The engineer oils the valve gear of Brooks-Scanlon Corp. No. 5, a cabbage-stacked, wood-burning 2-6-2 that hauled forest products in Florida. Note the antlers and candlesticks adorning the headlight. Frank Clodfelter photo […]
Wood-burning Prairie
Section: Photo of the Day
Stored Great Northern power
Five “stored serviceable” steam locomotives occupy a track outside the Great Northern roundhouse at Kelly Lake, Minn., the home terminal for GN’s Minnesota iron-ore operations, in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Troop train kitchen car
The cook on a Korean War-era troop train out of Fort George G. Meade, Md., stokes the kitchen car’s coal stove as a soldier on KP duty looks on. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
UP 2-8-8-0 in Idaho
Union Pacific 2-8-8-0 3530 is near Pleasant Valley, Idaho, with time freight 655 in the late 1940s or early ’50s. Sixty-four cars back, another 2-8-8-0 pushes on the rear. Henry R. Griffiths Jr. photo […]
NYC Mike in the weeds
In September 1954, New York Central 2-8-2 1305 wades through the weeds on a branch line extending from East Alton to Hillsboro in southwestern Illinois. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Oil train on the Erie
A dramatic nighttime photo shows an oil train on the Erie Railroad during World War II, when German submarines menaced coastal shipping, forcing petroleum from the Gulf Coast onto the rails. Erie photo […]
RPO on IC’s Hawkeye
A Railway Post Office clerk looks out from a doorway during a stop at Waterloo, Iowa, in April 1967. The train is Illinois Central’s Sioux City–Chicago Hawkeye. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Santa Fe on the Santa Fe
Santa Fe Railway No. 3895, a 2-10-2 Santa Fe type named for the road that originated the wheel arrangement, hauls a freight east up California’s Cajon Pass in 1949. Donald Sims photo […]
Chicago River & Indiana Lima switcher
No. 9806 is one of Chicago River & Indiana’s 21 800 h.p. Lima-Hamilton switchers, built in 1951. The little road’s name is in an oval on the cabside, while CR&I parent New York Central System is identified on the hood. Robert A. Janz photo […]
Lima’s last Shay
Western Maryland three-truck Shay No. 6 works a coal plant on the Chaffee (W.Va.) Branch not long after delivery in 1945. The 324,000-pound giant was the last of nearly 2,800 Shays built by Lima Locomotive Works. Today she works on the Cass Scenic Railroad. Western Maryland photo […]
Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern freight
Conceived in 1907 as an interurban line, Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern never did electrify. In the diesel era, MN&S favored Baldwin products like this blue-and-silver DRS-6-6-1500, shown switching the yard at Auto Club Junction south of Minneapolis in 1958. William D. Middleton photo […]
Morning Hi at Portage, Wis.
Milwaukee Road’s westbound Morning Hiawatha pauses at Portage, Wis., in October 1965. Tucked behind the E units are several head-end cars, including a Great Northern express boxcar, Milwaukee express boxcar, and GN baggage express car. Tom Hoffmann photo […]
