Fireman’s view

View from the cab of a Penn Central E7

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 […]

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Faded glory

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Alco on a siding in Illinois

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 […]

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Elusive editor

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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 […]

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Cowboy state conveyance

Night Crawler in Casper, Wyoming in 1966

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 […]

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Continental Grain Co.

Continental elevator at Milwaukee in 1986

The Continental elevator at Milwaukee, shown in 1986, had a capacity of 3.1 million bushels. Located on a Lake Michigan harbor, the elevator could load 30,000 bushels per hour onto ships. It was served at the time by the Chicago & North Western, whose cars are shown alongside the facility with its Alco switcher. Photo […]

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Coal country cooperation

Coal trains on the Pittsburgh & West Virginia

Pittsburgh & West Virginia and Wheeling & Lake Erie engines and crews ran through between Brewster, Ohio, and Rook, Pa. In September 1950 at Mingo on the P&WV, Wheeling 2-8-2 6008 heads onto the Ohio River bridge with the first section of train 92 as P&WV Mikado 1010 waits with a westbound extra. Photo by […]

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Capitol capture

Two Chicago & North Western E units leaving Madison, Wisconsin

On a frigid December 30, 1948, two Chicago & North Western E units leave Madison, Wis., with a Chicago-bound mail-and-express train. The train is crossing the Milwaukee Road diamond at MX Tower, located at the intersection of two causeways across Lake Monona; the state capitol rises beyond. Photo by William D. Middleton […]

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Canadian Pacific train and ship

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Having ridden up from Toronto on the train at left, passengers board Canadian Pacific’s S.S. Assiniboia at Port McNicoll, Ont., in the early 1950s. The graceful steamer will traverse Lake Huron and Lake Superior to Port Arthur/Fort William, Ont. Fred N. Houser photo […]

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California coast

Santa Fe FT No. 168 in San Diego in 1951

Santa Fe FT No. 168 set makes its regular run on train 75 north of San Diego in August 1951. The streamlined Warbonnet Fs provide a striking contrast to the heavyweight equipment on the train. Photo by Stan Kistler […]

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Atglen & Susquehanna

GE & EMD units in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania

A mix of GE and EMD units lead an eastward Conrail freight off the former Pennsylvania Railroad Atglen & Susquehanna low-grade line at Parkesburg, Pa., in May 1980. Photo by Robert S. McGonigal […]

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American classic

Chicago & Illinois Midland American-type 4-4-0 No. 500

Chicago & Illinois Midland American-type 4-4-0 No. 500 hustles a two-car passenger train north under Illinois Route 97 near Petersburg in May 1952. Once ubiquitous, the diminutive locomotive was a real anachronism by mid-century. Photo by Edward Theisinger […]

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‘Finest interurban equipment’

Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Electroliner en route to Chicago

A Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Electroliner streaks through the south side of Milwaukee en route to Chicago in October 1957. The photographer, second to none as an authority on electric railways, called the North Shore’s two articulated trains “the finest interurban equipment ever constructed in the United States.” Photo by William D. Middleton […]

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