Chicago to Los Angeles, 1943. The Water for the Engines Came by Train.
The film of this episode premieres December 1, 2026 on YouTube. The documents, the transcript and the sources are below now.
In March 1943 the photographer Jack Delano rode the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe from Chicago to Los Angeles and photographed it in color — real Kodachrome, not colorization, and every original is free to download from the Library of Congress. What he wrote on the back of those pictures, over and over, is one phrase: stopping for water.
Transcript
A wheel on fire
R001 Retiring a locomotive driver wheel, Shopton, Iowa. The tire is heated by means of gas until it can be slipped over the wheel. Contraction on cooling will hold it firmly in shape. Santa Fe R.R.
Jack Delano · Fort Madison, Iowa · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
That wheel is on fire on purpose. In March 1943 every locomotive the Santa Fe owned had to keep running to the coast.
Corwith yard, Chicago
R002 Santa Fe R.R. freight train about to leave for the West Coast from Corwith yard, Chicago, Ill.
Jack Delano · Chicago, Ill. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The trip starts here. Corwith yard, on the southwest side of Chicago, with a freight train made up and waiting for the West Coast.
R003 John Paulinski, car inspector, blue flagging a train for inspection, at Corwith yard, Santa Fe RR trip, Chicago, Ill.
Jack Delano · Chicago, Ill. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Delano wrote the man's name down. John Paulinski, car inspector, blue flagging a train for inspection. The blue flag means nobody moves it while he is underneath.
R004 Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad conductor George E. Burton and engineer J.W. Edwards comparing time before pulling out of Corwith railroad yard for Chillicothe, Illinois; Chicago, Ill.
Jack Delano · Chicago, Ill. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And these two. Conductor George E. Burton and engineer J. W. Edwards, comparing time before pulling out for Chillicothe, Illinois.
R005 Santa Fe RR freight train about to leave for the West Coast from Corwith yard, Chicago, Ill., Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Chicago, Ill. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
All of this is in colour because it was photographed in colour. Kodachrome, in 1943. Nothing here has been colourised.
The shops
R006 Retiring a locomotive driver wheel in the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railway locomotive shops, Shopton, near Fort Madison, Iowa. The tire is heated by means of gas until it can be slipped over the wheel. Contraction on cooling will hold it firmly in place. Santa Fe R.R.
Jack Delano · Fort Madison, Iowa · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Down the line at Shopton, near Fort Madison, Iowa. The shops are putting a new tire on a locomotive driver wheel.
D01 Retiring a locomotive driver wheel in the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railway locomotive shops, Shopton, near Fort Madison, Iowa. The tire is heated by means of gas until it can be slipped over the wheel. Contraction on cooling will hold it firmly in place. Santa Fe R.R. (detail)
Jack Delano · Fort Madison, Iowa · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
It is heated with gas until it will slip over the wheel, and then left to cool and grip. That is the fire in the first shot.
R007 Working with a small steam drop hammer at the blacksmith shop in the Santa Fe R.R. shops, Topeka, Kansas
Jack Delano · Topeka, Kan. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Topeka, Kansas. A small steam drop hammer in the blacksmith shop, and two men standing close enough to it to feel the work.
R008 Santa Fe R.R. locomotive shops, Topeka, Kansas
Jack Delano · Topeka, Kan. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And the locomotive shops themselves, under a roof the length of a street.
Argentine
R009 Washing one of the Santa Fe R.R. 54 hundred horse power diesel freight locomotives in the roundhouse, Argentine, Kansas. Argentine yard is at Kansas City, Kansas
Jack Delano · Kansas City, Kan. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
At Argentine, in Kansas City, a man is washing something new. His caption calls it a fifty-four hundred horsepower diesel freight locomotive.
R010 Santa Fe R.R. yards, Argentine, Kansas. Argentine yard is at Kansas City, Kansas
Jack Delano · Kansas City, Kan. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Around it, the yard. Freight cars in rows, snow between the tracks, and no room anywhere.
R011 Santa Fe R.R. yards and shops, Argentine, Kansas. Argentine yard is at Kansas City, Kansas
Jack Delano · Kansas City, Kan. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Yards and shops together, from the top of a tower.
R012 Servicing engines at coal and sand chutes at Argentine yard, Santa Fe R.R., Kansas City, Kansas
Jack Delano · Kansas City, Kan. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Engines being serviced at the coal and sand chutes. Coal to burn. Sand for the drivers, so the wheels can hold a wet rail.
R013 Night view of part of Santa Fe R.R. yard, Kansas City, Kansas
Jack Delano · Kansas City, Kan. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And the same yard at night, which is when a good deal of this work got done.
Ten million bushels
R014 The giant 10 million bushel grain elevator of the Santa Fe R.R., Kansas
Jack Delano · Kansas · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Out on the plains the railroad owned its own grain elevator. Ten million bushels, his caption says.
R016 Grain elevators near Amarillo, Texas; Santa Fe trip
Jack Delano · Amarillo, Tex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Then the private ones, standing along the track near Amarillo with the name painted the height of a building.
R017 Grain elevators along the route of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, Amarillo, Texas. Santa Fe trip
Jack Delano · Amarillo, Tex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
More of them further out, with nothing around them but grass.
Amarillo
R015 General view of the city and the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, Amarillo, Texas. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Amarillo, Tex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The city they belong to. Amarillo, Texas, with the Santa Fe running through the middle of it.
R019 Amarillo, Texas, general view, Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Amarillo, Tex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A town on a flat plain, seen from the only high thing in it.
R020 Amarillo, Texas, general view, Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Amarillo, Tex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Cars parked along a wide street. A church tower. Afternoon.
R018 Farm land in Texas panhandle near Amarillo, Texas. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Amarillo, Tex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And straight outside it, farm land in the Texas panhandle, running to the horizon in every direction.
R021 Yardmaster in railroad yards, Amarillo Texas
Jack Delano · Amarillo, Tex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The yardmaster at Amarillo, in his office, working by lamp. Everything that moves through here goes across that desk first.
Stopping for water
R022 Santa Fe R.R. west bound freight stopping for water, Melrose, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Melrose, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
West of Amarillo the country changes, and so does what the photographs are about. Melrose, New Mexico. A westbound freight, stopping for water.
R023 Santa Fe R.R. train, Melrose, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Melrose, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Look back down the line from the rear platform. There is nothing on either side of it.
R024 Santa Fe R.R. near Melrose, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Melrose, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Near Melrose, an engine working hard enough to lay smoke across the whole frame.
R025 Westbound freight train stopping for water, Melrose, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Melrose, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Melrose again. Westbound freight train stopping for water. He wrote that caption twice at this one station.
R026 West bound Santa Fe R.R. freight train stopping for water, Tolar, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Tolar, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Tolar, New Mexico. West bound Santa Fe freight train stopping for water. Three.
R027 West bound Santa Fe R.R. freight train waiting in a siding to meet an east bound train, Ricardo, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Ricardo, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Ricardo. A westbound freight waiting in a siding to meet an eastbound train, because out here there is one track and two directions.
R028 East bound track of the Santa Fe R.R. across desert country near South Chaves, New Mexico
Jack Delano · South Chaves, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A steam locomotive is a machine for boiling water. It needs far more water than coal, and it cannot carry a day's worth. So the shape of this railroad is the shape of where the water is.
R029 Passing a section house along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad, Encino vicinity, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Encino, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
At Encino, a section house goes past. Somebody lives in it, to look after a few miles of track.
R030 Landscape along the Santa Fe R.R., Willard, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Willard, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
At Willard, no house at all. Just the line, and the country it was laid across.
R031 In the Santa Fe R.R. yards, Belen, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Belen, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Another yard, further down, and cars waiting to be sorted into somebody else's train.
R032 Santa Fe R.R. line going to Albuquerque, New Mexico, past the Isleta Indian reservation, Isleta, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Isleta, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
From there the line runs north to Albuquerque past Isleta, whose people have farmed this valley since long before there was a railroad in it.
Five minutes
R033 Santa Fe R.R. streamliner, the "super Chief," being serviced at the depot, Albuquerque, N.M. Servicing of these diesel streamliners takes five minutes. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Albuquerque, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And at the Albuquerque depot, the thing that changes the argument. The Super Chief — a diesel. Servicing these streamliners, his caption says, takes five minutes. Five.
R034 A completely overhauled engine on the transfer table at the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad locomotive shops, Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is now ready to go into service
Jack Delano · Albuquerque, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Everything else in these shops is steam. A completely overhauled engine on the transfer table, ready to go back into service.
R035 Hammering out a draw bar on the steam drop hammer in the blacksmith shop, Santa Fe R.R. shops, Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Jack Delano · Albuquerque, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A draw bar hammered out on a steam drop hammer. That is the part that holds one car to the next, and a man is making them one at a time.
R036 At the Santa Fe R.R. tie plant, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The ties made of pine and fir, are seasoned for eight months. The steaming black ties in the center have just come from the retort where they have been impregnated with creosote for eight hours. This plant has a capacity of 100,000 ties per month; is currently producing 80,000
Jack Delano · Albuquerque, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And the plant that makes the crossties. Pine and fir, seasoned eight months, then eight hours in creosote. Capacity a hundred thousand a month. Currently producing eighty thousand.
Laguna
R037 Santa Fe R.R. train stopping for coal and water, Laguna, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Laguna, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
West of Albuquerque the railroad crosses Laguna. A train, stopping for coal and water.
R038 Indian houses and farms on the Laguna Indian reservation, Laguna New Mexico. In the background is Mount Taylor. The Santa Fe R.R. crosses the reservation
Jack Delano · Laguna, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Houses and farms on the Laguna reservation, with Mount Taylor behind them. The line goes straight through it.
R039 A freight train stopping for coal and water at a siding enroute to Gallup, New Mexico, near Laguna, N.M.
Jack Delano · Laguna, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Another freight, stopping for coal and water at a siding, on its way to Gallup.
R040 Santa Fe R.R. yard, Gallup, New Mexico
Jack Delano · Gallup, N. Mex. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Gallup, from above. A water tank up on stilts, a yard under it, and a town built on both.
R041 West-bound passenger train going around a curve on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad between Winslow and Seligman, Arizona, near Gleed, Arizone
Jack Delano · Gleed, Ariz. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Into Arizona. A westbound passenger train coming round a curve between Winslow and Seligman.
R042 Santa Fe R.R. going through Yucca, Arizona; a watering and refueling stop
Jack Delano · Yucca, Ariz. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And Yucca, Arizona, which his caption disposes of in five words: a watering and refueling stop.
Where the water comes from
Fourteen years before Delano came through, the Geological Survey had crossed the same ground asking one question. Where is the water.
What it found about the railroads is one sentence long. They require considerable quantities of water of rather good quality, at regular intervals.
And where there is none: water is hauled in tank cars to stations in these areas, for use in locomotives, and for the domestic use of the railroad employees and others who may reside at or near these stations.
The only river
R043 Santa Fe R.R. crosses the Colorado River into California between Topock, Arizona and Beal, California
Jack Delano · California · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The water comes by train. On the same rails, ahead of the train that will drink it. And then the line crosses the Colorado River, between Topock, Arizona and Beal, California.
D02 Santa Fe R.R. crosses the Colorado River into California between Topock, Arizona and Beal, California (detail)
Jack Delano · California · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Two boats on it. This is the only open water anywhere along this stretch of the line.
R044 Santa Fe R.R. line leaving Cadiz, Calif. This town is a junction point with a branch going to Phoenix, Ariz.
Jack Delano · Cadiz, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Past it, Cadiz. A junction, with a branch running down to Phoenix, and not much else.
The wells drilled along the railroad west of Cadiz, the Survey wrote, have been too salty to use. It is necessary to haul water by train for all purposes.
R045 Mojave Desert country, crossed by the Santa Fe R.R., Cadiz, Calif.
Jack Delano · Cadiz, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Mojave Desert country, crossed by the Santa Fe. That is the whole caption, and it is enough.
The Survey drew the problem as a graph. The ground, and the water table under it, station by station along the main line between Cadiz and the Colorado River.
R046 Flagman standing at a distance behind a Santa Fe R.R. west bound freight train during a stop, Bagdad, Calif.
Jack Delano · Bagdad, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Bagdad, California. A flagman standing a long way back behind a stopped freight train, in case something is coming.
Bagdad is where the numbers are. In 1919, an average of sixteen tank cars a day, ten thousand five hundred gallons each, hauled in for one station.
The consumption of water at Bagdad is especially large because of the steep westward grade. Practically all trains take on fuel and water at that place.
At Bagdad the water is run from the tank cars into a cistern, and then pumped into a tank. Those figures are from 1919. The photograph is from 1943, and the train is still stopped.
Cajon Pass
R047 A east bound Union Pacific railroad freight train waiting in a siding, Alray, Calif. Coming up through Cajon Pass. The Santa Fe tracks are used by the Union Pacific as far east as Daggett, Calif. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Alray, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
At Alray the train in the siding is not even theirs. An eastbound Union Pacific freight, on Santa Fe rails, which the Union Pacific uses as far east as Daggett.
R048 One of the cuts through the mountains, near Cajon, Calif., Cajon Pass, Calif.
Jack Delano · Cajon, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Then the mountains. One of the cuts near Kah-hone, blasted through rock the colour of bone.
R049 Freight train with two helper engines climbing the steep grade of Cajon Pass (westbound), Cajon, Calif.
Jack Delano · Cajon, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A freight climbing the grade with two helper engines pushing it, and snow on the San Bernardinos above.
R050 Freight train going up Cajon Pass through the San Bernardino Mountains, Cajon, Calif.
Jack Delano · Cajon, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The same climb from further back. Two plumes of smoke on a mountain in California.
R051 Santa Fe R.R. trains going through Cajon Pass in the San Bernardino Mountains, Cajon, Calif. On the right, streamliner "Chief" going west; in the background, on the left, a freight train with a helper engine, going east. Santa Fe trip
Jack Delano · Cajon, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And both directions in one frame. On the right the streamliner Chief, going west. Behind, on the left, a freight with a helper, going east.
What goes back east
R060 Growers bringing in their crop to a co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Down the far side is the reason a railroad wants to be here at all. Growers bringing their crop in to the co-operative packing plant at Redlands.
R052 Automatic dumper at the co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The automatic dumper takes the field boxes and empties them.
R053 Co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Workman is doing the preliminary sorting, picking out the discards. Santa Fe trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A workman does the preliminary sorting, picking out the discards.
R054 Grading oranges at a co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Then grading. A county's whole crop, going past one person at waist height.
R055 Grading oranges at a co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Grading again, at the next position along the line.
R056 Washing oranges at an orange packing co-op, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Washing.
R057 Drying oranges at a co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Drying, on rollers.
R058 Packing oranges at a co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Packing, into a crate stencilled Sunkist.
R059 Operating a machine for putting tops on crates at a co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
A machine puts the tops on the crates, and a woman feeds it.
R061 Loading oranges into refrigerator car at a co-op orange packing plant
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
And then the crates go into a refrigerator car, by hand, a truck-load at a time.
R062 Loading oranges into a refrigerator car at a co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Redlands, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
Stacked to the roof of a wooden box on wheels, which is about to go back over every mile you have just watched.
Under the blackout
R063 Activity in the Santa Fe R.R. yard, Los Angeles, Calif. All switch lights, head lights and lamps have been shaded from above in accordance with blackout regulations. The heavy light streaks are caused by paths of locomotive headlights and the thin lines by lamps of switchmen working in the yard. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Los Angeles, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The trip ends in the Santa Fe yard at Los Angeles, at night, and you cannot see the yard.
R064 Activity in the Santa Fe R.R. yard, Los Angeles, Calif. Due to blackout regulations, flood lights, switch lights, locomotive headlights and lights on the bridge in background have been shaded to cast light downward. Broad streaks of light are caused by paths of locomotive headlights, thin wavy lines by lamps of switchmen working in the yard. Santa Fe R.R. trip
Jack Delano · Los Angeles, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
All switch lights, head lights and lamps have been shaded from above, in accordance with blackout regulations. The heavy streaks are locomotive headlights.
D03 Activity in the Santa Fe R.R. yard, Los Angeles, Calif. Due to blackout regulations, flood lights, switch lights, locomotive headlights and lights on the bridge in background have been shaded to cast light downward. Broad streaks of light are caused by paths of locomotive headlights, thin wavy lines by lamps of switchmen working in the yard. Santa Fe R.R. trip (detail)
Jack Delano · Los Angeles, Calif. · March 1943 · Library of Congress · FSA/OWI Kodachrome transparency. View the original.
The thin wavy ones are switchmen's lamps. It ends with men walking around in the dark, carrying the only light they were allowed.
Sources
- 64 frames by Jack Delano, March 1943, Library of Congress, FSA/OWI Color Photographs (LC-DIG-fsac-*): https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsac/
- Period Kodachrome, not colorization — no model touched these frames, and no altered-content disclosure applies.
- All 4x5 transparencies; masters pulled at 3,840–5,061 px from the Wikimedia Commons mirror of the same negatives.
- David G. Thompson, "The Mohave Desert Region, California: A Geographic, Geologic, and Hydrologic Reconnaissance," USGS Water-Supply Paper 578 (Washington: GPO, 1929): https://archive.org/details/thompson-1929-mohave-desert-region-california
- p. 127 — "The railroads that cross the region require considerable quantities of water of rather good quality at regular intervals."
- p. 127 — "In some areas it has been difficult or impossible to develop the required supplies, and water is hauled in tank cars to stations in these areas for use in locomotives and for the domestic use of the railroad employees and others who may reside at or near these stations."
- p. 701 — "As the water in all wells drilled along the railroad west of Cadiz has been too salty to use, it is necessary to haul water by train for all purposes."
- p. 701 — "In 1919 an average of 16 cars of 10,500 gallons each was hauled daily for use at Bagdad and 1 car for Klondike."
- p. 701 — "The consumption of water at Bagdad is especially large because of the steep westward grade. Practically all trains take on fuel and water at that place."
- p. 684, Figure 19 — "Profiles of the surface and of the water table along main line of Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway between Cadiz and Colorado River."
- "Washing one of the Santa Fe R.R. 54 hundred horse power diesel freight locomotives in the roundhouse, Argentine, Kansas."
- "Servicing of these diesel streamliners takes five minutes." (the Super Chief, Albuquerque)
- "This plant has a capacity of 100,000 ties per month; is currently producing 80,000." (the Albuquerque tie plant)
- "The Santa Fe tracks are used by the Union Pacific as far east as Daggett, Calif." (Alray)
- "All switch lights, head lights and lamps have been shaded from above in accordance with blackout regulations." (Los Angeles)
- No route mileage, tonnage, train count or traffic figure appears anywhere in this episode, because no source consulted carries one.
- The episode does not say why the Santa Fe bought diesel locomotives. It shows a diesel serviced in five minutes and steam trains stopping for water, and leaves the two facts side by side.
- Nothing was painted in, cloned out, sharpened or colour-corrected in any frame.