In 1934 on the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, largest of the Maine two-foot-gauge railroads, a gasoline railcar and baggage trailer are ready to depart the depot at Strong, while 2-6-2 No. 24 prepares to follow with a freight. Peter Cornwall coll. […]
Like trilobites and brachiopods, the paper carcasses of 19th-century railroads seem forever locked away in the sediments of corporate archives and government files. They fill the pages of old Official Guides and Poor’s Manual of the Railroads by the hundreds. Nearly all of them are dormant — but some are not. Consider the case […]
Louisville & Nashville 1807, one of the road’s big fleet of heavy USRS 2-8-2s, moves through Strawberry Yard, south of Louisville, in the late 1940s. Charles B. Castner photo […]
Smack in the middle of the Hawkeye State, Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 No. 310 crosses the Skunk River with train 342, the return leg of the daily mixed from Marshalltown to Story City, Iowa, in mid-1946. The spindly bridge near Roland necessitated the use of light motive power on the Story City Branch. William F. […]
Western Maryland 2-10-0 1109 leads empty coal hoppers and other freight cars west at famous Helmstetter’s Curve on WM’s main line west of Cumberland, Md. Today the right of way hosts Western Maryland Scenic Railway tourist trains and a bike path. Ed Theisinger photo […]
At Dorchester Junction on southwest Virginia’s coal-hauling Interstate Railroad, Baldwin 2-8-0 No. 2 stands with a caboose. Ed Theisinger photo […]
The Erie’s icing platform at Marion, Ohio, handled a lot of meat and other perishable traffic. Here, carts on the upper-level platform service a pair of Wilson meat reefers. The two Pacific Fruit Express reefers at right will receive chunk ice from the main platform. A large ice plant is in the background. Erie Railroad photo […]
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio GP30 502 leads southbound freight 33 south of Pomona, Ill., in December 1971, ten months before GM&O’s merger with Illinois Central. Steven Mueller photo […]
Burlington Route diesel 9907A Silver Knight, built in 1936 for the new Denver Zephyr, heads three heavyweight suburban cars on CB&Q’s Chicago–Aurora line in 1950. Robert Milner photo […]
Erie Railroad class K-5a Pacific 2960 heels to a curve near Hale’s Eddy, N.Y., on its way east with the Chicago–New York Erie Limited on Aug. 24, 1941. Charles G. Krumm photo […]
Nickel Plate Road crewmen enjoy a meal in the cafeteria of the new away-from-home crew building at NKP’s Calumet Yard in 1951. NKP photo […]
On a murky winter night, a Chicago & Eastern Illinois 4-6-2 on a northbound passenger train waits for a signal at Dalton in south-suburban Chicago. Classic Trains collection […]
