Union Pacific No. 5702 was assigned and lettered as a mail storage car. Built by ACF in 1949, it was a long (85-foot) streamlined lightweight car riding on six-wheel trucks. Union Pacific photo […]
UP storage mail car
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Wheeling & Lake Erie 2-8-4
On June 20, 1950, seven months after the Nickel Plate Road leased the 500-mile Wheeling & Lake Erie, W&LE Berkshire 6430 rolls 75 cars toward Toledo along the Sandusky River north of Fremont, Ohio. Soon NKP would renumber the Wheeling Berks into its 800 series. Bob Lorenz photo […]
Small-town station ritual
A baggageman loads express and LCL aboard a combine on a mixed train on the Canadian Pacific (Quebec Central) at Vallee Junction, Quebec, in May 1959. Jim Shaughnessy photo […]
Yampa Valley downbound
Rio Grande PA 6013 descends the Front Range of the Rockies with the Denver-bound Yampa Valley on Aug. 13. 1966. J. W. Swanberg photo […]
Western Allegheny at dusk
Ex-Pennsy H10s 2-8-0 No. 85 of the 21-mile Western Allegheny Railroad heads a train of big Bessemer & Lake Erie hopper cars loaded with coal and limestone out of Kaylor, Pa., in September 1955. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Santa Fe 2-10-2
The Santa Fe Railway pioneered the 2-10-2 type in 1903 with a group of engines that were essentially 2-10-0 helper locomotives with trailing trucks to aid in downhill reverse movements. The wheel arrangement, known as the Santa Fe type, evolved into a general-purpose heavy freight hauler found on dozens of roads. AT&SF 3864 was built […]
Classic Trains, Fall 2017
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WM coal train in Blackwater Canyon
Western Maryland 2-8-0s 840 and 816 swing around one curve and into another as they lead a coal train east through rugged Blackwater Canyon between Elkins and Thomas, W.Va., in May 1952. Three more 2-8-0s at mid-train, and two more on the rear, help the 78-car train upgrade. Ed Theisinger photo […]
Swift refrigerator cars
A mix of older wood reefers and new steel cars mingle on the cleanout and ready tracks at Swift’s Sioux City (Iowa) plant in 1954. A lone car in the old yellow scheme stands out among a sea of cars in the red 1950 paint scheme. George Berkstresser photo […]
Tackling Tennessee Pass
Three of Denver & Rio Grande Western’s giant 3600-series 2-8-8-2s team up to lift a 42-car train up Tennessee Pass at Rex, Colo., just east of Minturn, in August 1954. R. H. Kindig photo […]
Meat reefers at Hormel
A Milwaukee Road switcher moves a cut of refrigerator cars at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minn., in 1942. Most of the reefers are wood-sheathed cars leased from North American. Classic Trains collection […]
Head-on collision aftermath
Northern Pacific 2-8-2 No. 1917 lies on its side after being hit head-on at nearly 50 mph by four F units on a freight train. The incident occurred at Wibaux, a lonely siding in far eastern Montana, on September 20, 1954. Wing Studios photo […]
