April 1943. “Mrs. Thelma Cuvage, working in the sand house at the Chicago & North Western R.R. roundhouse at Clinton, Iowa. Her job is to see that sand is sifted and cleaned for use in the locomotives. Mrs. Cuvage’s husband works as a guard at the Savanna, Illinois, ordnance plant.” 4×5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information.

Doug -

An interesting photo to say the least. Mrs. Cuvage is supposed to "see that sand is sifted and cleaned for use in locomotives". Wonder just how she accomplished that? I see sand. I see coal behind her. I see a dirt floor. There is some kind of a "stove" (probably not that) with its door open, in front of her. A smaller door behind the sand bin on the wall. Perhaps this is where the sand was dumped from the outside into the sand bin to her right? Or is that part of the hoist to lift the finished, sifted sand, up to the bunker at the top of the structure for eventual drawing into the sandboxes of the steam locomotives? Finally, in the rail preservation world, how many of these "old time" sandhouses still exist?

Les

Les,

You missed the most important part, the large perforated cone shaped bin mounted on top of the stove. "Green" (wet) sand was shoveled into the bin... as it dried, it filtered out through the holes, and was shoveled off the floor into what I presume is a chain bucket conveyor up to the dry sand bin. The sandhouse labor's job was to keep the stove going, the green sand hopper full, and the dried sand moved into the conveyor. Because of the stove, the sandhouse was always warm; the perfect place to gather while hiding from the boss. :-)

Reminds me of a Track Scale Inspection report I once saw.

"Scale #XXX was inspected on XX-XX-XXXX, the scale pit was clean, dry & well lit. Also noticed in the scale pit was a couch, chairs, 2 poker tables and a icebox"

-Hudson

Dennis accurately described the drying part of the sand house. The next step is screening the sand. That is accomplished by shoveling it into a screen which is contained in the angled frame to her right. After it is screened it is probably loaded into a tank in the floor and lifted up into the sand hopper above with compressed air.

I know of at least one intact example almost identical to this one still in use, as far as I know, on the C&TS RR in Chama, NM. One of my first jobs there many years ago was to rebuild the screen, and then put it to good use.

Dennis; Russ -

Thanks for the explanation. I missed the screen but can see it now. Glad to hear that at least one of these structures still exists. Would be nice to know if the Cumbres & Toltec still uses the one there at Chama.

Les