Heavyweight Pullman cars trail Pennsylvania Railroad train 72, the eastbound Juniata, at Marysville, Pa., in 1952. The train, which is about to cross the famed Rockville Bridge over the Susquehanna River, is en route from Detroit to New York City. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Passenger cab units, like this twin-engine New York Central EMD E8, rode on six-wheel trucks with the center axle unpowered, denoted as A1A-A1A. EMD built 421 E8A units and 39 E8B units making it the second most popular model in the line behind the E7. Pictured is a late production E8, with stamped-metal grill along […]
Three Alco RS3s lead a Boston & Maine freight near White River Junction, Vt. The railroad had 26 such units, Nos. 1505-1519 and 1535-1545, numbered around a series of similar RS2s. Jerry A. Pinkepank photo […]
The Central of Georgia’s Atlanta to Savanna Nancy Hanks II approaches the station at Macon, Ga., on its exhibition run behind brand-new E7 No. 808 on July 9, 1947. Named for a race horse, the original Nancy Hanks train ran in the 1890s. The railroad, in bankruptcy from 1932 to 1948, became a Southern Railway subsidiary in 1963. Walter […]
Southern Pacific AC-7 class 4-8-8-2 No. 4165 pulls an extra freight near Mount Shasta, Calif., in January 1944. Baldwin built 195 such “cab-forward” locomotives for the railroad, classes AC-4 through AC-12, except for AC-9. Classic Trains collection […]
Milwaukee Road’s Viroqua Patrol, with an Alco RSD5 in charge, crosses the Burlington Northern’s ex-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy main line at Grande Crossing in La Crosse, Wis., on Oct. 9, 1971. “Patrol” was the Milwaukee’s name for a local freight and Viroqua was a town on a branch located southeast of La Crosse. J. W. […]
The Denver & Rio Grande Western, symbol of so much of Colorado railroading, had nowhere else to go for traffic. After laying tracks in search of gold and silver, it was coal that made the road. A westbound freight appropriately heads up Coal Creek Canyon west of Denver on the Front Range in 1972. Ron […]
Illinois Terminal GP38-2 No. 2004 leads two sisters and a Conrail GP38-2 at Granite City, Ill., in August 1980. The IT units display the road’s final scheme, applied in the years prior to the 1982 Norfolk & Western takeover. Paul H. Dalman, J. David Ingles collection […]
Norfolk & Western’s top fast-freight engines were 43 class A simple articulated 2-6-6-4s. No. 1239, built in 1949 as part of the final A order, couples to time freight 84 at Roanoke. Sister 1218 would rise to fame in the 1980s under successor Norfolk Southern’s steam program. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]
The Pennsylvania Railroad liked to double-head K4s Pacifics on heavy passenger trains. Here, the second section of eastbound train 76, the Trail Blazer, leaves Englewood, Ill., in south suburban Chicago in January 1941. Paul Eilenberger, Harold Stinton collection […]
After doubling its train together at Clare Yard in Cincinnati, train 78 prepares to depart east for Portsmouth, Ohio, over the Peavine in December 1959. Doubling the train blocked the Pennsylvania’s main line diamond at Clare. Tom Smart, J. David Ingles collection […]
Colorado Railroad Museum founder Bob Richardson moves a three-way switch at the Narrow Gauge Museum south of Alamosa, Colo., in the mid-1950s. This was the initial gathering point for the collection before it moved to Golden in 1958. The Mears Junction sign is from the place where the Rio Grande’s Marshall Pass and Valley narrow […]
