Old Photo's

[OldDog/NewTricks]

Slides Found At The Library Of Congress....

These pics. were taken from color slides found at the Library of Congress. They are dated between 1939-1943.
The pictures are so clear and the color is so vibrant, it looks as though they were taken just yesterday.

http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.asp

There is a Lot of talk about "Roundhouses" - Who knows WHAT a Roundhouse Was?

 

[mrj]

I'm pretty sure that a 'roundhouse' was a cleaning place for the train engines and maybe cars. I believe there was a round, moveable, or rotating deck which could turn the engines around to go the opposite direction, too. Maybe not in all of them, but I've been told that was the reason for the name.

The photo's had some familiar situations, and sure don't entice me for a return 'of the good old days'!

Hardships in my area were maybe not quite so grim as some of the country photo's, but we were rancher and 'homesteader' families who had survived, just barely! The government just set people up for failure on those too small parcels of land in this area. Even back then, it took more luck than anything to survive on a quarter section of land. Most did not! Some who had various family members who qualified, and got larger total acreages survived, but very few thrived unless they had some money put aside before they arrived and took up the homestead.

I know there was no electricity, other than Winchargers, on ranches and farms until into the mid-1950's, and some were then able to get water into their homes if they had a decent source such as a well or large dam nearby. Medical bills kept my parents from enjoying indoor plumbing and any but cold water into the house until into the 1970's.

Still, it was a pretty good life, and as children, we thought life was fine. As a young adult, keeping my own home with no running water till after having two babies, I better realized the hardships my parents and grandparents suffered. The fact that we always had electricity made my life considerably easier, at that.

mrj

 

[Jassy]

Thanks for posting this..I sure enjoyed looking at all the pictures, and as you said, hard to believe that these were taken with "old" camera's. I realize that modern technology can help, but the subject matters are so amazing..

 

[TexasBred]

You can literally see the pain the faces of some of those folks. Times were very hard.

 

[Martin Jr.]

As to the roundhouse, it was a place with a turntable to turn the engine around. The Indians called Valentine "Oweinagee" or the place where the train turns around.
In 1883, when the train reached Valentine, Nebraska they had to have water every 11 miles. So the towns here were 11 miles apart. A few years later they were improved so they could go farther, so towns were spaced farther apart.
There was a roundhouse in Valentine in the early years as there was not much freight farther west until the railroad reached the Black Hills.
As late as the 1950's there was still a roundhouse east of here in Long Pine for the local freight to turn around. The passenger train with a diesel engine was discontinued in 1956, and the steam engines were discontinued and the diesel was used on the freight train.