Mikado on Oahu

20190108

Oahu Railway 2-8-2 No. 70, a 1927 Alco, leads a train for Kahaku beside the Pacific Ocean east of Kaena Point in the 1940s. The railroad’s C-shaped main line extended from Honolulu on the south side of the island clockwise to Kahuku on the north side. Kent W. Cochrane photo […]

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Mikado at Monticello, Minn.

20190110

Great Northern class O-8 2-8-2 3393 approaches the depot at Monticello, Minn., in September 1954. The big Mikado is heading west with a caboose to pick up another train of grain for Minneapolis. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Locomotives for Cincinnati Union Terminal

20190102

E units belonging to Louisville & Nashville, Chesapeake & Ohio, New York Central, and Pennsylvania idle on the ready tracks near the Cincinnati Union Terminal roundhouse in September 1952. Baltimore & Ohio, CUT, Norfolk & Western, and C&O steam engines populate the whisker tracks in the background. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]

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Calmed South Wind

20190121

Louisville & Nashville 4-6-2 No 295 stands at Winchester, Ky., with local train 3 for Hazard on May 3, 1952. Built in 1925 with three cylinders, the Pacific lost its middle cylinder and gained a big tender and some decorative sheet metal in 1940 to pull the Louisville–Montgomery, Ala., leg of the Chicago–Miami South Wind streamliner. Ed […]

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Burly PRR Ten-Wheeler

20190128

Pennsylvania Railroad 5711 was one of 121 class G5s 4-6-0s the road’s Juniata Shops in Altoona, Pa., built in the 1920s. Designed for commuter and secondary passenger work, 90 of the heavy Ten-Wheelers worked on PRR’s own lines, while 31 were for subsidiary Long Island Rail Road. Harold K. Vollrath photo […]

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2-8-8-2 on Tennessee Pass

20190104

Rio Grande 2-8-8-2 3601 exits Deen Tunnel east of Pando, Colo., with an eastbound freight extra in March 1946. On the valley floor beyond is the Army’s 10th Mountain Division’s Camp Hale. R. H. Kindig photo […]

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Western Pacific 2-8-2 in the hole

Western Pacific Railroad Mikado 308 in Altamont, California

At Altamont, Calif., summit of the Western Pacific’s climb over the hills between San Francisco Bay and the Central Valley, Mikado 308 waits in a siding with an eastbound freight in the late 1940s or early ’50s. Arthur Lloyd photo […]

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Wabash Mogul at Meredosia

Wabash Railroad 2-6-0 across Illinois River

Wabash Railroad 2-6-0 576 eases its train across the Illinois River at Meredosia, Ill., in September 1954. The branch between Bluffs, Ill., and Keokuk, Ia., was the last stand of Wabash steam, as the 1899-vintage F4 Moguls were the heaviest power permitted across it. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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View from the ‘Coast Daylight’

Southern Pacific Railway Coast Daylight at Cuesta Grade

Two passengers on Southern Pacific’s Coast Daylight watch with fascination as a 2-10-2 helper and 4-8-4 road engine lift their train up Cuesta Grade out of San Luis Obispo in about 1949. Linn H. Westcott photo […]

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Transcontinental sleeper transfer

Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad 0-8-0 moving Surprise Valley sleeper car

In October 1950, a Chesapeake & Ohio 0-8-0 moves sleeping car Surprise Valley through the interlocking at 21st Street, Chicago. The car arrived at Grand Central Station on Baltimore & Ohio’s Capitol Limited from Washington in the morning and departed from Dearborn Station on Santa Fe’s Chief to Los Angeles later in the day. Wallace […]

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Train time at Canton, S.Dak.

Milwaukee Road Midwest Hiawatha at Canton, South Dakota station

The Milwaukee Road’s station at Canton in the southeast corner of South Dakota is bustling with activity as cars off the Midwest Hiawatha from Chicago are switched into the Sioux Falls section of the Sioux. The year is about 1944; note the sign on the depot: “Canteen. Service men and wives only.” Henry J. McCord […]

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