Missouri-Kansas-Texas drovers’ caboose No. 350 shows off the car’s extra length. The cars could accommodate extra riders overseeing livestock shipments. Harold Schupp Q Where, in the train’s consist, were drovers’ cabooses placed? Were they at the rear with the regular caboose, or somewhere in the train’s consist near the stock cars? Were they used only […]
Back in 1869, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad worked tirelessly under brutal conditions to drive the last spike, The Golden Spike, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, to complete the Transcontinental Railroad. Products could now be manufactured in the east and delivered to the west in under two weeks, benefiting the United States economy, […]
UP train 339, the mixed from Twin Falls, Idaho, nears its destination of Wells, Nev., in fall 1943. Is Uncle Jim the conductor today? W. B. Wolverton There’s not much there anymore, and few people know that Minidoka, Idaho, was once a busy railroad point. It was also my youthful idea of heaven. That’s where […]
FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN The railroad roundhouse is even more an anachronism than the heavy-timber barn, and perhaps even more emblematic of nostalgic times in U.S. history. The Evanston, Wyo., roundhouse stabled Union […]
Replica steam locomotive Union Pacific 4-4-0 No. 119 stands outside its modern engine shed in rural Utah in 2018. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn Come May 10, 2019, two locomotives will be in the spotlight for some 12,000 spectators at the 150th celebration of the first Transcontinental Railroad completion: Replicas of Central Pacific Jupiter and Union Pacific […]
A fast freight rides a two-railroad speedway in May 1971. Jerry A. Pinkepank 1 Cotton Belt freight. A St. Louis Southwestern Railway (SSW, common nickname Cotton Belt) freight rolls north on Missouri Pacific tracks May 8, 1971, at Gorham, Ill., on the 123.7 miles of MoPac trackage rights Cotton Belt used to reach the Illinois […]
Union Pacific SD60 No. 2181 is on the point of a welded rail train tucked into the storage siding at Woodford, Calif., for the weekend in March 2002. TEH-12131-6 Howard Ande Question: Is Union Pacific the only U.S. rail carrier to use long rail? What exactly is long rail? Periodically, I see ocean bulk carriers bringing […]
Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 as it slowly departs Pomona, Calif., in 2013. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn Question: Reportedly, Union Pacific had a name picked out for it’s 4-8-8-4 Big Boy steam locomotive but someone at American Locomotive Co. in Schenectady, N.Y., beat them to the punch by writing the name “Big Boy” on […]
BNSF Railway ES44DC No. 7765 leads an intermodal train through a curved main line at Siberia, Calif., in September 2008. 08357-7 Steve Schmollinger Question: In many photos taken on open land in the West and Midwest, you can see curvature in the tracks even though there are no visible obstacles such as rock cuts, rivers, […]
Norfolk Southern C40-9W No. 9625 leads westbound loaded rail train 917 at the NS Bristol Yard at Bristol, Va., on the NS Pulaski District on June 23, 2011. 11193-11 Jonathan McCoy Question: How many slots of rail can a Norfolk Southern rail train hold and how many cars normally make up a rail train? — […]
On Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain Railroad, a ramshackle old combine is pushed by 4-6-2 No. 110 on May 26, 1952. Outshopped by Baldwin in 1911 for another Tennessee short line, the Little River Railroad, No. 110 was the smallest standard gauge Pacific built for U.S. service. Edward Theisinger photo […]
On August 2, 1911, the small town of Sheffield, Ill., 22 miles west of Bureau on the Rock Island’s main line, comes to life for the midday arrival of a passenger train bound for Chicago. Roy Campbell collection […]
