GE’s 70-tonner was ideal for the lightly constructed Pacific Great Eastern. The British Columbia road had six of them, two of which are seen on a mixed train in the early 1950s. Linn W. Westcott photo […]
Pacific Great Eastern 70-tonners
Magazine: Classic Trains
Cleaning a grain boxcar
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 […]
Day’s end for a 4-4-0
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 […]
J-3a Hudson departing La Salle Street
New York Central J-3a Hudson 5414, modified with twin sealed-beam headlight and high-capacity centipede tender, departs La Salle Street Station, Chicago, with a local for Toledo on June 1, 1953. R. R. Malinoski photo […]
Liberty Limited at Baltimore
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 […]
Lima along Lake Erie
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 […]
0-4-0T amid smoke and steam
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 […]
Challengers on Helmstetter’s Curve
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 […]
Discovering the Transcontinental Railroad’s completion site at Promontory, Utah
Lonely. Isolated. Desolate. Remote. The list of words to describe how this place — one of the (if not the) most sacred sites in American railroad history — feels is nowhere long enough. To come here into the high desert is to be on a pilgrimage for a glimpse into the unending sagebrush, rocks, and […]
If a Transcontinental Railroad were Built Today
Construction crews working westward on the Union Pacific encountered rough going when they reached Utah’s Weber Canyon. Trains collection If you built a transcontinental railroad today from scratch, how long would it take, given the regulatory environment of the modern world? Nobody knows for sure, but the best guess is about 57 years. Here’s a […]
Year-by-year, a timeline of completing the Transcontinental Railroad
Union Pacific trains and ocvered wagons congregate near the end of track at Archer, Wyo., in 1867 during construction westward. Union Pacific 1832: Proponents call for transcontinental railroad 1845: New England merchant and traveler, Asa Whitney begins advocacy for Pacific Railroad 1853: Congress appropriates $150,000 for survey of five routes 1855-1860: 12 volumes of findings […]
‘Curvo’ the Transcontinental Railroad’s mainline challenge in Utah
A close-up look at Union Pacific ES44AC No. 7906 leading a westbound intermodal train at “Curvo,” a little-known engineering hotspot on the route of the first Transcontinental Railroad. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn Curvo, Utah, is a location on the route of the first Transcontinental Railroad that may be unique in American railroading. A Transcontinental Railroad spot […]
