Depot and diesel wear different heralds, but nothing is out of the ordinary as a Chicago Great Western freight ambles past the Rock Island station in Waterloo, Iowa, in June 1961. Richard J. Anderson A family visit took me to Waterloo, Iowa, on a June day in 1961, but it was good ol’ railfan instinct […]
The Santa Fe established a major shop complex at Albuquerque to maintain and repair steam locomotives. At their peak in 1940, the shops were one of the city’s largest employers, with 1787 workers. The shops declined as the Santa Fe dieselized, and, as the road’s last steam backshop, perfromed their final locomotive work in March […]
Illinois Central wasn’t the first railroad in Chicago, but it was one of 10 Class 1’s headquartered there and became arguably the most visible, thanks to its lakefront location. Its Romanesque Revival-style Central Station, built on fill in Lake Michigan for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, served IC plus New York Central’s Michigan Central and […]
To handle maintenance and repairs on its substantial hopper-car fleet, coal-hauler Chesapeake & Ohio in 1930 built this systemwide freight-car shop at Raceland, Ky., at the west end of its massive Russell Yard, a facility built to classify coal cars moving west to Cincinnati and Chicago, as well as north to Lake Erie docks for […]
The Norfolk & Western Railway transported much of the coal mined in southwestern Virginia and West Virginia. Many loads went north to Lake Erie, others to “tidewater” at N&W’s big terminal in Norfolk, Va., opened in 1885. Here it was loaded in vessels for shipment to ports up the East Coast or for overseas export. […]
SP’s Los Angeles General Shops UCLA Dept. of Geography, Air Photo Archives Southern Pacific facilities dominate three views of Los Angeles. Much in this 1934 scene is gone, or greatly changed. SP’s Los Angeles General Shops, the most complete railroad maintenance facility the city has ever seen, was replaced by an intermodal yard in the […]
This 1940’s afternoon photo looks northeast from over the Cape Fear River across the north end of downtown Wilmington, N.C. (the ocean is 6 miles to the east). Atlantic Coast Line’s history in the port city dates to 1840, when the Wilmington & Raleigh opened a 161-mile line northwest to Weldon. After the Civil War […]
The Louisville & Nashville Railroad began by linking its namesake cities, and eventually grew to reach New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, and Atlanta. But Kentucky’s largest city was L&N’s home, heart, and headquarters, and the Bluegrass State’s top natural resource — coal — sustained the carrier that came to call itself “the Old Reliable.” In […]
A supplement to the Classic Trains Online Look Back e-mail newsletter Today, sports teams routinely travel by bus or plane to and from games in other cities. In the 1940’s and ’50’s, they often rode trains, and so did the sportscasters who covered the games. Bob Brooks, veteran broadcaster for the University of Iowa in […]
View the article “Tough Texans of the Bessemer,” by Bert Pennypacker, from the Winter 2000 issue of Classic Trains. The Fall 2010 issue of CT features a study of the 2-10-4 wheel arrangement on all the railroads that operated it.– […]
Portage Flyer timetable This 9×17-inch document shows the 1942 summer schedule for the Huntsville & Lake of Bays Transportation Co. steamboat services east from Huntsville, Ont. Note that, although connections with Canadian National mainline trains at Huntsville are shown, there’s no mention of the “Portage Flyer” railway — just arrival and departure times for the […]
Watch video clips of Pennsy and Santa Fe 2-10-4’s from the Herron Rail Video program “Pennsylvania Glory, Part 2.” The PRR leased 12 5011-class engines from Santa Fe in summer 1956 for use on the Columbus-Sandusky line, where they worked beside PRR’s own J1’s. The Fall 2010 issue of Classic Trains features a study of […]
