In artwork promoting the Milwaukee Road’s 1947 Olympian Hiawatha, Mom says goodnight to Jimmy and Sally in the upper and lower berths of a section in a new “Touralux” car. Specially built for the Olympian Hi, the Touralux sleepers contained 14 extra-roomy, semi-private sections. Photo by Milwaukee Road […]
Section: Photos
Long-running success
Electro-Motive’s four-wheel road-diesel truck, named for the mechanical engineer who designed it, Martin Blomberg, was introduced on the NW3 and FT models of 1939. Since then the Blomberg truck has been used under tens of thousands of diesels, including new models introduced more than 75 years later. Photo by Classic Trains collection […]
Landmark trailing truck
The trailing truck for Lima’s 1925 demonstrator locomotive No. 1, the first 2-8-4 Berkshire type, featured four wheels to support the engine’s large firebox — a major advance in steam design. The piping was for a booster engine which drove the truck’s rear axle. Photo by Lima Locomotive Works […]
Interstate Alco
One of the Interstate Railroad’s ten Alco RS3 diesel locomotives switches hopper cars in the road’s yard at Andover, Virginia, in May 1960. The 88-mile coal-hauler’s diesels wore a colorful gray-orange-silver scheme. The Southern Railway bought the Interstate in June 1961. Photo by Steve Patterson […]
Inside an RPO car
Few Railway Post Office cars survived the big cuts of 1967. Among the handful that remained was the St. Paul & Aberdeen RPO on Milwaukee Road train 15, the truncated remnant of the Olympian Hiawatha, on which clerks are seen at work in the spring of 1968. Photo by Don L. Hofsommer […]
Hi-Level coach luxury
The Santa Fe’s Hi-Level coaches, introduced in 1956 on the Chicago–L.A. El Capitan, featured reclining leg-rest seats, air-powered sliding doors, and Southwest Indian imagery. […]
Geeps on Tennessee Pass
A GP35 and three GP30s lead a 47-car freight up the west side of Denver & Rio Grande Western’s Tennessee Pass at Mitchell, Colorado, in September 1969. Indicative of the severity of the grade, four F units and two older Geeps are cut in as mid-train helpers. […]
Foggy day at Sherbrooke
In October 1953, a blanket of fog lies over Sherbrooke, Quebec, as Quebec Central G2 4-6-2 2556 awaits departure time of train 1 for Quebec City as a G3 Pacific brings train 39 into the station. Photo by Philip R. Hastings […]
Early unit grain train
In 1968, the Great Northern loaded 50 of its new Big Sky blue covered hoppers in Wolf Point, Montana, in an experimental unit train move to an export elevator in Portland, Oregon. In this posed photo, a crewman signals from the train’s modern wide-vision caboose. Photo by Great Northern […]
Doubleheaded C&O Mallets
Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 Mallets 1309 and 1302 are departing Scarlet, West Virginia, in June 1950 with a loaded coal train. The 10 members of C&O’s H-6 class were the last steam locomotives built for domestic use by Baldwin Locomotive Works (1949). Engine 1309 is being restored for service on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad […]
Coal train on Helmstetter’s Curve
Railfans watch as a Western Maryland coal train swings around famous Helmstetter’s Curve on its descent eastward toward Cumberland, Md., in May 1952. Photo by Edward Theisinger […]
Lighting your garden railroad for nighttime running
I’ve enjoyed some of the most peaceful times on my railroad after the sun has set. Most of us likely have a porch light we can turn on to offer some light in the back yard. If yours is anything like my light, it gives off enough light to make sure your dog does his […]