Norfolk & Western 2-8-8-2 Y class type steam locomotive hauls a coal train in Virginia in 1958. Jim Shaughnessy 2-8-8-2 •YEARS BUILT: 1909 to 1952 •MANUFACTURERS: Baldwin, Norfolk & Western •OPERATED ON: Numerous railroads that required power to pull heavy freight trains upgrade •NAMES: Chesapeake (Chesapeake & Ohio), Y (Norfolk & Western) •QUANTITY: 844; Norfolk […]
Section: Railroads
Locomotive profile: 4-8-0 Mastodon type steam locomotive
Strasburg Rail Road 4-8-0 Mastodon-type steam locomotive No. 475 pulls a tourist train in Pennsylvania. Jim Wrinn 4-8-0 •YEARS BUILT: 1890s to 1935 •MANUFACTURERS: Brooks, Rogers, Alco, Baldwin, Norfolk & Western •OPERATED ON: Jersey Central, Lackawanna, Union Pacific, Winston-Salem Southbound, Norfolk & Western, Delaware & Hudson, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Illinois Central, Missouri Pacific, Southern […]
Locomotive profile: 4-8-2 Mountain type steam locomotive
Frisco 4-8-2 Mountain type steam locomotive No. 1522 hauls a tourist train near Swedeborg, Missouri, in 1994. Jim Wrinn 4-8-2 •YEARS BUILT: 1911 to 1948 •MANUFACTURERS: Alco, Baltimore & Ohio, Lima, Canadian, Montreal •OPERATED ON: Numerous large railroads requiring power for fast freight and passenger trains •NAMES: Mountain, Mohawk (New York Central) •QUANTITY: 2,201; New […]
Streamliner service
An Atlantic Coast Line laborer uses a long-handled brush to clean the windshield of E6 No. 520 at Florence, S.C. The locomotive is leading train 375, the Washington–Jacksonville Everglades. William D. Middleton photo […]
Super C celebration
Santa Fe’s high-priority Super C freight between Chicago and Los Angeles debuted with much fanfare in 1968. High rates, charged to placate other Santa Fe customers, limited traffic, however. Santa Fe photo […]
Swift service
Swift & Co. had a large soybean processing plant on the Nickel Plate Road at Frankfort, Ind. In this 1946 view, beans arrived by boxcar, with outbound soy meal loaded in sacks in boxcars (the boxcar in the background) and soybean oil loaded in tank cars. Nickel Plate Road photo […]
Two cars to Tidewater
Eastern Gas & Fuel’s modern Wharton No. 2 mine southwest of Barrett, W.Va., will load 105 hoppers, including subject C&O 134594 and 47859, with coal on June 2, 1955. Trains’ Editor David P. Morgan tracked the cars from mine to ship in the April 1956 issue. W.A. Akin Jr. photo […]
Premier power
Santa Fe FT No. 100 was not only the railroad’s first mainline freight diesel, but part of the first order for mainline freight diesel power by any U.S. railroad. Eventually, the railroad would use 320 of the Electro-Motive products to dieselize its transcontinental main line. Santa Fe photo […]
San Francisco Zephyr
New EMD F40PH diesels lead the westbound San Francisco Zephyr east of Denver in June 1981. Amtrak acquired more than 200 such locomotives in multiple batches. Bob Johnston photo […]
Seaboard Century
Seaboard Coast Line Alco C628 No. 2201 leads a mixed consist of locomotives at Colliers Yard near Petersburg, Pa., waiting for a cut of cars. The six-axle Alco was built in 1963 for the Atlantic Coast Line. Walter Gay photo […]
Steam prototype
The 2-10-4 wheel arrangement, the “Texas type,” originated with a modified Santa Fe 2-10-2 — No. 3829, built by Baldwin in 1919. The railroad would eventually roster 36 additional Texas-type locomotives, built by Baldwin between 1930 and 1944. T.H. Cole Jr. photo […]
Story City service
In fall 1942, Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 No. 331 heads for Story City, Iowa, northwest from Minerva Junction and Marshalltown. In the 1950s, GE and Alco diesels would replace steam and the local would run just Tuesdays and Fridays. William F. Armstrong photo […]