One of Nickel Plate’s handsome Berkshires leads a westward freight across the Grand River bridge in Painesville, Ohio. No. 802 was originally built for the Wheeling & Lake Erie in 1937, then went to work for the Nickel Plate Road in 1949 when the NKP leased the W&LE. John A. Rehor In 1920, when American […]
Rock Island switcher No. 283 was one of ten USRA 0-6-0s delivered to the railroad in 1919. W. Krambeck The 0-6-0 began life as a road engine in the late 1830s but was built only in limited numbers. Like the 0-4-0, the 0-6-0 could not easily traverse the poor track of the day, and within […]
Norfolk & Western 0-8-0 switcher No. 244 holds the distinction of being the last U.S. reciprocating steam locomotive built for an American Class 1 railroad. It was the final steam engine to emerge from N&W’s Roanoke Shops, delivered to the railroad in December 1953. Norfolk & Western The first 0-8-0 was built in 1844 by […]
One of Duluth, Missabe & Northern’s mammoth 352,000-pound 0-10-0 switchers works the yard at Proctor, Minn., on September 15, 1951. J. C. Seacrest collection The first 0-10-0 was built in 1905 at Alco’s Brooks Locomotive Works as a hump engine for the New York Central. Over the next five years, New York Central took delivery […]
Canadian National kept its fleet of Moguls in service the longest, until 1959. No. 86 was built in 1910 by the Canadian Locomotive Co. as Grand Trunk No. 1006, and renumbered twice, before it was photographed leading a mixed train through Ontario in July 1957. Herbert Harwood, Jr. The 2-6-0 was an outgrowth of the […]
On October 19, 1951, three Delaware & Hudson 2-8-0s shove a heavy freight out of Carbondale, Pa. Robert F. Collins The first 2-8-0 was delivered to the Lehigh Valley in 1866 for operation over the mountain grades of the railroad’s Mount Carmel Branch in Pennsylvania. The locomotive was built by Baldwin, but had been designed […]
Northern Pacific’s last batch of 2-8-2s came from Alco in 1923. One member of the class, No. 1843, blasts through Thompson Falls, Mont., with a 73-car freight train on September 22, 1940. J. W. Maxwell The first true North American 2-8-2s were built by Alco for the Northern Pacific in 1904. (Experimental locomotives with the […]
One of Nickel Plate’s handsome Berkshires leads a westward freight across the Grand River bridge in Painesville, Ohio. No. 802 was originally built for the Wheeling & Lake Erie in 1937, then went to work for the Nickel Plate Road in 1949 when the NKP leased the W&LE. John A. Rehor During the 1920s, America’s […]
Two Pennsylvania Railroad Decapods shove a heavy freight around Horseshoe Curve in the Allegheny Mountains. H. W. Pontin, Railroad Photographic Club The first 2-10-0s were built for the Lehigh Valley in 1867. They were not, however, a success. Their long rigid wheelbase was too much for the track, and the two locomotives were later rebuilt […]
Santa Fe No. 900 was part of the railroad’s first class of 2-10-2s, delivered by Baldwin between 1903 and 1904. Photographed at Raton, N.M., on May 3, 1950. C. C. Trinbham Differences of decades: The design of the final class of 2-10-2s built for the Santa Fe could be traced to the 2-8-2, rather than […]
Central Vermont 2-10-4 No. 703 puts on quite a show rolling through Sudbury, Vt., with a northward freight in 1955. Paul A. Reynolds In 1925, just four months after demonstrating its new 2-8-4 on the Boston & Albany, Lima received an order from the Texas & Pacific for the first 2-10-4s. The ten engines ordered […]
New York Central 4-4-0 No. 999 earned a place in history when it reached a speed of 112.5 mph while pulling the four-car Empire State Express between Batavia and Buffalo, N.Y., on May 10, 1893. This publicity shot, made after her world-famous run, clearly shows the locomotive’s uncommonly large 86-inch driving wheels. New York Central […]
