Never the same from one day to the next, Santa Fe’s Fast Mail Express, train 7 and its eastbound counterpart, train 8, were obliged by contract to carry all the mail the U.S Post Office presente... (more)

The classiest profile in railroading in late 1965 was still Santa Fe’s four Warbonnet-wearing E6As. Built by EMC in the early years of World War II, by the mid-1960s they were assigned to servic... (more)

Just five months off the boat at Houston, German immigrant 4002 is being readied at Rio Grande’s North Yard for a helper turn to the Moffat Tunnel. Local fans are excited. Could this 3540-hp die... (more)

Extraordinary circumstances have brought Rock Island 131 to Palmer Lake on June 27, 1965. A massive series of storms two weeks before swept away almost every railroad line into Denver. UP’s trac... (more)

Saint LouIs-San Francisco Train 139 has come down from Oklahoma on June 24, 1978, 68 cars, mostly grain hoppers, tank cars for the Gulf, seven empties and a caboose, all behind GP38-2 685. Rattlin... (more)

Big Boy 4011 has cut off its train from Cheyenne and soon will head for the Laramie roundhouse, where workers will ready it for another trip over Sherman Hill. In 1957, UP steam has two more seaso... (more)

A little past noon on March 6, 1966, Rio Grande’s Train 10, the Yampa Valley, has been waiting only a few minutes at Azure siding near the entrance to Little Gore Canyon when Train 17, the Calif... (more)

In mid-1965, it was still possible to catch an Alco PA nosing out of Kansas City Union Station with Santa Fe train 7, the Fast Mail Express for Los Angeles. On April 25, the 65 is just getting und... (more)

Second 81 crosses Kiowa Creek near Bennett behind EMD-re-engined FA 141, a load of autoracks out of Kansas City headed for dealers and showrooms in Denver and along the Front Range. It’s high su... (more)

PA-1 602 smokes it up as it accelerates across Sand Creek near Sandown Junction, Denver. Ellis, Kansas - Denver 369, one of Union Pacific‘s last mixed trains, originates in Kansas City as number... (more)

Union Pacific was seldom an enthusiastic Baldwin customer; most of its modern steam power came from Alco. But in 1952, the road acquired six AS-616 road switchers from Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. Valu... (more)

In mid-summer, 1966, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy train number 10, the Denver Zephyr, remains the most successful passenger operation to and from Denver, beating out even Union Pacific’s feet of... (more)

In 1966, there were only two ways into remote Rock Creek Canyon, between Crater and Volcano on Rio Grande’s Craig Branch in northwestern Colorado. One was to hike along the track from the neares... (more)

Once upon a time, the HIgh Line connecting the Golden State Route at McFarland and the Omaha-Denver line at Belleville, Kansas, saw four passenger trains (including a Rocket) and a half dozen frei... (more)

North Platte, Nebraska, was and remains the place to sample everything old and new running on the Union Pacific. On October 2, 1966, the new included Alco Century 855 61, parked at the fuel rack j... (more)