Former Pittsburgh & Lake Erie class K-5a Pacific 4920 is just out of the station at Lafayette, Ind., and onto the Wabash River bridge with the westbound Sycamore in 1950. Robert Aldag Jr. photo […]
NYC Pacific with the Sycamore
Nickel Plate Berks
Nickel Plate Road Berkshires pose at Bellevue, Ohio. The 772 was built in 1949 for NKP proper, while 802 is ex-Wheeling & Lake Erie 6402, built in 1937. “The Wheeling” joined the Van Sweringen brothers’ railroad family when NKP finally merged it in 1949. In 1923, the “Vans” successfully effected the only significant merger of […]
Milwaukee monolith
Terminal elevators on lakes and rivers feature rail unloading on the inland side, lots of rail storage tracks, and loading and unloading gear for boats and barges on the water side. This scene along the Chicago & North Western in Milwaukee is from the early 1950s. Photo by William A. Akin […]
Herington pusher
Rock Island train 39 heads west from Kansas City, Kans., on UP trackage rights (as far as Topeka) on March 2, 1963. Tagging along behind the Southern Pacific coach for Los Angeles at the rear of the train is RDC3 9016, the “Herington pusher.” At that Kansas junction, it will uncouple and go 73 miles […]
Frisco forsaken
Scrapping a steam locomotive was a relatively simple matter. Workers at Sheffield Steel in Kansas City just started at the rear of Frisco 4-8-2 4308 one day in April 1953 and worked their way forward. Photo by James A. Williams […]
Knoxville ’75: A Memorable Steam Summit
Driving south recently on Interstate 75, nearing the Kentucky/Tennessee line, an upcoming offramp caught my eye, causing me to make a quick turn to the right. “Next exit, Jellico.” Jellico! A town I likely never would have known were it not for a memorable July 30, 1975, steam excursion behind celebrated Southern Railway 2-8-2 […]
Fireman’s view
Thanks to a friendly crew, here is the Indiana countryside between Kokomo and Elwood as seen from the cab of Penn Central E7 4211 on April 20, 1971. No. 66, a remnant of the Pennsy’s Buckeye, had just 10 days to live. Photo by J. David Ingles […]
Faded glory
Its paint and glory faded, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Alco DL109 No. 271 rests on a siding along the Indiana Harbor Belt at La Grange, Ill., on its way to scrapping for trade-in credit on new EMD locomotives in September 1963. Photo by Jim C. Seacrest […]
Amtrak Twin Cities services through the years
Amtrak Twin Cities services started on May 1, 1971, at the Burlington Northern (former Great Northern) station in Minneapolis. Service levels ebbed and flowed through the years as trains were added or subtracted. Amtrak opened a new Twin Cities station on March 1, 1978, using a standard plan that was also built in […]
Elroy-Sparta State Trail: Biking Along the Route of the ‘400’
The first rail-to-trail conversion in the U.S., the Elroy-Sparta State Trail, gives riders an opportunity to traverse three tunnels. Wisconsin isn’t usually associated with railroad tunnels, but it once had a number of them. Today only Canadian Pacific’s bore at Tunnel City is active, but next door is the closed tunnel of the Chicago […]
Elusive editor
Trains magazine Editor David P. Morgan watches the head end of a Southern Pacific freight pull out of the center siding at Midas, Calif., on the west side of Donner Pass. He and the photographer will board the 104-car train’s caboose when it reaches them. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Cowboy state conveyance
Workers fuel and exchange mail on Chicago, Burlington & Quincy train 29, known informally as the “Night Crawler,” at Casper, Wyo., in July 1966. Passengers have detrained for breakfast in town while “Chinese red” EMD and GE diesels on a freight wait to follow the passenger train out of town, the largest in the state […]
