B&O freight under wire

Road-switcher diesel locomotives with freight train

Two GP38s and a GP40 lead a Baltimore & Ohio freight out of Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac’s Potomac Yard in Arlington, Va., in April 1971. The train will soon enter Washington, D.C., via the “Long Bridge” over the Potomac River. The catenary is for Penn Central freight trains, which also use “Pot Yard.” David Ingles […]

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Auto-rack revolution

Automobiles being loaded on tri-level freight cars

By the early 1960s, railroads began reclaiming auto traffic from highway trucks with long two- and three-level auto racks on flatcars. Here, new Thunderbirds and other Fords are loaded aboard a Western Pacific tri-level car built by ACF. American Car & Foundry […]

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Casey at the throttle

Engineer and fireman on steam locomotive

In the only known photo of legendary engineer John Luther “Casey” Jones at the throttle of a locomotive, Jones and fireman J. W. McKinnie are ready to take Illinois Central 2-8-0 638 out for a break-in run after a shopping at Water Valley in summer 1898. Less than two years later, Jones perished in a […]

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Powder River Trickle

A coal train bound for Cohasset, Minnesota

The flood of Powder River Basin coal that became so important to successor Burlington Northern began modestly on NP, with a 1969 contract to move coal from Colstrip, Mont., to Cohasset, Minn. In July 1969, a Cohasset-bound train pauses in Mandan, N.D. Duane Durr collection […]

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Monon RPO

Railway Express Agency truck

A Railway Express Agency truck, along with a cart with milk cans, transfers express into a messenger car, while in the background, mail bags are loaded and unloaded from an RPO car along the Monon in 1948. Photo by Linn Westcott […]

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Helper for 13 cars

Tacked on behind a boxcar-turned-caboose, one of short line Western Allegheny’s ex-Pennsy H10 2-8-0s helps a sister move coal and limestone out of Kaylor, Pa., in September 1955. WA’s 2-percent grades necessitated two Consolidations for a 13-car train. Photo by Philip R. Hastings […]

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Lackawanna ferry boats

On a frigid February 10, 1951, four Hudson River ferries are in the slips of the Lackawanna Railroad’s Hoboken terminal. The photo was made from a fifth DL&W boat heading out into the icy river for a trip to Manhattan. Photo by Edward Theisinger […]

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