Chesapeake & Ohio’s lengthy Sportsman curves east through the Blue Ridge Mountains at Afton, Va., in July 1965. William E. Warden Jr. photo […]
Sportsman
Tag: Fallen Flags
Face to face
Two Santa Fe PA diesels meet in La Junta, Colo., on August 8, 1954. Two survive out of a onetime fleet of 44, including B units. Al Chione collection […]
Helping hand
Lightning-striped Fairbanks Morse C Liners hustle New York Central train No. 37 east at Millbury, Ohio, with the help of 4-6-4 No. 5273. The junction, 7.5 miles east of Toledo, joins parallel New York Central routes east to Cleveland. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Keystone landmark
Pennsylvania Railroad donated K4s No. 1361 to the city of Altoona, Pa., in 1957. The locomotive is undergoing a decades-long restoration to service. J.J. Young Jr. photo […]
Central Illinois ‘Gulf’
A Gulf, Mobile & Ohio-painted GP30 and GP35 roll an Illinois Central Gulf train south near Odell, Ill., on the main line connecting Chicago, Springfield, Ill.; and Kansas City, Mo., in July 1980. J. David Ingles photo […]
Decapod action
Pennsylvania Railroad I1 class 2-10-0 No. 1753 pushes on the rear of a freight near Canoe Creek, Pa., near the famed Horseshoe Curve. The railroad had almost 600 such locomotives built in its own shops and by Baldwin Locomotive Works beginning in 1916. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Conrail predecessor documents bound for shredder saved instead NEWSWIRE
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Northeastern railway preservationists have saved hundreds of drawings — some dating to the 1860s — from Conrail predecessors from the shredder in what has been called a “monumental achievement” for railroad historians. The documents came from the Smithsonian Institution, which collected them between 1981 to 1984. With an Aug. 1 deadline to […]
Former Soo Line Shoreham roundhouse, diesel shop being demolished NEWSWIRE
Remains of Soo Line Shoreham roundhouse in Minneapolis on Aug. 1, 2019. Steve Glischinski MINNEAPOLIS – Canadian Pacific this week began work to demolish the former Soo Line Shoreham roundhouse and diesel shop in Minneapolis. The buildings had been in ruins for decades, and were fenced off from the rest of yard, which is used […]
“Let us ride your bikes, we’ll let you shovel coal”
A Camelback switcher like Lehigh Valley 3421, pictured at Jersey City in 1939, was a powerful magnet for a couple of young boys. Stanley D. Crews My buddy Mike and I were sitting on our bikes at a Lehigh Valley yard in northern New Jersey one day in 1950. We had our eyes on a […]
Ask Trains: Why do railroads create heritage locomotives?
Union Pacific SD70ACe No. 4141 letter for former President George H. W. Bush led Bush’s funeral train from Houston to College Station, Texas, in Dec. 2018. 18345-3 Bradley Bates Q: Painting locomotives is expensive. I’m curious to know why railroads would spend this kind of money painting heritage units? — David Berg, Minneapolis, Minn. A: […]
Springfield in spring
Illinois Central train No. 22, the Green Diamond, led by E7 No. 4016, rolls north from Springfield, Ill., headed for Chicago on May 7, 1966. Thomas Hoffmann photo […]
Stationary steam
Articulated steam locomotives rest at Cumberland, Md.’s 31-stall roundhouse in April 1934. A coal strike has sidelined the big engines, which otherwise would be working. Bruce D. Fales photo […]
