Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes 2-foot-gauge Mogul No. 16 pokes out of the covered depot at Kingfield, Maine. Charlie French, Mallory Hope Ferrell coll. While still a teenager in the early 1950s, I corresponded with a man who had grown up on the 2-foot-gauge lines of Maine. Arthur French, by then elderly, collected Indian Head […]
A 1962 freight derailment spelled the end for the century-old Wabash depot at little Philo, Ill. Glen Brewer My clock-radio came on at the usual morning hour with the local news. The date was Wednesday, October 3, 1962. The announcer reported a train wreck in Philo, Ill., the previous evening, blocking the Wabash Railroad’s main […]
Horseshoe Curve, 1940: Freight on track 1, passenger on track 2, smoke from a train climbing on track 3 or 4. H. W. Pontin You could not avoid liking my uncle, Matthew McGrail. Matt was a medical doctor in Bradford, Pa., by profession, but he was a full-time rail enthusiast. He befriended many crews of […]
The Santa Fe was a class act, from its Warbonnet diesels to how it dealt with derailments. Gordon Glattenberg Back in 1955, when I was 22, I gained my first post-college newspaper reporting job with the Avalanche-Journal in Lubbock, Texas—not exactly the center of the railroad universe. Little did I know that within a few […]
Boston & Maine 4-6-2 3719 was one of the machines that captivated author Graulty. Charles A. Brown I was always fascinated by machines. When I was a boy during the Depression, the most impressive machinery I got to see was steam locomotives. I grew up in Troy, N.Y., on the Hudson River 150 miles north […]
In February 1944, Katy 2-8-2 910 rolls into Denton, Texas, with empty tank cars, probably destined for a refill in the Oklahoma oil fields. Frank Rogers During the fall and winter of 1943-44, I was in the Army’s Specialized Training Program at North Texas State Teachers College in Denton, Texas, about 35 miles north of […]
Mistaken identity: Rumors of Baldwin Sharknose diesels in PRR freight service prompted a 14-year-old boy to visit Altoona, where he had a satisfying—if erroneous—encounter with a pair of FM Erie-builts. Fred Kern, Jay Potter coll. From the look of the icicles and snow in this photograph, December 20, 1960, must have been a cold day […]
Santa Fe 4-8-4 No. 3760, author Elwood’s “bad luck” engine, leads the second section of the Grand Canyon west near Hesperia, Calif., in the 1950s. Don Sims My story takes place in 1943, when steam locomotives were supreme, and tells about my experiences with Santa Fe 3751-class 4-8-4 No. 3760. I was firing in passenger […]
In a photo by his dad, 11-year-old Michael Landry stands in Pontiac, Mich., with the Grand Trunk Western 4-8-4 they rode from Detroit on March 24, 1960. Hank Landry There I am, 11 years old, dwarfed by the Grand Trunk Western 4-8-4 on the next track during its stop at Pontiac, Mich., on March 24, […]
In October 1953, about the time author Les Clark was a fireman here, a Union Pacific freight climbs the grade out of the Snake River Valley near Reverse, Idaho. Challenger 3838 is on the point; 2-8-8-0 pusher 3528 was added at Glenns Ferry. David W. Salter October was a favorite month for me in southern […]
Engineer Norman Strickland (in front of cylinder) and fireman Russell Phillips stand at Perryville, Md., with G5s 1592, ready to depart with MD-58 for Philadelphia via the Octoraro Branch. George Gillespie Probably 90 percent of all railfans would say their favorite locomotive is the one on which they took their first cab ride. This is […]
On a day when they left the “Green Hornet” parked in order to simply watch the Afternoon Hiawatha sweep by, artist buddies Howard Fogg (at right in photo) and Gil Reid witnessed an F7 Hudson lean into Deerfield Curve with the Chicago-bound train. Gil Reid The year is 1939, and I am a student at […]
