It’s Sunday, June 24, 1956, and Louisville & Nashville M-1 class number 1962—one of the memorable “Big Emma” 2-8-4s that worked the eastern side of the system, in Kentucky only—slowly ba... (more)

Interstate's steam-powered derrick W50 is in the process of rerailing a Lehigh Valley hopper near Pine Branch, VA in the mid-'50s. In these more innocent times, there is only one hard hat to be se... (more)

Four veteran Interstate Railroad employees on the Second Yard Crew pose with their motive power--INT number 25--on a fall afternoon in 1953. The occasion is the last use of the Consolidation. Left... (more)

From the camera of my long-time friend David DeVault, we have this nice color view of two (of ten total) Interstate Railroad RS-3s. Numbers 38 and 37 are burbling along in idle awaiting a call to ... (more)

Southern Railway Ks-1 Class Consolidation number 685 is shown between runs at the mountain division point of Asheville, North Carolina. The 685 was part of rather large group of similar engines on... (more)

The passing siding at Kennesaw had recently been extended when this meet took place in 1953. At the time, this line belonged to the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis, and L&N had trackage rights ... (more)

Southern's streamlined "Southerner" made its debut in 1941 as an all-coach train between Washington and New Orleans. Rather than follow the more traditional route south of Atlanta (with the West P... (more)

This is another shot by the late R.D. (Dick) Sharpless of Atlanta. It shows us why a "going away" shot has many redeeming values. The engine--Southern Railway Ms-4 Mike 4866--was built by Alco's R... (more)

Cumberland Valley Division local passenger number 12, a daily Norton, VA to Pineville, KY run, steams downgrade out of Callahan’s Nose Tunnel between Appalachia and Big Stone Gap, Virginia in Ju... (more)

This is "Big Emma." When the Louisville & Nashville Railroad elected to seriously upgrade its freight motive power in the early '40s, it went whole-hog for a Baldwin-built variant of the Van Sweri... (more)

One of the smallest and least remarked "union" stations in the country was the L&N depot at Appalachia, VA. Served by the Interstate (until 1928), Southern (until 1939) and L&N (until 1953), the f... (more)

One of the first uses of diesel-electric motive power on the south end of the L&N's Cumberland Valley Division in freight service was the RS-3s working the Norton Local out of Loyall, KY to Norton... (more)

In a rare scene from the early days of color photography, Southern Ps-class Pacific 1244 is shown at the roundhouse at Savannah, Georgia in 1938. The 1910 Baldwin is all spiffed up in green, silve... (more)

Who among us wouldn't like to climb into the left hand seat box behind the fireman of Southern Ps-4 Pacific 1406 on this 1941 afternoon at Washington Union Station's Ivy City Engine Terminal? Perh... (more)

Pictured in its last winter season as a Great Lakes (via NYC north of Cincinnati) to Miami (via Seaboard Air Line south of Jacksonville) coach-Pullman train, Southern's northbound "Florida Sunbeam... (more)