Jack Delano was a prolific American photographer who inspired by the touching and powerful photos from the Great Depression joined the Farm Security Administration. Roy Stryker, the tyrannous editor at FSA assigned Delano to document the might of American infrastructure around the railroad hub of Chicago
Delano documented the workers of railroad yards from 1942 to 1943, he captured the colossal locomotives and engines which were a symbol of the American Industry, but he also managed to put a little “soul” and gave a more profound and powerful nature to the project by documenting monumental portraits of the greasy rail workers.
A hump master operates a switch system to control the movement of locomotives through the yard.
A Santa Fe Railroad freight train prepares to leave for the West Coast from the Corwith yards in Chicago.
A welder at the Chicago & North Western Railroad locomotive shops, Chicago, Illinois.
A worker in the roundhouse at Proviso yards.
A worker inspects the undercarriage of a locomotive.
A young worker at the 40th Street shop of the Chicago & North Western Railroad.
Conductor George E. Burton and engineer J.W. Edwards compare time before pulling out of the Corwith railroad yard.
Daniel Anastazia, blacksmith’s helper at the roundhouse of the Rock Island Railroad, Blue Island, Illinois.
Daniel Senise throws a switch in an Indiana Harbor Belt Line Railroad yard.
Frederick Batt, brakeman on the Chicago & North Western Railroad.
Greasing a locomotive at the 40th Street shops of the Chicago & North Western Railroad.
Greasing a locomotive in the roundhouse at Proviso yards.
James Lynch, a roundhouse worker for the Chicago & North Western Railroad.
John Kelseh at his forge in the blacksmith shop at the roundhouse, Rock Island Railroad, Blue Island, Illinois.
John L. Walter, conductor at Proviso yard of the Chicago & North Western Railroad. Mr. Walter has been employed on the railroad for 45 years, 32 of them as conductor.
Joseph Klesken washes up after a day’s work at the rip tracks at the Proviso yards.
L. Logan, boilermaker at the roundhouse at the Proviso yards.
Men work on a locomotive at the 40th Street shop of the Chicago & North Western Railroad..
Men work on a locomotive at the 40th Street shop of the Chicago & North Western Railroad.
Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks at the Proviso yards.
Roy Nelin, a box packer in the roundhouse at the Proviso yards of the Chicago & North Western Railroad.
The locomotive shop of the Chicago & North Western Railroad.
Thomas Madrigal greasing a locomotive in the roundhouse, Rock Island Railroad, Blue Island, Illinois.
Two employees at the roundhouse at Proviso yards.
William London, a 25-year employee of the Chicago & North Western Railroad, at the Proviso yards near Chicago, Illinois.
All photos by Jack Delano/Library of Congress