Baltimore & Ohio class Q-4 2-8-2 No. 4479 steps along a manicured right of way with a westbound freight near Walkerton, Ind., in the early 1950s. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
B&O Q-4 Mikado in Indiana

Baltimore & Ohio class Q-4 2-8-2 No. 4479 steps along a manicured right of way with a westbound freight near Walkerton, Ind., in the early 1950s. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
Union Pacific NW2 No. 1091, with extra ballast and low-speed gearing, shoves the last cars of a freight train up the hump. Behind the diesel is the new yard’s car-inspection station. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
A July 1947 aerial view shows the Pennsylvania Railroad’s big roundhouse at Crestline, Ohio. The long engine at middle left is No. 6100, the 6-4-4-6 duplex of 1939. Classic Trains coll. […]
Northern Pacific’s North Coast Limited clatters over the slip switches outside Chicago Union Station at the end of its 2,319-mile run from Seattle in May 1958. The Pennsylvania’s coach yard in the background hosts a variety of stored cars. R. P. Olmsted photo […]
An operator pulls the armstrong levers to align a route at busy State Line Tower, near Hammond, Ind., on the Chicago & Western Indiana. As the track diagram shows, several railroads operated through the 200-plus lever plant. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
VIA Rail train No. 72 passengers may not have noticed the dash of color in the trees on this early morning of Sept. 5, 2012, as they cross the Grand River in Paris, Ontario, high above the S-shaped Penman’s Dam that is one of the most photographed attractions, by locals and tourists alike. Photo by […]
A Southern Pacific 2-8-0 pulls a log train on the Cloudcroft branch near Alamogordo, N.Mex. This view is from 1946, three years before the line was abandoned. Henry Garcia photo […]
An A-B-B set of F7’s leads the Santa Fe’s Fast Mail Express toward Los Angeles at West Victorville, Calif., in 1950. The train’s 14-car consist is heavy with baggage, express, and mail storage cars, but it also includes a Railway Post Office car. A baggage-coach combine brought up the rear as a rider car for […]
The Baltimore & Ohio’s passenger terminal in Chicago was Grand Central Station, built in 1890 to the plans of noted architect S. S. Bemen. The Wisconsin Central Railroad actually commissioned the station, but later sold it to the B&O; other users were Chicago Great Western and Pere Marquette. Grand Central was razed in 1970; its […]
Chicago & North Western class E-4 streamlined Hudson sails through West Chicago, Ill., with one of the Union Pacific Challenger trains in September 1945. The second car in the train is a U.S. Army hospital car. Henry J. McCord photo […]
CSX train Q324 blasts out of the driving snow at old FC tower in Defiance, Ohio, on Dec. 26, 2012. Photo by Brian M. Schmidt […]
Two Kansas City Southern “Southern Belles” cross the Kankakee River at Momence, Ill., on a southbound Union Pacific container train on July 16, 2011. The route between Chicago and Woodland Junction, Ill., is jointly operated by CSX and UP. Photo by Brian M. Schmidt […]