Keeping an even keel It was important for boxcar loads of grain to be level. Sometimes workers had to enter the cars and level the loads by hand, as with this carload of wheat. Jeff Wilson collection […]
Keeping an even keel
BL2 diesel locomotive: An EMD diesel that didn’t.
The BL2 was a mistake at diesel locomotive leader EMD EMD’s BL2 diesel locomotive was a mistake of historic proportions. During the 1930s and ’40s — when diesel-locomotive sales grew from smoldering embers to white-hot inferno — Electro-Motive Corp. (after 1940, General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division) seemingly could do no wrong. With the technical and marketing […]
Cab-forward conveyance
Cab-forward conveyance A puff of oil smoke hangs in the air over Truckee as AC 4-8-8-2 No. 4185 gets the westbound Overland moving after a station stop. In 6 hours, the train will arrive at Oakland Pier. Jim Morley photo […]
Shortline savior
Shortline savior North Carolina’s Laurinburg & Southern was a GE 70-tonner bastion in the Southeast. A pair works Dixie Guano in Laurinburg in September 1984. The GE small locomotive line enabled great savings for short lines that adopted them, keeping some of them running for years longer than if powered by steam. Jim Wrinn photo […]
Man at work
Man at work Baltimore & Ohio Dispatcher Carl Donald makes an entry on his trainsheet in DR Tower in Deshler, Ohio, in the early 1950s. Deshler lies at the crossing of the B&O’s Pittsburgh to Chicago and Toledo to Cincinnati main lines. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Ice reefer innovation
Ice reefer innovation Attaching a portable precooling motor (right) with a belt to the shaft extension on the generator enabled the ice-cooled car’s own fans to precool a load while standing still. This helped keep ice-cooled cars cold when loading. Preco photo […]
Illinois Central Railroad: Locomotives
The Illinois Central Railroad is Classic Trains editors’ Railroad of the Month for July 2021. Please enjoy this photo gallery of IC locomotives selected from the files of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Only from Classic Trains! […]
M-10001
M-10001 In the late 1930s, the Union Pacific’s streamliner M-10001 is serviced between runs in Chicago; although dirty, the streamliner stands out from older steel and wood cars in the yard. Alexander Maxwell photo […]
Getting grain to market
Getting grain to market A truck dumps its load of wheat through the floor grate into the bin at an elevator in Fowlerville, Mich., in 1950. The framework in the background is for elevating wagons and trucks that don’t dump on their own. The town is located on the Chesapeake & Ohio’s Pere Marquette main […]
Great Lakes outpost
Great Lakes outpost Chesapeake & Ohio SW9 No. 5251 idles by the carferry City of Midland 41 in Milwaukee in 1978. The C&O’s Milwaukee trackage was reached only by the carferries across Lake Michigan. Brian Buchanan photo […]
Dominion
Dominion Oil-fired Canadian Pacific G3 4-6-2 Pacific 2388 awaits departure from Vancouver with the Dominion on a June 1952 evening; the Mountaineer left an hour earlier. John C. Illman photo […]
Illinois Central Railroad freight trains photo gallery
All through July 2021, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the grit and glory of the Illinois Central Railroad. Please enjoy this photo gallery of IC freight selected from the image archive of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Only from Classic Trains! […]
