Page 176 – Trains

SP “reverse commute” train

In 1958, Southern Pacific SD7 5330 pulls into Santa Clara, Calif., with all-stops train 151, due out of San Jose at 4:20 and into San Francisco at 5:50. Jim Davis photo […]

PRR Congressional observation car

During a preview trip, members of the press enjoy one of the new parlor-lounge-observation cars the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired from Budd for the March 1952 re-equipping of the Congressional and Senator. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]

SCL piggyback train

Two Seaboard Coast Line GP40s lead a fast piggyback train through Neuse, N.C., a few miles north of Raleigh on the former Seaboard Air Line main line in June 1979. Curt Tillotson Jr. photo […]

West Virginia survivor

2-8-0 No. 4 of short line Buffalo Creek & Gauley works at Swandale, W.Va., in the early 1960s. After a spell at the North Carolina Transportation Museum, where it ran as “Southern Railway 604,” this engine is now at Cass, W.Va. Classic Trains coll. […]

Topping Tennessee Pass

At Mitchell, Colo., an eastbound freight train is about a mile short of Tennessee Pass on Oct. 5, 1947. In deference to the stiff grade, the 4-8-2 road engine is assisted by a 2-8-8-2 at mid-train and another 2-8-8-2 at the rear — all for a 30-car train. Ralph E. Hallock photo […]

Rush hour at North Western Terminal

Two Chicago & North Western Pacific-powered commuter trains (“scoots,” in local parlance) unload passengers at the road’s Windy City passenger terminal in June 1953. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]

The “middle” order

Baldwin road-switcher 1615 passes the Hertford, N.C., depot with Norfolk Southern freight 88 in January 1965. A few months later, removal of a siding here would cause some confusion. Harry Bundy Telegraph operators working from the extra list rolled with the punches. They were on call 24/7, as they say now, to fill vacancies created […]

Grand Trunk Western steam sounds

Steam locomotive with train passing station

Listen to GTW steam audio recordings from Art Weber’s album, Detroit Division, recorded in 1959, accompanied by photos of GTW steam in action. […]

Two big engines that couldn’t

After a 2-10-2 and 4-8-4 stalled on MoPac’s Kirkwood Hill, an 0-8-0 and caboose couple up to render assistance. Joe Collias Heading west from St. Louis, Missouri Pacific trains faced the 6-mile-long, 1-percent grade known as Kirkwood Hill. Normal train length was 100 cars, powered by one of the rebuilt 2101-class 4-8-4s and led by […]

‘Abandoned’ during switching at Jacksonville

Splitting and combining trains was a well-practiced ritual at Jacksonville Union Station. David W. Salter From 1954 until I was 11 years old in 1965, we traveled, by Pullman, from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to North Miami, using either the Seaboard Air Line or Atlantic Coast Line south of Richmond, Va. Until the Florida […]