Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific had a fleet of 85 4-8-4 Northerns, largest in the country. Here, No. 5058 leads a westbound freight near Lawrence, Kans., in January 1952. Robert P. Olmsted photo […]
Superlative steam
Section: Photo of the Day
U-boats on the Fall Brook
Snow begins to melt on an early spring day in 1974 as two six-axle General Electric “U-boats” head south along Seneca Lake at Geneva, N.Y., on the former New York Central “Fall Brook” line. Ken Kraemer photo […]
Universal rival
The U23B was General Electric’s competitor to the EMD GP38. The little U-boat has a 12-cylinder FDL engine, necessitating six tall engine access doors on each side. Buyers included Santa Fe, Conrail, Delaware & Hudson, Lehigh Valley, Milwaukee Road (pictured), Monon, Penn Central, Western Pacific, and others. Most rode on AAR type B trucks, but […]
North Coast Limited
Officially a Burlington Northern train but looking just as it had under the Northern Pacific, the North Coast Limited pauses at Butte, Mont., on April 10, 1970, just over a month after the merger. The train retains a complete set of equipment in the paint scheme by famous industrial designer Raymond Loewy. Steve Patterson photo […]
N&W standard
Rare elsewhere, the 4-8-0 was Norfolk & Western’s top freight engine until 1910, when the first articulateds arrived. Out of an original fleet of 286 Twelve-Wheelers, by 1954, three dozen remained, including 1906-built 475, switching at Potts Valley Junction on the Radford Division. Today this engine hauls tourists, and sometimes freight, at the Strasburg Rail […]
Overseas Alco
For World War II, the U.S. military adopted a six-axle variation of Alco’s 1941 RS1 for overseas duty. U.S. Army No. 8052 is shown at Tehran, Iran, in 1945. Alco photo […]
Prairie State steam
Chicago & North Western train 6, heavy with mail and express, speeds east near Dekalb, Ill., in 1949. H-1 class 4-8-4 No. 3014 is one of 24 such rebuilt locomotives on the roster, built by Baldwin in 1929 as the H class and retired between 1950 and 1956. Classic Trains collection […]
Royal Gorge
The Rio Grande’s Tennessee Pass line traversed Colorado’s Royal Gorge west of Pueblo on the road’s route to Utah. Here, the Royal Gorge passenger train with an Alco PA for power pauses for its customary sightseeing stop in its namesake. W. A. Peters photo […]
Frisco fast freight
Four red-and-white GP40s lead fast freight train 33, the Texas Special, into Valley Park, Mo., on Nov. 25, 1980, four days after merger with Burlington Northern. […]
High-pressure short line
Alabama, Tennessee & Northern No. 11, a General Electric 45-ton center-cab diesel, switches high-pressure tank cars for a refinery on Blakely Island at Mobile, Ala. The railroad, which otherwise consisted of about 200 miles up the west side of the state, operated a car ferry and docks to reach this trackage. It was merged into […]
Man and machine
At Works Tower in Altoona, Pa., a fresh crew gets ready to take Chicago-bound Pennsylvania Railroad piggyback train TT1 west. Unseen, car inspectors check for loose tie-down bracing on the trailers. GP9 No. 7000 is preserved at the Cape May Seashore Lines in New Jersey. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Minuteman
Boston & Maine train 58, the eastbound Minuteman, approaches North Pownal, Vt., in August 1940. Pacific 3658 has milk cars tucked in behind its tender. John P. Ahrens photo […]
