In 1931-32, Chief Mechanical Engineer Charles T. Ripley applied his European experience, along with his work on steam motorcar M-104 back in 1911, as he worked with Winton Engine Manufacturing Co., Electro-Motive Corp., and the Pullman Co. in the design, development, and introduction to service of a distillate-engine-powered motorcar, the M-190. The articulated M-190 […]
The Pennsylvania Railroad liked to double-head K4s Pacifics on heavy passenger trains. Here, the second section of eastbound train 76, the Trail Blazer, leaves Englewood, Ill., in south suburban Chicago in January 1941. Paul Eilenberger, Harold Stinton collection […]
After doubling its train together at Clare Yard in Cincinnati, train 78 prepares to depart east for Portsmouth, Ohio, over the Peavine in December 1959. Doubling the train blocked the Pennsylvania’s main line diamond at Clare. Tom Smart, J. David Ingles collection […]
Colorado Railroad Museum founder Bob Richardson moves a three-way switch at the Narrow Gauge Museum south of Alamosa, Colo., in the mid-1950s. This was the initial gathering point for the collection before it moved to Golden in 1958. The Mears Junction sign is from the place where the Rio Grande’s Marshall Pass and Valley narrow […]
Has any class of homebuilt, remanufactured mainline steam locomotive ever performed as brilliantly as the Reading T-1 4-8-4? Given the long lives of four from its illustrious class of 30 engines, I’d say no. I came to this conclusion during a recent visit to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, which has announced that ex-RDG […]
There is always the story of the locomotive that got away. For years back in the late 1960s, whenever I was in southern Oregon (due to my Air Force status), I stopped by the McCloud Railway and, with camera in hand, one by one knocked off their diesel fleet and cars. Except Baldwin Locomotive […]
Trailers were loaded and unloaded at mid-century “circus style” by means of a ramp at the end of a track and retractable bridge plates between cars. Here, a Southern Pacific trailer moves along a string of flatcars. Robert Hale photo […]
In southwest Indiana, well-kept caboose 101 brings up the rear of a train on the Algers, Winslow & Western, a 16-mile coal-hauling short line, in May 1952. Ed Theisinger photo […]
Louisville & Nashville 4-8-2 No. 407 on Cincinnati–Birmingham train 7 passes 2-8-0 No. 1212 on a northbound freight on double track 10 miles south of Louisville in November 1948. C. William Streit photo […]
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 […]
