Union Pacific GP38-2 No. 648 switches customers on an industrial spur in New Berlin, Wis. The engine, built for Missouri Pacific in 1977, may no longer head road freights, but performs meaningful work nonetheless, providing service to local warehouses and factories. Photo by Matt Van Hattem […]
Section: Railroads
Foreigner
Canadian National grain train G884 heads back east with three CSX locomotives on Jan. 19, 2014. The train is operating on trackage rights over BNSF Railway’s Aurora Subdivision from East Dubuque to Portage, Ill. Photo by Matt Krause […]
Pennsy’s “Big Engine” in the snow
The Pennsylvania’s one-of-a-kind class S1 6-4-4-6 duplex drive No. 6100 shrugs off an early Chicago winter snow storm as it pauses at Englewood Union Station with the eastbound Manhattan Limited in November 1939. Harold Stirton photo […]
San Francisco Chief connection
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 […]
Santa Fe FT’s on Tehachapi
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 […]
History According to Hediger: Model Railroader’s 40th anniversary boxcars
Having trouble viewing this video? Please visit our Video FAQ page In 2014, Model Railroader magazine celebrates 80 years in publication. Coincidentally, 40 years ago MR Senior Editor Jim Hediger was just getting started as a staff editor when he was charged with shepherding the production of a custom-run boxcar to commemorate MR’s 40th […]
Waiting game
CSX intermodal train Q124 rolls northbound on the main line at Lineville, Ala., as a Herzog ballast train awaits in the siding on Sept. 30, 2011. Photo by Bradley Bates […]
Steel in the U.S. and Canada, 2001
Mini-mills provided half of U.S. and Canadian steel-making capacity in 2001. Their decentralized geographic distribution mirrored U.S. population density (with the notable exception of California), and did not work to the benefit of railroads. The remaining integrated mills primarily sold high-quality sheet steel to auto and appliance factories. Railroads included in this map: BNSF Railway; […]
WM Pacific at Baltimore
Handsome Western Maryland 4-6-2 No. 204 is ready to depart the road’s Hillen Street station in Baltimore with the daily train to Hagerstown, Md., in April 1951. Russ Wilcox photo […]
Side-by-side
Norfolk Southern intermodal train No. 215 passes a stopped freight with Canadian Pacific power at Faulconer, Ky., on the CNO&TP First District on Feb. 29, 2016. Photo by Jeff Wagoner […]
Helping the helper crews at Lamanda Park
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 […]
Jack Delano’s Homefront Photography
FULL SCREEN Jack Delano, courtesy of the Library of Congress Santa Fe conductor George Burton tends the fire in the stove of his freight train’s caboose in March 1943. Burton lived in Chillicothe, Illinois, and worked the run between there and Corwith Yard in Chicago. FULL SCREEN Jack Delano, courtesy of the Library of Congress […]