Three of the Virginian Railway’s box-cab electrics fly high above the New River with an eastbound train at Glen Lyn, Va., in the 1950s. Richard J. Cook photo […]
Flying Virginian freight train
Magazine: Classic Trains
Winston-Salem Southbound night meet
Time freights 209 and 212 of the Winston-Salem Southbound Railroad meet at Eller, N.C., in 1956. Reflective of the 95-mile WSS’s two owners, Mikado 827 (right) is a former Atlantic Coast Line engine with a Norfolk & Western tender. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
IC’s Central Station, Chicago
Illinois Central opened its Central Station on Chicago’s lakefront in April 1893. This 1950s view shows the grand arched waiting room, which was marred in 1962 by the installation of a false ceiling. Demolition came in 1974. IC photo […]
Lehigh & Hudson River heavy 2-8-0
With cars from the New Haven Railroad interchange at Maybrook, N.Y., a Lehigh & Hudson River freight makes a smoky passage through Lake, N.Y., en route to Allentown, Pa. Up front is one of L&HR’s heavy 2-8-0s. Donald W. Furler photo […]
MoPac Mikado with a doghouse
The head-end brakeman of a Missouri Pacific freight train looks out from his “doghouse” on the tender of 2-8-2 No. 1571 at Little Rock, Ark. J. M. Gray photo […]
UP storage mail car
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 […]
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 […]
‘Wanna ride along with us?’
The engineer of Southern SD35 3007, preparing to depart East St. Louis in April 1968, invited me up for a cab ride—but logistics intervened. J. David Ingles Over the years, I’d bet most of us non-railroaders who’ve been out taking train pictures have received a spontaneous invitation from an engine crew we encountered. And how […]
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 […]
Open-hearth light show: Benwood at night
A steel mill at night, like this one in the Pittsburgh area, was an unforgettable sight. Baltimore & Ohio At night the atmosphere in many railroad yards was completely different than it is during the daytime. Although few railroaders would admit it, there were scenes that pleased both the eye and the psyche: The colors […]
