Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Providence, Rhode Island, circa 1906. "Gorham Manufacturing Co." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
The fellow in the foreground is more likely a member of a track gang. The other two members are further ahead on the opposite track. He was known as a track walker. His job was to walk along the tracks and inspect them. He is carrying a spiking sledgehammer. This had a sledge head on one side and a spike pulling claw on the other. As he walks along, if he sees a spike lifting up from the tie plate. He uses the sledge to tap it back down. A hobo wouldn't risk walking down the center of the gauge with railroad employees nearby.
Does everybody know what the contraption hanging over the middle track is? It was known as a "telltale," and would warn any trainman walking on top of a train from front to rear that a bridge or other low clearance point was ahead, and coming up behind them. Upon being brushed by the hanging ropes, an employee would immediately lie down until it was safe to stand up again.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5