Spring Break breakdown - 4.2

Ghost sign pay-dirt

Continuing with Day Four (March 18) of our Spring Break trip... in Socorro, we located some ghost signs which had been on my "must shoot" list. In the city's downtown area, the K of P (Knights of Pythias) building features Owl Cigar ads on both its east- and west-facing walls (the best surviving example of which I've seen), and also a Bull Durham ad on its east wall.

Bull Durham tobacco ad - Socorro, NM

Owl Cigar ad - east wall of the K of P Hall. Socorro, NM

The building now houses an optometrist's office. Socorroans seem to take a certain level of pride in the signs; one passerby even recommended a nearby spot for me to obtain a more favorable photo angle (she said she had featured the signs on her Flickr page.) At any rate, they're worth checking out if you're in the area.

Owl Cigar ad, west wall, K of P Hall. Socorro, NM.

Continuing on, we stopped briefly to check out the caboose and rail cars on the Grefco spur (BNSF's rail line to Dicaperl, a perlite loading facility)...


Grefco Spur Milepost Zero. Caboose is used as a "shove platform" so brakemen won't have to ride the sides of the cars during the long shove up to Dicaperl.

As you can see, it's not in the best of shape.

Miss C waits patiently...

C checks out the railcar inventory.

Next, we continued on toward Belen and Albuquerque. Check back soon for the report & photos.

WSC

np: Hank Thomspon - "Wake up, Irene"