The Rock Island used a variety of diesel power on its Chicago suburban trains, but Alco RS3s predominated. In 1966, maroon RS3 499 has just departed La Salle Street Station with three cars. Duane Darnell photo […]
Rock Island RS3 with suburban train
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Niagara on the run
New York Central 4-8-4 Niagara 6023 is near the end of its short life as it rambles through Millbury Junction, Ohio, (7.5 miles east of Toledo) with nine-car mail-and-express train X-78 in September 1955. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Turbine orphan
Westinghouse and partner Baldwin fielded an experimental 4,000 h.p. B-B+B-B gas-turbine-electric in 1950. Dubbed the “Blue Goose” because of its paint scheme (and perhaps for its unusual appearance), No. 4000, pictured at Chicago on the Chicago & North Western, generated no orders. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
P5a’s on a PRR freight
Two Pennsylvania Railroad P5a electrics roll northward with a freight at Halethorpe, Md., in the 1940s. Early P5a’s had box-cab carbodies; later versions with streamlined bodies, such as this pair, were known as “P5a modifieds.” Frank Clodfelter photo […]
Fall 2025
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 […]
CB&Q Northern at Mendota
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 […]
Seaboard Coast Line’s Silver Meteor
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 […]
NYC’s Knickerbocker departs St. Louis
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 […]
Pennsy P5a in the snow
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 […]
IC’s original Green Diamond
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 […]
Fast freight on the Nickel Plate
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 […]
Interlocking tower at Shawano, Wis.
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 […]
