Challengers on Helmstetter’s Curve

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Western Maryland 4-6-6-4s up front and at mid-train lift a freight upgrade around Helmstetter’s Curve in the late 1940s or early ’50s. Today, Western Maryland Scenic Railway tourist trains still traverse this landmark a few miles west of Cumberland, Md. George C. Corey photo […]

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What’s in a photograph?: Norfolk & Western at Blue Ridge, Va.

View from the cab of a Norfolk & Western 2-6-6-4 steam locomotive on an eastbound freight in 1953 at Blue Ridge, West Virginia. The photograph is black and white with 12 numbered callouts.

1 Split-point derail device. Considered more effective than a lifting-block derail when there is extra risk of cars rolling out onto the main line from a “house track” or “back track” (terms for station trackage other than a passing siding), or from an industry track, especially when there is a descending grade toward the switch, […]

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West Virginia’s New River Train won’t run in 2019 NEWSWIRE

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The westbound New River Train with there Amtrak P42DCs and a 30-car passenger car consist rolls along its namesake river on its journey to Huntington, W.Va., from Hinton, W.Va., on Oct. 29 2017. Chase Gunnoe HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — After 52 years of operating mainline passenger excursions between the West Virginia cities of Huntington and Hinton, […]

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No support group

LNC628CorbinKYRonFlanary

While not technically perfect, this photo of L&N C628s under the sanding gantry at Corbin, Ky., remains a treasured link to an earlier time. Ron Flanary As a young railfan growing up in central Appalachia in the late 1950s and early ’60s, my only link to fellow enthusiasts was through the pulp pages of Railroad magazine, or the […]

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