A 70-car Rio Grande narrow gauge freight drops down Tanglefoot Curve east of Cumbres, Colo., on June 11, 1960. Power is K-36 2-8-2 No. 486. Robert F. Collins photo […]
Narrow gauge freight
Section: Photo of the Day
Center Flow
Early ACF Center Flow cars were nearly cylindrical. This 100-ton Union Pacific car, built in 1964, has three trough hatches and a 3,700-cubic foot capacity. Introduced in 1961, the Center Flow design had no center sill and instead relied on the curved sides for strength. Union Pacific photo […]
Classic conveyance
The plain 40-foot, general-purpose boxcar was the standard method of hauling bulk grain through the 1960s. Adding temporary grain doors to the door openings made a boxcar a rolling storage tub. This steel Chicago Great Western-marked car carries a load of corn at Milwaukee in the 1970s. Its replacements, high-capacity covered hopper cars, are already […]
Cumbres Pass
Denver & Rio Grande Western Mikados Nos. 497 and 488 lift an eastbound narrow gauge train up Cumbres Pass in June 1963. Under Rio Grande management such sights would last only five more years. Cornelius W. Hauck photo […]
Daily except Sunday
Virginia & Truckee 2-8-0 No. 5 brings the daily-except-Sunday mixed train across the highway crossing at Washoe, Nev., on Aug. 7, 1948. The railroad ended service on its 46-mile route on May 31, 1950. Fred H. Matthews Jr. photo […]
Universal leader
The U30C was the most popular of General Electric’s “Universal” locomotive series, selling 592 units built beginning in 1967. Buyers included Burlington Northern, Louisville & Nashville (pictured), Milwaukee Road, Pennsylvania, Reading, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, and others. This unit has lost its L&N markings in the transition to a Seaboard System identity. Jim Hediger photo […]
Timeless Tennessee Pass
Running behind three Rio Grande GP40s and a GP30, this eastbound was working up the west side of Tennessee Pass near Red Cliff, Colo., on April 30, 1967. Out of sight are two F7 helpers on the rear. In the late 20th century Tennessee Pass had eight or more heavy trains climbing its 13 miles […]
Treacherous tracks
A Denver & Salt Lake passenger train pauses at Arrow, Colo., on the original Rollins Pass line in 1905. At left is the main line west to Middle Park, which has a 4-percent grade. Today, Union Pacific freights and Amtrak’s California Zephyr bypass this treacherous trackage with Moffat Tunnel, completed in 1928. L. C. McClure photo […]
Roosevelt Road revisited
Baltimore & Ohio train 6, the eastbound Capitol Limited, picks up orders as it departs Chicago’s Grand Central Station bound for Washington, D.C., in July 1968. Philip A. Weibler photo […]
Short-lived short line
Michigan Northern GP7 No. 1606 rolls a two-car train south along Keystone Road south of Traverse City, Mich., in 1982. The railroad operated various trackage in the Wolverine State from 1976 to 1986. Neil Plagens photo […]
Side-door versatility
Side-door cabooses were sometimes used for delivering less-than-carload shipments to branchline stations. This is at Chicopee, Mo., on the Frisco. Wayne Leeman photo […]
South Wind
The Chicago–Miami South Wind arrives at Montgomery, Ala., on June 6, 1948. Atlantic Coast Line 4-6-2 No. 1533 does the honors on this day. Launched in 1940, the streamliner ran on Pennsy, Louisville & Nashville, ACL, and Florida East Coast. F. E. Ardrey Jr. photo […]
