Pacific with Santa Fe mail and express

20180223

A mail-and-express train running as the second section of Santa Fe train 20 descends Edelstein Hill west of Chillicothe, Ill., around 1950. Six express reefers trail the locomotive, followed by several baggage express cars. The locomotive, Pacific No. 3434, has its smokestack extension raised. T. H. Cole Jr. photo […]

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Fire-fighting 4-6-0

20180221

Southern Pacific 4-6-0 No. 2248, built in 1896, remained active into the 1950s providing motive power and pumping capacity for a fire train in the Sierra Nevada. Since the early 1990s, No. 2248 has been in tourist service around Fort Worth. SP photo […]

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Early Texas type

20180220

Texas & Pacific was the first road to adopt the 2-10-4 type, hence the name “Texas” for the wheel arrangement. T&P amassed a fleet of 70 nearly identical 2-10-4s, Nos. 600–669, built by Lima between 1925 and 1929. Classic Trains coll. […]

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CA&E train at Wheaton

20180212

A Chicago-bound local of interurban Chicago Aurora & Elgin prepares to leave the Wheaton station. The first car is one of 10 built for CA&E in 1945, among the last interurban cars built. William D. Middleton photo […]

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President Grant on the march

20180202

Seen from a troop train out of Fort Meade, Md., Baltimore & Ohio 4-6-2 5316, formerly named President Grant, hurries east with Cumberland–Baltimore passenger local No. 34 near Rockville, Md., in May 1953. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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B&O’s Ambassador on Thomas Viaduct

20140124

A Baltimore & Ohio P-7 Pacific has the Detroit–Baltimore Ambassador in tow as it crosses famous Thomas Viaduct at Relay, Md., just outside Baltimore, in November 1953. Having pulled into the stub-end Washington Union Station, the train is running “backward” – two sleepers right behind the engine, then two coaches, and a combine on the […]

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UP Challenger No. 3985 photo gallery

closeup of cab

UP Challenger No. 3985 On Jan. 6, Railroading Heritage of Midwest America began work on UP Challenger No. 3985 at its shop in Silvis, Ill. The main focus of the day was first to move the Milwaukee Road turntable from Bensenville, Ill., donated by Canadian Pacific to the Silvis sandblasting booth where it will be […]

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‘Twin Zephyr’ at Aurora

20140121

Diesel locomotive 9901, named Zephyrus, leads Burlington Route’s Twin Zephyr into Aurora, Ill., about 38 miles into the streamliner’s Chicago–Minneapolis run sometime in 1937. L. E. Griffith photo […]

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West Side Lumber Co. car shops

20150121

This 1950s overview of the West Side Lumber Co. car shops in Tuolumne, Calif., shows the dual-gauge track with the mill switcher — a former narrow-gauge Heisler that was converted to standard gauge. Glenn W. Beier photo […]

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Standard-gauge East Broad Top 0-6-0

20150106

The 3-foot-gauge East Broad Top had two standard-gauge 0-6-0s to switch the dual-gauge yard at Mount Union, Pa., where EBT interchanged with the Pennsylvania. Here, EBT’s Three-Spot moves a PRR hopper in September 1955. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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