One of the Milwaukee Road’s six Skytop sleeper-observation cars brings up the rear of the Olympian Hiawatha near Francis, Mont., 100 miles east of Butte, in an early 1950s publicity photo. MILW photo […]
Olympian Hi in Montana
Section: Railroads
Erie bay-window caboose
Modern steel cabooses, such as Erie bay-window C300 in 1953, included such improvements as on-board radio (with RADIO EQUIPPED lettering and lightning bolts) and electric lighting (note the generator below and to the right of the bay). Erie photo […]
Freight on the “WAG”
Wellsville, Addison & Galeton GE center-cab diesel 1700 has a string of the colorful short line’s wood boxcars in tow at Ansonia, Pa., in March 1970. David H. Hamley photo […]
CNJ Camelback 757
Central Railroad of New Jersey Camelback 4-6-0 No. 757 accelerates a train out of the Jersey City terminal complex in the late 1940s or early ’50s. William R. Frutchey photo […]
When I cast my ballot for the RS3
Nickel Plate 535 and 555 make a persuasive case for the RS3 as they accelerate east at Malinta, Ohio, in 1960. J. David Ingles Many of us who cotton to such things probably can pinpoint the exact time, or place, where we realized we had a favorite locomotive type. For me, the locomotive was the […]
California Zephyr on a detour
The California Zephyr shares dual-gauge trackage with a Rio Grande 2-8-0 at Salida, Colo., on June 18, 1951. The CZ shouldn’t be here on D&RGW’s Tennessee Pass line — it’s detouring around a washout on its regular Moffat Tunnel route. Bob Borcherding photo […]
Historic diesel locomotives saved by the 2020s
Historic diesel locomotives saved by the 2020s may be an odd lot of famous and barely memorable, but these units deserve our respect and attention just as much as the first batch. All of these, even the ones that proved to be technological dead ends, contributed in one way or another to the advancement and […]
CB&Q’s Fast Mail at Burlington
Three Burlington Route E units are refueled at Burlington, Iowa, during their nighttime dash from Chicago to Omaha with the Fast Mail. CB&Q photo […]
Alco C415 failure — Diesels that didn’t
Alco C415 failure was not what the famed locomotive maker had in mind in the 1960s. At the time, Alco saw a need to revamp its switcher offerings and came up with the offset centercab configuration C415, which launched as a demonstrator in 1966. The arrangement separated the prime mover from the radiator on different […]
Two ‘Cardinal’ veterans look back at rewarding careers
First of two parts. For decades, two Amtrak employees developed mutual respect for their work ethic among regular or occasional passengers, fellow employees, and each other. Janice Adams joined Amtrak as a train attendant in 1984. Leonard Claytor started with the Chesapeake & Ohio in 1969 and was promoted to a conductor in 1975 when […]
Pere Marquette 1225 steam locomotive profile
A Pere Marquette 1225 steam locomotive profile is long past due. Not only is it one of the most active mainline steam locomotives of the past 25 years it is also an iconic symbol of steam’s greatest technological leap forward: the development of Super Power technology, introduced in the 1920s by Lima Locomotive Works of […]
WM’s Elkins train at Cumberland
Western Maryland 4-6-2 209 stands at Cumberland, Md., ready to depart with train 9 to Elkins, W.Va., in the early 1950s. W. A. Akin photo […]
