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 […]
Section: Photo of the Day
Capitol capture
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 […]
Canadian Pacific train and ship
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 […]
California coast
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 […]
Atglen & Susquehanna
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 […]
American classic
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 […]
‘Finest interurban equipment’
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 […]
WM mixed at Durbin, W.Va.
Western Maryland 2-8-0 750 and a combine car stand at the station in Durbin, W.Va., end of the run for the daily mixed train from Elkins, W.Va., in April 1951. K. F. Merlin photo […]
Western Maryland GPs on high
Three red-and-white EMD road-switchers — two GP35s and a GP40 — lead an eastbound freight across the great steel viaduct that spans a valley and the Baltimore & Ohio main line at Meyersdale, Pa., in July 1973. Today the bridge carries only a recreational trail. Victor Hand photo […]
UP Challenger 3939
Union Pacific 3939, the final member of the batch of 25 4-6-6-4 Challengers that Alco built for the road in 1937, poses for a publicity photo with a dozen boxcars. UP’s first Challengers, 3900–3914, arrived in 1936. Classic Trains coll. […]
Three-truck logging Shay
Meadow River Lumber Co. No. 7 is a good example of a three-truck, standard-gauge, coal-burning Shay with a Radley & Hunter stack. The West Virginia company used steam locomotives into the mid-1960s. Matt Coleman collection […]
Pioneer electrification
Baltimore & Ohio’s Howard Street Tunnel below downtown Baltimore was the site of the first “steam-railroad” electrification in America. This view at Mount Royal station is from shortly after the start of service in 1895. Classic Trains coll. […]