Georgia Railroad: A good and unique ‘Family’ member

Blue-and-white Georgia Railroad diesel locomotives on passing freight trains

In its rich 150-year history, the Georgia Railroad was touched and torched by the rich and famous. During the process, the company morphed from a railroading pioneer and leader in the Peach State to an interesting combination of Class I and short-line operation.   Started as The Georgia Railroad in 1833, the ambitious company hired […]

Read More…

Tonopah & Tidewater’s lonely Pullman line

20180731

Begun in 1905, the Tonopah & Tidewater extended from the Santa Fe main line at Ludlow, Calif., 160 lonely miles north into Nevada. In the late 1920s T&T acquired a gas-electric car and began handling, in partnership with Union Pacific, a twice-weekly Pullman car that ran from Los Angeles to Death Valley, pictured here before […]

Read More…

Frisco caboose ride remembered

Black-and-yellow diesel locomotive handling freight cars during Frisco caboose ride

A Frisco caboose ride provided a much needed railfan break during my military assignment near Kansas City.   My spirits fell when I received orders for my first U.S. Air Force permanent-duty assignment, at the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base just south of Kansas City, Mo. I had hardly been west of the Appalachian Mountains, and […]

Read More…