Twin Cities’ passenger trains through the years

FULL SCREEN St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press, Minnesota Historical Society Collection Burlington’s Zephyr‘s gather at St. Paul Union Depot on Sept. 29, 1948. FULL SCREEN Ronald Lundstrom Freshly painted SD45s Nos. 407 and 412 power a Great Northern director’s special at St. Paul Union Depot in the mid 1960s. FULL SCREEN Byron D. Olsen The Milwaukee […]

Read More…

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   […]

Read More…

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 […]

Read More…

Small town railroading in the early 1950s

Smalltownrailroadingintheearly1950s

For many years small towns were a major source of traffic for railroads all across the country. Long before anyone ever heard of freeways, the railroads moved all sorts of carload and less-than-carload lot (LCL) freight that kept the local businesses and nearby agricultural economy going. A local station agent-operator was the railroad’s representative who […]

Read More…

The working class

Union Pacific GP38-2 No. 648 switches customers on an industrial spur in New Berlin, Wis. The engine, built for Missouri Pacific in 1977, may no longer head road freights, but performs meaningful work nonetheless, providing service to local warehouses and factories. Photo by Matt Van Hattem […]

Read More…

Foreigner

Canadian National grain train G884 heads back east with three CSX locomotives on Jan. 19, 2014. The train is operating on trackage rights over BNSF Railway’s Aurora Subdivision from East Dubuque to Portage, Ill. Photo by Matt Krause […]

Read More…