Western Maryland GPs on high

20160920

Three red-and-white EMD road-switchers — two GP35s and a GP40 — lead an eastbound freight across the great steel viaduct that spans a valley and the Baltimore & Ohio main line at Meyersdale, Pa., in July 1973. Today the bridge carries only a recreational trail. Victor Hand photo […]

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UP Challenger 3939

20160906

Union Pacific 3939, the final member of the batch of 25 4-6-6-4 Challengers that Alco built for the road in 1937, poses for a publicity photo with a dozen boxcars. UP’s first Challengers, 3900–3914, arrived in 1936. Classic Trains coll. […]

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Three-truck logging Shay

20160927

Meadow River Lumber Co. No. 7 is a good example of a three-truck, standard-gauge, coal-burning Shay with a Radley & Hunter stack. The West Virginia company used steam locomotives into the mid-1960s. Matt Coleman collection […]

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Pioneer electrification

20160922

Baltimore & Ohio’s Howard Street Tunnel below downtown Baltimore was the site of the first “steam-railroad” electrification in America. This view at Mount Royal station is from shortly after the start of service in 1895. Classic Trains coll. […]

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Morrell meat reefers

20160923

Meatpacking firm John Morrell & Co. led the switch away from ice in refrigerator cars. Two of Morrell’s Mather cars converted to mechanical refrigeration head east on the Illinois Central’s Iowa Division in 1954. They were the first mechanical meat reefers. Basil W. Koob photo […]

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E6 with L&N’s Humming Bird

20160909

A single E6 diesel leads Louisville & Nashville’s Cincinnati–New Orleans Humming Bird through Turner, Ky., in 1948. A rebuilt heavyweight sleeper trails the original six lightweight cars of the streamliner. L&N photo […]

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Doubleheading up the Front Range

20160929

Denver & Rio Grande Western 2-8-0 1146 helps 2-8-8-2 Mallet 3406 hoist a 27-car freight up the 2-percent grade between Crags and Crescent, Colo., in July 1938. Both engines have tank cars behind them for extra water capacity. R. H. Kindig photo […]

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