How I became ‘Old Smoky’

UP-Idaho-4-6-6-4

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 […]

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Norfolk Southern heritage: then and now

FULL SCREEN Top, photo courtesy of Norfolk Southern Corp.; bottom, Robert Palmer photo Top: The first NS heritage unit, ES44AC No. 8098, poses in Conrail blue at Altoona Shops on March 15, 2012. Bottom: Conrail SD60 6702, GP40-2 3220, and an unidentified GE lead a Philadelphia-to-Bethlehem iron ore train out of Black Rock Tunnel near […]

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Northern Japan’s railroads

FULL SCREEN Photograph by Scott Lothes The most luxurious train in Japan, the overnight Cassiopeia from Sapporo to Tokyo, rolls along Volcano Bay behind two specially painted DD51 locomotives just before sunset on June 18, 2007. FULL SCREEN Photograph by Scott Lothes Like locomotive engineers across generations and oceans, the driver of JR Hokkaido’s Hamanasu […]

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