Profiles in progress

Profiles in progress

Chesapeake & Ohio H-8 2-6-6-6 No. 1647 departs Handley, W.Va., with tidewater coal — a dozen 67-inch driving wheels, 90 loads, lend engine slipping wildly. The railroad had 60 such locomotives, built by Lima in 1941-1948. Photo by Philip R. Hastings […]

Read More…

Packing produce

Packing produce

Orange crates are stacked on end in two layers, with a third horizontal layer. The top of the load is kept below the openings in the bunker (note the full load of ice). Photo by Library of Congress […]

Read More…

New Haven electric

New Haven electric

The first of New Haven’s new 3,600-hp General Electric passenger-service electric locomotives, No. 0361, poses for its builder’s photo in 1938. Photo by General Electric […]

Read More…

MoPac doubleheader

MoPac doubleheader

Two Missouri Pacific 4-8-4s, Baldwin products of 1943, lead a westbound freight with a long string of hopper cars through Sandy Hook, Mo., about 19 miles west of Jefferson City on the River Line. Photo by C. T. Wood […]

Read More…

Midwest Mikado

Midwest Mikado

Minneapolis & St. Louis Mikado No. 627, a 1921 Alco (Brooks) locomotive, charges toward Peoria with a hot freight in a publicity photo. Photo by Minneapolis & St. Louis […]

Read More…

Man at work

Man at work

Conductors had a tremendous amount of paperwork to complete, not to mention dealing with unhappy passengers, equipment problems, train schedules, and seating issues. Photo by Norfolk & Western […]

Read More…

Load ‘em up

Load ‘em up

Early auto racks allowed easy loading and unloading of multiple cars with end ramps. Here AMC cars are being loaded near Kenosha, Wis., on the Chicago & North Western in 1966. Photo by Chicago & North Western, Keith Kohlmann collection […]

Read More…

Legends in their fields

Legends in their fields

Trains magazine editor David P. Morgan pauses on a station platform at Joliet, Ill., to watch trains – in this case a Santa Fe streamliner behind EMD F7 diesels. Photo by Classic Trains collection […]

Read More…

Intermountain interloper

Intermountain interloper

Two of Rio Grande’s Krauss-Maffei diesel-hydraulics spent almost three weeks testing on the New York Central in early 1963. Here crews on New York Central Advance BF-3 change at Bellefontaine, Ohio, on February 24, 1963. Photo by Si Herring […]

Read More…

Hoseshoe helper

Hoseshoe helper

Conrail 6070, a former Erie Lackawanna SD45, assists a westbound freight up Pennsylvania’s Horseshoe Curve on July 25, 1981, just a few months after removal of one of the Curve’s four tracks. Photo by Robert S. McGonigal […]

Read More…

Half-tracks on tracks

Half-tracks on tracks

Army half-tracks are loaded onto flatcars at an unidentified location during World War II. This image is from the 1943 Office of War Information film Troop Train, a 10-minute short depicting the movement of an armored division to the West Coast. Photo by Classic Trains collection […]

Read More…

Great grains

Great grains

Jumbo 100-ton covered hoppers revolutionized rail handling of grain in the 1960s. The Great Northern staged this publicity photo near terminal elevators in Minneapolis after receiving a new order of cars in 1967. Photo by Great Northern […]

Read More…