MoPac Northerns

MoPac Northerns

Two 4-8-4s, Baldwin products of 1943, lead a westbound freight with a long string of open hoppers through Sandy Hook, Mo., about 19 miles west of Jefferson City on Missouri Pacific’s River Line. The railroad had 15 such locomotives, Nos. 2201–2215, and 25 more home-built examples, Nos. 2101–2125. C. T. Wood photo […]

Read More…

McCloud might

McCloud might

A McCloud River Railroad freight rolls thought Bartle, Calif., in July 1983. Lead unit No. 39 is the road’s sole SD38-2 while trailing unit 38 is the highest numbered of three SD38s. The logging and lumber road operated Baldwin diesels into the late 1960s. Jim Shaw photo […]

Read More…

Innovation ended

Innovation ended

Hundreds of small towns had piggyback ramps through the 1960s, as seen here on the Minneapolis & St. Louis in 1959. However, moving one or two trailers at a time proved economically unviable. J. David Ingles collection […]

Read More…

Homemade muscle

Homemade muscle

Norfolk & Western Y6 2-8-8-2 No. 2130, one of the road’s distinctive homegrown designs, works near Elliston, Va., 20 miles west of the road’s headquarters in Roanoke. It was one of 35 such locomotives built 1936–40. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]

Read More…

Grain-hauling boxcars

Grain-hauling boxcars

A string of single-sheathed boxcars awaits coopering at an elevator on the Milwaukee Road in Sisseton, S.Dak., in 1939. Single-sheathed boxcars could be found in grain service into the 1960s. John Vachon, Library of Congress photo […]

Read More…

Georgia Steam

Gainesville Midland 2-8-0 No. 301 switches at Gainesville, Ga., in the 1950s. The two-story building above its stack is the road’s headquarters and former depot. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

Read More…

F is for freight

20200623

A northbound Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac freight rolls into Alexandria, Va., almost at its destination of Potomac Yard, on Dec. 29, 1949. The A-B-A set of blue-and-gray F units is nearly brand new. Charles Wales photo […]

Read More…

Georgetown Loop

20200618

A Colorado & Southern train climbs toward Silver Plume, Colo., ducking under Devil’s Gate bridge on the Georgetown Loop shortly before the end of service in 1938. The bridge was restored for tourist trains in 1984. R. H. Kindig photo […]

Read More…

Sideswipe survivor

20200506

The remains of Santa Fe GP38 No. 3552 lie in a ditch following a sideswipe incident at Booth, Texas, on April 14, 1973. A southbound train struck the rear cars of a northbound train. The subsequent derailment and fire destroyed three GP38s. Steve Patterson photo […]

Read More…

Superlative steam

20200514

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific had a fleet of 85 4-8-4 Northerns, largest in the country. Here, No. 5058 leads a westbound freight near Lawrence, Kans., in January 1952. Robert P. Olmsted photo […]

Read More…

U-boats on the Fall Brook

20200513

Snow begins to melt on an early spring day in 1974 as two six-axle General Electric “U-boats” head south along Seneca Lake at Geneva, N.Y., on the former New York Central “Fall Brook” line. Ken Kraemer photo […]

Read More…