Wood-burning narrow-gauge Mikado

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Sumpter Valley Railway No. 18, built by Baldwin in 1916, is a modern-design, low-drivered, 36-inch-gauge wood-burning 2-8-2. The timber-hauling Sumpter Valley extended 80 miles out of Baker, Ore.; today, tourists can ride behind steam on 5 miles of rebuilt track. Matt Coleman collection […]

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Looking at you

Metra No. 108 with a loaded afternoon commuter train bears down on the photographer alongside the right-of-way near the Western Avenue depot in Chicago in September 2013. Photo by Steve Sweeney […]

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New York, Ontario & Western – Image Gallery

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FULL SCREEN Robert F. Collins, John R. Taibi coll. Mountaineer 4-8-2 405 with Walton, N.Y.–Weehawken, N.J., Mountaineer at Winterton, N.Y., 1939. FULL SCREEN Donald W. Furler Train 3 2-6-0 255 with first section of Weehawken–Sidney, N.Y., train 3 at Burnside, N.Y., August 1942. FULL SCREEN Wayne Brumbaugh Train 1 4-8-2 with Weehawken–Walton train 1 at […]

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Narrow gauge in Ohio

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The Ohio River & Western was a 3-foot-gauge line in Ohio affiliated with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Folks have driven out in their cars to the road’s famous S-shaped trestle just west of Key, Ohio, to watch the OR&W’s last train on May 30, 1931. John B. Corns collection […]

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PRR E8 diesels in green

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Pennsylvania Railroad E8 5767 and a sister bring a westbound train to a halt at Canton, Ohio, in September 1952. Some of PRR’s E8s, like these, were delivered in PRR’s traditional dark green locomotive color with gold pinstripes; others came in Tuscan red, which the road adopted for passenger diesels in 1952. John B. Corns […]

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Santa Fe on display

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Santa Fe 4-6-4 3460, the road’s only streamlined steam engine, nicknamed the “Blue Goose,” stands next to an E1 diesel during a display of new trains at Dearborn Station, Chicago, in February 1938. Alexander Maxwell photo […]

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Missabe “Mallet”

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Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-8-8-4 No. 230 hauls an ore extra through Alborn, Minn., in 1959. Missabe men called all articulateds, compound as well as simple, “Mallets.” Franklin A. King photo […]

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Mail on the fly!

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The arm on a New York Central Railway Post Office car has just snatched the bag from the trackside crane. Incoming bags for such locations would simply be kicked out the door as the train passed. A. C. Kalmbach photo […]

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Homefront supply line

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Railroads were the primary means of moving men and materiel within the United States during World War II. Here a freight conductor walks beside flatcars loaded with M3 Lee tanks at an unknown location. U.S. Army Signal Corps photo […]

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Photo of the Day

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The Burlington Route created the first dome cars by modifying two coaches originally built by Budd in 1940. Silver Dome, pictured on display at Wichita Falls, Texas, was first, in 1945, followed by Silver Castle the next year. Wichita Times-Record News photo […]

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