Coast twilight

A Union Pacific ethanol train led by AC4400CW No. 7007 skirts the Carquinez Strait at sunset. The train is passing Eckley Pier with the wrecked remains of the steamship Garden City in the water. Photo by Brian Roberts […]

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Right-of-way

  Looking out of place, two CSX GEs take Canadian Pacific train No. 470 down North Second Street in Bellevue, Iowa, on Jan. 19, 2014. Photo by Matt Krause   […]

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Local hero

With a short five-car train, Canadian National’s local out of Dubuque, Iowa, has just crossed the Mississippi River and pops out of the short tunnel in East Dubuque, IL. The train will travel down the BNSF Railway using trackage to an industry that CN switches before calling it a day and returning home after dark. Photo […]

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C&EI’s Meadowlark

20150424

E7 diesel 1101 leads Chicago & Eastern Illinois’ southbound Meadowlark at 63rd Street station (“Little Englewood”), Chicago, in the late 1940s. The obscure orange-and-blue streamliner terminated at the unlikely location of Cyprus, Ill. (population 300). William N. Clark photo […]

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The Erie’s Otisville tunnel

20140519

The concrete west portal of Erie’s Otisville (N.Y.) tunnel — from which a Berkshire-powered freight emerges — is fairly simple, but with pilasters and the inscription “19–OTISVILLE–08” in embossed lettering overhead. Note the early installation of welded rail on the eastward track. Wayne Brumbaugh photo […]

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Pennsy T1 on the Broadway

20140514

PRR T1 4-4-4-4 No. 5507 clatters through 21st Street interlocking in Chicago with the Broadway Limited for New York. A T1 on the Broadway is relatively rare, as dieselization of PRR’s top trains came soon after the giant duplexes arrived. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]

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Chessie System freight at Keystone Viaduct

20140520

An SD40 and GP9 hold back a westbound freight as they descend Sand Patch Grade a couple of miles west of Sand Patch, Pa., on the former Baltimore & Ohio. The bridge overhead carried the Western Maryland main line, which was rendered redundant when B&O and WM came under common Chessie System control. David Dudjak […]

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CN 2-8-0 at Chipman, N.B.

20140508

Canadian National 2-8-0 No. 2444, assigned as the switcher in Chipman, N.B., negotiates the steep grade and tight curves at the town’s brickyard on a gray day in November 1953. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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End of the Lima line

20140521

Nickel Plate 779 was not only the final member of that road’s notable family of Berkshires, it was also the last steam locomotive built by the Lima Locomotive Works. This fact was not known until some time after its May 13, 1949, completion, and Lima did not make an official photo of her. Instead, the […]

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Milwaukee racer

20140528

It’s been said that Milwaukee Road’s class F6 4-6-4s, built 1930–31, looked like they were going fast even when standing still. There does seem to be a rakish “leaning-forward” quality to this photo of nearly new No. 6402. MILW […]

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C&O E8’s on “the George”

20140515

Two brand-new E8’s are in charge of the westbound George Washington at Hampton, Va., on Sept. 12, 1951. C&O bought 31 E8’s from EMD between 1951 and ’53, the first 10 of which wore the blue-and-yellow “freight” livery seen here. Bill Taub photo […]

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