A rakish Otto Kuhler–designed observation car brings up the rear of a Hiawatha departing Milwaukee, 85 miles from the end of its Minneapolis–Chicago run. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]
Hiawatha departing Milwaukee

A rakish Otto Kuhler–designed observation car brings up the rear of a Hiawatha departing Milwaukee, 85 miles from the end of its Minneapolis–Chicago run. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]
Crowds have gathered at Tacoma, Wash., on June 29, 1947, to witness the departure of the Milwaukee Road’s Olympian Hiawatha on its first run to Seattle, Minneapolis, and Chicago. John F. Endler Jr. photo […]
Colorado & Southern’s Denver–Dallas Texas Zephyr, led by a pair of rakish E5s from parent Burlington Route, speeds southward through Colorado foothill country in July 1965. The train will cross a corner of New Mexico and then switch to Fort Worth & Denver rails at Texline on the Texas/New Mexico state line. Roger Meade photo […]
Illinois Central, Texas & Pacific, and Kansas City Southern E units plus (barely visible) Louisville & Nashville and Southern Pacific F units) idle in the engine terminal outside New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in 1954, when the facility was new. James G. La Vake photo […]
Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 No. 250 moves out of Othello, Wash., with Thomas E. Dewey’s 17-car presidential campaign train on September 28, 1948. The 1930 Baldwin, the road’s first 4-8-4, took over from an electric here. Wade Stevenson photo […]
Two Burlington Route 2-10-2s power away from Edgemont, S.Dak., with a westbound “Banana Special,” 67 reefers of bananas bound for the Pacific Northwest, in November 1948. G. B. Taylor photo […]
Fresh from the American Car & Foundry plant in 1950, this RPO is ready for service on Great Northern’s newly re-equipped Empire Builder. The 85-foot car has a 60-foot RPO apartment. ACF photo […]
Baltimore & Ohio S-1 2-10-2 6149 descends the west side of the Allegheny Mountains at Keystone, Pa., after crossing the summit at Sand Patch on April 5, 1947. William P. Price photo […]
A Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range 2-8-2 has hold of a caboose at Rainy Junction, Minn., on the Mesabi Iron Range in August 1950. An Oliver Iron Mining RS2 diesel works in the distance. Henry J. McCord photo […]
GP30s stand in the foreground as F9s lead the westbound Rio Grande Zephyr up the Front Range toward the Moffat tunnel in the 1970s. Classic Trains coll. […]
The E units from Burlington Route train 29, the Fast Mail from Chicago, prepare to couple to a baggage express car after setting out other cars at Council Bluffs. The steam and signal lines made it more time-consuming to switch head-end equipment. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
A worker unloads produce from refrigerator cars on a Pennsylvania Railroad car float in New York harbor in 1939. This car float has two tracks flanking a central covered platform that enabled cars to be unloaded while still on the float. Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congress photo […]