GP30s stand in the foreground as F9s lead the westbound Rio Grande Zephyr up the Front Range toward the Moffat tunnel in the 1970s. Classic Trains coll. […]
Action on the Front Range
Section: Photo of the Day
Fast Mail at Council Bluffs
The E units from Burlington Route train 29, the Fast Mail from Chicago, prepare to couple to a baggage express car after setting out other cars at Council Bluffs. The steam and signal lines made it more time-consuming to switch head-end equipment. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Unloading on a car float
A worker unloads produce from refrigerator cars on a Pennsylvania Railroad car float in New York harbor in 1939. This car float has two tracks flanking a central covered platform that enabled cars to be unloaded while still on the float. Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congress photo […]
Troubled times
Rolling through Marengo, Iowa, in May 1979 was this Rock Island freight with GP38-2 No. 4305 leading. This Davenport–Des Moines section of the Omaha main was one of the road’s busiest, but this portion was still train order territory. The railroad’s precarious financial condition is reflected in the depot’s upkeep. R.B. Olson photo […]
Train time in New Orleans
Passengers walk out to Missouri Pacific’s Orleanean, loading on Track 4 of recently opened New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in mid-1954. James G. La Vake photo […]
Train of Tomorrow’s observation car
Moon Glow, the dome observation car of the 1947GM Train of Tomorrow featured seating for 68 in four separate lounge areas. L. O. Merrill photo […]
Streamlined 4-8-4 with GTW’s Maple Leaf
At 9:52 on the morning of June 2, 1953, Grand Trunk Western U-4 No. 6410 accelerates the Toronto-bound Maple Leaf away from Dearborn Station, Chicago. R. R. Malinoski photo […]
Steam and diesel on the Union Pacific
June 13, 1950, finds three Fairbanks-Morse H20-44 end-cab road-switchers and 4-8-2 No. 7019 at Union Pacific’s San Bernardino (Calif.) engine house. The F-Ms had taken over Cajon Pass helper chores in 1948. When they were found wanting, UP brought steam back for a spell in 1950–51. Chard Walker photo […]
South Wind heading north
Streamlined Louisville & Nashville 4-6-2 275 departs Birmingham, Ala., with the every-third-day South Wind from Miami to Chicago on February 4, 1941. James Wade, L&NHS coll. […]
Seashore Lines Budd Car
One of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines’ 12 Budd Rail Diesel Cars pauses at Collingswood, N.J., about 3 miles out of Camden on the old West Jersey & Seashore, in September 1964. William J. Coxey photo […]
Piggyback on the Wabash
Several piggyback cars head northbound on the Wabash at Forrest, Ill., en route to Chicago in March 1960. In a few years, the route would host the railroad’s Roadrunner overnight TOFC train. J. Parker Lamb photo […]
Photo of the Day
This 40-foot Canadian National boxcar was built in November 1923 and was still in service in the 1970s. The car is single-sheathed (meaning sheathed only on the inside of the truss-style metal bracing) and has wood sides and ends. Note the modern AEI panel on the 1923-built car. Michael Dean photo […]
