In March 2020, Classic Trains is celebrating the history, heritage, and splendor of the Clinchfield Railroad. Enjoy this photo gallery, selected from the David P. Morgan Library collections, as the perfect salute to the Clinchfield. Return each week for another salute to the railroad of the month! See what we did last week for the […]
The little door below the headlight on an Alco switcher like Grand Trunk Western S4 No. 8090 led to a veritable chamber of horrors for a young roundhouse worker. J. David Ingles I know there are many dangerous occupations. My wife’s ancestors were coal miners in Pennsylvania after coming to America, having mined coal in […]
Southbound manifest train 26, three F unit diesels, pauses by the Borden Textile Mill in Kingsport, Tennessee, in March 1967 to add a three-unit rear-end pusher for the 42-mile climb to Erwin. C. K. Marsh Jr. History and major events of the Clinchfield Railroad The Clinchfield was different. It was conceived by men who had […]
An Atlantic Coast Line laborer uses a long-handled brush to clean the windshield of E6 No. 520 at Florence, S.C. The locomotive is leading train 375, the Washington–Jacksonville Everglades. William D. Middleton photo […]
Santa Fe’s high-priority Super C freight between Chicago and Los Angeles debuted with much fanfare in 1968. High rates, charged to placate other Santa Fe customers, limited traffic, however. Santa Fe photo […]
Swift & Co. had a large soybean processing plant on the Nickel Plate Road at Frankfort, Ind. In this 1946 view, beans arrived by boxcar, with outbound soy meal loaded in sacks in boxcars (the boxcar in the background) and soybean oil loaded in tank cars. Nickel Plate Road photo […]
Eastern Gas & Fuel’s modern Wharton No. 2 mine southwest of Barrett, W.Va., will load 105 hoppers, including subject C&O 134594 and 47859, with coal on June 2, 1955. Trains’ Editor David P. Morgan tracked the cars from mine to ship in the April 1956 issue. W.A. Akin Jr. photo […]
Santa Fe FT No. 100 was not only the railroad’s first mainline freight diesel, but part of the first order for mainline freight diesel power by any U.S. railroad. Eventually, the railroad would use 320 of the Electro-Motive products to dieselize its transcontinental main line. Santa Fe photo […]
New EMD F40PH diesels lead the westbound San Francisco Zephyr east of Denver in June 1981. Amtrak acquired more than 200 such locomotives in multiple batches. Bob Johnston photo […]
Seaboard Coast Line Alco C628 No. 2201 leads a mixed consist of locomotives at Colliers Yard near Petersburg, Pa., waiting for a cut of cars. The six-axle Alco was built in 1963 for the Atlantic Coast Line. Walter Gay photo […]
The 2-10-4 wheel arrangement, the “Texas type,” originated with a modified Santa Fe 2-10-2 — No. 3829, built by Baldwin in 1919. The railroad would eventually roster 36 additional Texas-type locomotives, built by Baldwin between 1930 and 1944. T.H. Cole Jr. photo […]
In fall 1942, Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 No. 331 heads for Story City, Iowa, northwest from Minerva Junction and Marshalltown. In the 1950s, GE and Alco diesels would replace steam and the local would run just Tuesdays and Fridays. William F. Armstrong photo […]
