Conrail history starts with Penn Central’s bankruptcy in 1970, a collapse that upset the entire railroad industry. Something had to be done — Penn Central could not simply be liquidated. It operated one-third of the nation’s passenger trains and was the principal freight carrier in the Northeast. Without PC, the industries of the area would […]
The New Berlin & Winfield was a 3-foot-gauge short line in central Pennsylvania extending from Winfield on the west shore of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River to New Berlin. It opened in 1905, quite late for a narrow-gauge common carrier. NB&W 2-6-0 No. 2, photographed at New Berlin around 1910, went to Argent […]
Between Dallastown Junction and Yoe, Pa., on the Maryland & Pennsylvania, railfans fill a flatcar outfitted with railings during a fantrip on Oct. 6, 1940. William M. Moedinger photo […]
In a 1958 view from a car headed east on Roosevelt Road near West Chicago, Ill., an Elgin, Joliet & Eastern 2,000 h.p. Baldwin center-cab diesel crosses with a northbound freight train. Russ Porter photo […]
Delaware Lackawanna and Western locomotives: All through March, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. Please enjoy this photo selection of DL&W locomotives selected from the image archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Lackawanna steam locomotives were top-notch among Northeast coal-hauling roads. The railroad’s last steam locomotive ran in […]
Central of Georgia launched two new intrastate streamliners in 1947. At an unidentified location, the Atlanta–Savannah Nancy Hanks II (left) stands beside the Columbus–Atlanta Man o’ War. Central of Georgia photo […]
People line up to tour the cab of brand-new Seaboard Air Line E4 passenger diesel No. 3001 in 1938. SAL’s 14 A units and 5 B units were the only Electro-Motive units to carry the E4 model designation. Louis A. Marre coll. […]
Chesapeake & Ohio 2700, first of the road’s 2-8-4 Kanawha types, heads west with coal hoppers near Catlettsburg, Ky., in 1952. This engine survives on display at Dennison, Ohio. Edward Theisinger photo […]
A triple-headed shower wets down the hogs riding in Union Pacific triple-deck cars at Dry Lake, Nev., on a hot July day in 1977. The train is the California Livestock Special, bound for Los Angeles. Steve Patterson photo […]
At the Burlington Route’s Centralia, Ill., engine terminal in September 1954, a hostler rides the turntable with 2-10-4 6313 as sister 6311 and a Mikado stand in the distance. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
A forklift exits one of the New York Central’s distinctive Pacemaker service boxcars at one of the railroad’s freight stations in the late 1940s. NYC photo […]
This 345-page tome, known as “Conquest II: Crestline-Ft. Wayne, GR&I, Toledo, Sandusky & Akron Branches” in long form, documents the trackage, plant, and trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad‘s speedway between Crestline, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Ind., along with the Grand Rapids & Indiana line from Fort Wayne to Mackinaw City, Mich.; the Toledo Branch to […]
