Hudson at Harmon

New York Central Railroad

New York Central J-1 4-6-4 5249 eases off the turntable at Harmon, N.Y., the point 33 miles up the Hudson River from Grand Central Terminal where for decades NYC exchanged steam for electric locomotives. Ed Nowak photo […]

Read More…

End of the line for a Southern 2-8-8-2

Southern Railway

Southern Railway 2-8-8-2 4021, running boards and driving wheels trimmed in white, looks sharp at Appalachia, Va., on the afternoon of May 27, 1952. But a close look reveals that her main rods have been taken down in preparation for being hauled away for scrap. Ed Theisinger photo […]

Read More…

EL freights meet

Erie Lackawanna Railway

Erie Lackawanna’s hottest freight trains, eastbound NE-74 (left, powered by SD45s) and westbound CX-99, meet on former Erie trackage beside the Delaware River at Rood’s Creek, N.Y., in the early 1970s. J. J. Young Jr. photo […]

Read More…

Christmas mail rush on the UP

Pacific Fruit Express

A long string of Pacific Fruit Express reefers is being loaded with mail at right as workers sort mail bags at the Union Pacific Transfer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, during the 1951 Christmas rush. At busy times like this, all available equipment was pressed into mail service. Union Pacific Museum photo […]

Read More…

Burlington suburban coach

Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad

The 124 open-platform coaches the Burlington Route used in Chicago–Downers Grove–Aurora commuter service were Spartan conveyances. No. 7165 stands between runs at Aurora in February 1946. Henry J. McCord photo […]

Read More…

A Pennsy super Pacific

Pennsylvania Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad 5698, one of the road’s two class K5 4-6-2s, heads an unidentified passenger train south on the Northern Central line between the Harrisburg, Pa., area and Baltimore in the early 1940s. PRR added the pair of heavy Pacifics to its roster in 1929, after the last of 425 K4’s had been built. Frank […]

Read More…

M&StL at Roland, Iowa

Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway

Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 310, power for the Marshalltown–Story City, Iowa, mixed train, switches at Roland, the biggest source of traffic on the 38-mile Story City branch line, in the late 1940s. William F. Armstrong photo […]

Read More…

Steam faces diesel at Salida

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad

Denver & Rio Grande Western 2-8-0 1138 watches as four brand-new GP9s bring an eastbound freight into Salida, Colo., on the Tennessee Pass line in December 1955. Trains for the narrow-gauge Monarch Branch operated out of this yard, hence the dual-gauge track. Jim Shaughnessy photo […]

Read More…

The Ferdinand’s 4-4-0

Ferdinand Railroad

In southern Indiana, handsome 4-4-0 No. 9 of the 7.4-mile short line Ferdinand Railroad poses in late afternoon sun for photographers visiting from New Jersey in May 1952. Built by H. K. Porter in 1920, she was scrapped in 1953. Ed Theisinger photo […]

Read More…