Pennsylvania class L1 Mikado No. 26, trailing an additional tender for extra water capacity, heads a train of empty coal hoppers west out of Renovo, Pa., in September 1955. Under PRR’s unorthodox numbering system, the 574-member L1 fleet ranged from No. 2 to No. 8636. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
B&O’s Keyser tower
The former Baltimore & Ohio tower at Keyser, W.Va., seen here in 2004 under CSX ownership, was a classic “armstrong” mechanical interlocking plant. The pipes travel along the tracks, where levers and cranks transfer the motion to switches, locks, and derails. Concrete pedestals support the pipe lines and other hardware. Historic American Engineering Record photo […]
Pittsburgh PCCs
In the 1950s, two Pittsburgh Railways PCC streetcars have left downtown, crossed the Monongahela River on the Smithfield Bridge, passed the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie depot, and are heading up into the South Hills tunnel. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
N&W giants at rest
Norfolk & Western class Y6 2-8-8-2 Mallets rest at the Grundy, Va., engine terminal in March 1959. Bruce R. Meyer photo […]
Beyond the training program
N&W four- and six-motor EMDs rest at Crewe, Va., in 1981, three years after author Siik became acquainted with similar units during a strike on former Nickel Plate lines in Ohio. Curt Tillotson Jr. It happened nearly four decades ago, but still fresh are my memories of following the ghosts of 2-8-4 Berkshires and Bluebird […]
Chessie Geeps in Akron
A Chessie System train led by two Geeps (ex-B&O and WM) passes under a skewed pony truss bridge of the Akron & Barberton Belt Railroad in Akron, Ohio. John Beach photo […]
Classic Trains, Fall 2016
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Remembering the C&NW in Madison
Running left-handed per C&NW practice, E-class Pacific 1634 skirts Lake Monona as she departs Madison with the evening local to Chicago. Frank Rogers Back in the days when there were enough railroad companies to make train-watching really interesting, Madison, Wis., was served by three: the Milwaukee Road, the Chicago & North Western, and the Illinois […]
Wood-burning narrow-gauge Mikado
Sumpter Valley Railway No. 18, built by Baldwin in 1916, is a modern-design, low-drivered, 36-inch-gauge wood-burning 2-8-2. The timber-hauling Sumpter Valley extended 80 miles out of Baker, Ore.; today, tourists can ride behind steam on 5 miles of rebuilt track. Matt Coleman collection […]
New York, Ontario & Western – Image Gallery
FULL SCREEN Robert F. Collins, John R. Taibi coll. Mountaineer 4-8-2 405 with Walton, N.Y.–Weehawken, N.J., Mountaineer at Winterton, N.Y., 1939. FULL SCREEN Donald W. Furler Train 3 2-6-0 255 with first section of Weehawken–Sidney, N.Y., train 3 at Burnside, N.Y., August 1942. FULL SCREEN Wayne Brumbaugh Train 1 4-8-2 with Weehawken–Walton train 1 at […]
Steam on D&RGW’s ‘Yampa Valley Mail’
Pacific 801 climbs the Rio Grande’s Craig Branch with the Yampa Valley Mail sometime in the 1940s. The main line, which the train left at Bond, Colo., is far below in the distance. R.H. Kindig photo […]
Narrow gauge in Ohio
The Ohio River & Western was a 3-foot-gauge line in Ohio affiliated with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Folks have driven out in their cars to the road’s famous S-shaped trestle just west of Key, Ohio, to watch the OR&W’s last train on May 30, 1931. John B. Corns collection […]