Diesels with trolley poles: Interurban railways usually had some form of freight traffic supplementing their passenger business, but almost none could come close to the Pacific Electric Railway, Southern California’s premier streetcar system. A subsidiary of Southern Pacific, even after the company gave up hauling passengers, freight service continued at a brisk pace up to […]
EMD DDA40X: In 1968, Union Pacific purchased 50 20-cylinder, 3,600 hp EMD SD45s for high-speed service. However, the units did not meet management’s expectations in that role. So, UP commissioned EMD to design and build a locomotive that would develop more horsepower than the DD35, U50, or C855 models. The result was the largest double-diesel […]
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 […]
Between the years 1976 and 1999, Conrail business trains operated for three purposes: to enable railroad executives to travel the right-of-way for close track inspection, to look at rail facilities, and to entertain customers over Conrail lines to improve business potential and customer service. This nearly all-color, very well done 416-page, four-pound volume covers the […]
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 […]
Louisville & Nashville class M-1 2-8-4 No. 1950 — a “Big Emma” — rolls empty coal hopper cars at Hargett, Ky., on May 23, 1952. Ed Theisinger photo […]
The St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad was a survivor and an innovator. It weathered some very rough times, including at least five bankruptcies. It started running unit coal trains from Fort Smith, Ark., the city across the Arkansas River from my hometown of Van Buren, in the 1930s. It helped move Texas and Oklahoma oil east […]
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 […]
Conrail locomotives: Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history, heritage, and style of Conrail all through April 2022. Enjoy this photo gallery of Conrail locomotives selected from the archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Conrail was formed in 1976 with the consolidation of several bankrupt Northeastern railroads: Penn Central, Central of New Jersey, […]
Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of Conrail all through April 2022. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Conrail freight trains selected from the archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Conrail served a variety of customers across the railroad’s territory stretching from St. Louis and Chicago east to Philadelphia, New […]
Diesel locomotive single order units: In the modern era, locomotive orders are typically measured in the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of units. But orders early in the dieselization of North American railroad would often come in much smaller quantities, down to a single unit. It was commonplace decades ago when customers were more plentiful […]
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 […]
