Hudson on the Riley

New York Central Railroad James Whitcomb Riley train

New York Central J-1 4-6-4 No. 5373 brings the Chicago-bound James Whitcomb Riley into Kankakee, Ill., on January 23, 1956. The Riley and other trains on NYC’s former “Big Four” lines were among the last stands of the great Hudsons. M. L. Powell photo […]

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Lehigh Valley mail car

Lehigh Valley Railway Post Office car

Workers transfer mail between a Post Office Department truck and a Lehigh Valley Railway Post Office car around 1910. The 60-foot, all-steel RPO is state of the art, unlike the ancient wooden, open-platform car to its left. Library of Congress photo […]

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A 4-4-0 in 1952

Chicago and Illinois Midland Railway in Hill Top, Illinois

Chicago & Illinois Midland 4-4-0 No. 500, built by Baldwin at the late date of 1927, pulls away from Hill Top, Ill., with the daily-except-Sunday train from Pekin to Springfield, Ill. The date is May 20, 1952 — late in the game indeed for American types on Class I railroads. Ed Theisinger photo […]

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GM&O’s “Plug”

Gulf Mobile and Ohio Railroad at Chicago Union Station

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio F3 883-A leads the road’s weekday commuter train to Joliet away from Chicago Union Station not long before GM&O merged with Illinois Central to form Illinois Central Gulf. The little train was widely known as “The Plug.” John R. Taibi photo […]

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