Soo Line Baldwin DS4-4-1000 at Duluth, MN on July 17, 1967
Soo 312 is a small 1,000 H.P. switcher and it's being used to gather up MTY grain boxcars on Rice's Point. While the 312 is equipped with a radio the men on the crew are not. So they're using tried-and-true railroad hand signals to do their switching. The man standing on the brake platform of the boxcar is waiting for the back-up sign from one of the ground men. The fireman is leaning out of his window too, to watch for the next of these silent communications, so that he can tell the engineer what's going on behind them. Soon enough, the engineer will get the OK to start his back-up move into the Soo's small yard on Rice's Point, and this string of boxcars can be spotted for cleaning of dunnage (grain door debris), before being sent back west for more grain. That's part of Capitol Elevator 5 at the left side of the picture. Note how the diesel is equipped with a spark arrestor on its exhaust stack to help prevent fires and grain dust explosions while in the vicinity of the grain elevators.
Special thanks to Neil Shankweiler for sharing this image.
Soo Line Baldwin DS4-4-1000 at Duluth, MN on July 17, 1967
Soo 312 is a small 1,000 H.P. switcher and it's being used to gather up MTY grain boxcars on Rice's Point. While the 312 is equipped with a radio the men on the crew are not. So they're using tried-and-true railroad hand signals to do their switching. The man standing on the brake platform of the boxcar is waiting for the back-up sign from one of the ground men. The fireman is leaning out of his window too, to watch for the next of these silent communications, so that he can tell the engineer what's going on behind them. Soon enough, the engineer will get the OK to start his back-up move into the Soo's small yard on Rice's Point, and this string of boxcars can be spotted for cleaning of dunnage (grain door debris), before being sent back west for more grain. That's part of Capitol Elevator 5 at the left side of the picture. Note how the diesel is equipped with a spark arrestor on its exhaust stack to help prevent fires and grain dust explosions while in the vicinity of the grain elevators.
Special thanks to Neil Shankweiler for sharing this image.