New York Central J-1 4-6-4 No. 5373 brings the Chicago-bound James Whitcomb Riley into Kankakee, Ill., on January 23, 1956. The Riley and other trains on NYC’s former “Big Four” lines were among the last stands of the great Hudsons. M. L. Powell photo […]
Workers transfer mail between a Post Office Department truck and a Lehigh Valley Railway Post Office car around 1910. The 60-foot, all-steel RPO is state of the art, unlike the ancient wooden, open-platform car to its left. Library of Congress photo […]
One of the St. Louis-San Francisco’s beautiful 1500-series 4-8-2s swings through a reverse curve about 20 miles east of Oklahoma City with the Meteor from St. Louis in October 1946. Preston George photo […]
Newly inducted soldiers at Maryland’s Fort George G. Meade are lined up to board a Baltimore & Ohio troop train in May 1953. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Chicago & Illinois Midland 4-4-0 No. 500, built by Baldwin at the late date of 1927, pulls away from Hill Top, Ill., with the daily-except-Sunday train from Pekin to Springfield, Ill. The date is May 20, 1952 — late in the game indeed for American types on Class I railroads. Ed Theisinger photo […]
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio F3 883-A leads the road’s weekday commuter train to Joliet away from Chicago Union Station not long before GM&O merged with Illinois Central to form Illinois Central Gulf. The little train was widely known as “The Plug.” John R. Taibi photo […]
Greasy rails on Missouri Pacific’s Kirkwood Hill west of St. Louis have brought 2-10-2 helper No. 1716 and 4-8-4 road engine No. 2111 to a halt in March 1946. The train got moving again with an assist from an 0-8-0. Joe Collias photo […]
Grand Trunk Western 4-8-4 6317 approaches South Bend (Ind.) Union Station with a westbound freight in April 1948. A dozen years later, GTW would become one of the final Class I railroads to use steam power. Andrew Corsini photo […]
Chicago & North Western class D 4-4-2 395 and 4-6-2 647 head west through a cut at Wales, Wis., with an excursion train on a triangular Chicago–Milwaukee–Madison–Chicago routing in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
The Lima Locomotive Works plant in Lima, Ohio, birthplace of hundreds of advanced “Super-Power” steam locomotives, occupied a triangular site on the city’s south side between B&O and Nickel Plate lines. Classic Trains coll. […]
GG1 4903 heads a westbound rush-hour commuter train at Swarthmore, Pa., sometime during World War II. A mainline motor like this was a rarity on PRR’s West Chester Branch. George Gillespie As were many railroads during the busy World War II years, the Pennsylvania Railroad was hard-pressed for equipment. Many of us remember seeing locomotives and […]
On May 23, 1996, Santa Fe train P-CHLA1-21, a 5,338-ton, 7,133-foot train, at Supai Summit in northern Arizona. John C. Lucas Have you read Fred W. Frailey’s October 2017 “Commentary,” “24 hours at Supai Summit?” He spills all of the details of a 1996 visit to Kaibab National Forest 4 miles east of Williams, Ariz., […]
