Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line By Gregory L. Schneider University Press of Kansas, 2502 Westbrooke Cir., Lawrence, KS 66045; 392 pages, 26 photos; hardcover, 6.125 x 9.25 in.; $37.50 This impressive volume chronicles the long, sad decline of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and illustrates how federal regulation […]
Bystanders inspect a sedan deluged with coke during a derailment of an L&N train in Chattanooga. C. K. Marsh Jr. One day in 1965, a friend and I were searching for the obscure terminal of the Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railroad in the Alton Park section of Chattanooga. Coming up on a railroad crossing, we […]
Conrail-painted Norfolk Southern heritage unit No. 8098. Tom Danneman NEW YORK — Many never knew his name, but that didn’t change the mark he left on the rail industry. Literally. The designer of the famous Conrail “can opener” logo, Tony Palladino, has died at age 84, the New York Times reports. “People don’t want to […]
A predecessor of this Rio Grande engineer made a daring Chama–Durango run in 1923. A. C. Kalmbach My grandfather, Marvin Rhodes, lived for almost a century, and he spent more than half of his long life working out of Durango, Colo., on the narrow-gauge lines of the Denver & Rio Grande Western. He hired out […]
For many years small towns were a major source of traffic for railroads all across the country. Long before anyone ever heard of freeways, the railroads moved all sorts of carload and less-than-carload lot (LCL) freight that kept the local businesses and nearby agricultural economy going. A local station agent-operator was the railroad’s representative who […]
Watch video of big Louisville & Nashville steam locomotives on special trains into Louisville for the 1956 Kentucky Derby from the Herron Rail Video program Reflections of American Railroading. […]
Watch video of big Louisville & Nashville steam locomotives on special trains into Louisville for the 1956 Kentucky Derby from the Herron Rail Video program Reflections of American Railroading. […]
Santa Fe’s Chief approaches the Lamanda Park siding on May 17, 1946. The fireman on the helper is ready to jump off and uncouple his 4-8-2 so it can move into the clear and let 4-8-4 No. 2921 continue east with train 20. Stan Kistler In early 1946, my family moved into a small house […]
Anything in the path of fast-moving N&W class J was sure to sustain significant damage. W. A. Akin Jr. Back in the glory days, the speed limit for passenger trains on Norfolk & Western’s Bristol Line was 65 mph. Several of the trains, including 45 and 46, the streamlined Tennessean, did considerable station work en […]
No. 1009 Norfolk Southern CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Norfolk Southern has completed the cosmetic restoration of the Virginia Museum of Transportation’s Wabash E8 No. 1009. The unit was the 10,000th diesel locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division, commemorated on June 14, 1951, at its La Grange, Ill., facility. The locomotive saw service pulling streamliners such […]
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The Katy-Frisco Texas Special, a favorite conveyance for the Katy president’s business car, arrives in St. Louis in 1956. Fred Scott My railroad-related career started in 1941, when I was hired as a stenographer by the South-Western Freight Bureau in St. Louis. It was readily accepted for a young man who had studied shorthand and […]
