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Gas-electric motorcars were the first successful application of internal combustion on railroads. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy No. 9838 was an Electro-Motive product built by St. Louis Car Co. in 1927. It was powered by a 275-hp gasoline engine. The car pauses at Virden, Ill., south of Springfield, to load goods and passengers on this day. […]
Only seven years old, but already facing an uncertain future, Norfolk & Western J Class 4-8-4 No. 611 sprints at better than a mile-a-minute pace across the summit at Blue Ridge, Va. Behind the now-famous locomotive are 15 cars on train No. 46, the eastbound Tennessean, bound for Lynchburg, Va. The top of the skyline […]
At Bluffs, Ill., a veteran hostler oils around Wabash 2-6-0 No. 576 before she and sister 573 set off up the Keokuk Branch with freight in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Former Pittsburgh & Lake Erie class K-5a Pacific 4920 is just out of the station at Lafayette, Ind., and onto the Wabash River bridge with the westbound Sycamore in 1950. Robert Aldag Jr. photo […]
Nickel Plate Road Berkshires pose at Bellevue, Ohio. The 772 was built in 1949 for NKP proper, while 802 is ex-Wheeling & Lake Erie 6402, built in 1937. “The Wheeling” joined the Van Sweringen brothers’ railroad family when NKP finally merged it in 1949. In 1923, the “Vans” successfully effected the only significant merger of […]
Terminal elevators on lakes and rivers feature rail unloading on the inland side, lots of rail storage tracks, and loading and unloading gear for boats and barges on the water side. This scene along the Chicago & North Western in Milwaukee is from the early 1950s. Photo by William A. Akin […]
Rock Island train 39 heads west from Kansas City, Kans., on UP trackage rights (as far as Topeka) on March 2, 1963. Tagging along behind the Southern Pacific coach for Los Angeles at the rear of the train is RDC3 9016, the “Herington pusher.” At that Kansas junction, it will uncouple and go 73 miles […]
Scrapping a steam locomotive was a relatively simple matter. Workers at Sheffield Steel in Kansas City just started at the rear of Frisco 4-8-2 4308 one day in April 1953 and worked their way forward. Photo by James A. Williams […]
Thanks to a friendly crew, here is the Indiana countryside between Kokomo and Elwood as seen from the cab of Penn Central E7 4211 on April 20, 1971. No. 66, a remnant of the Pennsy’s Buckeye, had just 10 days to live. Photo by J. David Ingles […]
Its paint and glory faded, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Alco DL109 No. 271 rests on a siding along the Indiana Harbor Belt at La Grange, Ill., on its way to scrapping for trade-in credit on new EMD locomotives in September 1963. Photo by Jim C. Seacrest […]
Trains magazine Editor David P. Morgan watches the head end of a Southern Pacific freight pull out of the center siding at Midas, Calif., on the west side of Donner Pass. He and the photographer will board the 104-car train’s caboose when it reaches them. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Workers fuel and exchange mail on Chicago, Burlington & Quincy train 29, known informally as the “Night Crawler,” at Casper, Wyo., in July 1966. Passengers have detrained for breakfast in town while “Chinese red” EMD and GE diesels on a freight wait to follow the passenger train out of town, the largest in the state […]
