Little Joe

Little Joe, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Originally built by General Electric for export to the Soviet Union, the EF-4 "Little Joe" was one of the most famous electric locomotives to appear on American rails. After sales to Russia were prohibited in the late 40's, the Joes languished at GE's facility until the Milwaukee Road started to show interest in them for it's electrified Rocky Mountain Division. The Milwaukee used them in both passenger and freight service, up until the end of electric service in the seventies.

Other users of Little Joes included Brazil's national railway (which received five of them), and the Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend, which got three of them. This survivor is one of the South Shore's, and is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.

Teef

Teef, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

When they say cars have "faces", this is what they're talking about. And this one's smilin'!

Nashvegas

Nashvegas, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A retro-ish sampling of Broadway.

Bridge

Bridge, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

I genuinely don't know where I took this. Somewhere in very southern Illinois, or northern Kentucky.

Master Mix Feeds

Master Mix Feeds, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A classically grungy image for this week's Through the Viewfinder Tuesday. This is the abandoned grain elevator in tiny Arlington, Illinois. A very interesting structure, full of interesting textures and signage.

Race on Sunday, sell on Monday

Super Stock, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Super Stock drag racing got it's start in the early sixties, and was a very popular class for about a decade, mainly because the cars were the same as the ones you could buy at your local dealer. Sort of.

Factory SS cars were in fact available from the dealership, but they were usually special order only and frequently were stripped out base models. The Plymouth Belvedere pictured here had thin van seats (they were lighter than a bench), no back seat (it's heavy), no heater or air conditioning (it's heavy), no radio (it's not heavy but you can't hear it over the engine anyway), no sound deadening (it's heavy), and no hubcaps (because you're likely to get rid of the wheels anyway). In short, they weren't nice places to be for more than a quarter mile at a time. Modifications were few, and limited mostly to safety equipment.

I have no idea if this Plymouth was a genuine Super Stock car back in the day, but it was very convincing if it's a clone. Everything was correct, and it looked and sounded great.

The National Underground

The National Underground, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Another Nash-classic. I don't think this is an especially old sign, but it's shaped like a National guitar, and that makes it really damn cool.