Empty refrigerator cars race across the Union Pacific in Nebraska in the early ’50s. A UP conductor in Idaho talked his way out of a jam when his reefer train blocked a crossing, but got into trouble when he tried to enter the produce business himself. Linn H. Westcott Within any group, whether depicted in […]
Learn about Norfolk Southern’s gateway to Chicago – and some of its neighbors – in this exciting map! Find out how trains funnel around Lake Michigan to reach the Railroad Capital of North America. […]
This bird’s-eye view map from the April 1946 issue of Trains magazine shows the Pennsylvania’s extensive facilities in the New York area in the mid-1940s. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
Jim McClellan Trains file photo VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Jim McClellan, a primary architect of North America’s modern railroad landscape, has died. McClellan was a life-long rail enthusiast who leveraged his passions for the benefit of the industry in the bankruptcy-riddled 1970s. Executives and planners relied on his knowledge of railroading and interpretations of maps […]
N&W four- and six-motor EMDs rest at Crewe, Va., in 1981, three years after author Siik became acquainted with similar units during a strike on former Nickel Plate lines in Ohio. Curt Tillotson Jr. It happened nearly four decades ago, but still fresh are my memories of following the ghosts of 2-8-4 Berkshires and Bluebird […]
Running left-handed per C&NW practice, E-class Pacific 1634 skirts Lake Monona as she departs Madison with the evening local to Chicago. Frank Rogers Back in the days when there were enough railroad companies to make train-watching really interesting, Madison, Wis., was served by three: the Milwaukee Road, the Chicago & North Western, and the Illinois […]
20th Century Limited Kalmbach Publishing, P.O. Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612. 56 minutes kalmbachhobbystore.com Just under 50 years ago, a famous train ended a 65-year run as the premier conveyance linking New York and Chicago. Operated by the New York Central Railroad, the 20th Century Limited was launched in 1902 during the “the age of […]
FULL SCREEN Robert F. Collins, John R. Taibi coll. Mountaineer 4-8-2 405 with Walton, N.Y.–Weehawken, N.J., Mountaineer at Winterton, N.Y., 1939. FULL SCREEN Donald W. Furler Train 3 2-6-0 255 with first section of Weehawken–Sidney, N.Y., train 3 at Burnside, N.Y., August 1942. FULL SCREEN Wayne Brumbaugh Train 1 4-8-2 with Weehawken–Walton train 1 at […]
Pennsylvania Railroad E8 5767 and a sister bring a westbound train to a halt at Canton, Ohio, in September 1952. Some of PRR’s E8s, like these, were delivered in PRR’s traditional dark green locomotive color with gold pinstripes; others came in Tuscan red, which the road adopted for passenger diesels in 1952. John B. Corns […]
The arm on a New York Central Railway Post Office car has just snatched the bag from the trackside crane. Incoming bags for such locations would simply be kicked out the door as the train passed. A. C. Kalmbach photo […]
In April 1948, a Rock Island 4-6-2 with an inbound commuter train approaches Englewood Union Station on Chicago’s South Side as the Peoria Rocket accelerates toward its namesake city. Bob Borcherding photo […]
Two E8As and an E7B lead NYC 26, the 20th Century Limited, eastbound at VIckers, Ohio, on a summer evening in 1966, the train’s last full year. William L. Gwyer This picture was just about the last railroad photo I took. It was the culmination of my photographic exploration of contemporary railroading in the early […]
