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Welcome – Never stop learning Head End – A potpourri of railroad history, then and now Fast Mail – Letters from our readers True Color – Rush hour at Kansas City The Way It Was – Tales from railfans and railroaders Looking Back – Santa Fe all the way […]
Burlington Route 4-8-4 No. 5621 on a westbound freight clatters across the Illinois Central diamonds at Mendota, Ill., as it slows for a coal and water stop in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
The New York–Miami Silver Meteor heels to a curve near Sebring, Fla., on March 30, 1970, nearly 3 years after the Seaboard + Atlantic Coast Line merger. At 17 cars, the train is a testament to the enduring strength of the New York–Florida rail travel market. William T. Morgan photo […]
In the early 1950s, two E8s ease New York Central train 24, the Knickerbocker, out of St. Louis Union Station at the start of the train’s journey to New York. Wayne P. Ellis photo […]
Pennsylvania Railroad P5a electric 4737 brings a freight into Philadelphia from the west after a heavy snowfall in early 1958. The motor is passing the station at Overbrook, easternmost of the suburban stops on the Main Line to Paoli. Aaron G. Fryer photo […]
During the latter half of the 1920s the single expansion articulated locomotive had evolved into a very capable machine. It could lug a heavy train over mountain grades, and in flat terrain it could run at the same speed as a 2-8-2. But railroad locomotive superintendents grappled with an unanswered question. Could a simple articulated […]
It isn’t much of a stretch to proclaim the 2-8-4 Berkshire-type steam locomotive as the “poster child” of the Super Power era of steam locomotives. “Berkshire,” “Kanawha,” “Big Emma” — regardless of what they were called, the wheel configuration helped advance steam technology through size, speed, and power. The development of the Berkshire all started […]
Illinois Central’s first streamliner, delivered in 1936, was the Green Diamond, a fully articulated aluminum train built by Pullman-Standard and powered by Electro-Motive with a Winton diesel engine. It is pictured at 47th Street, Chicago, near the end of its regular run from St. Louis. Philip Korst Jr. photo […]
Well into the 1950s, the Nickel Plate Road believed its superb 2-8-4 Berkshires to be better than diesels for its fast freight service. Because it dieselized late, NKP had no freight cab units, only road-switchers. Don Wood photo […]
A brick interlocking tower guards the crossing of Soo Line (left to right in photo) and Chicago & North Western trackage in Shawano, Wis. Gordon Odegard photo […]
The Frisco’s 4200-series Mikados of 1930 were among the most powerful 2-8-2s on any railroad. They were rated at 68,500 lbs. tractive effort — 78,100 lbs. with booster — and could wheel fast freights at 50 mph. Frank E. Ardrey photo […]
For a time in the 1950s, Southern Pacific had the most extensive piggyback operations in the land. Here a train bound from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area climbs Santa Susana Pass near Chatsworth, Calif. Classic Trains coll. […]
