Preparing a K4

20180124

At the Pennsylvania’s South Amboy, N.J., engine terminal in the mid-1950s, a hostler shovels coal into the firebox of a K4s Pacific in preparation for its next run. Don Wood photo […]

Read More…

B&O 2-8-2 at rest

20180130

Baltimore & Ohio 2-8-2 No. 4858 stands with a caboose at the road’s terminal at Cowen, W.Va., in May 1952. B&O adopted the name “MacArthur” for its 2-8-2 Mikado types during World War II and referred to them as such until the end of steam. Ed Theisinger photo […]

Read More…

Remnant of a dream

20180129

The Kansas City, Mexico & Orient was conceived to connect Kansas City with the nearest Pacific Ocean port — Topolobampo, Mexico. Although major portions of the route were built on both sides of the border, the dream was never realized. The Santa Fe bought the KCM&O in 1924, then sold the Mexican portions. In this […]

Read More…

Akron, Canton & Youngstown action

20180110

Akron, Canton & Youngstown H20-44 No. 503, a 2,000 h.p. end-cab road-switcher built by Fairbanks-Morse, crosses the Big Four (NYC) main line at New London, Ohio, with a westbound freight in 1949. The 171-mile AC&Y ran between Akron and Delphos, Ohio, but never reached Canton or Youngstown. Vaughn K. Neel photo […]

Read More…

Seaboard RS3 road-switchers

20180104

Two Seaboard Air Line RS3 road-switchers work at Madison, Fla., in 1965, two years before the road merged with the Atlantic Coast Line. Alco introduced the RS3 in 1950, producing some 1,370 of the 1,600 h.p. units. Harry L. Juday photo […]

Read More…

Action at Union Avenue, Chicago

20180123

The location is Union Avenue interlocking at the east end of Burlington Northern’s “racetrack” to Aurora in about 1980. Amtrak train 380 from Carbondale, Ill., comes off the St. Charles Air Line (left) as a BN “dinky” from Aurora in push mode heads for Chicago Union Station (right); between them, is a BN E unit […]

Read More…

Oklahoma troop train

Steam locomotive on passenger train

Oklahoma troop train Santa Fe 4-6-2 1311 rolls east with a 13-car troop train near Quinlan, Okla., on Mar. 16, 1946. The train consists of 5 standard sleepers, 6 troop sleepers, and 2 troop kitchen cars, plus a caboose at the rear. R. H. Kindig photo […]

Read More…

Anthracite hauler

Black-and-white broadside photo of 2-10-2 steam locomotive with hopper cars beside a river

Anthracite hauler Reading Co. 2-10-2 3012 leads a train of anthracite along the Schuylkill River at Tamaqua, Pa., in July 1953. RDG’s 20 K-1’s were the heaviest Santa Fe types ever built. Classic Trains collection […]

Read More…

Orders at Clare

An engineer receives paper orders from a hoop in a red-painted locomotive leading a freight train.

Orders at Clare At the joint Chesapeake & Ohio-Ann Arbor depot in Clare, Mich., the engineer on Toledo–Frankfort freight TF-1, behind two GP35s, reaches to pick up orders in May 1966. John S. Ingles photo, Brian Schmidt collection […]

Read More…

SoCal “Blimps”

SoCal “Blimps” Three big “Blimp” cars leave downtown Los Angeles behind them as they proceed down PE’s four-track right of way toward Long Beach, August 1953. Reginald McGovern photo […]

Read More…

Reefer block

Steam locomotive with freight train

Reefer block 4-8-2 2605, a product of IC’s own Paducah (Ky.) shops, leads a long string of refrigerator cars north on the main line at Peotone, Ill., in the 1940s. Illinois Central photo […]

Read More…