The Wisconsin & Southern, affectionately known as the “Whizzer” to local railfans, whizzes through Waukesha, Wis., on June 2, 2014. Photo by Brian Schmidt […]
Whizzer
Zone & Region: Midwest
Book Review: Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line
Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line By Gregory L. Schneider University Press of Kansas, 2502 Westbrooke Cir., Lawrence, KS 66045; 392 pages, 26 photos; hardcover, 6.125 x 9.25 in.; $37.50 This impressive volume chronicles the long, sad decline of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and illustrates how federal regulation […]
Twin Cities’ passenger trains through the years
FULL SCREEN St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press, Minnesota Historical Society Collection Burlington’s Zephyr‘s gather at St. Paul Union Depot on Sept. 29, 1948. FULL SCREEN Ronald Lundstrom Freshly painted SD45s Nos. 407 and 412 power a Great Northern director’s special at St. Paul Union Depot in the mid 1960s. FULL SCREEN Byron D. Olsen The Milwaukee […]
Rollin’
New crude oil tank cars roll west on Canadian Pacific rails through Duplainville, Wis., on Jan. 12, 2014. Photo by Brian Schmidt […]
Toledo Train Day
Locomotives and rail cars are lined up on display at the 2014 National Train Day exhibit in Toledo, Ohio, on May 3. Photo by Joe Kohnen […]
Right-of-way
Looking out of place, two CSX GEs take Canadian Pacific train No. 470 down North Second Street in Bellevue, Iowa, on Jan. 19, 2014. Photo by Matt Krause […]
Local hero
With a short five-car train, Canadian National’s local out of Dubuque, Iowa, has just crossed the Mississippi River and pops out of the short tunnel in East Dubuque, IL. The train will travel down the BNSF Railway using trackage to an industry that CN switches before calling it a day and returning home after dark. Photo […]
C&EI’s Meadowlark
E7 diesel 1101 leads Chicago & Eastern Illinois’ southbound Meadowlark at 63rd Street station (“Little Englewood”), Chicago, in the late 1940s. The obscure orange-and-blue streamliner terminated at the unlikely location of Cyprus, Ill. (population 300). William N. Clark photo […]
Milwaukee racer
It’s been said that Milwaukee Road’s class F6 4-6-4s, built 1930–31, looked like they were going fast even when standing still. There does seem to be a rakish “leaning-forward” quality to this photo of nearly new No. 6402. MILW […]
Drew’s Trackside Adventures: Episode 14 – Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry
Host Drew Halverson heads trackside again, but this time from a slightly different perspective aboard Amtrak and Metra intercity trains. His trek from Milwaukee, Wis., routes him to Chicago’s historic Union Station to the downtown lakefront to the Museum of Science and Industry, featuring The Great Train Story, a magnificent HO scale layout, and a […]
Drew’s Trackside Adventures: Episode 14 – Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry
Host Drew Halverson heads trackside again, but this time from a slightly different perspective aboard Amtrak and Metra intercity trains. His trek from Milwaukee, Wis., routes him to Chicago’s historic Union Station to the downtown lakefront to the Museum of Science and Industry, featuring The Great Train Story, a magnificent HO scale layout, and a […]
Small town railroading in the early 1950s
For many years small towns were a major source of traffic for railroads all across the country. Long before anyone ever heard of freeways, the railroads moved all sorts of carload and less-than-carload lot (LCL) freight that kept the local businesses and nearby agricultural economy going. A local station agent-operator was the railroad’s representative who […]
