a picture of me, taken while I was at work in Tower A (almost always my favorite). Okay to post now--nobody will get in trouble for it. Hard to believe I've been retired for over six years now. Took awhile, but I found it. Now if could just get the link to it to work... FINALLY!
CShaveRR Brian may have a picture of me, taken while I was at work in Tower A (almost always my favorite). Okay to post now--nobody will get in trouble for it. Hard to believe I've been retired for over six years now.
Brian may have a picture of me, taken while I was at work in Tower A (almost always my favorite). Okay to post now--nobody will get in trouble for it. Hard to believe I've been retired for over six years now.
Took awhile, but I found it. Now if could just get the link to it to work...
The 'high quality railroad construction' of the shelf above the console.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Noted the electric pencil sharpener and dry-erase markers.
Thanks for sharing..
Robert
Truth be told, I was posing for Brian, between trains. When I'm working, my head would probably be a blur from looking up (left) and looking down (right), with an occasional pause looking at the hump sheets.This shot was taken in aout 2004, before they put the non-drafty, more soundproof windows in.
Deggesty Yes, that's Carl. I had no idea that he had to ponder his next move--or was he waiting for something to move so he could direct it and retard it?
Yes, that's Carl. I had no idea that he had to ponder his next move--or was he waiting for something to move so he could direct it and retard it?
Lotto numbers?
23 17 46 11
Johnny
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
rdamone t
rdamon Great find Ed ... I like the pencil sharpener at the ready in the tower. The detail you can se in the photos are amazing.
Great find Ed ... I like the pencil sharpener at the ready in the tower. The detail you can se in the photos are amazing.
ChuckCobleigh This shot is before Carl's time but still interesting at the Proviso hump tower.
This shot is before Carl's time but still interesting at the Proviso hump tower.
Oh, the tales I could tell (and probably have)!That's the original board in Tower B, and it looks like the original track plan and numbering. Besides the group retarders, the operator had three intermediate retarders he also controlled (mostly just set-and-forget). Those were gone by the time I was there, but the holes for the levers were still in the board. The tracks controlled by Tower B then were numbered 27 through 59. By the time I arrived they had been added to, and renumbered to 32 through 69. In fact, the board had been extended by one section to add the switches for 67 and 68.This is the first of three control panels that have been in Tower B. I worked all three of them. With this old one, there could be a bit of running from one end to the other as the cars came down. The operator toggled all of the switches (the lower levers, where his left hand is), and set up and released the retarders (right hand...notice that it's resting on a bar that keeps it from slipping down and bumping a swtch lever). The second and third panels were arranged more schematically, and--because they were more electronic than electrical--were much more compact. But to this day, the operator still has full control over the switches and retarders (and full responsibility for the foul-ups!).When I arrived, even the original light fixtures were still being used, the original window sashes, and everything. I'm sure they were all cutting-edge back in 1930, but I got there 40 or so years later, and much of the stuff was under several coats of "institutional green" paint. One night I brought cleaning materials, and got through layers and layers of cigarette smoke/nicotene on the board and some fixtures (my relief could see the difference when he came up the stairs).Commuications were always via some sort of intercom system, which hadn't been improved on while I was there (I think it got some different stuff soon after I retired). As for receiving hump lists, they originally came via teletype to th tower, so those things were clicking away along with other noises. By the time I got there, they had a pneumatic tube system, and copies of the sheets were sent from the hump (in the process of cleaning I found the the door to the tube box was actually plexiglass, and could be seen through!). They later went to a computer system with printers in each tower (back to the noises again!). I got to be very good at fixing control problems on the printers, and made some paper-conserving suggestions while there. They eventually went from large perforated forms to ordinary copier paper, and we also got computer terminals in the towers.In the old days, there were also caboose mats in the towers, so the operators could kick back between trains (one gung-ho officer got rid of those). We weren't supposed to have our own radios up there, but always did. Telephones were added while I was there; we could actually "call out" for a time. Brian may have a picture of me, taken while I was at work in Tower A (almost always my favorite). Okay to post now--nobody will get in trouble for it. Hard to believe I've been retired for over six years now. I don't dare go back, because so few people wou
Ya know - Maybe it was the intention of the newspaper to foster a view of the railroads as archaic, and standing in the way of "progress."
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
CandOforprogress2Classic! Love that Virginian Hopper car I thing I have that in O Scale somewhere in my basement.
And the outside braced wood box cars.
The Daily Herald is a low-rent newspaper focused on suburban news.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Classic! Love that Virginian Hopper car I thing I have that in O Scale somewhere in my basement.
Check out the track plan over his head....
edblysardDelano did a lot of railroad stuff, and a lot of photography for the alphabet agencies of FDR and the New Deal
Wow! Thanks for that link, Ed.
The photo is by Jack Delano, May 1943 for the Office of War Information…the photo is of Bensenville yard, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific.
Delano did a lot of railroad stuff, and a lot of photography for the alphabet agencies of FDR and the New Deal
See the link below for the image…
http://www.shorpy.com/node/2729
or
http://www.shorpy.com/jack-delano-photos?page=10
for more of his work.
Yeah...I wish my binoculars could be used on a picture like this! One of the responders to the news article said that the photo was from 1942. It could be one of those Frank Delano shots (he took a lot of them in Proviso, just south of there).Having said that, I think the CP is protesting a bit much on this. The UP managed to rebuild its doube-track bridge over the yard with very little disruption to CP business, and the place where the tollway wants to cross has even fewer tracks. My view on this might seem strange to someone who knows my always-pro-railroad stance, but I just don't see this as a big, non-solvable issue. The highway would be a good one for the area, moving a lot of traffic off I-294 near the entrance to O'Hare, but might be even better in the future, when a western entry to O'Hare is built. From what I remember of the map I saw (yes, a map should have been included with the article!), the new road will have an exit on Green Street, the road that goes along the south side of Bensenville Yard. That would be an amazing benefit for truckers headed to or from that intermodal facility--they now have to negotiate a few corners and a busy highway to get to the expressway system. This could take some long, slow miles off their route if done right.
Looks like the tie plates are neatly stacked ... I bet this is to make room for the new toll road!!
I'll bet CShaver will be real interested in those old cars !
"+1" on the trackworkers and their lack of safety equipment.
Looks like they're 'straight-railing' (removing) a turnout - note the longer ties/ switch timbers towards the bottom of the photo, but no rails out that way, though you can see where they used to be - it appears the tie plates may still be on the timbers. To the right is the switch portion of the TO - the lower ballast where the movable points were is another clue, as well as the longer switch timbers/ 'headblocks' where the switch stand was mounted. Also, the pile of loose rails above and to the right of the track.
- Paul North.
ChuckCobleigh rdamon BC or AD? Oh, the horror of seeing track workers without orange safety vests! How did they survive the day?
rdamon
BC or AD?
Oh, the horror of seeing track workers without orange safety vests! How did they survive the day?
No yellow hard hats either!
rdamonThe following photo was presented, what year do you this this is from?
Let's see - a loose car Virginian coal hopper, outside braced wood box cars, a plethora of boxcars... Wish I could read some of the other reporting marks.
Maybe 1950's?
That is laughable.
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