Snow fog

Intermodal trains pass at Winton, Wash., a short ride east of the Cascade Tunnel at Stevens Pass. ES44C4 No. 6896 is leading Seattle-Chicago train Z-SSECHC6-19A, while the distributed power unit of Tacoma, Wash.-bound train S-STPTAC3-16A disappears into a fog of snow. Photo by David Honan […]

Read More…

I see you

A Chicago commuter train is stopped at a signal on Metra’s Union Pacific West Line (UP’s Geneva Subdivision), as headlights from an oncoming eastbound train begin to round the curve on Feb. 11, 2004. Photo by Howard Ande […]

Read More…

Pennsylvania sewer?

Two eastbound movements on Norfolk Southern’s Pittsburgh Line: a stack train pushed by two SD40E helpers is overtaken by another SD40E helper set in Lilly, Pa., on Dec. 27, 2009. Barely three years earlier, Lilly and surrounding communities opened the Central Mainline Sewer Authority — named after the Pennsylvania Railroad, which preceded NS. Photo by […]

Read More…

Looping in Colorado

Colorado & Southern narrow gauge 2-8-0s Nos. 70 and 73 cross the high bridge on the Georgetown Loop with seven cars. The engines are moving at only 5 mph due to the frail nature of the bridge on May 14, 1938. Photo by R. H. Kindig […]

Read More…

Look buster, get out of my way

Kansas City Southern’s crack passenger train, the “Southern Belle,” ran head on into a standing freight train at Baton Rouge, La., on Dec. 8, 1967. A northbound freight with three GP30s was set to hold the main, and await the passenger train, which would take the siding. The front end brakeman on the freight was […]

Read More…

Now departing Cumberland

The lead F-unit of six pulling a westbound Baltimore & Ohio Time Saver train eases along in front of the Cumberland, Md., station on a July 1956 day. The train is bound for points west via Grafton, W.Va. Read more about Cumberland, the shop, and the B&O in the March 2012 issue of Trains. Photo […]

Read More…

New twist on intermodal

Motorists on I-94 must have done a double-take when this flatbed truck carrying Flagg Coal Co. No. 75 came rolling past on August 16, 2011. The 0-4-0 tank engine built in 1930 was headed to its home in Indiana after a weekend of operations on the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wis. Photo by […]

Read More…

From Sweden to Rhode Island

As a prelude to today’s high speed Acela Express service, Amtrak tested two types of European high speed trains, a German ICE trainset and this tilting X2000 train from Sweden. The demonstration equipment made revenue runs on the Northeast Corridor and toured other parts of the country. Pushed by two Amtrak Tubroliner power cars, the […]

Read More…

A train in TRAINS’ driveway

Flagg Coal Co. No. 75 pays a visit to the offices of Kalmbach Publishing on August 16, 2011. The 0-4-0 tank engine was built by the Vulcan Iron Works in 1930. Now privately owned, it travels around the country to tourist railroads, and made a flag stop (ha ha) at Kalmbach, courtesy of owner John […]

Read More…

CP coming round the bend

Two high-horsepower GE locomotives approach Elm Grove, Wis., with eastbound Canadian Pacific coke train 852. The train is descending the subcontinental divide. (Water west of the divide flows into the Mississippi River, while water east of the divide flows into Lake Michigan.) Photo by Matt Van Hattem […]

Read More…

Roger Williams new employer

Amtrak inherited from Penn Central these self-propelled Rail Diesel Cars with distinctive front ends built for the New Haven Railroad’s Roger Williams. Budd Co. delivered six RDCs in an A-B-B-B-B-A formation to the New Haven in 1956. The slapped-on Amtrak logo from this February 1975 view would be replaced four years later with the company’s […]

Read More…

Norfolk Southern freight under wire

A Norfolk Southern local negotiates Amtrak’s Keystone Corridor main line at Leaman Place, Pa., on Aug. 31, 2011. Though the lion’s share of trains on this route are Amtrak trains operating between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa., NS serves freight customers adjacent to the line as successor to Pennsylvania Railroad, the line’s longtime owner. Photo by […]

Read More…