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March 1943. "Kansas City, Missouri. Produce freight yard used by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad." Acetate negative by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size.
With all that loneliness of modern man and emptiness of modern life.
March 1943. Long and lonely march as well. This image practically screams desolation.
I'm impressed at the cleanliness and neatness in the scene.
No trash, clutter, graffiti on the refrigerator cars (way before the spray can idiots).
I don't even see a scrap of paper lying around.
Excellent!
"And stop on your way home for a quart of milk."
This railyard is now part of a park called Riverfront West, located here:
The tracks in Jack Delano's photo continue to the left and cross the Missouri river on the movable box-girder bridge that is visible on Google Street View and existed in 1943, too. The viaduct shown here was evidently torn down and the rail line redirected to the east, away from the camera, to head upriver along Front Street (which used to form the southern boundary of the Produce Market Yard and is now called Berkeley Parkway in this part of Kansas City).
Besides the Santa Fe, it looks like the Burlington, Missouri Pacific, and Rock Island lines used the produce yard too.
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