Delayed in transit Grain cars in transit were stalled by a brief strike in 1946. To keep grain from overheating and spoiling, cars were opened and a few (the Missouri Pacific car at left) had some grain removed. This was on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas in Oklahoma. Preston George photo […]
Rumors of the death of railroad fiction are greatly exaggerated. The veteran railroad journalist Fred Frailey made that clear a year ago with his “Seldom Willing,” an absorbing tale of an ambitious 1980s Midwestern regional railroad that outmaneuvered a far larger rival. When Fred told me his novel was coming out soon, I wasn’t sure […]
Conrail train COSY-4 eases through Berea, Ohio, on Aug. 14, 1979. The train came up the old Big Four route from Columbus and will continue east to Syracuse, N.Y. Albert D. Saleker photo […]
Most offset-side hoppers were built to AAR common designs. This two-bay Minneapolis & St. Louis 2,081-cubic-foot-capacity car, built in 1936, is typical of those in service through the 1960s. Classic Trains collection […]
The eastbound City of Portland passes the tower at Clinton, Iowa, behind two Chicago & North Western E units at 9:10 a.m. on June 4, 1953. Ahead lies the Mississippi River crossing and the Windy City. Robert R. Malinoski photo […]
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, commonly known as the Burlington Route, had many Zephyrs. But out of all the streamlined trainsets and services famously named after the Greek God of the West Wind, which of the five where considered the most prestigious? Pioneer Zephyr Rolled out on April 7, 1934, by the […]
Missouri Pacific 0-8-0 No. 9721 (with caboose) helps a freight No. 75 up Kirkwood (Mo.) Hill in March 1946. Regular power was 4-8-4 No. 2111 closest to the camera. Helper 2-10-2 No. 1716 is spliced between. Joe Collias photo […]
New Chesapeake & Ohio GP7s hustle a southbound freight out of Plymouth, Mich., in the early 1950s. Robert A. Hadley photo […]
At the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Renovo, Pa., terminal in September 1955, a class L1s “Lollipop” 2-8-2 is prepared for a run as a Baldwin “Sharknose” diesel looks on. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
New York Central J-1 4-6-3 5403 accelerates toward 85 mph with a mail-and-express train heading west out of Mattoon, Ill., in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Having taken on coal and water, Rio Grande 4-8-2 No. 1505 is eastbound at Orestod, Colo., with a freight from Grand Junction in the 1940s. G. L. Campbell photo […]
Silver Planet was one of six sleeper-dome-observation cars built by the Budd Co. in 1948 for the California Zephyr, operated between Chicago and Oakland by the Burlington Route, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific. Silver Horizon, Silver Penthouse, and Silver Solarium belonged to the Burlington; Silver Sky to the Rio Grande; and Silver Crescent and Silver […]
