Montreal Locomotive Works DL535E diesel locomotives have proven to be versatile narrow-gauge haulers made famous by a garden railway staple. In 1969, American Locomotive Co. of Schenectady, N.Y., was building seven six-axle, 1,200-hp DL535E diesel locomotives, Nos. 101-107, for the White Pass & Yukon when the builder abruptly shut down its manufacturing operations. […]
At Altamont, Calif., summit of the Western Pacific’s climb over the hills between San Francisco Bay and the Central Valley, Mikado 308 waits in a siding with an eastbound freight in the late 1940s or early ’50s. Arthur Lloyd photo […]
Wabash Railroad 2-6-0 576 eases its train across the Illinois River at Meredosia, Ill., in September 1954. The branch between Bluffs, Ill., and Keokuk, Ia., was the last stand of Wabash steam, as the 1899-vintage F4 Moguls were the heaviest power permitted across it. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Two passengers on Southern Pacific’s Coast Daylight watch with fascination as a 2-10-2 helper and 4-8-4 road engine lift their train up Cuesta Grade out of San Luis Obispo in about 1949. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
New York Central box-cab locomotive 548 rides the turntable at the 72nd Street engine house on the west side of Manhattan. A highway was constructed above the facility in the 1930s. NYC photo […]
In October 1950, a Chesapeake & Ohio 0-8-0 moves sleeping car Surprise Valley through the interlocking at 21st Street, Chicago. The car arrived at Grand Central Station on Baltimore & Ohio’s Capitol Limited from Washington in the morning and departed from Dearborn Station on Santa Fe’s Chief to Los Angeles later in the day. Wallace […]
Overnight Amtrak trains in 1991, its 20th year, show similarities with today’s offerings. Many trains known today were operating in 1991, some even with the same equipment. Some trains we have lost, including the Pioneer, Broadway Limited, Desert Wind, Montrealer, and Night Owl. Amtrak’s first order of bilevel Superliner equipment came in the late […]
Amtrak Superliner cars are derived from the old Santa Fe El Capitan Hi-Level car fleet. The cars, which operate on all Western long-distance plus a few others in the East, had a long gestation period. On July 3, 1973, Roger Lewis, Amtrak’s first president, sent a request for proposals to 13 companies — six engineering […]
Breakdown of Streamliners What are streamliners? Essentially, it’s a sleek design for lightweight passenger rail equipment that once had a faster schedule with fewer stops than other trains on the same route. They often included nicer amenities like stewardess service, reserved coach seating, barber shops, and libraries. Before 1970, three major manufacturers built passenger cars […]
The Milwaukee Road’s station at Canton in the southeast corner of South Dakota is bustling with activity as cars off the Midwest Hiawatha from Chicago are switched into the Sioux Falls section of the Sioux. The year is about 1944; note the sign on the depot: “Canteen. Service men and wives only.” Henry J. McCord […]
Readers of the Mileposts blog hardly need be sold on the close connections between the holiday season and trains, especially in memory. From traveling home by train to see loved ones to seeing snow flying outside the window of a dining car to watching Lionel trains race around a department store window, this season is […]
A switchman signals a South Omaha Terminal Railway switcher as the diesel adds cars onto the meat train transfer at the Terminal yard on a darkening October evening in 1957. The cars will soon become part of Illinois Central’s hot CC-6 Council Bluffs–Chicago perishable train. William D. Middleton photo […]
