Like trilobites and brachiopods, the paper carcasses of 19th-century railroads seem forever locked away in the sediments of corporate archives and government files. They fill the pages of old Official Guides and Poor’s Manual of the Railroads by the hundreds. Nearly all of them are dormant — but some are not. Consider the case […]
Louisville & Nashville 1807, one of the road’s big fleet of heavy USRS 2-8-2s, moves through Strawberry Yard, south of Louisville, in the late 1940s. Charles B. Castner photo […]
Smack in the middle of the Hawkeye State, Minneapolis & St. Louis 2-6-0 No. 310 crosses the Skunk River with train 342, the return leg of the daily mixed from Marshalltown to Story City, Iowa, in mid-1946. The spindly bridge near Roland necessitated the use of light motive power on the Story City Branch. William F. […]
NEW HAVEN, Ky. — Louisville & Nashville No. 152, the Kentucky Railway Museum 4-6-2 named the official steam locomotive of the Commonwealth of Kentucky by an act of the Kentucky Legislature, is beginning an overhaul to be returned to operation. The museum has awarded a contract to Next Generation Rail Solutions of Irvine, Ky., to […]
Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the first railroad to link Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, made its debut today and unveiled its new logo and website. Officials from Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern will celebrate the historic merger at a final spike ceremony scheduled for 10 a.m. today at Knoche Yard in Kansas City, Mo., […]
Western Maryland 2-10-0 1109 leads empty coal hoppers and other freight cars west at famous Helmstetter’s Curve on WM’s main line west of Cumberland, Md. Today the right of way hosts Western Maryland Scenic Railway tourist trains and a bike path. Ed Theisinger photo […]
The Erie’s icing platform at Marion, Ohio, handled a lot of meat and other perishable traffic. Here, carts on the upper-level platform service a pair of Wilson meat reefers. The two Pacific Fruit Express reefers at right will receive chunk ice from the main platform. A large ice plant is in the background. Erie Railroad photo […]
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio GP30 502 leads southbound freight 33 south of Pomona, Ill., in December 1971, ten months before GM&O’s merger with Illinois Central. Steven Mueller photo […]
Burlington Route diesel 9907A Silver Knight, built in 1936 for the new Denver Zephyr, heads three heavyweight suburban cars on CB&Q’s Chicago–Aurora line in 1950. Robert Milner photo […]
Erie Railroad class K-5a Pacific 2960 heels to a curve near Hale’s Eddy, N.Y., on its way east with the Chicago–New York Erie Limited on Aug. 24, 1941. Charles G. Krumm photo […]
On a murky winter night, a Chicago & Eastern Illinois 4-6-2 on a northbound passenger train waits for a signal at Dalton in south-suburban Chicago. Classic Trains collection […]
Shortly before departure from Durbin, W.Va., on Feb. 23, 1951, the crew of the Chesapeake & Ohio doodlebug assigned to train 143 eyes the photographer before he climbs aboard for the ride down the Greenbrier River valley to the main line at Roncerverte, W.Va. A. C. Kalmbach photo […]
