Grand slam here, guys.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/15160?size=_original

If this doesn't bring up the photo, type in the search: "Locomotive Makeover: 1942"

The photo blows up beautifully, too.

That's excellent. Shorpy has an amazing collection of historic photos.

Except the caption is wrong. This clearly isn't in a roundhouse. More likely, this was taken at the Paducah, Ky shops. The question is, which locomotive is this? It could be either a 2500 series engine or a new 2600 series which were built at that time. Nice picture.

-JH

By the way, although the big watermark says "Shorpy", the fine print reads, "Medium format negative by Jack Delano." This must be another public domain photo that the owner of the Shorpy site grabbed from the Library of Congress website.

Hardly fine print. Plain as day at the bottom. Nothing sneaky going on. If you go to the About page you will see this:

About the Photos
Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive.

Now back to the photo:

While it may well have been Paducah, was there no backshop in or near Chicago? Did the Burnside Shops work on locomotives or just electric cars? While I vaguely remember a roundhouse at twenty-something street, that was probably just for routine running repairs and service. But what about out where Woodcrest is now? Was there a round house there? What else?

Without being able to see the horrible boxy sandbox or corrugated sheet metal pilot, is there anything in that photo that proves it's IC? Not that it isn't...just askin'.

Steve

Looks to me like a 2500. 2600s had a front end throttle.

Interesting that one could /can still relive a similar view point
compliments of the former DL&W shops at Steamtown!

Photo taken August 20th, 2011:

(Featuring IC #790, no less)

/Mitch

Mitch, you've got one heck of an eye for capturing thewhole flavor and feeling of a single scene. Well done!

Steve -

There was a very large roundhouse at Markham Yard (Woodcrest) as this was the Illinois Central's main yard in the Chicago area, and included hump yards as I recall. I don't remember a backshop at Markham, but perhaps someone with more knowledge of IC operations there, might be able to tell one way or the other.

I know Burnside serviced the commuter equipment for the Chicago area electric commuter service that the IC ran. One of the buildings still exists and is now part of the Chicago State University campus, but I am not sure if other buildings existed as part of the shops at Burnside where steam might have been given repairs.

I am not sure when the IC started putting the wonderful looking sandboxes on their steam engines (everyone to his own opinion!) but my guess is that 1942 might have been before that program began. Again, someone with a better knowledge of IC steam practices needs to reply.

Not sure when the program began to build the 2600's, but think maybe that 1942 might have been too early for that too. There must be a IC steam expert out there who can give us some answers.

Les

The following is from the same NOV. 1942 shoot.
By jack Delano, posted at the Library of Congress.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/owi2001013240/PP/
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/owi2001013237/PP/

Title is “Chicago, Illinois. In the locomotive repair shops at an Illinois Central Railroad yard” The style of the building looks like the Paducah, Ky shops but I'm not familiar with what IC had in Chicago.

Buzz -

I found a couple of things on the internet. One was a long distance photo of Burnside taken in 1958 and for sale on E-bay. It showed a couple of the old "heavyweight" IC electric cars outside of a long, rectangular building with entry to the short side. This looks like the building that was rehabbed for use by Chicago State University. But there is another larger building behind it. Might that have been the shop where these photos were taken by Delano? All of his photos say that they were taken in Chicago in Cook County. Hard to believe that he put the wrong info on them, although I guess anything is possible. The other thing I found was a map of Markham Yard which shows the two humps and their yards and the large, almost completely circular, roundhouse. I believe Markham is actually located in Harvey and/or East Hazelcrest and/or Homewood, Illinois, and quite a bit south of the Chicago city line. No locomotive shop is indicated. The only building that might possibly fit the bill on the map, is labelled car repair shop. This map is copyrighted, so I am not referencing it here. Might the locomotive shown be in this car repair facility? Perhaps, it was also used for steam locomotives. Again, we need someone with some Illinois Central background, or perhaps a member of the ICHS, to advise if, in fact, the IC performed locomotive repairs in Chicago back in 1942.

Les

Surely copyright should not prevent you from linking.

Steve

If you download the high res. version of the first photo buzz links to, you'll see a sign on the wall in the right back ground that says "Markham Wheel Shop".

Kent

Kent -

Great catch! Your eyes are a lot sharper than mine!


Les

Buzz -

I found a couple of things on the internet. One was a long distance photo of Burnside taken in 1958 and for sale on E-bay. It showed a couple of the old "heavyweight" IC electric cars outside of a long, rectangular building with entry to the short side. This looks like the building that was rehabbed for use by Chicago State University. But there is another larger building behind it. Might that have been the shop where these photos were taken by Delano? All of his photos say that they were taken in Chicago in Cook County. Hard to believe that he put the wrong info on them, although I guess anything is possible. The other thing I found was a map of Markham Yard which shows the two humps and their yards and the large, almost completely circular, roundhouse. I believe Markham is actually located in Harvey and/or East Hazelcrest and/or Homewood, Illinois, and quite a bit south of the Chicago city line. No locomotive shop is indicated. The only building that might possibly fit the bill on the map, is labelled car repair shop. This map is copyrighted, so I am not referencing it here. Might the locomotive shown be in this car repair facility? Perhaps, it was also used for steam locomotives. Again, we need someone with some Illinois Central background, or perhaps a member of the ICHS, to advise if, in fact, the IC performed locomotive repairs in Chicago back in 1942.

Les[/quote]

Repairs, yes. Rebuilds or heavy overhauls, No. The photo is of Paducah Shop.