Reefer block 4-8-2 2605, a product of IC’s own Paducah (Ky.) shops, leads a long string of refrigerator cars north on the main line at Peotone, Ill., in the 1940s. Illinois Central photo […]
Reefer block
Tag: 1920 – 1945
Handsome Hudson
Handsome Hudson For a few years in the late 1930s, the steam queens of New Haven’s Shore Line were 10 class I-5 4-6-4s. The handsome Hudsons’ wheel-balance woes prompted NH to begin acquiring a fleet of 60 DL109 diesels in 1941. Here, an I-5 roars west with the Merchants Limited at Sharon, Mass. Wayne Brumbaugh […]
Feather River freight haulers
Feather River freight haulers Western Pacific’s original road freight locomotives were 65 Consolidations; 20 came from Baldwin in 1906, followed by 45 from Alco’s Schenectady plant in 1909. Engine 63 was still on the job at Oakland in 1952. Western Pacific photo […]
Arroyo Seco
Arroyo Seco Several miles out of Los Angeles Union Station, Santa Fe 4-8-4 3782 leads the eastbound Chief across the viaduct spanning the Arroyo Seco Parkway. Although Santa Fe abandoned this line through Pasadena, the bridge is still in use by Metrolink light rail trains. Classic Trains collection […]
Washington Hill
Washington Hill Electro-Motive F3s on a westbound freight wait in the clear at Chester, Mass., for the New England States to pass on its way to Chicago. Pacific 589 assists the States’ road engine, a three-unit Baldwin diesel, up Washington Hill. James D. Bennett photo […]
Train 4
Train 4 Pere Marquette’s unnamed Grand Rapids–Detroit train 4 rolls through Trowbridge, Mich., in 1940. Locomotive 712 is one of 12 class SP-3 4-6-2 Pacifics built by Alco’s Brooks works in January 1921. Classic Trains collection […]
Camelback ‘Comet’
Camelback Comet Jersey Central Camelback 592 (now preserved in Baltimore) pinch-hits for a regularly assigned 4-6-2 on the Blue Comet at Hammonton, N.J., in the 1930s. With drivers up to 86 inches, Atlantics ruled on fast trains in the 1890s and 1900s before Pacifics superseded them. Granville Thomas photo […]
Union Pacific on Cajon Pass in the 1940s
Union Pacific on Cajon Pass in the 1940s: Union Pacific operates on Cajon Pass in Southern California as the Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. It uses Santa Fe trackage on a rental basis from Daggett, 8 miles east of Barstow, to Riverside, 9 miles south of San Bernardino. This arrangement has been in effect […]
Baldwin ‘Babyface’ locomotives: Diesels that didn’t
Baldwin diesel locomotives history Established in the 1830s, Philadelphia’s Baldwin Locomotive Works was one of America’s oldest and largest locomotive builders. Baldwin steam engines were known for their high quality and good looks. But many of its internal combustion efforts could be classified as “diesels that didn’t.” Along with fellow steam builders Alco and Lima, […]
Hard knock life
Hard knock life Northern Pacific track workers labor near new Bozeman Tunnel in Montana in 1945. Regardless of the location track workers had a hard, dirty job. Northern Pacific photo […]
Remembering Reading Company locomotives
All through October, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the gritty, coal-hauling, Pennsylvania-based Reading Company railroad. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Reading freight trains selected from the image archives of Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. Reading Company, as a railroad, disappeared into Conrail more than 40 years ago. But it is still possible to […]
Eagle River Canyon
Eagle River Canyon Winding through the Eagle River Canyon west of Redcliff, Colo., Rio Grande 2-8-8-2 3603 helps a 4-8-4 train 2, the Scenic Limited, in 1939. Eight years later, author Hamilton passed this way on a similar train. R. H. Kindig photo […]
