Engine crewmen confer beside the cab ladder as the two Fairbanks-Morse diesels heading Milwaukee Road’s eastbound Olympian Hiawatha are fueled and watered during a passenger and service stop at Miles City, Mont., in the late 1940s or early ’50s. Don E. Wolter photo […]
L&N freight No. 66 is just two miles out of its initial terminal at Norton, Va., as the Interstate Railroad’s First Hill Crew, using diesels from parent Southern Railway, waits in the clear at Dorchester Junction, Va., on May 10, 1967. When the L&N train clears, the Southern EMDs will cross over to pull the […]
Digital or film railroad photography? Before the advent of digital technology, the photographic standard of our hobby was transparency, or slide film. While multiple manufacturers guaranteed the user the desired color temperature and punchiness, the preferred emulsions were the various flavors of Kodachrome and Fujichrome. The former was prized for its “pop,” particularly on bright, […]
Changing a locomotive headlight: Everything we do on the railroad is guided by FRA standards and practices. According to the portion of federal law that governs railroads – 49 CFR § 229.125 – every lead locomotive used in road service shall illuminate its headlight while the locomotive is in use. If a road unit is […]
Join me in early mid-March, beside Amtrak City of New Orleans at Chebanse, Ill., a few weeks ahead of farmer’s spring planting — about 70 miles south of Chicago. It’s a breezy, crisp early morning before sunrise. The camera’s ISO is notched up to 2500. A lamp brightens the interior of the Chebanse depot, but […]
Silence on railfan photo lines is growing in importance as technology evolves and we find new, exciting ways to capture the essence of railroading when participating in rail photography charters. Those of us more enamored with still photography than videography may need to dial in on our photo line etiquette in consideration of how these […]
On Aug. 5, 1958, the last Maryland & Pennsylvania train from Baltimore heads north across the trestle at Sharon, Md., shortly before the road abandoned the south half of its 77-mile line between Baltimore & York, Pa. Lawrence W. Sagle photo […]
Railfans festoon the caboose roofs and crowd the Alco diesel switcher’s cab during an excursion on the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville in 1950. Edward Theisinger photo […]
Fifty Years of Amtrak Trains is a beautifully crafted 256-page, all-color hardbound volume. It is a time capsule of relevant information on the first 50 years of Amtrak’s existence, including a comprehensive survey of Amtrak routes between 1971 and 2021. The volume accounts for all Amtrak routes and trains (the book is divided into state […]
In 1960, the Santa Fe opened a 44-mile line between Williams and Crookton, Ariz., to reduce grades and curvature. This view shows one of the new line’s deep cuts from the fireman’s seat on an F unit. Donald Sims photo […]
An A-B-B set of Santa Fe FT diesels rolls a 127-car freight extra west at Galesburg, Ill., in June 1953. R. R. Malinoski photo […]
Nearly new Central Vermont GP9 4557 leads freight train 201, whose first car is a baggage car, through the old wooden trainshed at Essex Junction, Vt., in 1957. The venerable structure was demolished by 1960. Jim Shaughnessy photo […]
