Streamlined Hudson-type No. 5448 leads New York Central’s 20th Century Limited at LaSalle Street Station in Chicago in the late 1930s. Nos. 5445-5454, known as the J-3a subclass, wore the Henry Dreyfuss-styled streamlining. Alexander Maxwell photo […]
A brand-new A-B-B-A set of orange-and-black Bessemer & Lake Erie EMD F7 diesels pose on the State Route 358 bridge near Greenville, Pa., shortly after delivery in 1951. Bessemer & Lake Erie photo […]
A Chicago, Burlington & Quincy train treads some of the most famous tracks outside of the mountains in Colorado: street running in Fort Collins. Behind the locomotive are 26 cars of sugar beets for Loveland, Colo. Jim Ehernberger photo […]
New York Central SW8 8626 stands at the road’s Avon Yard near Indianapolis in 1966. Another EMD switcher powered the E&W Turn some 140 miles to the north. Louis A. Marre As a struggling schoolteacher in northern Indiana in the early 1960s, I worked a few summers as a brakeman on a couple of local railroads, […]
A man reads a book on the main level of a Budd-built Tubular coach while people relax in the smoking lounge above and behind him. Note the dark-colored ramp up to the end door. The train entered regular service on the Pennsylvania Railroad in June 1956 on the New York–Washington Keystone. Pennsylvania Railroad photo […]
Baltimore & Ohio 2-8-8-4 No. 7609 carries a coal train to the summit at Altamont, W.Va., in June 1945. The locomotive is one of 30 EM1-class engines built by Baldwin. H.W. Pontin photo […]
Six-axle units from three Conrail predecessors mingle at Mingo Junction, Ohio, in April 1976, the month of Big Blue’s creation. Visible left to right are former Erie Lackawanna GE U33C No. 3302, Lehigh Valley Alco C628 No. 628, and Penn Central C630 No. 3626. Jay Potter photo […]
Railroads like Illinois Terminal, Pennsy, and New York Central sent promotional material to author Matejka, and often returned his 15 cents postage as well. How far can you travel for 15 cents? As a child in the early 1960s, I was traveling all over the country from my St. Louis home, thanks to 15 cents I […]
A Southern Pacific piggyback train of modified conventional flatcars with company trailers negotiates Cuesta Grade above San Luis Obispo, Calif., in June 1957. Robert Hale photo […]
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Back in 1869, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad worked tirelessly under brutal conditions to drive the last spike, The Golden Spike, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, to complete the Transcontinental Railroad. Products could now be manufactured in the east and delivered to the west in under two weeks, benefiting the United States economy, […]
