Auto-rack revolution

Automobiles being loaded on tri-level freight cars

By the early 1960s, railroads began reclaiming auto traffic from highway trucks with long two- and three-level auto racks on flatcars. Here, new Thunderbirds and other Fords are loaded aboard a Western Pacific tri-level car built by ACF. American Car & Foundry […]

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Casey at the throttle

Engineer and fireman on steam locomotive

In the only known photo of legendary engineer John Luther “Casey” Jones at the throttle of a locomotive, Jones and fireman J. W. McKinnie are ready to take Illinois Central 2-8-0 638 out for a break-in run after a shopping at Water Valley in summer 1898. Less than two years later, Jones perished in a […]

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Powder River Trickle

A coal train bound for Cohasset, Minnesota

The flood of Powder River Basin coal that became so important to successor Burlington Northern began modestly on NP, with a 1969 contract to move coal from Colstrip, Mont., to Cohasset, Minn. In July 1969, a Cohasset-bound train pauses in Mandan, N.D. Duane Durr collection […]

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Monon RPO

Railway Express Agency truck

A Railway Express Agency truck, along with a cart with milk cans, transfers express into a messenger car, while in the background, mail bags are loaded and unloaded from an RPO car along the Monon in 1948. Photo by Linn Westcott […]

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Helper for 13 cars

Tacked on behind a boxcar-turned-caboose, one of short line Western Allegheny’s ex-Pennsy H10 2-8-0s helps a sister move coal and limestone out of Kaylor, Pa., in September 1955. WA’s 2-percent grades necessitated two Consolidations for a 13-car train. Photo by Philip R. Hastings […]

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Lackawanna ferry boats

On a frigid February 10, 1951, four Hudson River ferries are in the slips of the Lackawanna Railroad’s Hoboken terminal. The photo was made from a fifth DL&W boat heading out into the icy river for a trip to Manhattan. Photo by Edward Theisinger […]

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Narrow-gauge doodlebug

East Broad Top car M-1 was assembled in 1927 by EBT’s shops at Mount Union, Pa., from a kit of parts supplied by the J. G. Brill Co. The gas-electric combine has operated occasionally since EBT’s reopening as a tourist line in 1960. Photo from Classic Trains collection […]

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