Southern Pacific Extra 9353 West descends the Donner Pass grade on a very snowy day through the tiny foothills Gold Rush community of Alta. It is headed for its Roseville Yard terminal in the Sacramento Valley, 50 miles further, at the foot of the grade. The nose of the locomotive shows evidence of having plowed through a few large snowdrifts at higher elevations on the 7,000-foot pass.
This portion of line over the Sierra Nevada Range represents the western end of the original transcontinental railroad, completed at Promontory, Utah, in 1869. Between 1865 and 1868, Chinese and Irish workmen labored in these mountains under extremely dangerous conditions to blast this route through deep snows and the hard granite of more than a dozen tunnels. The snowy Pass that had defeated the Donner Emigrant Party of 1846 was conquered by the railroad in the spring of 1868. As the construction forces moved across Nevada it became "a foot race" between these workers of the Central Pacific Railroad and those of the Union Pacific Railroad to reach Utah first.
The opposing "armies" finally met at Promontory, Utah, in 1869. The driving of the Gold Spike firmly tied the east coast and the west coast together with steel rails. The West could now be reached by land, without resort to travel by wagon train, or by the dangerous 15,000 mile sea journey around the tip of South America.
The great achievement of completing the transcontinental railroad in only six years changed life on the Pacific Coast and in doing so also created the nation's first great mainline railroad that actually climbed right over a very high and steep mountain range.
\BPhoto by Dick Dorn\b
No:2
\HE2 Electric Passenger Locomotive\h
Here we get a glimpse of the unique beauty of one of the types of extremely powerful passenger locomotives that once operated across the states of Washington, Idaho, and Montana on The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, later called The Milwaukee Road. The year is 1958 and the E-2 will soon leave the depot at Butte, Montana, with the eastbound \IOlympian Hiawatha\i streamliner en route to Chicago from Seattle. Immediately ahead of the train is the snowy Continental Divide crossing at Pipestone Pass and a 55-mile descent to the headwaters of the Missouri River at Three Forks. For nearly half of that distance, the E-2 will do what very few modern electric locomotives can do -- use its 12 traction motors to return electricity into the commercial power grid. By acting as generators, the DC traction motors also will slow the train's descent on the steep Pipestone grade.
The E-2 is 76 feet long and weighs a "mere" 265 tons. Unlike today's alternating-current electric locomotives, it consumes 3,000-volt direct current. It was constructed in the 1919 period by General Electric as one of five "Bipolar" electric locomotives, so-called because of the twin-pole construction of their traction motor fields.
Time was running out for the \IOlympian Hiawatha\i passenger service as this picture was being made. Soon the E-2 and her sisters will be set aside in favor of diesel-electric locomotives that will pull the train the entire distance between Chicago and Seattle. By 1961, passenger service will be gone and four of the Bipolars will be scrapped. The E-2 will go east to retire at the National Museum of Transport in St. Louis.
\BPhoto by Montague Powell\b
No:3
\HRotary Snow Plow OM & 1920's Steam Engine\h
Steam, smoke, and snow fly in all directions as the ancient narrow-gauge Rotary Snow Plow OM and a 1920's steam locomotive blast their way up 10,000-foot Cumbres Pass in the Rocky Mountains.
This dramatic snow plow run is required each spring on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad to clear the road's 64-mile rail line along the New Mexico and Colorado border. The job must be completed by June for the start of regular steam excursion service.
Rotary OM is one of two 3-foot gauge wooden carbody Rotary Snowplows constructed in 1889 by the Leslie Brothers Manufacturing Co. of Paterson, New Jersey for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Rotary OM was the 24th rotary plow constructed by that pioneering firm. It was shipped westward in January of 1889. One month later, Rotary ON joined Rotary OM in the mountains to help break the snow blockades that restricted travel between the region's important mining towns and the state's important smelting and refining facilities. Both plows labored most of the next century to keep the Rio Grande's extensive narrow-gauge empire open in winter.
This steep, winding 64-mile railroad line of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is jointly owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico. It also is a Registered National Historical Site. The mountain grades over which the trains operate are as steep as 4%.
Excursion trains typically operate simultaneously from each end of the line, meeting at a midpoint near the summit where passengers may step down from their trains to enjoy lunch in a high mountain meadow.
\BPhoto by Tom Gildersleeve\b
No:4
\HSP's Sunset Limited\h
Standing at trackside at Alhambra in 1964 on a warm overcast evening in the Los Angeles Basin, we see Southern Pacific's premier \ISunset Limited\i stopped to load passengers for the 2,000 mile trip to New Orleans. Momentarily, the 367 diesel engines will rev up and the four F7 "Black Widow" units will follow the bright lights of Valley Blvd. out toward the deeper patches of desert darkness.
Sometimes, it feels like much of the thrill of taking a trip by such a train is found in the strangeness of waiting for something as huge as a train to appear in front of you at night, where darkness conceals the details of nearly all objects.
The headlight you see at first is small and tentative, growing as it approaches. Then projecting a powerful beam that rushes along the ground ahead of the train -- a kind of weird vacuum cleaner that sucks up darkness with its bright glare, draining away the protective obscurity of night objects, wilting them into barren patches of brightness.
While the headlight rushes past you on its self-righteous vacuuming duties, the train cars keep decelerating. You stand helplessly frozen by the sight, your volition caught like the ball bouncing in a Lottery wheel. You simply can't predict just where any given doorway or car will eventually stop in front of you.
The same perceptual chaos freezes the people around you -- ending only when the train finally slows enough to be predictable. Then our normal world of realities returns our consciousness again to firmer ground.
We climb aboard, understanding why train analogies were so popular with physicists explaining Einstein's theory of relativity.
\BPhoto by Charles Ditlefsen\b
No:5
\HCoal Burning Steam Locomotive\h
The high drama of a coal-burning steam locomotive climbing a mountain grade in low ambient temperatures is probably the most thrilling and memorable aspect of the whole railroading experience. What was earlier a silent construct of cold steel, suddenly becomes a living, fire-breathing monster -- totally alive with the thunder of its exhausts, the throbbing of its firebox, and the shriek of its whistle.
Demonstrating what we now consider a primitive way of doing business, a gigantic plume of steam and smoke rises high above the big Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad 4-8-4 type locomotive and its train of loaded coal hoppers. Back before the general use of diesel locomotives, the audio-visual experience of such a steam locomotive in action was powerful enough to cause many young men to leave the farm or throw down their shop aprons "to go railroading."
But, today, in the hill country of West Virginia on the former Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad mainline between Sulphur Springs and Huntington -- now part of the Chessie System -- we see C&O's 4-8-4 #614T expressing itself in thunderous exhausts as it passes the little station at Cotton Hill. No great \IMallet\i or other steam locomotive pusher will be found on the rear of this train, because theyear is 1985, and the #614T is performing tests for the American Coal Enterprises. The research being done with this comparatively "modern" steam locomotive is directed toward discovering the potential of using coal as a practical locomotive fuel in the future.
Cotton Hill lies 200 miles west of White Sulphur Springs on the railroad's mainline from Newport News.
\BPhoto by John S. Murray\b
No:6
\HThe Ski Train\h
"Once upon a time" -- as the storytellers would say -- winter excursion trains were an important seasonal aspect of business for many of the nation's passenger-carrying railroads. Now in 1990, the list of such operations is very slim, as passengers departed from the rails in past decades to ride "free" tax-supported highways.
However, a few entrepreneurs such as Philip Anschutz, primary owner of the Southern Pacific Railroad, have created successful rail operations with a bit of help from circumstance and by treating the winter sports people as they would like to be treated themselves. The primary example is the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad's \IThe Ski Train\i that operates on winter weekends between Denver and the resorts at Winter Park, Colorado. Well-maintained passenger car equipment and predictable schedules have taken many skiers off the slippery and crowded mountain resort highways and onto the train, so that they can enjoy dining and partying while being carried smoothly up into the mountains. \IThe Ski Train\i is shown here on its morning westbound run through the deep canyons of the Rocky Mountains near Pinecliff, heading for the 6-mile Moffat Tunnel and the ski slopes to be found on the other side of the Continental Divide, near the tunnel's west portal.
Normal motive power for the train is a pair of husky EMD freight motors that are ready and willing to push their way through nearly any obstacles. This Denver tradition of ski trains began in 1940.
\BPhoto by Ronald C. Hill\b
No:7
\HE6 Passenger Train\h
Somewhat like the automobiles we drive, occasionally it becomes necessary to pull into a service station to refuel and get the windows washed. Here, brightly painted Louisville & Nashville Railroad #756 is in just that situation at the road's South Louisville Shops in 1967 -- being refueled and getting its face washed.
The picture is a reminder of those pleasant days of train-watching in Louisville, Kentucky. The big E6 passenger unit is probably being made ready to work today on the road's streamlined \IPan-American or South Wind\i passenger train that will soon be pulling into the nearby Louisville Union Station. Behind #756 in the shops service area we see the nose of U25B #1621 and the number board of Alco RS-3 #195. The entire Union Station and shops' area is in direct sight of the L&N's general office building, from which any momentarily idle executive may look out a window and see the parade of L&N, Monon, C&O, and Pennsylvania Railroad trains moving through this depot area.
Nashville is at the hub of train movements between Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago, Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham and New Orleans. This central location between other major cities and the unpredictability of water levels in the adjacent Ohio River accounted for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad being chartered in 1850. It is still useful as an all-weather transportation system between that railroad's namesake cities.
The railroad was just completed across the Cumberland River and the Green River -- the latter with the longest iron bridge built at that time -- to reach Nashville in 1861 as the Civil War began.
\BPhoto by Tom Smart\b
No:8
\HSanta Maria Valley RR #100\h
No doubt, one of the least known and appreciated railroads in the Golden State of California has been the Santa Maria Valley Railroad, a shortline operating along the Pacific Coast near Santa Maria. In 1955 it boasted less than 15 miles of mainline and branchline track, including its connection at the town of Guadalupe with just one other railroad -- the Southern Pacific.
But the real distinction and class of this small railroad came from its former president and owner, "Captain" G. Allan Hancock. He resided most of his life in Los Angeles and was a pioneer in the development of the oil industry in California. The La Brea Tar Pits lie in the vicinity of his Hancock Oil Co. offices in the City of Los Angeles. The Tar Pits were known to the Indians and early Spanish explorers, who realized tar could be used to caulk boats and other uses. But it was also dangerous, shown by the bones of prehistoric animal found in this black goo.
Hancock and a few others recognized more important uses for this black oil oozing out of the ground in many parts of coastal southern California. In fact, it was the stuff that fueled southern California's early love affair with automobiles, and threatened the Pacific Electric Railway and all other forms of mass transportation in L.A.
The Captain became wealthy and famous -- sufficiently to own his own railroad in the oil town of Santa Maria. He was well-known to railfans because once a week he would put on his engineer's outfit to handle the railroad's business with Santa Maria Valley #100, a favorite engine. Here, with a crewman on the pilot, he happily eases a short train down a country lane to pick up another load.
\BPhoto by John Hungerford\b
No:9
\HChicago's Dearborn Station - 1966\h
An example of the depth of diversities of railroading to be found in only one small part of Chicago may be seen in this interesting view of the throat of busy Dearborn Station in 1966 by photographer F.L. Becht.
In the foreground, with the great Chicago skyline rising in the distance, we see the 1000 horsepower Alco/GE RS-1l locomotive #254 of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad busy at work switching an unidentified cut of streamlined coaches and head end cars. Part of that company's job is to promptly pull passenger and mail cars from the depot after arrival and quickly bring in passenger train equipment for the next schedule, well in advance of its scheduled departure time so it may be serviced and supplied.
In this way, the C&WI is the "neutral" switching company for Dearborn Station, a station that must serve the needs of its several tenants, among them, the Santa Fe Railway, Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, and the Erie Railroad. Farther in the distance, at the right side of the picture, we see two more of the ubiquitous C&WI switchers ready for their next assignments.
Farther to the left, we see a Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad passenger train getting ready to depart, with a 2,000 horsepower E7 passenger unit already placed on the point. It is one of the road's units that were rebuilt in 1958 to E9 specifications.
Inside the trainshed, we see silver streamlined passenger cars, probably those of the \ISan Francisco Chief\i awaiting a mid-afternoon departure.
Big time railroading in the Windy City -- all in one small location.
\BPhoto by F.L. Becht\b
No:10
\HSanta Fe Steam Locomotive in the Tehachapi Mts.\h
The hot exhaust of Santa Fe Railway steam locomotive #3751 condenses in the cool air of a December day, 1991 as it leads a long railroad fan excursion train up the better than 2% grades of the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California on Bealville siding. A decade ago the #3751 was rescued "from its final resting place" next to the Santa Fe depot in San Bernardino and taken to Fontana, CA by the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society for restoration by an ambitious team of skilled craftsmen and volunteer railroad fans.
The pay-offs came with these first live Santa Fe steam operations across the Tehachapis to Bakersfield in nearly four decades.
This rail link between the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert was completed in August of 1876 by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Next to snowy Donner Pass, it was the toughest mountain crossing for any California mainline. Santa Fe gained access to this pass in 1900.
The #3751 was the first of what would become the Santa Fe's large fleet of long-legged Baldwin 4-8-4 steamers, able to haul fast passenger trains straight through, without change, for the more than 1700 miles between Los Angeles and Kansas City. Assisting the #3751 today are a pair of Santa Fe FP45 red and silver "War Bonnet" diesels. But, as clean as the beautiful locomotives and cars appear in this picture, their pristine appearance will disappear a few miles ahead. Inside tunnel #5, the scouring exhausts of the #3751 will transfer 40 years of accumulated diesel exhaust clinging to the roof of that tunnel onto the trailing locomotives and cars.
\BPhoto by Gary Vielbaum\b
No:11
\HSteam Locomotive at Old Fort, NC\h
You and a few other fans gather early outside of the community of Old Fort, North Carolina, waiting trackside with your cameras for the dramatic railroad action you know will come.
First, a very distant whistle is heard above the passing automobiles. Then, still far in the distance, the first glimmer of a dot of light shows against the dark background of the high Blue Ridge.
Gradually, the headlight gains brightness, and a white plume of steam can be seen rising above the dark maroon dot as it grows bigger.
Now you see the locomotive and hear clearly the powerful, quickening, sounds of the exhaust as the engine visibly gains speed.
Your camera is at the ready. The throaty exhausts keep growing louder as the condensing steam rises higher and higher, drifting off toward the right side of the locomotive.
Finally -- NOW is picture time! Your shutter goes off to preserve the exciting moment. Then the locomotive and steam exhausts rise alarmingly higher above you, and explode past in a great push of wind, dust, and loud noises, accompanied by the blur of huge steel mechanisms spinning and flying as the huge locomotive rushes past you in full roar. Quickly, the pitch of the noise lowers and the sounds are those of the passing train wheels and moving car bodies.
Then something unnatural happens after all that action -- you suddenly hear quiet again.
The sounds of the coaches and exhausts fade into the distance and the great experience -- brief as it was -- is over. You've just become acquainted with the legendary "J" class 4-8-4 #611 of the old Norfolk & Western Railway.
\BPhoto by Doug Koontz\b
No:12
\HSierra Railroad Steam Locomotive\h
One of the most interesting and historic railroads of California is the Sierra Railroad that operated 57.43 miles of track between Oakdale and Tuolumne on the east edge of the San Joaquin Valley below Stockton. Track was laid in 1897 to serve gold mining activities in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Range, and to carry the bountiful forest products of that range down to the San Joaquin Valley. Later, the railroad would also carry tremendous quantities of mine tailings, rock, and other materials for the construction of major dams and water reservoirs in that region. Until recent years, the railroad also had the distiction of being a property of the Crocker family, relations of Charles Crocker, construction boss and the one of "The Big Four" of the Central Pacific Railroad, who personally pushed the construction crews to a meetingwith the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory, Utah, in 1869.
Here we see one of its quaint locomotives, #36, switching a Sonora ice company in 1955, shortly before retirement. The #36 received heavy press that year because it was being withdrawn from service in favor of new diesel locomotive operations. To mark the retirement of the #36, crowds of local people and hundreds of rail fans arrived on a special train from the Bay Area to honor the last regular operating steam locomotive on this shortline, whose operations began in 1897. It was a sentimental journey for everyone concerned.
Actually, steam locomotive operations continue to the present day, for summer tourist operations and to provide special trains for Hollywood and other film and television producers.
\BPhoto by John Hungerford\b
No:13
\HWestern Pacific Railroad in Feather River Canyon\h
Deep in the heart of the Feather River country of northern California, we look down on the passage of Western Pacific Railroad Extra 913A West as it rumbles across Spanish Creek Bridge on its way to tidewater at Oakland. The bridge is a portion of that railroad's most famous landmark -- Keddie Wye -- where construction crewsfrom Salt Lake City and Oakland met in 1909 to drive the last spike.
The new 921-mile line was financed by Jay Gould money to link up with the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad and other Gould roads to create a new transcontinental route. To save operating costs, the line was laid out with a maximum gradient of only 1%. Finally, forty years after the driving of the gold spike at Promontory, the Southern Pacific Railroad had a new competitor to fight.
Ironically, Central Pacific president Collis P. Huntington had personally hiked the rugged steep canyons of the Middle and North Forks of the Feather River Canyon in 1861 with chief engineer, Theodore P. Judah, to confirm there was no better Sierra crossing than Donner Pass.
But only one man knew how to build a railroad through those forks -- surveyor Arthur Keddie of Spring Garden. He realized that a railroad was practical if a mile-long tunnel was dug near his home to connect the two most useful sections of each fork. The rest is history. In 1931 another bridge was added to the Spanish Creek bridge for a new Northern California Extension connection to the Great Northern Railway. This created Keddie Wye over which the famous \ICalifornia-Zephyr\i operated from 1949 until 1970.
\BPhoto by Keith Ardinger\b
No:14
\HSteam Locomotives in Philadelphia Terminal\h
A low morning sun at Camden, NJ, in March of 1954 illuminates this very authentic-looking steam railroad terminal of the 1950's.
This picture, shows at least 14 or more Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotives steamed up and waiting between assignments at this terminal across the Delaware River from the City of Philadelphia. This yard facility serves the branch lines that reach south, east, and north from here. In the distance, we can see the dark pyramid shape of the terminal's huge coaling tower, and the tall smokestacks of what is probably the locomotive roundhouse. At least some of the engines are seen to be standard Pennsy 2-10-0 Decapod freight engines.
The point of extreme contrast between this terminal and today's diesel locomotive servicing areas lies in the great labor content necesary to maintain all these resting steam locomotives so they can remain ready to go to work. Now, diesels can sit and idle for days. Here, to keep each locomotive ready for service, engine watchmen or hostlers must carefully check to see the proper coal fires and boiler pressures are maintained for each engine. Engines resting here for extended periods will need to be hostled to the coaling tower occasionally for more water and coal. They also will have to be attended by engine wipers who clean the engines so that they may be properly inspected, lubricated, and re-outfitted with supplies for the enginemen before they leave the yard.
Also, with so many locomotive movements, switchmen or herders are probably necessary to help line the switches for all these moves to and from the servicing areas.
\BPhoto from Al Chione Collection\b
No:15
\HF-units on Cajon Pass\h
It is December of 1963 on a dark night at Summit, California, at the 3,800 foot top of the Santa Fe/Union Pacific Cajon Pass grade. Coming up from the valley is heard the distant roar of four or more F-units hard at work several miles down the hill on the eastbound 2.2% grade.
The depot lights are on for a time exposure, the photographer's lights are all set, and the train rounds the big curve west of the station and it begins accelerating on the more level rails portion of the grade at Summit.
Then, FLASH! The retinal image of the train and depot are momentarily burned into the photographer's eyes by the sudden bright flash. The impression at the moment is that the great flash has frozen train #18 there for all time -- partly true since we're still looking at that frozen moment in time -- but reality is restored as the still moving train drums past the onlookers and is last seen as its rear markers disappear quickly in the general direction of Victorville and Chicago to satisfy this all-first class train's 39 3/4-hour schedule.
Congratulations are made later at capturing something on film as elusive as #18 slipping past Summit in total darkness. Then picking up the lighting apparatus. The true uniqueness of the picture, the clear order board, the little wooden depot, and the automobile are much more apparent today than when the picture was made.
This successful effort by the artist is all the more admirable because -- typical of the arts in general -- he created the picture before others could even realize it was a fine image that could be made.
\BPhoto by Tom Gildersleeve\b
No:16
\HDiesel Locomotives at Rock Island Tower\h
A pair of husky-looking Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway GM SD38-2 diesels roll past the Rock Island Railway interlocking tower in East Joliet, Illinois in 1991. The clean orange and green General Motors 2,000 horsepower units #659 and #661 running back-to-back give an attractive symmetry to the head end of the train, a classier appearance than observed on most mainline railroads. These are two of the 13 such units that move trains on this switching operation. The road operates a total of nearly sixty locomotives.
This Chicago "Outer Belt" shortline has more than 200 miles of track in the Chicago area, forming an arc around Chicago from Waukegan southward to Joliet, before swinging east into Indiana to serve the Gary industrial areas and to make connections with other eastern railroads as far east as Porter. From Gary, several lines swing back northward into the East Chicago and South Chicago industrial areas.
Not just an unscheduled switching road, as far back as 1968 the EJ&E Ry. has listed in the \IOfficial Guide\i 14 interline train schedules operating between Waukegan and Porter on its Joliet Division.
Describing the essential mission of the railroad, and its primary functions, one of the road's advertising slogans expresses the main selling point of the EJ&E to other railroad systems: \I"The 'J' has direct connections with every railroad entering Chicago. Freight interchanges are made at outlying points away from city congestion. For careful, on-schedule handing of your traffic -- specify EJ&E."\i
If there was ever an Academy Award for the fastest, finest and most innovative electric interurban line in the United States, the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad would have won it hands down. The high speed interurban cars shown pausing at the large Mundelein, WI depot only hint at the capabilities of that railroad.
It began as the Bluff City Electric Street Railway in 1892 in Waukegan, IL, and blossomed into the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad that by 1916 was operating a 73-mile, high speed, well-ballasted, doubletrack right-of-way between Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Evanston, Illinois; one that could be the envy of any steam railroad.
On-board amenities for fast limited trains included extra-fare parlor-buffet service with comfortable wicker seating and all the qualities of a fine restaurant, including linen and Oneida silver.
In 1916, it fell under the control of transportation tycoon Samuel Insull, who instituted a far-sighted 10-year improvement program for the North Shore that included direct access into downtown Chicago. North Shore trains then operated routinely at speeds of up to 80 miles an hour from Milwaukee most of the way to The Loop. There, they completed the 2-hour journey on the busy rails of the Chicago elevated system.
New streamlined \IElectroliner\i cars arrived in 1941, cars so flexible as to be able to operate around The Loop's extremely sharp curves, yet capable of running at speeds in excess of 85 miles per hour to make scheduled 88-mile trips in from Milwaukee in 1 hour and 48 minutes. New tax-supported roads killed this outstanding train service in 1963.
The unusual event of 1987 that surprised and delighted railroad fans was the simultaneous operation of the Norfolk & Western's two restored steam locomotives. In addition to making other fan trips, the restored J-Class 4-8-4 #611 and the A-class 2-6-6-4 #1218 paced each other, side-by-side, on the doubletrack mainline climb of the Blue Ridge Mountains through Elliston, Virginia.
In the history of modern American steam power, no railroad exceeded the practical excellence and finesse of design for heavy-duty mountain-climbing steam locomotives than the Norfolk & Western and its Roanoke Shops. Not only were the locomotives designed here, but they were also constructed and maintained here.
The husky 4-8-4 J-class passenger locomotives, as represented by the #611, might well have been considered as husky freight power on most other railroads, but were actually designed at Roanoke to be like the huge 4-8-4 passenger locomotives of the Santa Fe Railway -- for fast passenger train operations over heavy grades, as well as on level track.
As seen in this photograph, the sight of the big and fast Class A 2-6-6-4 running alongside J-Class #611 was the top experience for hundreds of viewers and riders who had never seen both passenger and freight locomotives operating next to each other.
Much of the stimulus for heavy-duty steam locomotives on this road came from several stretches of adverse mainline grades, as steep as 2%, that had to be climbed by tidewater-bound loaded coal trains descending from the mines of this Pocahontas Region.
\BPhoto by John S. Murray\b
No:19
\HThe Zephyr\h
As to which was the fastest railroad operating across the flat prairies of the Midwest, only a few railroads come to mind when better than 100 mile-an-hour running comes to mind, such as the Santa Fe Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Not only did the latter road's Zephyrs travel that fast through the corn fields, but on the sides of the stainless steel sheathing they had names related to speed like \ISilver Racer\i. These Zephyrs were descendants of the \IPioneer Zephyr\i that in 1934 made the famous 1,015-mile dash from Denver to Chicago in 13 hours and 4 minutes, plus a few seconds of change.
Yet in this unusual photograph from the 1960's we observe an incredible reversal of fortunes -- a lash-up of six of these aging but still attractive passenger units pulling hard on a fast freight train near Palmer Lake, Colorado, running parallel with the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains on this hilly section of Colorado & Southern track. This practice of using E-units in freight service was also done by the Union Pacific in this decade. One often saw five yellow E-9 units expediting a long freight train across the Nebraska heartlands. pulling various consists of boxcar and refrigerator car blocks.
The Burlington E-8 units ran out their final years in this Colorado service, having lost their former passenger train assignments with the passing of the \ITexas Zephyr\i and other intercity trains that were being eliminated in this era of increased competition from heavily subsidized airlines flying new jets.
\BPhoto by Ken Crist\b
No:20
\HThe Southern Belle\h
Famous name trains were still operating in the 1960's, but new jet airplanes were showing that "the handwriting was on the wall" for passenger trains, and that some kind of nationally supported railroad plan would have to be devised to protect the railroads from the growing passenger train deficits that took money out of the pockets of freight shippers.
Sadly, we can see the way things are headed by this picture of the \ISouthern Belle\i as it roars past the camera on its way between Kansas City and New Orleans in 1968. Motive power is a single E8 passenger motor acquired in 1952, trailing six cars -- two of which are baggage and mail cars and another two are a diner and a tavern-lounge-observation car, requiring only one chair car and one sleeping car forpassengers.
Back in 1929, American railroads operated more than 20,000 passenger trains. By 1950 that had dropped to 5,000 trains. At the time of implementation of Amtrak, only 450 passenger trains were operating in a nation politically committed to supporting petroleum intensive modes of transportation, two of which have never paid their own way free of tax support -- automobiles and airlines. The first causes serious pollution problems and forced urban sprawl. The second had always lived on free taxpayer monies, receiving government help in designing aircraft and building and operating airports, as well as being provided increasingly expensive air traffic control systems.
The implementation of Amtrak in 1971 helped reduce the passenger train deficits to individual companies by a small government subsidy and a great reduction in the number of trains and travel routes.
\BPhoto by R.R. Wallin\b
No:21
\HMotor Car Trailer Coach\h
Some pieces of railroad equipment simply must be described as being so ugly as to be interesting. Motor Car Trailer Coach #2506 of the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad comes close to that description.
The giant radiator louvers on the front end suggest a kind of nightmare vacuum cleaner that scoops up loitering insects and slow-moving birds encountered on the car's daily trips between Kansas City the mainline connection at Bloomington, Illinois. In this picture we see it making a station stop at the small town of Delvan, 30 miles west of Bloomington.
But, louvers or not, this little train did its share of daily chores on the GM&O. The contraption carries a Railway Post Office for picking up and dropping off mail all along the 362-mile run. It also provides a 12-hour running time to Kansas City for those passengers detraining from Chicago on \IThe Alton Limited\i or another mainline train enroute to St. Louis. But inthis 1958 period, it makes only semi-reasonable connections with two of the mainline trains at Bloomington. It will probably be standing at the depot for passengers when they debark from the westbound \IMidnight Special\i at about 2 a.m. Unfortunately, however, the Motor Car is not scheduled to leave Bloomington for another 6 hours. This suggests that passengers will have the choice of trying to find a coach seat on the Motor, or a bed in a hotel.
The eastbound connection was much better. The little orange and maroon Motor Car would arrive at Bloomington at 6:45 p.m. for its connection with \IThe Ann Rutledge\i arriving from St. Louis at 7:17 p.m.
\BPhoto by Montague Powell\b
No:22
\HThe Shark\h
The 1950's saw an alarming number of Shark sightings at some distances from either East or the West Coast oceans. In fact, they were found mostly along the mainlines of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
The Sharks in discussion were a very dramatically styled breed of cab units created by the Baldwin Locomotive Works at Eddystone, PA -- later Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. They were among the last visible gasps of creativity for a company that had made its reputation with customized steam locomotives for specific operating districts on specific railroads. But they were too late to the diesel party with standardized high performance multi-purpose mainline diesel locomotives. The slow four-cycle "stump puller" approach to road engines failed to compete well with those of General Motors. Contributing to the problem was the Pennsylvania Railroad, which had a similar history of successful custom designs of steam locomotives. But what worked well with steam engines proved to be faulty in the diesel age, where reliable, universal, standard designs proved better than clever situation-specific ones.
Nevertheless, the Baldwin Shark cab-units on the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads were distinctive and interesting to viewers.
In this scene, we see Shark set #9724 rolling westbound along the Juniata River at Newport, PA in 1956 with a 97-car train of empty hoppers and freight headed back to the mines. Enola Yard at Harrisburg lies 27 miles behind the rear markers, and Altoona is still more than 100 miles ahead. These Shark units were either 1500 or 1600 horsepower.
\BPhoto by William P. Price\b
No:23
\HGreat Northern Locomotive\h
This 1959 photograph of a westbound Great Northern Railway freight train speeding past the empty platform of the depot at Herman, Minnesota, is a scene to brighten the heart of any GN railroad freight salesman and that of many railroad fans.
Salesmen loved the picture because it shows an attractive new GN locomotive of a considerable 4,050 horsepower busy at work pulling almost a trainload of brand new GN boxcars of a type that will help assure customers that their freight will be protected out on the line by the cars' modern construction.
Today, from a railroad-lover's viewpoint, the photograph represents only a fun bit of time-travel back into the late 1950's for another look at that relatively primitive era of all-boxcar freight trains and early mainline diesel-electric freight locomotives.
The attractive new technology represented then by lead unit #402-D in the 1950's has given way to today's highly reliable, electronically controlled, single-unit locomotives that may produce as much horsepower by themselves as the entire three-unit consist in this picture.
The Great Northern Railway was pushed across the northern tier states, from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Seattle, Washington, by a wily old railroad financier, James J. Hill, who purchased a bankrupt railroad that had already started west on that alignment and failed. But the railroad had acquired tremendous acreage from land grants, so Hill sold them off to farmers and made enough money to get started on building his own Great Northern westward. He made it to the Puget Sound in 1893.
\BPhoto by Russ Porter\b
No:24
\H3-Foot Gauge at Cumbres Pass\h
There is always something magic about railroading in the high mountains along the Colorado and New Mexico state border, something magic in the dry thin clear air of Cumbres Pass at over 10,000 feet elevation that provides an incredibly beautiful and variable background for the 3-foot gauge railroading of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.
As with its earlier public fight over the Durango-Silverton branch, Rio Grande management in Denver at this time seemed to fly into fits of denial, almost refusing to admit or recognize that they could possibly be remotely connected with such an antique, archaic, regressive, abomination of a money-losing narrow gauge railroad line that they were hearing still exists somewhere back in the Rocky Mountains.
Yet, denied or not, the real world comes alive in this 1962 photograph that captures an eastbound oil train on the 4% grade not too far away from Cumbres summit. Because of the demands of this very steep grade, this may well represent just the first, second, or third cut of cars being hoisted to the summit where they could be re-coupled into one train for the less steep descent to Alamosa.
Perhaps today the train has slowed or stopped for the photographer, or to build up steam. Appearances suggest that the lead engineer is whistling a signal to his helper crew, who appear to be working steam at the rear of the train. Actually, in its beauty, it matters not if this photograph was made because the engineer was trying to avoid a bison stampede or because the train has stalled. Today this scenic line is operated by the popular Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.
\BPhoto by Tom Gildersleeve\b
No:25
\HChicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul & Pacific Electric\h
The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul & Pacific Railroad was the operator of two of the most unusual and exotic electrified mainlines in the United States. It came about shortly after the turn of the last century when this prosperous Midwest line was facing increasing regional competition.
The chosen solution was to gamble on a 1,400-mile mainline extension from Mobridge, Minnesota, to Tacoma, Washington. The gamble came from invading the territory of such entrenched competitors as the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, and Union Pacific Railroads. Adding to the risk was the possibility of a ship canal being built across the Isthmus of Panama.
The extension was competed to Tacoma harbor in May 1909. Business was slow to develop so the railroad decided to cut operating costs and speed up the flow of traffic by electrifying the 660 miles of line across its four major mountain ranges -- completed just a year after the new Panama Canal opened, an event which cut into all Pacific Northwest rail traffic.
The result was temporary bankruptcy and a railroad with two islands of high tech 3,000-volt DC electrified railroad lost from view in the mountains of Montana, Idaho, and Washington.
Fifty-three years later -- at Butte, Montana -- we can find the old 1915 electric motors still hard at work pulling freight trains back and forth across the Continental Divide. They have slipped into Senior Citizen status -- finally outperformed by the new generations of diesel locomotives. They will go to scrap in 1974 and the Pacific Coast Extension will follow six years later.
\BPhoto by Richard Steinheimer\b
No:26
\HReading RR's Famous T-1 Class 4-8-4\h
Recalling the greatest steam locomotive operations of the early 1960's period, we see two of the Reading Railroad's famous T-1 class 4-8-4's that entertained Eastern railroad fans with their fan trips through Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The "Iron Horse Rambles" operated from 1959 to 1964 with locomotives #2100, #2102, #2104, and #2124. Reading #2123 was sacrificed for parts to help maintain the four "stars" of the show during this time when most major railroads no longer allowed steam excursions on their property.
Here, in 1963, we see the #2100 and #2102 cut off from their excursion train and getting ready to go to a servicing area. Not counting the many thousands of people who simply enjoyed watching those "Iron Horse Rambles," an estimated 50,000 other people actually rode on the fifty-one separate "Rambles" conducted during the five year program.
At the conclusion of this steam locomotive operations program, the #2104 was sent to Steamtown USA at Bellows Falls, VT. A buyer in Baltimore took the #2101 which later worked on the American Freedom Train. The #2100 and #2102 were sold to other parties.
Today the stories of the Reading Railroad are preserved and told by members of the "Reading Company Technical & Historical Society" in Leesport, Pennsylvania. On that site they have a number of restored Reading diesel locomotives and passenger cars, as well as a museum and shops. The grounds are open weekend afternoons from May through October. An "Annual Train Meet" is held in early October.
\BPhoto by John Hungerford\b
No:27
\HCSX Coal Train\h
Nice looking power in a beautiful setting -- nothing in the world to complain about. Except perhaps the wish of CSX management for such heavy duty motive power to be pulling more coal tonnage than a company caboose.
Actually the brace of units are on their way up a Corbin Division branch line to the "Pike 26 Mine" to pick up a train of coal loads to haul back to a larger terminal so it can be dispatched to waiting customers. Whatever else goes on in the world, this is strictly Coal Country to the CSX and the people who live in this region -- this, the land of Daniel Boone, Abraham Lincoln, Col. Harland Sanders, Muhammed Ali, Jefferson Davis and the Goldenrod state flower!
This 28-mile former Chesapeake & Ohio Railway branch line the train is now riding was previously known as the Sandy Valley & Elkhorn, a 31-mile stretch of line at one time owned by Consolidation Coal Co. Today, it still connects the CSX yard at Shelby, Kentucky, with Jenkins and the same mine to which this train is heading. The ruggedness and beauty of this mountain territory remains one of the great sources of pride and enjoyment for the residents.
The husky-looking #7043 and the unit behind it are General Electric C30-7 models built in the 1979-81 period. Nearly 600 of these popular A-C drive locomotives were constructed, including these built for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and acquired by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad before becoming CSX locomotives.
They carried their same locomotive numbers through all three railroad corporate reorganizations.
\BPhoto by Garland McKee\b
No:28
\HAlco PA Passenger Engine\h
This photograph suggests why many people consider the Alco PA-type locomotives the best-looking diesel locomotives ever built. That big, no-nonsense front end, and the Denver & Rio Grande Western RR colors seem to confirm many of those claims.
Then, you might ask, "What's a beautiful passenger engine like you doing with a short train like this?"
This little two-car \IYampa Valley Mail\i probably was still making money for the railroad, distributing mail, express, and a passenger or two to the three dozen or so little burgs between Denver and Craig, Colorado. All fans should have ridden it -- it was a pre-Amtrak history lesson and scenic tour of most of the former trackage of the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad, a steep portion of which once topped the summit of the Rockies above today's Moffat Tunnel at Corona, 11,680 feet above sea level. The depot was buried inside a dark snowshed where, as Lucius Beebe observed, "cave dwelling passengers await the next train."
The old D&SL switchback line over the pass is gone and so this day's \IYampa Valley Mail\i uses the Moffat Tunnel to reach Craig via Granby and Kremmling. Decades ago, the branchline rails were very bumpy and not up to mainline standards -- on one occasion, prompting an engineer to stop his train in a blinding blizzard, "because the track felt too smooth." Checking, he found his train had derailed and was running down one of the community's frozen streets.
Today the track is good, and a busy route for Southern Pacific coal trains serving Western and Midwestern power plants.
\BPhoto by Ronald C. Hill\b
No:29
\HRio Grande Southern Railroad\h
The scrapping in 1952 of the entire 160-mile Rio Grande Southern Railroad up in the beautiful mountains of Colorado was one of the saddest sights ever seen by lovers of this "impossible" railroad. We see engine #461 helping pull up the three-foot gauge rails at Coke Ovens, Colorado, with the help of caboose #0400, now preserved at the Georgetown Loop Railroad.
Always ready to innovate, this struggling 3-foot gauge railroad became one of the most unusual railroads in the United States as it started retrenching its passenger train service during the Depression years of the 1930's. Management rebuilt a fleet of oversized Pierce-Arrow and Buick touring cars/busses and placed them on steel wheels to cut operating costs during that lean period of diminished passenger business. They also added a large rear end, or trailer, to handle mail, baggage and express. What eventually became eight "Galloping Gooses" quickly became another popular Colorado institution, surviving until the scrapping of this line. Several "Gooses" are preserved at the Colorado Railroad Museum at Golden.
Unbelievably, this 179-mile three-foot gauge railroad was constructed by Otto Mears in 1891 largely to achieve his goal of gaining access to the rich Colorado mining town of Ouray -- located only six miles away from the tracks of his own Silverton Railroad. But significantly -- such a direct journey lay beyond the practical realm of railroading because of the nearly 11,000 feet of elevation changes necessary to surmount a snowy intervening ridge.
\BPhoto by R.H. Kindig\b
No:30
\HSanta Fe F-7's at Cajon Pass\h
Cajon Pass in Southern California has probably witnessed nearly two million trains since the line was completed by the Santa Fe in 1885 through this rift of the San Andreas Fault between the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountain Ranges. The first single track line had a steep 6 miles of 3% grade in between its stretches of 2.2% gradients. Union Pacific Railroad joined the party in 1905, adding its Salt Lake City traffic to that of the already busy Santa Fe. A second track was added in 1913, with a maximum 2.2% gradient. By 1967, Southern Pacific tried to join the Cajon Pass club but was rebuffed, ending up with its own 2.2% route laid just north and west of the ATSF/UP line.
The tremendous number of trains operating over this desert pass has always attracted photographers, following the lead of previous generations, which included photographers like Herb Sullivan and Robert O. Hale.
Yet as sure as the desert winds blow and trains climb the Cajon, photographers always find new subjects to shoot, such as the beautifully matched set of Santa Fe F7's pictured here. The occasion is a 1966 fan special pausing at Cajon Summit with five spotless "Warbonnet" F7 units. To many, the train and locomotives were proof of the Santa Fe Railway's ability to provide excellent transportation.
The reliability and favorable maintenance characteristics of these General Motors F7's greatly appealed to the Santa Fe in those early days of first generation diesels and the replacement of steam power. But in passenger service, these F7's had a bit less pulling power than their maintenance-intensive long-snooted Alco/GE PA competitors.
\BPhoto by Charles Ditlefsen\b
No:31
\HBright Blue Conrail Locomotive\h
The huge, bulky presence of oncoming Conrail C39-8 #6004 intimidates nearby motorists and takes momentary command of a highway crossing in La Grange, Kentucky, about 25 miles northeast of Louisville in the year 1988. This town is on the old Louisville & Nashville Railroad mainline between Cincinnati and Louisville. The train is that of the CSX, though headed by pooled Conrail motive power.
These bright blue Conrail locomotives are part of a 1986 order placed with General Electric for 22 heavy-duty 3900 horsepower units, most suitable for fast long-haul long-distance freight operations, such as the run-through service we see in the photograph. The Conrail locomotive roster includes more than 2,200 units of all types.
Back in the pre-World War II days of 1939, when the L&N operated 4,925 miles of track, passenger trains through La Grange on this L&N line included the passage of such popular trains as:
These trains were supported by considerable L&N advertising dollars to attract riders destined to points in Florida and the Gulf Coast. Coach fares were advertised at 1.5 cents a mile between all points on the L&N and on many other railroads in the southeast.
\BPhoto by John R. Wilcox, Jr.\b
No:32
\HPennsylvania RR's 2-10-0 Decapod\h
This Pennsylvania Railroad 2-10-0 Decapod #4336, pulling an almost endless train off of the Rockville Bridge in the summer of 1955, reflects the independent thinking of that railroad's mechanical department when it comes to getting the job done. Most long distance high speed railroads like a Santa Fe Railway or Union Pacific Railroad would consider #4336 an ancient, obsolete artifact, in fact, a dead end in the evolutionary path leading to more useful steam locomotives.
That the Pennsy did not consider it a dead end is shown by their heavy purchasing of locomotives of this type starting in the 1920's. They eventually acquired nearly 600 locomotives of this class, making it the primary freight locomotive for the entire railroad.
Which viewpoint is wrong? That sounds like a good question, but in truth its a faulty one. Both railroads are probably right. Unlike diesels, it was extremely important to matchthe correct steam locomotive with the specific job it was designed to perform.
The Pennsy system has numerous trackside industries jammed close together on nearly all of its mainlines. Local freights were busy working relatively short distances at low speed, doing plenty of heavy switching along the way. This suggests using engines with a lot of heavy pulling power, a big firebox, small drive wheels, and short tenders for short hauls and short turntables.
Out West, industries are relatively far apart. That means bigger tenders and bigger wheels to get you there. And you have to run at higher speeds without kinking the rails or the train crew's neck, which means more pony wheels. It sounds like they were both right.
\BPhoto by Fred Kern\b
No:33
\HSW9's at Mahoning Tunnel - Dee, PA\h
Popping out of the east portal of Mahoning tunnel like a pair of corks, two attractive red, white, and blue SW9's lead a northbound local freight train of the Pittsburg & Shawmut Railroad Co. through Dee, Pennsylvania in 1988. The crewmen are attending to their routine errands of picking up and distributing the coal loads and empties so important to their lineside customers.
This colorful little shortline is representative of the many small railroads that were formed in the early part of this century in the mountains of Pennsylvania to serve local coal mining businesses.
The southern end of the 88-mile "Shawmut Line" connects with Conrail at Freeport Jct. and again near the north end of track at Brookville, site of the road's shops. Connections with CSX are made at Dellwood and West Mosgrove.
Motive power for the railroad is comprised of nine SW9 and two GP7 units -- all equipped for multiple-unit service. All of the locomotives on the roster were built by General Motors in the 1951-53 period. In 1986 this road listed 1,136 hopper cars on its roster.
The railroad was incorporated in 1903 and track extended 21 miles from Brookville to Brockway. The entire 88 miles of line opened in 1917. Short branchlines extend to coal operations and other customers in Dellwood, Conifer, Widnoon and West Mosgrove.
Passenger service on the line was discontinued in 1938.
The tunnels and the bridge crossing Mahoning Creek near Cowell, PA, provide interesting visual aspects to the railroad's operations.
\BPhoto by David E. Baer\b
No:34
\HDurango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway\h
Amazing, that a 45-mile Colorado narrow-gauge mining railroad, thrown quickly across a rocky, rugged mountain pass in 1881, still operates by steam locomotives in 1994. In fact, it is so well known it draws admirers from all parts of America and many foreign lands. Today, that old rail line blasted through the Animas River Gorge from Durango, to the Silverton mining district, goes by the name Durango & Silverton Narrow-Gauge Railroad.
Here, at Silverton, lying at 9,300-feet elevation amidst the high peaks of the Uncompahgre Mountains, we see fans arranging their own special photographic session for pictures of the line's old Denver & Rio Grande Railroad 3-foot gauge work train equipment. Coal burner #481 and its train are being turned around on the Silverton wye in the manner of more than a century past. Aware or not, these modern photographers are following the footsteps of the famous Colorado photographer, William Henry Jackson, who in the year 1888 would have shown up here for such a posed picture with a huge glass plate camera. Not only was it extremely heavy, but he, unlike today's photographers, would first have to labor under a huge dark cloth to carefully pour liquid photo-sensitive silver emulsion very evenly over a perfectly clean 18x22-inch sheet of glass. Then, he would insert this "wet plate" sheet of glass into the camera and give a very long exposure to light. Soon he would have to duck back under the dark cloth or into a portable darkroom to carefully develop and fix the image before it could be destroyed by having anything come in contact with the photo-sensitive surface. A painful process? Sure, but it created many masterpieces.
\BPhoto by Charles Ditlefsen\b
No:35
\HMetro North - Middle Tunnel - Hudson River\h
Tunnels, especially those hewn out of solid rock, are high on the train enthusiast's list of appealing subjects to view or photograph. One of America's dramatic displays of such bores (not boring to railfans) is found only 40 miles north of Grand Central Station, along the east shore of the Hudson River near Peekskill, New York.
Near here we see Metro-North train #8837 speeding northward, preparing to duck into "Middle Tunnel" on the former New York Central's Hudson River mainline that follows that great gorge northward toward Albany. The three dramatic tunnels in these high palisades have always been a favorite place for photographers, especially those of the New York Central Railroad. In the later years of that road, before it was merged into Conrail, many fine famous action and posed photographs of new trains and new types of locomotives and rolling stock were made here by such professionals as Ed Nowak of the New York Central Railroad.
Among the dramatic photographs made at this location were those of both the new steam and the diesel generations of the \I20th Century Limited\i. Also to be pictured in the tunnel area was the post-WWII \IPacemaker\i merchandise freight train created for the fast movement of less-than-carload-lots. Among the other famous trains to race through these tunnels and gather the notice of photographers were the \IThe Empire State Limited\i and \IThe Commodore Vanderbilt\i.
Metro-North commute trains running here on the east bank of the Hudson, provide good views of ship traffic on the Hudson River and sightings of Conrail trains running on the west bank of the river.
\BPhoto by Scott Hartley\b
No:36
\HIndiana RR Dinner Train on Lake Lemon Bridge\h
The Indiana Railroad is one of the many new regional railroads established to provide personal service for specific customers or, in some cases, to provide specialized services and product handling requirements for specific businesses.
The railroad's general offices are located in Indianapolis, Indiana, the hub of operations. The road serves customers from this central point to Sullivan, Indiana, a distance of 109 miles down the former Indianapolis and Effingham branch of the Illinois Central Railroad.
At Indianapolis, the railroad interchanges with Conrail, CSXT and Norfolk Southern Railroads.
On this beautiful day in the Midwest we see a dinner train operating across the high Lake Lemon Bridge, just west of Belmont. The passengers ride behind an attractively painted orange and silver Indiana Railroad E-unit built in the mid-1950's by General Motors. The six matching orange and silver cars provide a perfect complement to the whole scene.
This location, including the river, evokes memories of one's youthful trips through the grasslands of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, trips to the tule-covered banks of a river that sometimes seemed too gigantic to cross. The greens and browns of this river banks are the colors remembered from many a Hoosier childhood.
But, down the line of the Indiana Railroad, cars are being loaded, and unloaded, as the process of serving on-line customers keeps demanding the attention of all railroaders.
\BPhoto by Garland McKee\b
No:37
\HAlco PA & 5PB Passenger Locomotives\h
Old hands in the mechanical department of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1950's no doubt shook their heads after the road's purchase of 10 Alco PA and 5 PB passenger locomotives in 1947 during the first big wave of dieselization on that railroad. That they were probably not favorites with the turntable/roundhouse crowd is suggested by the fact these models were never reordered again, despite later orders for Fairbanks-Morse units and large quantities of General Motors E7 and E8 units.
Nevertheless, as photographer William Price observes, "It's easy to see why some call these striped Tuscan beauties the best looking passenger units ever built!"
Price's photograph in October of 1954 shows the #5755 and companion in beautiful fresh paint, greatly complemented by the fall colors of the foliage after a very recent rebuilding, and a possible regearing of their trucks and reassignment of duties allowing them to operate as both freight and passenger haulers for this Standard Railroad Of The World.
The location of the picture is the always beautiful Rockville Bridge, only a short distance up the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg and Enola Yard. The beautiful five-stripe style trim was applied to the railroad's first welded shroud GG-1 electric locomotive in 1935 by industrial designer Raymond Loewy. Here it adds a wonderful flowing effect to the front and sides of these shiny locomotives as they slowly roll around the tight curve and onto the bridge.
\BPhoto by William P. Price\b
No:38
\HBaldwin Locomotive Works 1st 4-8-4\h
The first 4-8-4 constructed by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Santa Fe Railway sleeps away the night -- surrounded by fans in Bakersfield, California. It is making its first major excursion trip in December, 1991, the first live Santa Fe steam locomotive to cross the Tehachapi Mountains in nearly 40 years.
It was built in 1927 as a coal burner, and later converted to oil. Its 80-inch drive wheels allowed it to operate as fast as 100 miles an hour in regular mainline passenger train service. In early years it often served as run-through power for the \ICalifornia Limited\i between Kansas City and Los Angeles, 1,770 miles. This ability to cross much of the continent with minimum servicing en route was a tribute to the manufacturer and the locomotive design.
Horsepower comparisons between the #3751 (before rebuilding) and a brand new 4-unit EMD F3 diesel set in 1946 were tabulated by a dynanometer car showing the #3751 reaching a maximum horsepower of 3,220 h.p. at 40 miles per hour. The new four-unit diesel set peaked at 45 miles per hour with 5,100 h.p., and 5070 h.p. at 40 miles per hour. Newer 4-8-4 #3766 showed a peak h.p. of 4,550 at 45 miles per hour. The ratings were quite respectable for the road's first prototype 4-8-4. Other Santa Fe name trains #3751 handled over its 26 years of service include sections of \IThe Fast Mail, The Scout, The Grand Canyon Limited, The Navajo, The Antelope, The Kansas Citian, The Ranger, The Chicagoan, The Fast Fifteen, The Chief, Chicago Express, The Fast Mail Express, San Diegan, California Special\i, and \IThe Texan\i.
\BPhoto by Elrond G. Lawrence\b
No:39
\HAmtrak Desert Wind\h
Amtrak's westbound \IDesert Wind\i passenger train flies across the Pasadena Freeway on the Arroyo Seco Bridge, the very last leg of a 2,000 mile journey from Chicago.
The passenger's memories of the day before yesterday (or was it yesterday?) still recall the endless crossing of the Great Plains before finally reaching Denver. Then, climbing the Front Range of the Rockies on the twisting route to Moffat Tunnel before emerging from six miles of blackness into the bright green meadows of the Continental Divide. Next, the dash westward along the headwaters of the Colorado River to the sandy wastelands at the foot of the almost-endless Book Cliffs.
Some recall being awakened in the dark as the locomotives labored and the cars squealed on the climb to Soldier Summit, but looking out, saw nothing but their own reflections in the glass. Falling asleep again, reawakened by the station lights of Salt Lake City and the gentle early morning shuffling of cars and passengers, they sense the train slowly leaving the city lights behind and accelerating westward to the Great Salt Lake before veering south toward Los Angeles.
Recalled at Las Vegas, a clock showing 8 a.m. Watching other passengers strain to spot the famous gambling casinos of that great tinsel oasis -- once just a water stop for Senator Clark's Salt Lake, Los Angeles and San Pedro Railroad. Then the final dash across the Mojave desert to San Bernardino and finally -- Los Angeles.
Lastly, the awful realization that everything in the West was too big to even watch. Too many farms, too many plains, too many mountains for any city person to understand or appreciate.
\BPhoto by Larry Kostka\b
No:40
\HUnion Pacific Passenger Train in Snowy Range Mts.\h
This chunky little Union Pacific Railroad 2-8-0 #535 lays down heavy black smoke for the benefit of fans riding a special six-car passenger train up into the Snowy Range Mountains of Wyoming and Colorado.
This is a beautiful, fun day to be traveling on the Coalmont Branch southwest of Laramie, Wyoming, behind the small locomotive that regularly serves this branch. The train is already 40 miles down the branch from Laramie, at Albany, Wyoming. Another 14 miles of climbing the Snowy Mountain grade will allow the train to top the 9,000-foot summit at Fox Park, the highest altitude of any rails on the Union Pacific System. From that summit, the train will descend the hill past the little boxcar town of Kings Canyon on the last 38-mile leg to Walden, Colorado.
The trip is being run in the days when people still traveled by train and not everyone always went to "town" in an automobile. Through the good graces of the Union Pacific management, this branchline still maintained a three-days-a-week mixed train service over the same route. As with other UP mixed trains on long branches, crewmen went west on one day and returned home the next day.
Standard UP operating practices for this 1956 period call for number boards on each side of the exhaust stack to identify the train -- for this trip, Extra 535 West. Though more UP 2-8-0's were saved than any other type, the little #535 may exist today only as a minute part of the recycled steel we use in our own daily lives.
\BPhoto by Robert LeMassena\b
No:41
\HThe Broadway Limited\h
\IThe Broadway Limited\i, star of stage, screen and Pennsy fans, shows off its 1966 consist at Englewood, Illinois, seven miles east of Chicago. The long train with its load of wealthy and influential customers is almost ready to depart eastward from this station around 5 o'clock, allowing time for the riders to "freshen up" before going to the dining car for dinner. Later, the train speed will increase and it will rush on into the night -- watched by top management as well as by lowly employees who know \IThe Broadway\i must not be delayed. Station stops on the 15 and one-half hour trip include Fort Wayne, Crestline, Pittsburgh, Altoona, Harrisburg, Paoli, North Philadelphia, Newark, Jersey City, Hudson Terminal, and Pennsylvania Station in New York City.
Though the impact of faster jet aircraft is beginning to be felt, Number 28 is still Pennsy's finest between Chicago and New York City. On board accommodations include deluxe Lounge, Observation, and Dining cars, and individual Duplex bedrooms, Double Bedrooms, Roomettes, Compartments, and Master Rooms.
One very exciting and memorable period for railroad fans riding \IThe Broadway Limited\i eastward out of Englewood -- or watching from the station platform -- was around 1952 when \IThe Broadway\i and the competing \ITwentieth Century Limited\i of the New York Central were scheduled to leave their adjacent depots at almost the same time.
Sometimes it was racing doubleheaded K-4's versus a New York Central 4-6-4, or other combinations of power. Perhaps the two managements got together to stop the fun before somebody got hurt.
\BPhoto by R.R. Wallin\b
No:42
\HAtchison, Topeka & Santa Fe FP-45s\h
Wearing one of the great paint jobs of North American railroading, we see Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe FP-45's, former passenger units, running in "Super Fleet" colors and holding back a long intermodal "hotshot" on its descent of the steep and curvy west slope of the Tehachapi Mountains in southern California.
Out of sight around the curves, the rear cars of Extra #105 West are still shoving hard against the locomotives' dynamic braking system as they circle the lower part of the famous Tehachapi Loop on this 2.1% grade. At this point, the locomotives are nearly 100 feet lower in elevation that the rear of the train, out of sight of the engine crew that is looking ahead for signals at the east end of Woodford siding.
Odd, but this steep, yet very twisting, descent is considered much less dangerous than the comparatively straight 2.2% descent into Mojave. Here, the friction of the curves, and their slight flattening out to help compensate for that friction encountered by uphill trains, allows engineers to make their descents more safely with the help of good dynamic braking and proper air brake pressure.
Steam locomotives, not having dynamic braking, require the use of air brake "retainers" on the cars of the train to keep a constant drag on the train brakes so engineers can safely recharge their brake line occasionally, without releasing their train brakes. Diesels now often accompany steamers over territories with such grades, partly to provide the dynamic braking that greatly helps the steam engineer control his downgrade speed on the likes of Tehachapi and Cajon Passes.
\BPhoto by Al Chione\b
No:43
\HRio Grande Zephyr\h
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad was one of only two railroads that did not join Amtrak at the time of its creation in 1971. Consequently, the Rio Grande kept its own passenger cars and inaugurated the tri-weekly \IRio Grande Zephyr\i between Denver, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Utah.
Later, disputes would arise over having to make the 35-mile trip to Ogden to connect with Amtrak's \ICity of San Francisco\i train. But eventually, Amtrak would shift that Oakland to Chicago train over to the Rio Grande tracks, both because of complaints by the Union Pacific and to tap the comparative beauty of the Rio Grande crossing versus the desert blandness of the line across Wyoming.
Nevertheless, this thrice-a-week orange and silver Dome Car train operated by the Rio Grande became very popular with the public and presented a classy appearance when -- as we see in this 1979 photograph -- it was seen rushing eastward up toward the headwaters of the Colorado River near Hot Sulphur Springs, amidst the great mountains for which the railroad is known. Ahead is Bond, the connection with the road's Craig branch that reaches into a rich region of low-sulphur coal mining. A few miles later the train will cross the Continental Divide inside the Moffat Tunnel before making the dark descent of South Boulder Canyon into Denver.
The attractive orange F-units at the head of the train, along with some of the passenger cars, will eventually become portions of \IThe Ski Train\i out of Denver.
\BPhoto by Chuck Conway\b
No:44
\HSP #2472 & Daylight #4449\h
Two "California Favorites" stole the show at the National Railway Historical Society convention in 1992 in San Jose, California. At left is Southern Pacific Railroad #2472, a 1920's 4-6-2 recently restored to operating condition by volunteers and professionals of the Golden Gate Railroad Museum in San Francisco, CA. The locomotive is touring around the state to other events such as the "Rail Festival" of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. It was originally built to haul heavy passenger trains on SP long distance mainlines but finally ended its career in the 1950's in San Francisco/San Jose commute service.
At right is Southern Pacific "Daylight" 4-8-4 #4449 under steam, resplendent in new orange, silver and black paint. This locomotive was built by Lima and placed in service May, 1941. It often operated in California on the popular \ICoast Daylight\i between San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as on the streamlined all-Pullman \ILark\i and other long distance trains.
The #4449 also saw service occasionally on the SP's fast \IOvernite\i LCL merchandise trains between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Although it was counter-balanced to 110 miles per hour when accepted from Lima, it was typically operated at speeds consistent with timetable authorizations. In the 1950's it was retired to a city park in Portland, Oregon.
The #4449 was called back to duty for the 1976 Bicentennial Celebration to help pull the \IAmerican Freedom Train\i around the country. The engine is still owned by the City of Portland and is operated for special occasions.
\BPhoto by Charles Ditlefsen\b
No:45
\HSanta Fe Warbonnet\h
The beautiful Santa Fe "Warbonnet" diesels rolling westward across the summit of Cajon Pass with six F7 diesel units have probably had an easy time of it on their westbound trip, despite their heavy train. Now, only 100 miles more remain to the bumper posts at the Los Angeles Union Passenger Station.
If the units we see are all in good condition, the train has "flown" across the Albuquerque and Los Angeles Divisions. In this period of the 1960's, train speed was largely up to the engineer, helped along by trackside "speed boards" that indicated the maximum speed permitted for freight and passenger trains. In areas protected by Automatic Train Stop, the restrictive boards might show only that a passenger train should slow down to, or not exceed, say, 95 miles an hour for specific curves ahead. Such "90" and "95" mile an hour slow boards were quite common on flat or slight descending desert grades, as seen at locations between Seligman, Arizona, and Needles, California.
The number of locomotives on a train may depend on whether or not units have been added or taken off at an intermediate point. Commonly, out of service units stay with the train even when additional units are added. This helps get the units requiring assistance to quickly get to the next locomotive repair facility.
The four head end cars and the standard coach on this train suggests that it is a section of the Grand Canyon Limited, a Chicago-Los Angeles train that uses the Clovis freight cutoff between Kansas and Dalies, New Mexico. This southern route avoids the 4% grades of the Raton Pass passenger line.
\BPhoto by Tom Gildersleeve\b
No:46
\HDurango, CO Roundhouse\h
The Durango, Colorado, roundhouse of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad comes alive in this photograph on June 1, 1967, showing coal-burning 2-8-2 type locomotives #476, #484, and #483 facing outward into the dark of the night. The locomotives are all D&RGW narrow-gauge engines.
From left, the #476 represents the K-28 class of Alcos built in 1923, often used in passenger service. The #484 and the #483 represent the larger K-36 class constructed by Baldwin in 1925 for freight and passenger service on the many still-remaining portions of the D&RGW narrow-gauge system that once stretched across the Rockies from Denver to Durango and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Also used by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, though not seen in this picture, are 2-8-2 type engines of the K-37 class, the heaviest narrow-gauge locomotives. They were re-built by the Rio Grande's Burnham Shops in the 1928-30 period from standard gauge 2-8-0 Consolidations.
The annual operating season of the Durango & Silverton Narrow-Gauge Railroad (formerly D&RGW) now begins in mid-May and continues through the fall season. During the busy summer months, as many as four trains operate out of Durango each day. Special Winter Holiday trips into the Animas Canyon are conducted from late November to New Year's Day.
The Durango-Silverton line was constructed in 1881 to haul miners into the Silverton mining region, and to haul the precious metal ore to smelters.
\BPhoto from Al Chione Collection\b
No:47
\HSP Steam Engine on Modoc Line\h
Picture-taking in California's extreme northeast corner is not often easy, except in the most perfect weather. Rain, snow and below-zero cold are typical winter weather patterns of railroading on this edge of the Great Basin. Searching here for remaining Southern Pacific steam operations in the very stormy year of 1955, photographer Stan Kistler "lucks out" on that road's Modoc Line, the desert shortcut for forest product movements between southern Oregon and the Overland Route east of Reno, Nevada.
Helped along by the good weather, with no impassable muddy roads or 30 degrees below zero temperatures to face, he is able to shoot the first section of scheduled freight train #553 very slowly lugging up the 16 miles of 1.6% mountain grade leading to Sage Hen summit.
On the point of the train is Cab-Forward #4211, with its engineer resting easy, completely resigned to his walking-speed progress up the grade. This is the last major eastbound grade this train will face. Ahead lies the Madeline Plain and the necessarily careful descent of Viewland Hill into the remote little division point of Wendel, CA. Here, the Shasta Division crew will get off and a Salt Lake Division crew will board to take the train southward past the deep, mysterious waters of Pyramid Lake to join the Overland Route mainline at Fernley, Nevada. From there, the consist will go directly east to Ogden, Utah, and a Union Pacific Railroad connection to the East Coast. SP crews favored the Cab-Forward 4-8-8-2 design for its clear forward vision, and freedom from smoke inside their railroad's nearly 35 miles of tunnels.
\BPhoto by Stan Kistler\b
No:48
\HDiesel Service Area - Alexandria, VA\h
Railroads and locomotives completely change in character after nightfall, no longer giving the viewer detailed, clear views of their subjects. Familiar locomotives and terminals turn into more vague dark shapes, silhouetted sometimes with great brightness, or buried in large pools of darkness. Bright, bare light sources often backlight the scene, or sometimes fill in some areas with "unnatural" upward-facing lights. For photographers, the night scene provides somewhat ambiguous suggestions of objects, providing outlines and shadows where daylight would provide the even illumination that most people see as "correct."
We see these interesting effects at the diesel service area in Alexandria, VA in this 1984 John R. Wilcox photograph. Southern Railway #3944 is seen resting outside the locomotive servicing area, accompanied at the right by other diesel units of almost indiscernible ownership and types. The #3944 seems isolated and apparently unattended, a lonely locomotive surrounded by lights from above and from the sides. A headlight, or photographer's flash, has flatly illuminated the near end of this General Electric U23B locomotive, built to provide railroads with smaller and lighter weight locomotives to handle shorter trains and lighter track structures.
But something else hides beneath night's veil -- one of the huge J-class 4-8-4's of the former Norfolk & Western Railroad! The year is 1988 and the big, heavy and powerful coal burner has taken shelter at the enginehouse, keeping company with a first generation General Motors diesel of the Southern Railway.
\BPhoto by John R. Wilcox, Jr.\b
No:49
\HSierra RR Triple Headed Steam Train\h
In 1979, the 82 year-old Sierra Railroad of California, one of the state's oldest and most unique shortline railroads, operated this spectacular triple-headed steam train for the benefit of riders and photographers. The train was led by the ancient 4-4-0 #8, followed by 1922 Baldwin 2-8-0 #28 and 1925 Baldwin 2-8-2 #34. The trip was made in anticipation of the end of regular steam operations as the Crocker interests, owners since its beginnings in 1897, planned to sell to an on-line lumber company that would operate common carrier with diesel freight service. If the little #28 looks familiar, it may be because it was a "star" in the Academy Award winning movie, "Bound For Glory," about Woody Guthrie's life.
Steamers of the state-owned "Railtown 1897" occasionally climb these grassy foothills of the Sierra Nevada Range again, hauling visitors and assisting film companies with steam locomotive locations. The new owner of the common carrier portion, Sierra Pacific Coast Railway of Santa Cruz, plans steam excursions on the lower end of the line on summer weekends, and for other activities of interest to railroad buffs.
Under Crocker ownership, the railroad was constructed in 1897 to the Sonora area to serve the gold mining industry in the San Joaquin Valley east of Stockton, CA. Despite downturns in mining, the railroad survived to haul great quantities of tailings that were used for the construction of major dams for nearby water projects.
The portion of the railroad around Jamestown, including the engine terminal, is the property of the State of California Department of Parks, and operated as an historic operating museum.
Far to the north in our the western hemisphere, we encounter a Canadian Pacific Railway freight train rolling westward out of Banff, Alberta, Canada. It heads out into the afternoon sun under stormy clouds that seem to be parked on top of the mountain peaks.
This is one of the interesting but not uncommon scenic sights 150 miles north of the United States border in this very beautiful portion of the Canadian Rockies. Here the red and white locomotives stand out in dramatic contrast with the natural greens, browns, and blues of the rugged mountain landscape. City "dudes" from "the lower 48" can easily imagine more than a few wild animals lurking in the woods along the C.P. right of way -- maybe even a few eyeing the passage of this very train.
Ahead of this colorful train is the gradual climb toward the mile-high summit ridge of the Rockies and the spiral tunnels that allow such long trains to safely traverse thosesteep mountain grades of Kicking Horse Pass. But first will come the crew change at Field, British Columbia, fifty miles ahead on the shoulder of the Pass, where new crews will step aboard the locomotives to help relay the train on to its destination of Vancouver, British Columbia.
The completion of the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway across the mountains in 1885 and the arrival of the first train into Port Moody, British Columbia a year later, was of enormous importance to this country with a much smaller population than the U.S., finally tying the rich resources of British Columbia firmly to the Canadian East.
\BPhoto by Gary Vielbaum\b
No:51
\HUnion Pacific Challenger Steam Locomotive\h
This fine action photograph by Tom Gildersleeve is of the Union Pacific RailroadÆs elegant 4-6-6-4 Challenger type steam locomotive roaring through an early fall storm in the snowy countryside near Cheyenne, Wyoming. A boiling mix of hot steam and coal smoke blasts upward into the freezing air as the train does a photo run-by for excursionists.
After this photo session, the big 4-6-6-4 type locomotive begins its 20-mile westward climb to the summit of the Rocky Mountains near Sherman station. The date is October, 1984, and the great occasion is a railroad fan excursion of the National Railway Historical Society. The trip began at Denver, Colorado, with happy passengers boarding the Union PacificÆs armor yellow cars for the ride northward to Cheyenne, a trip made especially memorable by the trainÆs unusual motive power -- locomotive #6936, one of the roadÆs huge 6,600 horsepower ôCentennialö diesel freight locomotives.
But even such memories began to diminish when the one million pound Challenger #3985 took over the excursion duties near Cheyenne for the westward climb across the Rocky Mountains to Laramie. In that historic town, the fans had lunch while the train was turned for the trip back to Denver.
What a memorable day for fans -- riding a deluxe streamlined passenger train behind the worldÆs largest diesel locomotive and what is still the worldÆs largest operating steam locomotive.
\BPhoto by Tom Gildersleeve\b
No:52
\HSP Railroad Snow Flangers at Truckee, CA\h
The great storms rolling in off the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of Alaska are beginning to lay down a cold, wet carpet of snow across the high country of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.
In the early stages of such a storm, down on the east slope of the Range in the small mountain town of Truckee, we see that the Southern Pacific Railroad's dispatcher has called out the railroad's first line of defense against heavy storms -- snow flangers pulled by specially-equipped locomotives with ice-breakers on their roofs.
These flanger sets "flip" back and forth across the 38-mile heavy snow zone between this old railroad town and Emigrant Gap on the west slope. Here, we see a crewman stepping down from lead SD9-E locomotive #4349 after a number of trips across the mountain. Soon another crew will arrive and the two locomotives and flanger will resume their lonely patrols across the mountain.
In deep snow, most of the accumulation is pushed aside by the nose of the lead locomotive. The ice-breaker knocks down dangerous icicles inside the tunnels. The most critical part of the job is performed by the flanger as the engine crew raises and lowers the plow blades suspended over the rails beneath that car. In their "down" position, the blades reach just below the level of the rails to clear away snow that otherwise could accumulate and pack down hard enough to lift locomotive traction motors or fuel tanks high enough to derail locomotives or cause a loss of traction. Removal of snow between the rails also prevents freight car air hoses from being lifted high enough to set the brakes on a moving train.
\BPhoto by Shirley Burman\b
No:53
\HMilwaukee Road Electric Box Motor\h
Flying high above a frozen Montana forest, the 1915-era Milwaukee Road electric box motor #E-34 drops down a 1.7% grade toward Butte, Montana, from the Continental Divide ridge at Pipestone Pass. Two slightly different home-rebuilt versions of B-units are visible between the two cab units. The year is 1964 and the railroad's extremely durable 3,000-volt DC electrification is still helping move heavy freight trains across more than 600 miles of line.
This was the first long-distance heavy-duty electrification of a mainline railroad, and remained the longest until after World War II when the nations of Europe and Asia left the United States behind with their own improved versions of such a system.
General Electric built the system well, with such innovations as locomotives made up of multiple-units, truck-mounted DC traction motors and regenerative braking that held back trains on descending grades -- features still similar to today's diesels.
The electrics, however, were little appreciated by the stodgy railroad industry or by coal and petroleum interests -- particularly since the only fuel consumed by this system was renewable hydro-electric power. To add greater insult, when the Milwaukee locomotives regenerated electric power on descending grades, that power went back into the line to assist other trains up a hill, or back into the power grid to serve commercial customers.
This once-futuristic system lasted until 1974, well into the era of high horsepower diesel-electrric railroading, its message better understood by other nations than by the United States.
