A brick interlocking tower guards the crossing of Soo Line (left to right in photo) and Chicago & North Western trackage in Shawano, Wis. Gordon Odegard photo […]
Interlocking tower at Shawano, Wis.
Section: Photos
Frisco heavy 2-8-2
The Frisco’s 4200-series Mikados of 1930 were among the most powerful 2-8-2s on any railroad. They were rated at 68,500 lbs. tractive effort — 78,100 lbs. with booster — and could wheel fast freights at 50 mph. Frank E. Ardrey photo […]
SP piggyback train
For a time in the 1950s, Southern Pacific had the most extensive piggyback operations in the land. Here a train bound from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area climbs Santa Susana Pass near Chatsworth, Calif. Classic Trains coll. […]
Soo Line overnighter leaving Chicago
Handsome 4-8-2 No. 4018 marches away from Chicago’s Grand Central Station with Soo Line train 17 for Duluth, Minn., with cars for Minneapolis and Ashland, Wis., in May 1949. Harold Stirton photo […]
GM&O RS1 at Joliet
The engineer of a Gulf, Mobile & Ohio RS1 eyes the photographer as his locomotive clatters across the Rock Island diamonds at Joliet, Ill., in 1951. The Alco and a caboose are bound for GM&O’s South Joliet yard. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Inside GN’s 1951 Empire Builder
The 1951 edition of Great Northern’s flagship train, which the road called the Mid-Century Empire Builder at the time, included a 60-seat coach for short-haul passengers. GN photo […]
Last duty for a PRR Mikado
In September 1955, workers at the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Renovo (Pa.) engine terminal prepare L1s 2-8-2 No. 8426 for service as a stationary steam supply at the road’s giant Sunnyside Yard in New York City. The Mike has been converted to oil-firing for this duty, most likely its last assignment. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Big Sky local
Pacific 2119 leads Northern Pacific train 288 east in Silver Bow Canyon, a dozen miles west of Butte, Mont., in the late 1940s. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
NYC’s Commodore Vanderbilt Hudson
New York Central class J-1e 4-6-4 No. 5344 received sheet-metal shrouding in 1934, making it the first streamlined steam locomotive in America. Carl F. Kantola of NYC’s equipment engineering department created the design. The Hudson was named Commodore Vanderbilt after the NYC’s famous early leader, but initially displayed no road number. Glenn Grabill photo […]
PRR E8 exits a tunnel
Pennsylvania Railroad E8 No. 5795 leads train 32, the New York–bound St. Louisan, out of one of the twin tunnels at Spruce Creek, Pa., in the mid-1950s. Don Wood photo […]
WM 44-tonner
Western Maryland 76, one of two GE 44-tonners the road had, both built in 1943, does some switching at WM’s Hillen Street terminal in Baltimore in July 1948. H. A. McBride photo […]
C&EI’s Meadowlark
E7 diesel 1101 leads Chicago & Eastern Illinois’ southbound Meadowlark at 63rd Street station (“Little Englewood”), Chicago, in the late 1940s. The obscure orange-and-blue streamliner terminated at the unlikely location of Cyprus, Ill. (population 300). William N. Clark photo […]
