Cleaning a grain boxcar

20190305

The Soo Line used what it called Mobile Cleaning Units — trucks with a power sweeper, power washers, and other cleaning and repair equipment — to clean and prep boxcars for grain shipment at its yards in Schiller Park (Chicago) and Shoreham (Minneapolis) in the early 1960s. The rig, with two workers, could clean a […]

Read More…

Day’s end for a 4-4-0

20190318

Canadian Pacific 4-4-0 136 waits to enter the one-stall engine house at Norton, N.B., after bringing a mixed train in from Chipman in November 1953. In the background is one of the light bridges on the Chipman line that required the use of three little 4-4-0s. Philip R. Hastings photo […]

Read More…

Liberty Limited at Baltimore

20190312

GG1 4901’s nose door is ajar as it leads sister 4894 on the Pennsy’s Liberty Limited out of Baltimore in September 1954. The train came in from Chicago behind diesels; the track arrangement at Baltimore required it to be hauled backwards to Washington (note the observation car behind the second G). H. N. Proctor photo […]

Read More…

Lima along Lake Erie

20190311

Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 779 hurries west with a freight beside Lake Erie between Lorain and Vermilion, Ohio, in April 1957. The 8-year-old Berkshire was the last steam locomotive built by Lima Locomotive Works. John A. Rehor photo […]

Read More…

0-4-0T amid smoke and steam

20190315

Four-wheel saddle-tanker No. 3, a 1910 product of Alco’s Cooke works, is enveloped in clouds of smoke and steam at the Colorado Fuel & Iron facility in Birdsboro, Pa., east of Reading, in September 1957. Aaron G. Fryer photo […]

Read More…

Challengers on Helmstetter’s Curve

20190304

Western Maryland 4-6-6-4s up front and at mid-train lift a freight upgrade around Helmstetter’s Curve in the late 1940s or early ’50s. Today, Western Maryland Scenic Railway tourist trains still traverse this landmark a few miles west of Cumberland, Md. George C. Corey photo […]

Read More…

When the train left, the fun paled

CofG500

Central of Georgia’s 500-series Consolidations possessed good lines accented by interesting detail: visored headlight, capped stack, serif numerals, striped sandbox, generous cab. Classic Trains collection An alligator crosshead moving back and forth on its greased guides to the dictates of a hot piston rod; the hurried, hollow sighs up the stack as a pair of […]

Read More…

The Shaughnessy Files

In honor of Jim Shaughnessy, a legendary railroad photographer, we have gathered together a free 15-page PDF download filled with three stories written and photographed by Shaughnessy. […]

Read More…

Crisis at the coal chute!

CN3503

The engineer of Canadian National 2-8-2 3503 enjoys the breeze as he hurries a freight east at Lorne Park, Ont., in August 1955, a year after the author’s experience on another CN Mikado some 700 miles to the northwest. W. H. N. Rossiter A steam locomotive fireman’s duties go far beyond the actual firing of the […]

Read More…