In southwest Indiana, well-kept caboose 101 brings up the rear of a train on the Algers, Winslow & Western, a 16-mile coal-hauling short line, in May 1952. Ed Theisinger photo […]
Indiana shortline caboose
High-speed steam action
Louisville & Nashville 4-8-2 No. 407 on Cincinnati–Birmingham train 7 passes 2-8-0 No. 1212 on a northbound freight on double track 10 miles south of Louisville in November 1948. C. William Streit photo […]
Hiawatha departing Milwaukee
A rakish Otto Kuhler–designed observation car brings up the rear of a Hiawatha departing Milwaukee, 85 miles from the end of its Minneapolis–Chicago run. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]
First run of the Olympian Hiawatha
Crowds have gathered at Tacoma, Wash., on June 29, 1947, to witness the departure of the Milwaukee Road’s Olympian Hiawatha on its first run to Seattle, Minneapolis, and Chicago. John F. Endler Jr. photo […]
E5 diesels on the Texas Zephyr
Colorado & Southern’s Denver–Dallas Texas Zephyr, led by a pair of rakish E5s from parent Burlington Route, speeds southward through Colorado foothill country in July 1965. The train will cross a corner of New Mexico and then switch to Fort Worth & Denver rails at Texline on the Texas/New Mexico state line. Roger Meade photo […]
Diesel lineup at New Orleans
Illinois Central, Texas & Pacific, and Kansas City Southern E units plus (barely visible) Louisville & Nashville and Southern Pacific F units) idle in the engine terminal outside New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in 1954, when the facility was new. James G. La Vake photo […]
Dewey 1948 campaign train
Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 No. 250 moves out of Othello, Wash., with Thomas E. Dewey’s 17-car presidential campaign train on September 28, 1948. The 1930 Baldwin, the road’s first 4-8-4, took over from an electric here. Wade Stevenson photo […]
Burlington “Banana Special”
Two Burlington Route 2-10-2s power away from Edgemont, S.Dak., with a westbound “Banana Special,” 67 reefers of bananas bound for the Pacific Northwest, in November 1948. G. B. Taylor photo […]
Brand-new GN Railway Post Office
Fresh from the American Car & Foundry plant in 1950, this RPO is ready for service on Great Northern’s newly re-equipped Empire Builder. The 85-foot car has a 60-foot RPO apartment. ACF photo […]
B&O 2-10-2 on Sand Patch Grade
Baltimore & Ohio S-1 2-10-2 6149 descends the west side of the Allegheny Mountains at Keystone, Pa., after crossing the summit at Sand Patch on April 5, 1947. William P. Price photo […]
Early Burlington Northern locomotives in review
When the long-anticipated “Hill Lines” merger finally created the Burlington Northern on March 2, 1970, it was time not to mourn the loss of a favorite, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, but to embrace and record the details of the changeover. I had been through this six years before, when the Norfolk & Western […]
Action on the Mesabi Range
A Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-8-2 has hold of a caboose at Rainy Junction, Minn., on the Mesabi Iron Range in August 1950. An Oliver Iron Mining RS2 diesel works in the distance. Henry J. McCord photo […]
