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Hump Operations, a
1936 watercolor by Charles Burchfield, pictures the Pennsylvania
Railroad yard located in Altoona. The men in the picture are yard
brakemen who controlled the switches while trains were being
disassembled and reassembled. The title of the painting is
descriptive of what the brakemen are doing. The train pictured is
being uncoupled and "classified" (pushed up the "hump" in the yard
by the engine and then allowed to move down to the appropriate
track through force of gravity). The building on the right, Homer
Tower, was a signal block tower for passenger and freight traffic
on the Pennsylvania Railroad Main Line (since torn down and
transported to Lewistown). The bridge in the background is the
old East Altoona Bridge. The building to the left with five
chimneys and smoke jets is the old Altoona Roundhouse, the largest
in the world boasting fifty stalls for locomotives.
Burchfield, born April 9, 1893, in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio,
attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1912 to 1916. He was
awarded a scholarship to the National Academy of Design in New
York City but left after one day at the Academy. Returning to
Salem, Ohio, Burchfield worked in a metal plant and also began his
career as an artist. Seven months of service in the Army in 1918
had a pronounced effect on Burchfield's art, turning his attention
from nature to small towns. Throughout his life he contrasted the
theme of the fantastic with the drabness and squalor of small
industrial cities. In his later years, he replaced urban scenes
with landscapes.
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