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Washington, D.C. "U.S. News. Freight car, side view, 3/7/38." Property of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway. View full size.
It is in the horizontal position as they were on all freight cars, originally.
Freight cars also had walkways across the tops.
Brakemen rode the tops of these cars during switching operations; a rather scary part of their occupation.
Eventually, this dangerous practice was outlawed and the brake wheels were moved to the ends of the cars, but in a vertical position. This can be seen in the B&O "wagon top" boxcar next to it.
A brakeman's job still has its hazards particularly in cold snowy climates.
One major improvement is the introduction of continuous voice-to-voice contact with the engineer now available through technology.
It also meant that cabooses were dropped from the consist and freight train crews were reduced to two-person operations.
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I've always wondered what they looked like without the graffiti.
The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway was also known as New York Central's Big Four Route. It along with the New York Central was folded into the Penn Central in 1968. That railroad shortly thereafter experienced the largest ever US bankruptcy to date. (Search for the video "Penn Central 1974" to get an idea of the conditions.) The remainder of Penn Central and several other railroads was folded into Conrail in 1976. After a shaky start that railroad prospered to the point it was purchased at great cost and segmented by Norfolk Southern and CSX.
Nice long second look, tie all elements of photo together and...voila, beautiful composition out of nothing.
No offence to railroad buffs.
The "Big Four". Although affiliated with NYC System for many years, they even lettered their equipment Big Four for many years.
Visible to the car's right is a B&O "wagon top" boxcar. B&O built many boxcars and some covered hoppers to this unique design, with some in revenue service into the 1970's.
This large subsidiary of the New York Central formed its network of lines in the Midwest. An excellent map is here.
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