San Francisco Chief connection

20140407

Santa Fe trains 93, the West Texas Express, and 94, the Eastern Express, were the Amarillo–Lubbock connection for the San Francisco Chief. Between 1955 and 1965, the trains looked like this: an E8M (rebuilt from an E1), baggage-express car, coach, and sleeper. Fred M. Springer photo […]

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Santa Fe FT’s on Tehachapi

20130404

An A-B-B-A set of Santa Fe FT diesels leads a westbound freight just below famous Tehachapi Loop in 1949. This train met an eastbound Southern Pacific freight at Walong siding on the Loop itself; steam from the SP train’s cab-forward helper is visible in the distance. Linn H. Westcott photo […]

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Helping the helper crews at Lamanda Park

Lamanda-Pk-helper

Santa Fe’s Chief approaches the Lamanda Park siding on May 17, 1946. The fireman on the helper is ready to jump off and uncouple his 4-8-2 so it can move into the clear and let 4-8-4 No. 2921 continue east with train 20. Stan Kistler In early 1946, my family moved into a small house […]

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The cat’s out of the bag

J at speed

Anything in the path of fast-moving N&W class J was sure to sustain significant damage. W. A. Akin Jr. Back in the glory days, the speed limit for passenger trains on Norfolk & Western’s Bristol Line was 65 mph. Several of the trains, including 45 and 46, the streamlined Tennessean, did considerable station work en […]

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Serving the president of the Katy

TexasSpl2000

The Katy-Frisco Texas Special, a favorite conveyance for the Katy president’s business car, arrives in St. Louis in 1956. Fred Scott My railroad-related career started in 1941, when I was hired as a stenographer by the South-Western Freight Bureau in St. Louis. It was readily accepted for a young man who had studied shorthand and […]

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