Nostalgia & History > Box Car Home Mystery

I received this photo at a book signing. It was apparently taken at Franklin, Ohio in the 1940s. See the backside of the photo also. We may never know who the railroader was who took the photo and wrote the caption on the backside. It appears his wife left him. Perhaps life in a box car was not up to her standards?

The lady that gave me the photo had lived in a box car at Dillon, Indiana as her father was an operator there in the 1940s. It appears that the photographer knew her father.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/14 19:12 by wabash2800.

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No doubt, the railroad lifestyle ain't for everyone - then or now.

This brought to mind the two books by the Fishers, "Baggage Car with Lace Curtains" or "30 Years Over Donner"? The first was written by the wife and the second by the husband. They definitely both spent time in much the same living conditions, except slightly more frigid.

Jay

Victor, every time that some fool starts to talk about overpaid and under-worked railroaders, I am going to recall the words written on the back of that picture. The words and picture are so straightforwardly simple, and their implications are so self-evidently clear that they need need no further description. I've never seen anything quite like it.

-E.O.

The scent of fresh creosote on a hot day can be repugnant.
...Lorenzo

Anyone else notice the trolley wire over the WAB boxcar? Franklin OH was served by the Cincinnati & Lake Erie, but interurban service was abandoned in May 1939 (according to the Hilton & Due "Electric Interurban Railways" book), so there may have been some vestigial freight service.

Amazing handwriting for a man! Good grammar too.

Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/14 22:14 by MartyBernard.

Back then the taught both penmanship and grammar in school.

I have a friend in Houston who is in his early 50s who spent the early years of his life living in a converted box car with his family while his dad moved from place to place with his gang on the former T&NO in Texas and Louisiana. That would have been in the 1960's and perhaps the early 1970's.

Good observation. I'm pretty sure the photos I received, taken in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, were taken in the late 1930's, early 1940s. Though the photographer refers to a second photo, I do not have the other one. My source said that if she finds any others, she will send them my way. I have shared some of the others here on Trainorders already.

DNRY122 Wrote:
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> Anyone else notice the trolley wire over the WAB
> boxcar? Franklin OH was served by the Cincinnati
> & Lake Erie, but interurban service was abandoned
> in May 1939 (according to the Hilton & Due
> "Electric Interurban Railways" book), so there may
> have been some vestigial freight service.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/14 07:43 by wabash2800.

Is it just me, or is that baby pointing a pistol at the photographer?

Looks like a 45.

I thought it was a toy pistol too.

march_hare Wrote:
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> Is it just me, or is that baby pointing a pistol
> at the photographer?

Not unheard of in those days.

-E.O.

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Nickster Wrote:
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> Looks like a 45.

A very small .45, or a VERY big baby!

Much more likely it is mama's .22 or .30 that she gave to the baby to play with.

I still say it's a toy.