The concrete west portal of Erie’s Otisville (N.Y.) tunnel — from which a Berkshire-powered freight emerges — is fairly simple, but with pilasters and the inscription “19–OTISVILLE–08” in embossed lettering overhead. Note the early installation of welded rail on the eastward track. Wayne Brumbaugh photo […]
PRR T1 4-4-4-4 No. 5507 clatters through 21st Street interlocking in Chicago with the Broadway Limited for New York. A T1 on the Broadway is relatively rare, as dieselization of PRR’s top trains came soon after the giant duplexes arrived. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
WASILLA, Alaska — After more than 500,000 volunteer working hours, the 557 Restoration Co. successfully fired the last Alaska Railroad steam locomotive on Nov. 8, 2025. The rebuild is now 95% complete, “ … with all the expensive and labor intensive stuff behind us,” says Patrick Durand, 557 Restoration Co. president. The locomotive was pulled […]
An SD40 and GP9 hold back a westbound freight as they descend Sand Patch Grade a couple of miles west of Sand Patch, Pa., on the former Baltimore & Ohio. The bridge overhead carried the Western Maryland main line, which was rendered redundant when B&O and WM came under common Chessie System control. David Dudjak […]
Canadian National 2-8-0 No. 2444, assigned as the switcher in Chipman, N.B., negotiates the steep grade and tight curves at the town’s brickyard on a gray day in November 1953. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
BALTIMORE — The B&O Railroad Museum announced today that CSX CEO Steve Angel will co-chair the museum’s $38 million capital campaign to transform its campus in preparation for the 200th anniversary of American railroading in 2027. Angel replaces former CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs in this role. Hinrichs left CSX in September 2025. Angel joins Benjamin […]
Nickel Plate 779 was not only the final member of that road’s notable family of Berkshires, it was also the last steam locomotive built by the Lima Locomotive Works. This fact was not known until some time after its May 13, 1949, completion, and Lima did not make an official photo of her. Instead, the […]
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum has received a $100,000 grant from the State of Tennessee. The grant, administered by the Tennessee State Museum, is for capital maintenance and improvement projects. The museum will use the funds for additional improvements to its Grand Junction depot area. Specifically, the museum will fund three projects […]
BALTIMORE — Mark your calendar for 15 months from now. In February 1827 the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first common carrier railroad in the U.S. February 2027 is the bicentennial of U.S. railroading and the B&O Railroad Museum plans to celebrate with renovated and expanded facilities now under construction. The $38 million project […]
It’s been said that Milwaukee Road’s class F6 4-6-4s, built 1930–31, looked like they were going fast even when standing still. There does seem to be a rakish “leaning-forward” quality to this photo of nearly new No. 6402. MILW […]
CLEWISTON, Fla. — U.S. Sugar’s Sugar Express will host a two-day photo charter in January featuring steam locomotive No. 148 in a recreation of 1950s-era railroading. The event on Jan. 17-18, 2026, will feature No. 148 — the Alco 4-6-2 built for Florida East Coast in 1920 and sold to U.S. Sugar in 1952 — […]
Horneman Enterprises, an engineering firm specializing in rail equipment restoration, has rebuilt 4-4-0 Harrisburg, Lincoln & Lancaster Railroad No. 331 — formerly No. 63 Leviathan — from a completely torn down to the boiler, to operational in 5 weeks. The rebuild completed the locomotive’s FRA 1,472 day inspection, which was accomplished over the course of […]
