Download this free 22-page PDF for profiles on the six major 1940s-1950s diesel-locomotive producers. This free download dives into the history of Electro-Motive Engineering Co., American Locomotive Company, Baldwin Locomotive Works, Fairbanks-Morse, Lima Locomotive Works, and General Electric. Learn about the background of each company, the locomotives they produced, and how each company was impacted […]
‘Jump, kid, jump!’
Switching at night could be hazardous, especially when some dodgy moves were attempted. Robert Hale In the middle of 1960 or ’61, during a summer break from Texas Western College in El Paso, I was working the extra board on the New Mexico Division of the Santa Fe. One night I was the pin-puller on a […]
Decapod delight
Gainesville Midland 2-10-0 No. 207 churns its 56-inch drivers across the Southern Railway’s Washington–Atlanta main line at Gainesville, Ga. The short line, which rostered five such locomotives, extended 40 miles from Gainesville southeast to Athens. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
‘The Carpetbaggers’
Santa Fe 2-6-2 No. 1010 is seen at Pasadena, Calif., in 1963 as a prop in the movie “The Carpetbaggers.” It was also used on Death Valley Scotty’s famous special in 1905 and a television recreation in the 1950s. Santa Fe photo […]
Titans of transportation
New York Central boss Alfred E. Perlman, left, shakes hands with Chairman Robert R. Young, hanging out the window of the experimental Xplorer lightweight train in 1956. New York Central photo […]
Rescued!
As a streetcar rolls by, Missouri Pacific 0-8-0 9721 and caboose have tied on to stalled 2-10-2 helper 1716 and 4-8-4 road engine 2111. Soon the three engines begin to march up Missouri’s Kirkwood Hill in March 1946. Joe Collias photo […]
Semi-streamlined
St. Louis-San Francisco semi-streamlined 4-8-2 No. 1503 works at Kirkwood, Mo., in 1942. The railroad, best known simply as the Frisco, had 30 such locomotives built by Baldwin from 1923 to 1926. William Barham photo, Don Wirth collection […]
Sportsman
Chesapeake & Ohio’s lengthy Sportsman curves east through the Blue Ridge Mountains at Afton, Va., in July 1965. William E. Warden Jr. photo […]
Stockton station
Santa Fe’s eastbound Golden State pulls into Stockton, Calif., on its way to Bakersfield in the 1950s. Passengers are lined up to board while a flagger holds vehicle traffic back from the grade crossing. Stan Kistler photo […]
Taking a spin
A headache for trailer-on-flatcar ramp operations happened when flatcars arrived facing the wrong direction. This Milwaukee Road car goes for a spin on a turntable in 1969. Gerald R. Rademacher photo […]
NOUPT
Taxis and private autos wait at the cab stand on the east side of New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in the 1950s. The complex, opened in 1954, sports a limestone facade. James G. La Vake photo […]
Portage Flyer
Huntsville & Lake of Bays Transportation Co. engines Nos. 1 and 2, which often doubleheaded together, are serviced at the South Portage water tank. Antiques even in the 1940s, both 0-4-0T’s still carry their shield-shaped H. K. Porter builder’s plates from 1888: No. 1 was construction number 911; No. 2 was c/n 912. Robert Holden […]
