Freight guidance Early covered hopper loaders were modified from boxcar loaders, often requiring workers to climb car ladders for access. This elevator is at Glenwood, Minn., in 1984. Bob Wise photo […]
Freight guidance
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GP39
GP39 Chesapeake & Ohio No. 3909 is a GP39. It looks like a GP38 but it /has a single turbo stack in front of the dynamic brake fan. The GP39 was an “in-between” locomotive, using a smaller (12-cylinder) turbocharged 645 engine rated at 2,300 hp, putting it between the GP38 and GP40. It never became […]
CP Pacific type
CP Pacific type One of Canadian Pacific’s 173 G3 Pacifics steams east out of Calgary station with a regional train in June 1949. One track over, a mountain observation car has just been added to the westbound Dominion’s tail. Walter H. Thrall Jr. photo […]
SPUD switcher
SPUD switcher St. Paul Union Depot 44-ton 441, built by GE in 1941, works its namesake Minnesota passenger terminal. The locomotive’s size and weight would allow one-man operation under the “90,000-pound” rule of the 1937 National Diesel Agreement labor rules. Classic Trains collection […]
Soldier Summit
Soldier Summit The eastbound California Zephyr catches the morning sun at Soldier Summit, Utah, in August 1959. Ahead: a full day of breathtaking scenery on the Denver & Rio Grande Western, which the train used for 570 miles of its 2,518-mile, three-railroad route. Fred Matthews photo […]
State of the art
State of the art A classic A-B-B-A set of EMD FTs — the state of the locomotive art in 1940 — lead a Santa Fe freight over Southern California’s Cajon Pass. Santa Fe photo […]
Grain, the old-fashioned way
Grain, the old-fashioned way Through the end of the 1800s, a lot of grain was shipped in 100-pound sacks. Here, workers load grain sacks into wood boxcars in Minneapolis around 1900. Minneapolis Public Library collection […]
Roosevelt Road
Roosevelt Road Evidence of Penn Central’s pre-1968 legacy — New York Central, Pennsylvania, and PC-painted units — is clearly visible in this 1970 view of LaSalle Street Station. Chicago’s famous Roosevelt Road provided a great view of the downtown passenger terminals. Harold A. Edmonson photo […]
‘Golden Spike Centennial Limited’
‘Golden Spike Centennial Limited’ High Iron Co. observation car Mountain View brings up the markers on the Golden Spike Centennial Limited prior to departure from Track 34 at New York’s Grand Central Terminal on May 3, 1969. The car once ran on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Broadway Limited. Don Wood photo […]
Portland Union Station
Portland Union Station Maine Central 4-6-2 No. 467 rests at Portland Union Station in the early 1950s. The former Maine Central headquarters is seen above the locomotive. Today, this area is occupied by a mall and parking lot. H.W. Pontin photo […]
‘Powhatan Arrow’
‘Powhatan Arrow’ Railroad employees shine up the Tuscan red exterior of the Powhatan Arrow’s dining car at Williamson, W.Va. The new streamliner started operations April 28, 1946, on a 15.5-hour westbound timing over the 676-mile route from Norfolk to Cincinnati. Norfolk & Western photo […]
Not what it seems
Not what it seems A Clinchfield “Shifter South” crawls out of Elkhorn City yard away from the camera and across Pool Point at the north end of the Breaks of the Big Sandy in 1964. The three-unit pusher will stay with the train to Towers, Va., where the grade begins to ease. Ron Flanary photo […]
