HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. — CSX has reopened one track of its two-track main line at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., about 3:30 a.m. today (Tuesday, June 25) and expected the other to be reopened by midday following Monday’s fire on the bridge across the Potomac River. The Hagerstown Herald-Mail reports railroad spokesman Bryan Tucker wrote in an […]
CASS, W.Va. — Some 3,000 spectators descended on the tiny mountain town of Cass on Saturday, June 15, to see, photograph, and record all five of Cass Scenic Railroad’s operational Shay locomotives in the fifth annual Parade of Steam. Beginning on the inner station track with Shay No. 11 (Construction No. 3221, 1923; Class 90-3, […]
Norfolk & Western class A No. 1239 is ready to depart Roanoke, Va., with eastbound time freight 84 in 1954. The potent 2-6-6-4 was built in N&W’s shops here just five years earlier. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]
U.S. Highway 460 is one of the great railfan roads, paralleling the former Norfolk & Western mainline across the state of Virginia for hundreds of miles. Starting in Norfolk on the Atlantic coast, 460 follows today’s Norfolk Southern into the Blue Ridge Mountains to Roanoke and beyond. West of Roanoke, the Norfolk & Western confronts […]
Two big 2-10-0s cut in as mid-train helpers assist in lifting a train up the Western Maryland main line west of Cumberland, Md., at famous Helmstetter’s Curve in May 1952. The road engine and rear-end helper are also Decapods. WM’s class I-2 engines were the heaviest 2-10-0s ever built. Edward Theisinger photo […]
Four GP9s climb west on the Chesapeake & Ohio main line with empty hoppers to be reloaded with coal in the late 1950s. Classic Trains coll. […]
The year and locomotive number are the same – 1954 – as one of Louisville & Nashville’s big M-1-class “Big Emma” 2-8-4s leads an Atlanta-bound freight out of Decoursey Yard in Kentucky, a few miles south of Cincinnati. Louisville & Nashville photo […]
For 146 years, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Train criss-crossed the nation as America’s longest passenger train. With a mile-long train of passenger cars and container flats and housing about 300 performers and crew, the circus train was a regular sight on American railroads. The Ringling Bros. shut down operations in 2017 […]
Louisville & Nashville J-4 class 2-8-2 No. 1882 rests at Carrolton, Ky., in 1956. Charles B. Castner photo […]
Rumors of the death of railroad fiction are greatly exaggerated. The veteran railroad journalist Fred Frailey made that clear a year ago with his “Seldom Willing,” an absorbing tale of an ambitious 1980s Midwestern regional railroad that outmaneuvered a far larger rival. When Fred told me his novel was coming out soon, I wasn’t sure […]
Facts and features Name: Norfolk & Western Pocahontas DivisionScale: N (1:160)Size: 36 x 36 feetPrototype: Norfolk & WesternLocale: southern West VirginiaStyle: walk-inMainline run: 290 feetMinimum radius: 18″Minimum turnout: No. 6Maximum grade: 2 percentBenchwork: tabletopHeight: 52″ to 58.5″Roadbed: corkTrack: code 80 flextrackScenery: extruded-foam insulation board and SculptamoldBackdrop: hand-painted on drywall Control: NCE Digital Command Control […]
Three Baltimore & Ohio F7s pass Bond Tower, about 10 miles west of Keyser, W.Va., on Seventeen Mile Grade, with empty coal hoppers in March 1951. Note the runaway track curving behind the tower. William P. Price photo […]
