It was an oddball branch line with a just-as-odd history that is still worth recounting. The Rio Grande’s Farmington Branch was built in 1905 to connect Carbon Junction, Colo. (just outside of Durango to the southeast), and Farmington, N.M. It was a modest, 47.68-mile standard gauge line (later narrow gauge) that followed the […]
Several piggyback cars head northbound on the Wabash at Forrest, Ill., en route to Chicago in March 1960. In a few years, the route would host the railroad’s Roadrunner overnight TOFC train. J. Parker Lamb photo […]
This 40-foot Canadian National boxcar was built in November 1923 and was still in service in the 1970s. The car is single-sheathed (meaning sheathed only on the inside of the truss-style metal bracing) and has wood sides and ends. Note the modern AEI panel on the 1923-built car. Michael Dean photo […]
Bridgton & Harrison 2-4-4T No. 8 creeps around a rock outcropping at the head of a special train in 1940. The second-to-last Maine two-foot road to operate, the B&H closed the following year. Robert B. Adams photo […]
Maine Central 2-8-0 516 is sandwiched between a Jordan spreader and caboose as it approaches the station at St. Johnsbury, Vt., in September 1947. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Milwaukee Road streamlined 4-6-4 No. 102 leads a Minneapolis-bound Hiawatha out of Chicago at Western Avenue in March 1949. Retirement is just a year away for the sleek greyhound. Harold Stirton photo […]
Rio Grande rotary plow OY stands with 2-8-2 494 at Osier, Colo., on January 4, 1952, during one of the worst winters to hit the D&RGW narrow gauge. John Norwood photo […]
Five Denver & Rio Grande Western F7 diesels roll a westbound freight through scenic Glenwood Canyon between Dotsero and Glenwood Springs, Colo., in April 1965. Classic Trains coll. […]
Displaced from more glamorous duties by the decline in passenger service, three Erie Lackawanna PAs lead an eastbound piggyback train through Pullman Junction (Chicago) en route to New York in July 1963. Jim Wozniczka photo […]
The trend toward professional archival preservation of the work of major railroad photographers continues, lately with the news that the huge collection of negatives, slides, and films of the late Mike Eagleson has gone to the Industrial Archives & Library based in Bethlehem, Pa. This is a big “get” for the IAL, buttressing its mission […]
Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-6 1624 has cut off from its eastbound coal train to take sand, coal, and water at Thurmond, W.Va., in September 1955. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Missouri Pacific locomotives, both steam and diesel, display a variety typical of their era. The “MoPac,” as it was called, merged several railroads during the diesel era, notably the International-Great Northern and St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico in 1956, the Texas & Pacific (which it had long controlled) and Chicago & Eastern Illinois […]
