An A-B-A set of FT diesels leads the Cotton Belt’s famous Blue Streak Merchandise freight through Texarkana, Tex., in 1949. R. S. Plummer photo […]
Blue Streak at Texarkana
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Airborne Challenger
Union Pacific’s 4-6-6-4 Challengers were too long for the turntable at North Platte, Nebr., but they could still use it. Wedges were clamped to the table’s rails at one end, then a 4-6-6-4 was backed on, leaving the rear four wheels of the tender hanging in mid-air. Art Stensvad photo […]
Classic railroad scene in central Ohio
In a scene filled with the trappings of classic-era railroading, a Baltimore & Ohio 2-8-2 clatters across the New York Central at Shelby, Ohio, in September 1955. Today, both lines remain, but the NYC is single track and the depot buildings, water towers, sidetracks, interlocking rods, and express trucks are long gone. Philip R. Hastings […]
Clinchfield 4-6-6-4 pusher
Clinchfield Railroad 4-6-6-4 No. 672 lends a hand at the rear of a southbound coal train at Gray, Tenn., on May 28, 1952, not long before the road became 100 percent diesel. The road engine was another Challenger, No. 662. Ed Theisinger photo […]
Creating the Olympian Hiawatha
Industrial designer Brooks Stevens (center) and two associates pose with drawings of the Milwaukee Road’s new Olympian Hiawatha, launched in 1947. Classic Trains coll. […]
GIO Rail prepares to start service on CN Cayuga Subdivision
ST. THOMAS, Ontario — One week after the GIO Railway Corp. ran the final train on one Ontario short line, it debuted on another route. On Christmas Eve, Canadian National’s Cayuga Subdivision saw its first train since April 30, 2020, when Ontario Southland discontinued operation on the 30-mile line between St. Thomas and Courtland, Ontario. […]
CB&Q local freight
A Chicago, Burlington & Quincy switcher sets out a pair of empty stock cars for loading at a Wyoming stock pen in 1955. William A. Akin photo […]
News Wire Top 10, No. 9 (tie): Amtrak sidelines equipment, turns away revenue
Amtrak cited the COVID-19 pandemic as justification in October 2020 when it cut most long-distance train frequencies to triweekly, furloughed employees, and began sidelining cars and locomotives. But in 2021, as the market began signaling the services it sought — with business and commuter travel languishing while shorter consists on national-network trains continued to sell out. […]
Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn bridge
The 3-foot-gauge Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn was built in 1875 and in 1928 electrified its double-track line along the shore north of Boston. The line included this swing bridge at Point of Pines. William Butler Jr. photo […]
Biggest in Canada
Canadian Pacific 2-10-4 5919 simmers at Field, B.C., before heading east into Kicking Horse Pass with a train. CP’s 2-10-4s were the biggest locomotives in Canada. Albert M. Rich coll. […]
News photos: New QNS&L power on the move
ALDERSHOT, Ontario — So spotless you can imagine the smell of fresh paint, a half-dozen freshly rebuilt Wabtec AC44C6M locomotives bound for the Quebec North Shore & Labrador pass through Aldershot, Ont., today (Dec. 21, 2021) on Canadian National train No. 422 today. The units, rebuilt from BNSF C44-9s, will operate on the remote 257-mile […]
Iowa interurban freight
Locomotive 182 of the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern leads a freight train across the Cedar River bridge south of Waterloo, Iowa, in the late 1940s or early ’50s. William D. Middleton photo […]
