This 1902 northward view of Chicago’s Grand Crossing makes it obvious how this busy South Side rail intersection got its name. Six tracks of Illinois Central (two suburban, two passenger, two freight) cross the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago (Pennsylvania Railroad) and Lake Shore and Michigan Southern (New York Central). Illinois Central photo […]
New York Central’s Flexi-Van concept went through multiple versions in its lifespan. This Mark III edition required the tractor to support the container while it was pivoted into place on the car due to the car’s end-turntable configuration. New York Central photo […]
Twenty miles out of Kansas City on its 187-mile trek to Salina, Kans., on the old Kansas Pacific route, Union Pacific No. 800, a 1937 Alco and first of its 45 4-8-4s, has a roll on train 39, the Kansan, west of Bonner Springs on August 8, 1955. Frank and Todd Novak collection […]
WELCOME – Santa Fe’s grandest legacy HEAD END – A potpourri of railroad history, then and now FAST MAIL – Letters from readers on our Summer 2023 issue MILEPOSTS – Commentary by Kevin P. Keefe TRUE COLOR – The morning rush in Berkeley SHORT RAILS – Commonwealth Edison THE WAY IT WAS – Tales from […]
Southern Railway F3 No. 4144 leads an A-B-B-A set of diesel locomotives on a long freight at an unidentified location. The railroad had 178 F3A units and 76 F3Bs, built between 1946 and ’49. E.P. Dandridge Jr. photo […]
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A matched A-B-B-A set of FT diesels leads a Santa Fe train upgrade at Tehachapi, Calif., in the late 1940s. The FT, introduced in 1939, proved that diesel-electric locomotives could perform well in heavy-haul mainline freight service, leading the way for the dieselization of American railroads. Linn Westcott photo […]
The New York Central had several auto-carrier Flexi-Vans in the early 1960s. This is a publicity shot of carriers with new Chryslers on their way to New York City in 1960. New York Central photo […]
A 4200-series 4-8-8-2 cab-forward steam locomotive is cut in behind a 4-8-4 to double-head Southern Pacific’s Overland Limited upgrade out of Colfax, Calif., in April 1950. The cab-forwards were a special design unique to the Southern Pacific to spare head end crews from the accumulation of exhaust in the railroad’s lengthy and frequent tunnels and snowsheds. That […]
Gas-electric motorcars were the first successful application of internal combustion on railroads. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy No. 9838 was an Electro-Motive product built by St. Louis Car Co. in 1927. It was powered by a 275-hp gasoline engine. The car pauses at Virden, Ill., south of Springfield, to load goods and passengers on this day. […]
Only seven years old, but already facing an uncertain future, Norfolk & Western J Class 4-8-4 No. 611 sprints at better than a mile-a-minute pace across the summit at Blue Ridge, Va. Behind the now-famous locomotive are 15 cars on train No. 46, the eastbound Tennessean, bound for Lynchburg, Va. The top of the skyline […]
At Bluffs, Ill., a veteran hostler oils around Wabash 2-6-0 No. 576 before she and sister 573 set off up the Keokuk Branch with freight in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
