Bystanders inspect a sedan deluged with coke during a derailment of an L&N train in Chattanooga. C. K. Marsh Jr. One day in 1965, a friend and I were searching for the obscure terminal of the Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railroad in the Alton Park section of Chattanooga. Coming up on a railroad crossing, we […]
Train Topic: Fallen Flags
Designer of Conrail “can opener” logo dies NEWSWIRE
Conrail-painted Norfolk Southern heritage unit No. 8098. Tom Danneman NEW YORK — Many never knew his name, but that didn’t change the mark he left on the rail industry. Literally. The designer of the famous Conrail “can opener” logo, Tony Palladino, has died at age 84, the New York Times reports. “People don’t want to […]
The Erie’s Otisville tunnel
The concrete west portal of Erie’s Otisville (N.Y.) tunnel — from which a Berkshire-powered freight emerges — is fairly simple, but with pilasters and the inscription “19–OTISVILLE–08” in embossed lettering overhead. Note the early installation of welded rail on the eastward track. Wayne Brumbaugh photo […]
Pennsy T1 on the Broadway
PRR T1 4-4-4-4 No. 5507 clatters through 21st Street interlocking in Chicago with the Broadway Limited for New York. A T1 on the Broadway is relatively rare, as dieselization of PRR’s top trains came soon after the giant duplexes arrived. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Milwaukee racer
It’s been said that Milwaukee Road’s class F6 4-6-4s, built 1930–31, looked like they were going fast even when standing still. There does seem to be a rakish “leaning-forward” quality to this photo of nearly new No. 6402. MILW […]
Fastest hogger on the slim-gauge
A predecessor of this Rio Grande engineer made a daring Chama–Durango run in 1923. A. C. Kalmbach My grandfather, Marvin Rhodes, lived for almost a century, and he spent more than half of his long life working out of Durango, Colo., on the narrow-gauge lines of the Denver & Rio Grande Western. He hired out […]
Small town railroading in the early 1950s
For many years small towns were a major source of traffic for railroads all across the country. Long before anyone ever heard of freeways, the railroads moved all sorts of carload and less-than-carload lot (LCL) freight that kept the local businesses and nearby agricultural economy going. A local station agent-operator was the railroad’s representative who […]
C&O at Elkhorn City
The Chesapeake & Ohio and Clinchfield met end-to-end at this yard at Elkhorn City, Ky. In this misty 1973 scene, a C&O train is ready to head north with a string of hopper cars from the Clinchfield. Tony Koester photo […]
L&N steam power at the 1956 Kentucky Derby
Watch video of big Louisville & Nashville steam locomotives on special trains into Louisville for the 1956 Kentucky Derby from the Herron Rail Video program Reflections of American Railroading. […]
L&N steam power at the 1956 Kentucky Derby
Watch video of big Louisville & Nashville steam locomotives on special trains into Louisville for the 1956 Kentucky Derby from the Herron Rail Video program Reflections of American Railroading. […]
Pennsy’s “Big Engine” in the snow
The Pennsylvania’s one-of-a-kind class S1 6-4-4-6 duplex drive No. 6100 shrugs off an early Chicago winter snow storm as it pauses at Englewood Union Station with the eastbound Manhattan Limited in November 1939. Harold Stirton photo […]
WM Pacific at Baltimore
Handsome Western Maryland 4-6-2 No. 204 is ready to depart the road’s Hillen Street station in Baltimore with the daily train to Hagerstown, Md., in April 1951. Russ Wilcox photo […]