Southern Pacific 4-8-8-2 cab-forward No. 4203 works hard in pusher service on Tehachapi Grade near Woodford, Calif., in August 1948. SP commissioned the specially designed locomotives to minimize crews’ exposure to tunnels in the lengthy tunnels and snowsheds on its system, a benefit that did not always apply to locomotives further back in the train. […]
Fruit Growers Express helped pioneer mechanical refrigerator cars. This 55-foot, 60-ton car was built in 1957 and just had a new refrigeration unit installed before this 1975 photo. Jeff Wilson collection […]
Great Northern inaugurated the Red River connecting Grand Forks, N.Dak., and points east on June 25, 1950, as a four-car train. This view shows the spotless new coffee shop in the train’s observation car. Great Northern photo […]
SD39 No. 4007 works freight on the Santa Fe at Las Cruces, N.Mex., in 1970. Only 59 of this 12-cylinder, turbocharged model were built for the Santa Fe; Illinois Terminal; Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern; and Southern Pacific. Chris Raught photo […]
A New York Central switcher pulls a string of loaded open-rack cars in the early 1960s. The auto rack car, introduced in 1960, quickly became popular and regained finished-auto traffic for railroads. J. David Ingles collection […]
Kansas City Southern’s flagship, the Southern Belle, is ready to depart New Orleans for Kansas City behind an EMD E6 in August 1950. The train, the first such direct service between the points, is the result of the railroad’s acquisition of the Louisiana & Arkansas in 1939. James G. La Vake photo […]
A refrigerator car rolls into the bowl of Union Pacific’s North Platte, Nebr., hump yard. The box to the right contains a radar speed-monitoring device. Union Pacific photo […]
A Missouri Pacific Mountain-type 4-8-2 rolls an 83-car train under the coaling tower at Gurdon, Ark., in 1952. Soon, diesels would render the locomotive, and coaling tower, obsolete. The railroad had 29 such MT-73 class engines, Nos. 5308–5316 and 5335–5344, built by Alco between 1921 and 1930. All were retired by the end of 1956. […]
Nature quickly began to reclaim the right-of-way at High View Tunnel soon after New York, Ontario, & Western abandoned in 1957. This 1963 view at the south portal shows rails and tie plates gone and weeds encroaching upon the weathered ties. George Weidner photo […]
Arrival and departure boards at New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal’s main entry are chock-full of trains in the mid-1950s. The $25.5 million facility had 12 tracks and opened in May 1954. James G. La Vake photo […]
Santa Fe mechanical reefer No. 51164, built in 1966, is from the railroad’s largest group of mechanical cars, the 700 57-footers of class Rr-89. It wears the late all-orange scheme. J. David Ingles collection […]
Train 26, New York Central’s eastbound 20th Century Limited, pauses at Buffalo, N.Y., on its final run in December 1967. Edward J. Joscelyn photo […]
