In anticipation of delivery of seven AEM7’s, SEPTA wanted to test the new locomotives’ burden on its electrical distribution supplying the former Reading electrification. A Sunday, the slowest... (more)

Conrail Local WJAL-1, with coal for Portland Generating Station, threads its way through the site of the former Lehigh Valley Easton passenger station. All of the station's above-track-level struc... (more)

The Schizophrenic SD45’s

After completing a 1966 demonstration tour EMD SD45’s 4352-4 were sold to the Delaware & Hudson as their 802, 803, and 801, respectively. Until this ti... (more)

A B23-7 drills the Southern Railway yard in Monroe, Virginia. The grass growing in the yard tracks is a good indicator that this yard’s future is in jeopardy. Today, a single-track main line and... (more)

Can you spot the GE among the EMD’s? All four locos are pulling hard, but the GE’s and Alco’s always put on a better show than the then-majority builder. This coal train detouring around the... (more)

I Love the Smell of Metal Grinding in the Morning

Viewed from the Dutch door, the rear end brakeman on a Rio Grande rail grinding train watches dome-observation Silver Sky p... (more)

An early Conrail repaint, SD40 6317, leads a Jersey Central GP9 and a patched Erie-Lackawanna SD45 westbound through Treichlers, Pennsylvania.

An Anthracite Railway excursion rolls past the brick water tank base at Powder Valley, Pennsylvania. Parking must have been tight, as my ’83 Mustang GT made it into the edge of the photo.

The hostler at Conrail’s Bison Yard in Buffalo moves an eclectic 2-1/2 builder lashup through the engine terminal. The second unit may look like an Alco RS3, but it’s all EMD under the hood.

614 is barking as she pulls the Chessie Safety Express up the grade from B&O's Pittsburgh passenger station to join the freight line at Glenwood Junction.

A Wisconsin Electric train has departed the Bailey Mine on the Monongahela Railway, and is beginning the journey to its home turf.

Penn Central GG1’s 4850 and 4844, still carrying their PRR single-stripe scheme, wait for their next assignment at Pavonia Yard in Camden, New Jersey. Pavonia was the major yard of the Pennsylv... (more)

Two United States Army Alco MRS-1’s, operated by the Cape Fear Railway, the common carrier contracted to serve Fort Bragg, back onto received cars at the Aberdeen & Rockfish interchange. Beside... (more)

Spending its last years in ore service in Ohio, former Reading C630 5303 rests in the roundhouse at Mingo Junction. The SDP45 to the left stands derelict today in Roanoke, Virginia as part of the... (more)

Three Conrail Schenectady products are on the leads at the Altoona backshop. The RS-27 is apparently in for truck work, as it is sitting on shop trucks. The two former Reading C424's are most like... (more)