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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A Canadian Pacific FP7-F7B set picks its way out of Toronto with a 13-car unnamed train No. 11 for Sudbury, Ontario, in 1964. The 260-mile run took just shy of six hours and 50 minutes to complete. Photo by J. David Ingles […]
Sixty-odd years ago, I was a youth living in Palmyra, Wis., where my father, Ben Eller Sr., was the station agent for the Milwaukee Road. Palmyra, 42 miles west of Milwaukee, was on the Madison Division, the original line to the state capital via Milton and Janesville. When I was 12, I got braces on […]
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Join Trains editors on a short tour of the best parts of Rochelle, Ill., for rail fans — the places where train horns sound often. Rochelle is the crossroads of Union Pacific and BNSF Railway mainlines in the middle of Illinois, in the middle of the Midwest — ensuring dozens of a train a day […]
A 2-8-0 helper assists the cab-forward 4-8-8-2 road engine on the eastbound San Francisco Overland, climbing Southern Pacific’s Donner Pass line in the late 1940s. Photo by Jim Morley […]
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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 […]
Louisville & Nashville’s Georgian from Atlanta pulls past St. Louis Union Station before backing into the big trainshed. The train is heavy with head-end business on this December 19, 1965. Photo by J. David Ingles […]
The open hood doors on the left side of a Southern Pacific GP9 reveal the locomotive’s 567C diesel engine, main generator, and auxiliaries. Photo by EMD […]
