On June 8, 1968, at Baltimore, Penn Central GG1s 4901 and 4903 lead a 21-car special train carrying 1,146 people and the body of New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated June 5 in Los Angeles while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. Crowds thronged the right of way between New York and Washington, and […]
Incorporated in 1899, when the name of western Pennsylvania’s biggest city was spelled without an “h,” the Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern ran from Brockway, Pa., to Wayland and Hornell, N.Y. Heavy construction debt forced it into receivership in 1905, and it was abandoned in 1947. Just before the end, 2-8-0 No. 71 leads a freight south […]
The Pere Marquette Railway’s 40 Berkshires, built by Lima during 1937–44, were the road’s last and best steam power. In this 1940s view, No. 1229 darkens the sky as it heads out of Plymouth, Mich., with a freight bound for Grand Rapids. Robert A. Hadley photo […]
PRR doodlebug 4666 stands at the depot in Parkton, Md., just before departing on its morning run down the formerly double-track Northern Central line to Baltimore on June 4, 1959. The Parkton local trains ended a little over three weeks later, on June 27. PRR 4666 survives and is currently in service on the Allentown […]
Steam from Milwaukee Road class A 4-4-2 No. 2’s cylinder cocks envelops a bystander just outside Chicago Union Station as the Hiawatha begins its dash to Minneapolis in 1935. Alexander Maxwell photo […]
Chicago & Eastern Illinois locomotives served the road well through many decades of operation. C&EI was a coal-hauling railroad and, other than some early switchers, stuck with steam through World War II. Three E7s and a bunch of F3s made quick work of dieselizing the line from 1946 onward, with the last steam […]
Amtrak GP40 diesel locomotives came in two flavors: eight former GO Transit GP40TCs acquired in October 1988 and 15 straight GP40s leased between May 1991 and June 1993. The 3,000 hp GP40 is a standard bearer of freight motive power in the second half of the 20th century. Introduced by EMD in 1968, the model […]
In about 1950, the operator at Reverse, Idaho, hands up orders to the engine crew of westbound freight 3-257. Two 2-8-8-0 pushers have been removed here after assisting the train up Medbury Hill. Henry R. Griffiths Jr. photo […]
Walking out the 15th Street side entrance to Detroit’s Michigan Central Station last Friday morning, I found myself channeling the great baseball play-by-play man Jack Buck. “I can’t believe what I just saw!” Buck’s epic quote came, of course, when Dodger Kirk Gibson launched his epic home run off A’s reliever Dennis Eckersley in game […]
Norfolk & Western class A No. 1239 is ready to depart Roanoke, Va., with eastbound time freight 84 in 1954. The potent 2-6-6-4 was built in N&W’s shops here just five years earlier. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]
Louisville & Nashville engine 243, a USRA light Pacific, passes Highland Park on the south side of Louisville with train 23, the daytime local to Corbin, Ky. Many employees of L&N’s South Louisville Shops lived in Highland Park, today mostly obliterated by the Louisville airport. Charles B. Castner photo […]
Illinois Central car 4840, pictured near Central Station, Chicago, is one of 35 standard wood refrigerator cars the road converted to express service by adding high-speed trucks and steam and signal lines. Mainline Photos […]
