A Fort Worth & Western mixed freight ascends a grade near Cresson, Texas, in May 2013. Steve Sweeney Q Do railroads have formulas managing the length or tonnage of a train based on how many engines are pulling it? What factors would be in such a formula? — Doug Gard, McCordsville, Ind. A Each railroad […]
Railroads included in this map: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Arizona & California; Arizona Central; Blackwell Northern; BNSF Railway; Cimarron Valley; Dallas Area Rapid Transit; Farmrail; Fort Worth & Western; Grand Canyon; Garden City Western; Heart of Texas; Kansas City Southern; Kansas & Oklahoma; Midland; Panhandle Northern; Pacific Sun; Rail Runner Express; Metrolink; Coaster/Sprinter; Santa […]
Whitewater Valley Railroad’s No. 25 stands by, waiting further orders on Dec. 21, 2013. The decades-old Lima-Hamilton served Cincinnati Union Terminal and the Cadillac & Lake City Railroad before moving to Connersville, Ind. Photo by Steve Sweeney […]
Northbound Florida East Coast train No. 224 peers through the fog at Stratten Road between St. Augustine and Jacksonville, Fla., on Jan. 12, 2015. Photo by Brian Schmidt […]
Montana, Wyoming & Southern 2-8-0 No. 12 poses for a photo as it switches a caboose. The tall-stacked, well-kept Consolidation joined the railroad’s roster in 1924. W. H. Bunney photo […]
Pulling the correct lever is an important matter for operators of Metra’s Tower A2 in western Chicago in September 2013. This pneumatic lever machine uses brass rods to trigger air pulses to switch more than 100 points on Union Pacific headed due west out of downtown. Photo by Steve Sweeney […]
Lehigh & Hudson River 4-8-2 No. 11 was one of three such engines built by Baldwin in 1944 for the 90-mile road. Because of wartime restrictions, they were duplicates of a batch of Boston & Maine engines delivered in 1941. Classic Trains coll. […]
In 1951 Great Northern received from ACF six remarkable observation-lounge cars to re-equip the Empire Builder. Named for mountains along the train’s route, the cars featured extra-deep windows for better scenery-viewing. GN photo […]
One of the two Electro-Motive E6A diesels that together were known on the Milwaukee Road as “Famous 15” rests between runs at an unidentified location. The E6s’ superb performance and availability in Hiawatha service earned them the nickname. Tevis Freeman photo […]
Southern Railway 2-8-0 No. 630 on a Norfolk Southern excursion carries 10,000 gallons of water in its tender and an additional 12,500 gallons in its auxiliary tender to negate the need for additional water between stops. Allyson Praytor Q I saw a television show where steam locomotives were operating with two tenders instead of just […]
New York Central 4003 and a sister E7A wear the road’s short-lived black road-diesel livery as they stand at La Salle Street Station, Chicago, ready to depart with the 20th Century Limited, August 1946. John E. Wenzel photo […]
The boiler explosion at Serra, Calif., that destroyed Mikado 3199 and killed its watchman took the classic form of such incidents, with the boiler being catapulted hundreds of yards from the running gear. Jack O. Elwood coll. During the era of steam locomotives, many of us in engine service loved those gallant machines, but we […]
