Nostalgia & History > A Maroon Labor Day by Jack Delano

The Library of Congress has a large number of Jack Delano photographs online and more than half seem to be non-railroad related. He railroad pictures are best known for the posing railroaders. While electronically walking around the LOC collection the other day I found this one for a Maroon Monday.

CRI&P's EMC NW1 701 was built February 1938 and repowered by RI with an Alco 244 engine. At some point it was renumbered 780. Here is the LOC caption:

Title: Blue Island, Illinois. Switchman riding the footboard of a diesel switch engine on the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad
Creator(s): Delano, Jack, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1943 May.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-fsa-8d29249 (digital file from original neg.) LC-USW3-026607-E (b&w film nitrate neg.)
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print


Enjoy this B&W (Maroon) Labor Day,
Marty Bernard

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Great photo, of course. The book that the Center for Railroad Photography and Art put out this year about these Jack Delano photographs (and subsequent follow up stores and photos by his son Pablo) is first rate.
Your description of the locomotive itself got me thinking that there couldn't be that many Alco re-engines of EMC/EMD products-usually it went the other way--EMD re-engined ALco's.
I know the Rock was famous for "making do" with what they had available--was the re-engine done at home or done by Alco?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/14 11:21 by DrLoco.

kool that we can see the hogger's hand on the brake handle!