With the westbound Pocahontas in tow, Norfolk & Western J class 4-8-4 No. 611 passes the tower at South Norfolk, Va., in July 1957. The locomotive still steams occasionally for Virginia Transportation Museum in Roanoke. H. Reid photo […]
Steam queen
Section: Railroads
Safety comes in cans
I can. You can. We can. Chessie System reminded its employees to remain safe on the job with this sign at Barr Yard near Chicago. Jim Hediger photo […]
Quintessential New England
Montpelier & Wells River 2-8-0 No. 20, a former Boston & Maine engine, leads train 1 with a milk car behind the tender. A combine brings up the rear of the mixed train. The M&WR, which linked its namesake Vermont communities with a 44-mile route, operated six locomotives and one passenger car in 1944. William […]
Pueblo pause
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy’s Texas Zephyr, with Colorado & Southern-lettered E5 No. 9955 on the point, pauses at Pueblo on Jan. 23, 1966. The Burlington acquired control of the C&S in 1908, gaining a route from Denver to the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston, Texas, and a route from Denver north into Wyoming. Steve Patterson photo […]
Remembering Texas & Pacific Railway freight trains
All this month — June 2020 — Classic Trains editors are celebrating the heritage, history, and images of the Texas & Pacific Railway. Please enjoy this photo gallery of images from the David P. Morgan Library archives at Kalmbach Media that include TP diesel- and steam-powered freight trains through time. You might also enjoy this […]
Nickel Plate diesels
The Nickel Plate Road’s road-switcher scheme of black with three yellow stripes, plus yellow safety stripes on the ends, was simple but eye catching. Here, GP9s 510, 486, and 454 roll through Bellevue, Ohio, in summer 1959. The small “NYC&StL” on the short hood alludes to the road’s formal name: New York, Chicago & St. […]
Mountain meet — Pennsy
Pennsylvania Railroad GP9s on westbound piggyback train TT1 pass J1 class 2-10-4 No. 6166, which has stopped on the main line near Johnstown, Pa., to take water from an overhead spout, in September 1956. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
