Freight locomotives in passenger service were the exception to the rules. They required passenger cars that were self-contained, the use of separate head-end power generator cars, or some understanding passengers. However, they often offered the best value for the railroads using them who may not have wanted to invest scarce capital in dedicated passenger power […]
LUDINGTON, Mich. — Loading-ramp damage has brought an early end to the 2023 season for Lake Michigan car ferry S.S. Badger. “We have made the difficult, and unfortunately unavoidable, decision to suspend our daily crossings for the remainder of the season,” Mark W. Barker, President of Interlake Maritime Services, parent company of the Lake Michigan […]
LOS ANGELES — Santa Fe No. 5704, the SD45-2 locomotive cosmetically restored to its bicentennial paint scheme, will make its California public debut at Los Angeles Union Station’s Train Festival 2023: A Celebration of Past, Present & Future on September 9-10. The locomotive, which was donated by BNSF to the Southern California Railway Museum in […]
The Algoma Central Railway was chartered in 1899 to build into the Ontario wilderness north of Sault Ste. Marie. Its purpose was to bring out pulpwood and iron ore. In 1901 the ambitions of its founder added “& Hudson Bay” to the corporate title. The line reached Hawk Junction, 165 miles north of Sault Ste. […]
Algoma Central locomotives provided a bit of variety in northern Ontario railroading. For a railroad its size, ACR owned a variety of steam power. The first engines were secondhand, including 11 acquired in 1899: four Lehigh Valley 4-6-0s and seven ex-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 0-4-0s. ACR’s first new power, four Baldwin 2-8-0s, arrived […]
The Milwaukee Road Hiawatha fleet stands out among mid-century passenger operators. Of all the major U.S. railroads that fielded impressive fleets of passenger trains between the end of World War I in 1918 and the arrival of Amtrak in 1971, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific — more commonly known as the […]
Two Fairbanks-Morse diesels, a five-axle “C-Liner” and an older “Erie-built,” doublehead with J-1 Hudson 5273 on eastbound mail train 32 at Millbury Junction, Ohio, 7.5 miles east of Toledo on New York Central’s old LS&MS main line, in September 1955. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Even as he handed it to me the other night at a Milwaukee slide show, I couldn’t quite believe what Mike Schafer was telling me. “Hey, this is my first railroad book! Maybe you’ll write about it?” Mike Schafer’s first railroad book. That didn’t sound quite right. I’ve been reading Mike’s name on […]
LUDINGTON, Mich. — It will likely take a “few weeks” to return Great Lakes car ferry S.S. Badger to service after a loading-ramp failure last week, the owner of the former Chesapeake & Ohio steamship said in a statement earlier this week. Lake Michigan Carferry, owner of the ship built in 1952, said that on […]
At Allingdale, W.Va., Baltimore & Ohio 4-6-2 5109 leads Grafton–Richwood local train 135 in May 1952. Edward Theisinger photo […]
Freshly-shopped Denver & Rio Grande Western 4-6-6-4 No. 3708 is at Wolhurst, Colo., 13.5 miles south of Denver, on a freight bound for Pueblo and Alamosa on the road’s “Joint Line” in June 1949. Ross B. Grenard photo […]
An interlocking tower and station are nestled between the tracks where the Monon crosses the two tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Limedale, Ind., in May 1944. A Monon local freight is switching the station and interchange tracks in the distance. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
