Working on the railroad

Norfolk Southern train 19G, westbound at Lebanon, Pa., is led by SD70s Nos. 2539 and 2557 on Jan. 9, 2014. The track gang is installing new welded rail on both tracks of a 3-mile section of the double-track NS Harrisburg Line through this south-central Pennsylvania city. Photo by Mark W. Hoffman […]

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Coast twilight

A Union Pacific ethanol train led by AC4400CW No. 7007 skirts the Carquinez Strait at sunset. The train is passing Eckley Pier with the wrecked remains of the steamship Garden City in the water. Photo by Brian Roberts […]

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What kind of day did you have?

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Bystanders inspect a sedan deluged with coke during a derailment of an L&N train in Chattanooga. C. K. Marsh Jr. One day in 1965, a friend and I were searching for the obscure terminal of the Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railroad in the Alton Park section of Chattanooga. Coming up on a railroad crossing, we […]

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A glimpse at today’s streetcars

FULL SCREEN Mike Bjork One of the benefits of streetcars is that they introduce mass transit on the city streets where people park their cars, drive to work, and walk. A perfect example of that is with Portland’s original streetcar line where a person is about to cross in front of a northbound streetcar on […]

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Right-of-way

  Looking out of place, two CSX GEs take Canadian Pacific train No. 470 down North Second Street in Bellevue, Iowa, on Jan. 19, 2014. Photo by Matt Krause   […]

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Local hero

With a short five-car train, Canadian National’s local out of Dubuque, Iowa, has just crossed the Mississippi River and pops out of the short tunnel in East Dubuque, IL. The train will travel down the BNSF Railway using trackage to an industry that CN switches before calling it a day and returning home after dark. Photo […]

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C&O E8’s on “the George”

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Two brand-new E8’s are in charge of the westbound George Washington at Hampton, Va., on Sept. 12, 1951. C&O bought 31 E8’s from EMD between 1951 and ’53, the first 10 of which wore the blue-and-yellow “freight” livery seen here. Bill Taub photo […]

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Amtrak crew districts

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At the beginning of February 2006, the company had 56 active “T & E” (train and engine) crew bases at 53 locations, where conductors and engineers reported to work, ready to handle from 233 to 286 daily departures. (New York, Washington, and Harrisburg, Pa., have two districts originating from one base.) That year, Amtrak closed […]

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