Summer Sharknoses

PRR-Eries

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 […]

Read More…

Country landmark

Erie Lackawanna train “DAYTON 97” rolls west through Richwood, Ohio, bound for its namesake city on July 7, 1973. The train originated in Marion, Ohio, and backed east across the double track main lines of the Chesapeake & Ohio and Norfolk & Western before beginning its westward journey on the Dayton Branch. Photo by Russell […]

Read More…

My ‘bad-luck’ engine

ATSF3760

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 […]

Read More…

Santa Fe’s Surf Line

Aug2004_64-65

Read more about Santa Fe’s Surf Line in the following two PDFs: “Santa Fe Surf Line, 1940” by Keith Jordan, published in the August 2004 issue of Trains magazine “The Secret Borax Train” by Don Richardson, published in the Summer 2005 issue of Classic Trains magazine. Download each story by clicking on the underlined PDF […]

Read More…

Delaware Lackawanna Freights in Action

FULL SCREEN Kevin Scanlon Don Colangelo, Delaware-Lackawanna chief mechanical officer, cleans the handrails on C420 No. 405 at Scranton, Pa., on April 9, 2012. FULL SCREEN Kevin Scanlon Colangelo and author Kevin Tomasic discuss Alcos at Tower 60, Scranton, Pa., on April 9, 2012. FULL SCREEN Kevin Scanlon Delaware-Lackawanna grain train SPG09 heads for Horizon […]

Read More…

What do Photographer Andrew J. Russell, the Civil War, and Union Pacific Railroad have in common?

FULL SCREEN Andrew J. Russell, Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-11750 General Hermann Haupt (rear, center) supervises a construction site in 1863 at Devereaux Station of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad in Clifton, Virginia. The locomotive bears his name. At right is J. H. Devereaux, superintendent. FULL SCREEN Andrew J. Russell, Library of Congress, LC-B8184-10161 Ornately decorated […]

Read More…