Nostalgia & History > 1950's Railroad Educational Photos

Some vintage type of Association of American Railroad photos (I think) I found in an antique store. Does anyone know the source of these and the other photos in this series? Many years ago I used to have some AAR grade-school literature for students to study, and even a Teachers' handbook of the questions and answers. That was absolutely fantastic to be able to learn about railroads in grade school! Anyone remember that long ago era?!

1. #2 "Puffing Billies"

2. #3 Railway Station and Train in the 1860's

3. #5 (Pennsylvania RR?) Steam Passenger Train (Note the cute little girl imitating the conductor!)

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4. #6 PRR GG1 4892 Electric Passenger Train

5. #19 Chicago & Northwestern Passenger Terminal Facilities

6. #27 Car Inspector at Work

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7. #47 Forest Products Move by Rail by an SP 4-8-8-2 "Cab Forward", number unknown. Can anyone ID this location?

8. #48 Loading Coal Cars at a (Pennsylvania?) Mine

9. #52 (and last in this series of photos I have) Speeding Military Equipment by Rail

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Photo # 7 looks like Oakridge, Oregon.

Yes, photo #7 was taken near Oakridge. This was a photo shot by a Southern Pacific company photographer in 1948. A color version of the photo can be found on pages 90-91 of Tony Thompson's "Southern Pacific Official Color Photography Volume 1."

Thank you Mr. Sweetser. I thought that photo looked familiar, as shots of the SP cab forwards in northern California and Oregon were very common.

I have a set of those too. Including some signal pictures and a set of SP Black Widow F's. One thing I found interesting is that they went out of their way to touch up the photos so you couldn't read the road names. This was especially noticeable with the Black Widow photo.

The engine number in photo #7 is 4177.

It is impossible to determine the number from the Oakridge photo. However, the SP photographer took several photos of the very same train along Odell Lake in the Cascades, including one found on pgs. 44-45 of Jim Boyd's "Southern Pacific in Color Volume 2" which clearly shows the engine number.

By the way, another photo of the train at Odell Lake, probably taken seconds apart from the photo in "Southern Pacific in Color Volume 2" (the train was obviously stopped, one of the perks of being a company photographer) can be found on pg. 168 of Robert Church's "Cab-Forward" but the engine number isn't readable in that book.

No 48 looks familiar. Did I see this in one of S. Kip Farrington's books.

No 3 is also familiar, but I can't place it for sure. Maybe I didn't see it in a book at all, but rather at the Minneapolis Museum of Art, which received credit.

My stepdad got me a packet of 8x10 promotional photos from one of the ticket agents at one of the Chicago passenger terminals in the 1960's. All of the photos had the rr name airbrushed out and instead, "E&W" or "N&S" railroad was inserted.

atsffan wrote:

> #6 (27 - Car Inspector) - I think was part of the Jack Delano stuff shot during WWII - Farm Service
Administration/Office of War Information - around 1944. I'm at work so I don't have my Iron Horse at War book to reference, but sure looks familiar.


I couldn't find photo #6 in "The Iron Horse at War."

The C&NW shot is actually at the diesel ramp at 40th Street Yard on the West Side of Chicago. You can see a streamliner headed for the "train wash" in the center of the shot. I've seen that same shot in old C&NW company magazines.

#3 looks very much like a Currier & Ives print as it is very familiar looking.