Hand-switching a hopper car

20180607

Employees of New Jersey short line Union Transportation Co. use pinch bars and muscle power to move a car of coal a few feet at New Egypt. As coal is released from the hopper doors it is fed by hand-shoveling to the power-driven conveyor for loading into the tender of the line’s only engine, leased […]

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Spring 2024

Welcome – Pennsy perspective Head End – A potpourri of railroad history, then and now Fast Mail – Letters from readers on our Winter 2023 issue Mileposts – Commentary by Kevin P. Keefe True Color – Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Maumee River crossing Short Rails – Manufacturers Railway Co. The Way It Was – Tales […]

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C&IM caboose

20180628

One of the Chicago & Illinois Midland’s distinctive green-and-red cabooses trails 85 empty coal hoppers heading south at Atterbury, Ill., in May 1952. Edward Theisinger photo […]

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Terminal tower

20190517

Just out of New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, Kansas City Southern E8 leads the Southern Belle past Clara Street tower in 1954. The tower was situated between the terminal to the south and the coach yard and diesel shop to the north. James G. La Vake photo […]

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Streamlined steam

20190524

In the late 1930s and early 1940s the venerable Lehigh Valley streamlined several of its named passenger trains. This is the John Wilkes, decked in Cornell red, near Glen Onoko, Pa., in 1939. Wayne Brumbaugh photo […]

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Story City steam

20190529

Minneapolis & St. Louis G6-24 class 4-6-0 No. 226, built by Baldwin in 1909, backs a train into Story City, Iowa, in February 1947. The town, at the end of a branch from Minerva Jct., near Marshalltown, also saw service from the Chicago & North Western. William F. Armstrong photo […]

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Silverton

20190523

On June 18, 1950, the Denver & Rio Grande Western’s Silverton enters Animas Canyon near its namesake Colorado town. In 1981 the route became the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. R.W. Richardson photo […]

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Rondout action

20190509

Milwaukee train No. 6, the Morning Hiawatha, passes Tower A20 near Northbrook, Ill., on July 29, 1969. Ahead lies Chicago Union Station. Jim Scribbins photo […]

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Revenue run

20190522

A seven-car Illinois Central Gulf piggyback train heads north through Springfield, Ill., for Chicago in September 1975. At Springfield the ICG’s one-time Gulf, Mobile & Ohio route split for Kansas City to the west and St. Louis and points south. Walter A. Peters photo […]

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Overland Limited

20190521

Southern Pacific Mt-3 class 4-8-2 No. 4344 helps the Overland Limited through Clipper Gap, Calif., in May 1949. For decades, the Overland was the flagship train on the original transcontinental route. David G. Edwards photo […]

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