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FULL SCREEN Photograph by John Walker Barriger III. Courtesy of the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, St. Louis Mercantile Library, University of Missouri, St. Louis. A westbound, steam-powered freight train on the Santa Fe Railway framed by the front window of an early diesel locomotive at Matfield Green, Kansas, circa 1940. The diesel, […]
Engineer Norman Strickland (in front of cylinder) and fireman Russell Phillips stand at Perryville, Md., with G5s 1592, ready to depart with MD-58 for Philadelphia via the Octoraro Branch. George Gillespie Probably 90 percent of all railfans would say their favorite locomotive is the one on which they took their first cab ride. This is […]
On a day when they left the “Green Hornet” parked in order to simply watch the Afternoon Hiawatha sweep by, artist buddies Howard Fogg (at right in photo) and Gil Reid witnessed an F7 Hudson lean into Deerfield Curve with the Chicago-bound train. Gil Reid The year is 1939, and I am a student at […]
Union Pacific’s Las Vegas depot was the gateway to temptation for some passengers. Fletcher Swan I am a fanatic when it comes to preserving old paperwork related to railroad operations and history, as attested by a cluttered basement. I tell my wife, who is sometimes a bit skeptical, that there is always some interesting history […]
When SP cab-forward 4173 derailed on the turntable at Tucson, “suits” and laborers reported to the scene. R. S. Plummer, Gordon Bassett coll. I have been collecting old black-and-white railroad negatives for nearly 30 years. When I receive a new batch, it’s like Christmas, opening the package and sorting through the stuff. You never know […]
Twenty-four years separate these two density maps — a long time in North American railroading. The 1974 Penn Central map uses the last data available for the failed railroad; the 1998 Conrail map likewise is based on the last data before its system was split between CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern. While similarities appear, the […]
Illinois Railway Museum’s Burlington E5 No. 9911-A, and the Nebraska Zephyr occasionally makes an appearance outside of the museum. On Sept. 29, 1993, the set overnights on the Wisconsin Central in Burlington, Wis. Photo by Tom Danneman […]
Near the end of its San Francisco–L.A. run, SP GS-2 4-8-4 4415 rolls “Overnight Merchandise” train 374 through Glendale. Herb Sullivan In 1954, when I was 14 years old, my family moved to within a few blocks of Southern Pacific’s Glendale Tower north of Los Angeles. I soon became friends with the second-trick towerman, and […]
This Map of the Month appeared in the May 2004 issue of Trains magazine. If a system map is an archaeological record of mergers, acquisitions, abandonments, and line sales, then a crew-district map is the record of all of these, plus technological change and traffic pattern change, with a great deal of law and contract negotiations […]
Townspeople of South Charleston, W.Va., inspect C&O 500, first of the road’s trio of colossal steam-electric-turbine locomotives intended for its new Chessie train, on Dec. 4, 1947. Ogden Willis, William J. Sparkmon coll. When Robert R. Young took over control of the Chesapeake & Ohio, he started looking for ways to improve the railroad. After […]
CB&Q Hudson 4000, a sister to the 3012 that surprised Bob Jack on a freight, works tonnage at Galesburg, Ill., in 1954. Robert Milner Steam died in various ways, depending on the railroad. I nominate the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, “The Q,” for having done it in the most agreeable fashion. On some roads, steam’s […]
FULL SCREEN Fred Springer George Springer, the photographer’s father, leans out the window of Rio Grande Southern’s Gallloping Goose No. 4 on the lower curved trestle of the Ophir Loop. The high trestle is in the background. The railroad had 142 bridges and trestles between Ridgway and Durango. FULL SCREEN Fred Springer Galloping Geese, Nos. […]
