Delano Files: Stop!

Jack Delano took this photo of a switchman's  signal to the engineer to "Stop!" Jack Delano was a photographer with the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information. The photo was taken on the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad in 1943, at Calumet City.

I spent many hours as a young man, riding Canadian National Railways (CNR) 7242 yard switcher in Prince Rupert, British Columbia between 1957 and 1959.

Sundown in Prince Rupert in December was just after 4 p.m. Signaling between switchman and engineer was accomplished with a lamp, not a radio, back in those days. This pattern is carved by the switchman's lamp, signaling the engineer to stop.

CNR 7242 shlepped oil tank cars to the various fish processing plants and ran them over the scales. She constructed and de-constructed time freights.

In the view above, she is loading the ABC rail barge at Pillsbury Point.

Railroad Stuff: General Motors Division (GMD), London, Ontario built CNR 7242 as an SW-900 in December 1957, Serial Number A-1194. Road Class GC-9c, renumbered 7942 in 1985. Retired in 1988.

See Also:  Super Chief