Foreigner

  A set of borrowed Canadian Pacific family SD40-2s heads Norfolk Southern train No. 278 east on the old Wabash main near Illiopolis, Ill., on May 22, 2014.  It’s a nice spring day and the engineer has the windows open enjoying the breeze as the train heads for Decatur. Photo by Bruce Bird […]

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Whatever happened to the anthracite roads?

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The Northeast was laced with anthracite roads — those carriers that made a name for themselves hauling hard coal out of the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. With its high heat value, clean-burning anthracite was far superior to wood for warming homes and offices, and moving this coal by rail fueled the growth of the East’s […]

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Corn City classic

CSX GE ES44DC No. 5251 leads a southbound ethanol train at Deshler, Ohio, on June 14, 2014. For now, the classic Baltimore & Ohio color position light bracket signal remains. Photo by Dale A. DeVene Jr. […]

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Waiting game

CSX train Q216 waits, with a Canadian Pacific leader, while a Norfolk Southern train heads west through the Vickers interlocking in Northwood, Ohio, on Jan. 18, 2014. The CSX crew spent a lot of time waiting this morning while NS ran its traffic first through this suburban Toledo crossing. Photo by Michael D. Harding […]

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Well-worn

  New York & Atlantic Railway SW1001 No. 105 rests outside the enginehouse at Fresh Pond Yard in Queens, N.Y., on Aug. 15, 2009. Photo by Thomas Mik […]

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Desert oasis

An eastbound BNSF Railway intermodal, led by C44-9Ws Nos. 4444 and 5386, passes the former Santa Fe depot in Barstow, Calif., on Oct. 10, 2009. Photo by Gus Lambert […]

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Cousins

Two Alco switchers, one active and one derelict, call the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wis., home. Here, on May 31, 2014, one pulls an excursion train around the railroad’s loop track. Both are painted for the Green Bay & Western. Photo by Brian Schmidt […]

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Pride of the fleet

Steam locomotive with short train on prairie

Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 No. 2816 is seen on the Brooks Subdivision at milepost 139 near Strangmuir, Alberta, in June 2010 on a test run following a 20-month rebuild. Photo by Bill Hooper […]

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Kindnesses on the Omaha Road

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Omaha Road 4-6-2 No. 500 departs Minneapolis with a train for Superior, Wis., in August 1950. Bob Borcherding At nearly 70 years of age, I am still enthralled at the passage of trains. Today’s trains—often featuring high-horsepower diesel locomotives, radio-controlled helpers, rotary-dump coal cars by the unit-trainload, and containers carrying products from halfway around the […]

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Restoring Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-2 No. 1309

FULL SCREEN FULL SCREEN FULL SCREEN J.P. Hankey Frederick Junction, Maryland FULL SCREEN J.P. Hankey Sykesville, Maryland FULL SCREEN J.P. Hankey Weverton, Maryland FULL SCREEN J.P. Hankey Weverton, Maryland FULL SCREEN St. Denis, Maryland FULL SCREEN St. Denis, Maryland FULL SCREEN St. Denis, Maryland FULL SCREEN C&O Canal, Maryland FULL SCREEN Cumberland, Maryland FULL SCREEN […]

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