West Virginia survivor

20180307

2-8-0 No. 4 of short line Buffalo Creek & Gauley works at Swandale, W.Va., in the early 1960s. After a spell at the North Carolina Transportation Museum, where it ran as “Southern Railway 604,” this engine is now at Cass, W.Va. Classic Trains coll. […]

Read More…

Topping Tennessee Pass

20180309

At Mitchell, Colo., an eastbound freight train is about a mile short of Tennessee Pass on Oct. 5, 1947. In deference to the stiff grade, the 4-8-2 road engine is assisted by a 2-8-8-2 at mid-train and another 2-8-8-2 at the rear — all for a 30-car train. Ralph E. Hallock photo […]

Read More…

The “middle” order

NS1615

Baldwin road-switcher 1615 passes the Hertford, N.C., depot with Norfolk Southern freight 88 in January 1965. A few months later, removal of a siding here would cause some confusion. Harry Bundy Telegraph operators working from the extra list rolled with the punches. They were on call 24/7, as they say now, to fill vacancies created […]

Read More…

Two big engines that couldn’t

Smoking steam Missouri Pacific locomotives with freight train

After a 2-10-2 and 4-8-4 stalled on MoPac’s Kirkwood Hill, an 0-8-0 and caboose couple up to render assistance. Joe Collias Heading west from St. Louis, Missouri Pacific trains faced the 6-mile-long, 1-percent grade known as Kirkwood Hill. Normal train length was 100 cars, powered by one of the rebuilt 2101-class 4-8-4s and led by […]

Read More…

‘Abandoned’ during switching at Jacksonville

JacksonvilleUnStanight

Splitting and combining trains was a well-practiced ritual at Jacksonville Union Station. David W. Salter From 1954 until I was 11 years old in 1965, we traveled, by Pullman, from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to North Miami, using either the Seaboard Air Line or Atlantic Coast Line south of Richmond, Va. Until the Florida […]

Read More…

WM local from Elkins

Western Maryland Railroad local train on the Potomac River

Pacific 203 leads Western Maryland’s Elkins, W.Va.–Cumberland, Md., local train along the North Branch of the Potomac River near Westernport, Md., in June 1952. H. F. Houck photo […]

Read More…

Genesis of a debt to be repaid

NHPAsSouthStation1961

Before starting their seven-stop trek to Providence, the two Alco PAs on New Haven train 531 prepare to follow the FL9s on the Merchants Limited (left in photo) out of South Station, Boston, in 1961. Chris Burger In the early 1960s, I was a student at Providence College in Rhode Island’s capital city, commuting on […]

Read More…

Winter Rail Memories

Celebrate the winter season with Classic Trains’ compilation of Winter Rail Memories, featuring four articles and stunning images showcasing some of our favorite snow-filled stories. In Long Way Home for Christmas, author David Ingles recounts his trip home from college in 1965, when he ventured on a rail odyssey from central Illinois, to Dearborn, Mich., […]

Read More…