A Quote Circa 1900 This view of the backshop of the Big Four at Mt.Carmel IL pre-dates my riding my bicycle behind this building in the late '40s enroute to deliver my Dad's lunch to the "Ready Track" at the roundhouse prior to his departing on a 'trip' to Lyons [Danville, IL]. Interesting that the crane operator is posing on the main beam. [picture from Gene Millspaugh whose father worked as a Stationary Engineer at Mt Carmel.] Larry Baggerly
Fascinating to see the details, at the same time the enormity of the shop and its structure. Also speaks well of the photo chemistry itself to get that detail. The photo must have been taken sometime 1870-1890 based on the locomotive design. Thanks Roger.
Always interesting, to me, such types of poses- Humans and heavy machinery. Today these would be considered extremely dangerous, and not allowed. From days of being very adventurous, to now cringing in fear of some disaster and lawyers, courts, etc. Sad.
Looks like the crane operator and the men standing below were aware that the photo was being shot. Nice, Roger. Those backshops were really something, able to move entire locomotives with the overhead cranes.
Almost certainly. There was no such thing as fast film back then, so the photographer would have had everyone hold perfectly still. Any motion would have been a blur.
I know Hank thought this would be 1870-1890 but aren't the locomotives in the foreground later designs with rounded domes instead of the capped style of earlier years? I guess I don't know the exact time of the changeover but wasn't it around 1890-1900? Doug
