Summer 2016

One of history’s great scams — Penn Central — caused a crisis whose solution led to the rebirth of American railroading

See photos from Conrail’s early years, as well as from “Big Blue” predecessors Penn Central, EL, CNJ, Reading, L&HR, and PRSL.

How some 4,400 locomotives of almost 100 types from 3 railroads came under 1 big, black umbrella

From college years to a military hitch to the eve of Conrail, I gained different perspectives on a fascinating railroad

Elizabethport, N.J., was a great place for a boy to watch trains in the 1930s, when steam was king and a track-elevation project was transforming the area

The Reading was years ahead of its time when it introduced a new service concept in 1967

DL&W’s 1900s advertising “lady in white” came back as a 1949 streamliner, then was revived by Erie Lackawanna

Little Lehigh & Hudson River bought the first examples of a distinctive Alco second-generation model

Milwaukee 4-6-4; Western logging steam, in color; Texas 4-4-0s in the ’40s and ’50s

A May ’48 Columbia River flood also rose the Willamette around Union Station

High on my “favorite steam excursions” list is a 1961 weekend in western Illinois behind CB&Q 2-8-2 4960

Denver & Rio Grande Western engines of two classes meet on dual-gauge track, February 2, 1958

A teen talks his family into a lengthy overnight stop in July 1948

Watch scenes of Santa Fe’s legendary Super Chief from the Sunday River Productions video archives.

In a remote depot on SP’s Coast Line, a husband and wife moved trains and taught school to the sectionmen’s kids

Spartan beauty and gritty perseverance marked this legendary cross-Vermont line