F3s down south

20191126

Southern Railway F3 No. 4144 leads an A-B-B-A set of diesel locomotives on a long freight at an unidentified location. The railroad had 178 F3A units and 76 F3Bs, built between 1946 and ’49. E.P. Dandridge Jr. photo […]

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Diesel conquest

20191120

A matched A-B-B-A set of FT diesels leads a Santa Fe train upgrade at Tehachapi, Calif., in the late 1940s. The FT, introduced in 1939, proved that diesel-electric locomotives could perform well in heavy-haul mainline freight service, leading the way for the dieselization of American railroads. Linn Westcott photo […]

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Chryslers for Gotham

20191104

The New York Central had several auto-carrier Flexi-Vans in the early 1960s. This is a publicity shot of carriers with new Chryslers on their way to New York City in 1960. New York Central photo […]

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Cab-forward conundrum

20191125

A 4200-series 4-8-8-2 cab-forward steam locomotive is cut in behind a 4-8-4 to double-head Southern Pacific’s Overland Limited upgrade out of Colfax, Calif., in April 1950. The cab-forwards were a special design unique to the Southern Pacific to spare head end crews from the accumulation of exhaust in the railroad’s lengthy and frequent tunnels and snowsheds. That […]

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Branchline accommodation

20191108

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. […]

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611 at speed

20191105

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 […]

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Nickel Plate Berks

Nickel Plate Road Berkshires in Bellevue, Ohio

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 […]

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Milwaukee monolith

Terminal elevator along the Chicago & North Western in Milwaukee

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 […]

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Herington pusher

Rock Island train in Kansas in 1963

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 […]

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Frisco forsaken

Scrapped steam locomotive

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 […]

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