It's nice that both the Zephyr and U-505 are safely indoors now and out of Chicago's brutal winter weather. When we visited several years ago, our ticket allowed us to visit only one of the two and we chose the U-505. The Museum of Science & Industry is an awesome place, worth a an entire day.
Saw this new plug door boxcar yesterday, fresh out of the box and worth a picture. So nice to see a freight car in this era not ruined by graffiti.
I think the FBOX car I photographed is in paper service. Plug doors make a solid, damage free surface to nestle rolls against and new cars with their clean floors are highly desired. This is good to see because the railroads have been reluctant to supply new or rebuilt cars for a paper industry that has seen a lot of retrenchment in the last decade.
Back in happier days 35 years ago in November 1981, the B&O's SA Tower at Sandpatch, PA at the summit of their Allegheny grade was still in service. SA was razed in 2001.
Taken in 1982 in Bethlehem, PA is the former CNJ STEEL Tower. I'm uncertain of its history, but I think it dates from the '50s and was built as the CNJ consolidated several interlockings in the area. I'm pretty sure it's since been demolished.
One can get a ballpark guess on the era of construction just from the architectural details on some buildings, assuming no large changes have happened since construction. CNJ's Steel looks like 1950s just because of the airport control tower look - the 1950s were the beginning of the "jet age", so the influence of air travel became predominant (just look at the cars of that time!). Looking at SA, there is that large, glass-block opening on the side that is reminiscent of the 1920s or 1930s. When I see glass-block elements like that, the first thing that comes to mind is the Hercule Poirot TV series. I like things that get the little gray cells going like that.
I shot the former NC&StL Junta Tower in Cartersville, GA, in 12/1987, long out of service. Thinking of your post Mike, Junta has a sort of flat-roofed late 40s or early 50's look, doesn't it? I don't know much about its history, other than it controlled the spot north of Atlanta where the NC&StL main met the L&N main. Junta might still stand; I'm not sure.
Junta does look very utilitarian. And renovated a couple of times with new stairs and new aluminum frame windows. I just made a quick search using "NC&StL Junta Tower Cartersville GA" and there's video of a CSX ethanol train dating from as recently as March 2014 mentioning Junta. I'd say there's a more than fair chance it's still there today.
After nearly 30 Years, I forget Junta's exact location, but this Google Maps snip shows what looks like a signal bungalow adjacent to a concrete slab where it might have stood and the building in the background of my photo looks like the building in the snip.
Caught this one a few weeks ago while zipping past the 44th Ave Yard in Golden. Excuse it being slightly out of frame, I snapped the shutter a bit too early.
You betcha! A little time travel to the steam era to listen to the sounds of back then, would be nice too.
Office window in the old Santa Fe depot in Perry, Oklahoma. They no longer use this name and just call themselves BNSF.
