Back in the 1950s, the AAR (Association of American Railroads) issued a set of large-format photo prints (8.5 x 11 inches) on heavy paper to schools and to the general public. I’ve never seen a complete set, though many people seem to have a few or a handful. I am told there were 60 photos total, all numbered (highest number I’ve seen personally was 55). The great majority are in fact publicity photos contributed by individual railroads. They are interesting in a number of ways, and I thought I would show a few.
The lowest numbers are very early images of different kinds (no. 4 is the famous photo of the two engines nose to nose at Promontory in 1869, with people everywhere). What I have always found amusing is that to avoid publicizing individual railroads, whenever lettering is visible, it was replaced (sometimes a little crudely) with the legend “East & West Railroad.” It is a particularly entertaining detail when the original railroad is blindingly obvious, like this one (you can click to enlarge):
Similarly, a steam photo, showing filling a tender, is quite obviously a Norfolk & Western Class A 2-6-6-4, with its engine number, 1203, visible on the cab, but of course with the “East & West” name on the tender. The locale certainly looks like Roanoke Shops.
But in many ways the more interesting views to me include the ones showing aspects of freight service. A good example is this photo showing loading of a meat refrigerator car with hanging meat. The Swift Company label is on a couple of the visible carcasses.
Another interesting example is this view (supplied by United Fruit Company) showing a banana ship alongside barges of refrigerator cars. Two of the reefers are visibly lettered “MDT,” so in this instance the AAR did not feel compelled to replace the initials with “E&W.” The same goes for the inset photo, showing banana handling, with a Northern Refrigerator car in the background.
Lastly, I liked this photo of a railroad stores building, with material stored outdoors, under cover but open to the air, and on interior shelving (the inset photo). This is something rarely modeled but an interesting challenge, and an “industry” that can ship and receive a wide variety of cargo.
These are just a few of the AAR photos in the set, but should serve to show the range of interesting views that were included. And school children and others who viewed them hopefully obtained some idea of what railroading was all about.
Tony Thompson
These are all interesting photographs. Assuming that the re-lettering was done by hand on negatives, I think they look pretty good. I'm surprised to see one guy handling that huge mass of beef which likely weighed more than his body weight. The banana boat and railcar barges -and- the open warehouses all have many more questions than I can ask here. I sure would like to see a short treatise for each of these subjects.
ReplyDeleteI’ve had a few of those individual ones. But I recently got the entire Teacher’s Kit in the mailing envelope where the manual inside carries the code NP-40M-8-64 and is noted as the Ninth Edition. Also inside, the photos are printed in full size but as parts of two giant foldouts with the images on one side only (maybe so you can trim them). There’s a total of 32 images, and they seem to be updated versions other than the historical shots. So the total number of views may be higher than the original sets. When did they end this program?
ReplyDeleteI don't know when it started or stopped. Many photos have a late 1940s or early 1950s look, but I don't know beyond that.
DeleteTony Thompson