Two Wabash F7s passes State Line Tower in Hammond, Ind., bound for the railroad’s so-called “Punkin’ Vine” route across northern Indiana to Montpelier, Ohio, in 1953. The railroad had 118 F7A and 9 F7B units. Robert R. Malinoski photo […]
The smallest operating railroads were often born of simple economic necessity. Railroad fever gripped the U.S. in the 19th century and every town wanted to be connected. The only problem was that not every town was on the way to somewhere else. This led to several small railroads being built, often just a few miles […]
General Electric U34CH diesel locomotives helped modernize commuter rail operations in northern New Jersey in the early 1970s. A passenger version of the U36C, the U34CH was built between 1970 and 1973 for the New Jersey Department of Transportation as a commuter locomotive. The 32 units carried Nos. 3351-3382 and operated over Erie […]
The American Car & Foundry-built Missouri Pacific lounge diner on the South Texas Eagle offered a quality of food and expanse of lounge that airlines of the day couldn’t match. American Car & Foundry photo […]
Westbound Nickel Plate Road train NC-3 rolls through the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, in June 1959. The railroad, formally known as the New York, Chicago & St. Louis, dieselized its freight operations with road-switchers. As evidence, a mix of six Alco and EMD locomotives led by Alco RS11 No. 568 and EMD GP9 No. […]
A Fairbanks-Morse H24-66 Train Master diesel locomotive shows off the colors of owner Delaware, Lackawanna & Western at Hoboken, N.J., in 1956. The railroad had 12 such locomotives, Nos. 850-861, built in two batches in 1953 and 1956. They would become Erie Lackawanna Nos. 1850–1861 after the 1960 merger with the Erie Railroad. Bob Krone […]
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 […]
The Fairbanks-Morse H20-44 was another mid-century diesel that didn’t. FM’s first foray into the diesel road-switcher market was unconventional, to say the least. In 1947, instead of following the already traditional convention of a cab surrounded by a long and short hood, the Beloit, Wis., builder introduced the H20-44, and it looked like […]
Amtrak Cincinnati services arose from the need to move people between the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Amtrak moved from Cincinnati Union Terminal to a new station, its first new-built station on its vast network, located on River Road west of downtown on Oct. 29, 1972. On July 29, 1991, Amtrak returned to the monolithic […]
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 […]
Ask anyone who covers railroads for a living and they’ll tell you — if they are honest — they couldn’t do it without the support of their contacts in railroad public relations. Of course, such cooperation varies from company to company, and PR directors I’ve known have run the gamut from obfuscation to enlightenment. One […]
