Deco depot

Last Vegas Depot in 1940

In 1940 Union Pacific replaced its old Las Vegas depot with this one, designed in a variant of the Art Deco style known as Streamline Moderne. The railroad’s shield and “Route of the Streamliners and the Challengers” sign — both rendered in neon, of course — faced up casino-lined Fremont Street. In 1956, UP augmented […]

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Sterling performers

Grand Trunk Western 0-8-0s arriving at Northwestern Steel & Wire in Chicago

Northwestern Steel & Wire, located in Sterling, Ill., beside Chicago & North Western’s east-west main line, cut up untold numbers of steam locomotives in the 1950s and early ’60s to provide raw material for its furnaces. Among the condemned engines entering the plant were 15 Grand Trunk Western 0-8-0s, which arrived in 1960. NS&W spared […]

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Where there’s smoke

Delaware & Hudson PA's 18 and 19 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Where there’s smoke. . . there’s often an Alco. Delaware & Hudson PA’s 18 and 19 blast north out of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., with the Laurentian in June 1969. Doyle McCormack is restoring No. 18 (ex- Santa Fe 62L) as “Nickel Plate 190” in Oregon, while sister 16 has moved to the Museum of the American […]

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Missabe 2-8-0 at work

Duluth Missabe and Iron Range 2-8-0 at Rainy Junction, Minn.

Missabe 2-8-0 at work Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-8-0 No. 1218 has hold of a side-door caboose as it switches cars around Oliver Iron Mining Co.’s plant at Rainy Junction, Minn., in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Steamy snow scene

Canadian Pacific 2-8-2s travel along the Eaton River valley

A pair of Canadian Pacific 2-8-2s, Nos. 5410 and 5329, drift with their grain extra down into the Eaton River valley just west of Cookshire, Quebec, in the mid-1950s. Cookshire was home to one of five water tanks on the line east from Montreal into Maine, and most eastbound trains would stop there. Photo by […]

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Story City branch

Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 Mogul 310

Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 Mogul 310 has only one gondola left to deliver in Story City, Iowa, before returning home in July 1946. The railroad had 877 route miles in the state in 1931, the fifth most for a railroad at the time. Photo by William F. Armstrong […]

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Photo of the Day

20200619

Mountain meet Pennsylvania Railroad GP9s on westbound piggyback train TT1 pass J1 class 2-10-4 No. 6166, which has stopped on the main line near Johnstown, Pa., to take water from an overhead spout, in September 1956. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Photo of the Day

20190909

B&O steam Baltimore & Ohio S-1 class 2-10-2 No. 6174 backs up the hump at Willard, Ohio, with reefers. The railroad had 125 such locomotives in the class, built by Baldwin and Lima between 1923 and 1926. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

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Photo of the Day

20181213

Union Pacific mixed train Consolidation 284 leads Union Pacific train 386, a mixed train on the road’s Idaho Northern Branch, near Smith’s Ferry, Idaho, in December 1947. R. H. Kindig photo […]

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Dead line

Various BNSF Railway yard switchers sit in storage at Galesburg, Ill., in October 2010, waiting for their next assignment. Photo by William B. Cecil […]

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Original heritage

Norfolk Southern GP59 No. 4610, the railroad’s original heritage unit, sits at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga for Railfest 2011 on Sept. 3. The locomotive has since been repainted. Photo by Bradley Bates […]

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