100 Best Train-Photographs

I am in receipt of my “100 Greatest Railroad Photos” from Trains Magazine. (I almost didn’t get it.)
I have been a subscriber to Trains Magazine since the middle ‘60s, since college.
When I moved to Rochester after college, I transferred my Trains subscription to the humble sleeping-room I had in an old rooming-house at 136 Chili (“Cheye-lie;” both parts rhyme) Ave. in Rochester.
The sleeping-room wasn’t much, but I couldn’t survive without Trains.
Trains Magazine has been around since 1940.
They hired a really great rail enthusiast and writer to be editor, one David P. Morgan, and he set the tone of the magazine.
—Which inadvertently followed the direction of my enthusiasm: namely, the efficacy of the steel wheel on the steel rail.
Since he retired, and since died, the magazine stumbled a bit, but now seems to be in good hands, although it’s not the enthusiasm of David P. Morgan.
A lot of my writing style is David P. Morgan, and Car & Driver Magazine. (I’m also a car nut.)
Morgan had the ability to look at his enthusiasm from a higher and different angle.
It wasn’t just “gee whiz.”
Railroading was fulfilling his philosophy. It made sense, “and here’s why.”
When Penn-Central proposed ending their old service of supplying newsprint via the old Rochester Subway to Rochester’s newspapers, and the newspapers cried foul, I took my inspiration from David P. Morgan and wrote a letter-to-the-editor suggesting the newspapers were on a form of welfare; getting their newsprint way cheaper than otherwise, by getting Penn-Central to supply it at the railroad’s expense.
It’s a David P. Morgan viewpoint: unrationalized rail-service is welfare for the customers.

I’ve posted some photos from the 100 Greatest.

As uncounted thousands of their brothers have done since the dawn of railroading, GG1 engineer W.J. Kepner and his conductor W.L. Walzer, compare watches at New York’s Pennsylvania Station in 1939. (Photo by A.F. Sozio of the Pennsylvania Railroad.)

#1. Is a train conductor comparing watches with his engineer aboard a GG1 locomotive.
First of all, contrary to the common misconception, the train conductor is the captain of the ship, not the engineer.
The engineer is only driving the locomotive. (I’ve seen locomotive-engineers called the “conductor,” which is wrong.)
On a passenger-train, the conductor is often far back in the train, in the passenger coaches.
Before radio communication, the conductor and engineer had no way of communicating, except perhaps by a train-length cord that stretched all the way into the locomotive cab, where it activated a small air-whistle.
By pulling it, and thereby blowing the whistle, the train conductor, far back in the train, could signal the engineer when to start.
The engineer was also trying to keep schedule, so his watch had to agree with the conductor’s.
Here the two are comparing watches.
The train conductor has walked the long raised loading platform at New York’s Pennsylvania Station, to compare watches with his engineer, in the driver-seat of his fabulous GG1 electric locomotive.
Lucky engineer. He’s piloting the greatest railroad locomotive ever; a locomotive that could cruise sedately at 100 mph.
I suppose that’s part of the reason I think this is a great photograph.
It’s 1939.

The cigar is out, but this Burlington Route road foreman on E7 #9947A is all concentration as he pilots the North Coast Limited out of La Crosse, WI at 90 mph in July of 1955, oblivious to the photographer at his side. (Photo by W.A. Akin, Jr.)

#2. What we see here is an engineer totally engrossed in his job.
He knows every inch of his railroad; where the grade-crossings are, where to accelerate, and where to brake.
A train isn’t a car, or even a truck.
Shock it, and it can break apart.
After cresting a hill, the front is pulling down, yet the rear is still dragging the other way.
Couplers between cars can break.
The engineer has to know where to apply power and where to brake.
Not enough power and the train can stall, tying up the railroad. Other trains can’t just drive around the stalled train — they need the track.
Do other things wrong and the train can break apart or run away.
So what we have here is an engineer totally engrossed in his job; oblivious to the photographer at his side.
I have the same thing on a cab-ride video of the Norfolk Southern RoadRailer being navigated up the infamous Rat-hole Division through Kentucky.
Engineman Sam Burton, number-two in seniority, is oblivious to the video cameraman taking his picture.
His sunglasses and Stanford baseball cap equal the unlit cigar and the fedora of the engineer pictured here,
The picture-date is July of 1955.
The engine is an E7, and it’s doing 90 mph: the North Coast Limited.

With 120 cars for hauling iron-ore, that is helping to fuel America’s post-war boom, a mammoth Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Baldwin “Yellowstone” 2-8-8-4 crosses over another DM&IR line as it leaves Two Harbors, MN for the mines. (Photo by Franklin A. King.)

#3. Is a giant Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range articulated on a small trestle-bridge.
The engine is gigantic, a 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone.
It’s hauling 120 empty ore-jennies destined for iron mines uphill.
The engine is slightly bigger than the bridge. It looks like it’s a wonder the bridge ain’t collapsing, but it’s deep girders on pilings.
Sadly, I had to use a tiny cover shot of this picture, because the one inside is spread over two pages.
I can’t scan it with a fold in the middle.

My favorite Trains Magazine is still their March,1964 issue. It had a gigantic 17-page Frederick Westing article about the GG1.
I’ll say it again: the GG1 was the greatest railroad locomotive ever. A common misconception is that it was designed by industrial designer Raymond Loewy.
But not really.
The original design was Pennsy, patterned after their steeple-cab P5a modifications.
Loewy’s input was to convince Pennsy to use a welded-steel shell, instead of tiny pieces riveted together.
He also -a) penned the original five pinstripe paint scheme, and -b) changed the design of the end man-doors, so they’d wrap around the headlight at the top.
His input was rather minimal, but made the GG1 the best looking railroad locomotive ever.
Loewy went on to design other engines for Pennsy — most notably the T1 steam engine, that was supposed to replace the K4 Pacific, after WWII.
He also styled diesel-engines for Pennsy supplier Baldwin Locomotive Works.
Shortly after the first GG1 (#4840) was built, he went to see it. He was very proud.
He also remarked on seeing a GG1 at speed in north Jersey; an awesome experience.
I have been similarly impressed.
In 1961 or ‘62 I went to Claymont station north of Wilmington on the old PRR electrified line to Washington, D.C., now Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.
There were four tracks, and I was used to seeing express passenger trains on the middle tracks. Commuter trains and freight usually ran the outside tracks.
So here I am arm hooked around a light-pole about eight feet from the outside track.
I hear a southbound train coming; sounds like a GG1 express.
But it was on the outside track!
It blasted by at about 100 mph, and almost sucked me into it.
Had I not had my arm hooked around that lightpole, I wouldn’t be here.

There are other pictures from this book I should post.

By this bone-chilling day in January 1962, steam had disappeared from all major U.S. and Canadian lines. But at Cloquet, MN 2-8-0 #16 on 11.4-mile log-hauler Duluth & Northeastern keeps the faith. (Photo by John Gruber.)

Impressive by day, intimidating by night, a Southern Pacific cab-forward 4-8-8-2 simmers under the floodlights at Colton, CA. A water-column, used for filling steam locomotive tenders, frames the scene. (Photo by Richard Steinheimer.)

Which one, we wonder, of the 90 trains a day still serving Kansas City Union Station in 1963, is this man waiting to board? Oblivious to all but his magazine, he strikes a timeless pose on an old hard wooden bench. (Photo by Ed Wojtas.)

Much of Southern Pacific’s historic 138-mile crossing of Donner Pass, between Roseville, CA and Reno, NV, is as rugged at this photo attests. Amtrak’s eastbound San Francisco Zephyr, with an SP unit leading, is high above Dutch Flat. (This is the route through the Sierra-Nevada Mountains taken by the original transcontinental railroad, originally Central Pacific. CP was purchased by SP.) (Photo by Richard Steinheimer.)

From a roadside observation point perched high above West Virginia’s spectacular New River Gorge, we see a westbound CSX empty hopper train following the river at dawn January 24, 2005. The vantage point for this winter birds-eye view is an aptly named location: Hawks Nest. (I’ve been to that vantage-point, people, and rode numerous rail-excursions through that bridge, one powered by restored Nickel-Plate steam-engine #765.) (Photo by Scott Lothes.)

A soft September 1998 afternoon in North Carolina is interrupted by the roar of three Norfolk Southern diesels struggling with 10 loaded woodchip cars on the steepest railroad grade in the nation near Saluda (“suh-LEW-da”). (I’ve been here, everyone. It looks like a roller-coaster; pushing 5%. They just slammed the railroad right up the side of the mountain. [That switch to the left is a runaway track.] The line is now rail-banked.) (Photo by Charles Brewster.)

RE: “I couldn’t survive without Trains........” —I’ve been a railfan all my life.

“Penn-Central” is a merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad, both of whom had duplicate track in Ohio and Indiana. The merger was promulgated in 1968, and tanked in about eight years, after declaring bankruptcy much earlier. It was the largest business failure at that time, and prompted the formation of Conrail, since the failure of Penn-Central, and other east-coast railroads, would have stopped eastern rail service. (“Conrail” was a government amalgamation of east-coast railroads that went bankrupt pretty much at the same time as Penn-Central. Conrail included other bankrupt east-coast railroads, like Erie-Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley; but eventually went private as it became more successful. Conrail has since been broken up, sold to CSX Transportation Industries (railroad) and Norfolk Southern railroad. CSX got mainly the old New York Central routes, and NS got the old PRR routes.)

The “Rochester Subway” was laid down in the old Erie Canal bed, which had once threaded Rochester, but was rebuilt to the south. —The Subway ended service (it was only single cars, much like trolley-cars) in 1956, but a short segment remained underneath the Rochester newspapers. Since it was there, newsprint could be delivered by railroad.

The “Pennsylvania Railroad” was once the largest, and most profitable, railroad in the world. It no longer exists. It failed due to -a) overtaxation, -b) costly commuter service, and -c) highway transportation and airlines.

“New York’s Pennsylvania Station” is the Pennsylvania Railroad’s station in New York City. Pennsy was the only railroad from the west to access Manhattan Island — by tunneling under the Hudson River. The station was torn down awhile ago, and Madison Square Garden built on the site. But the underground tracks still exist, so the station still exists as Amtrak’s New York station. (Amtrak is a government sponsored rail passenger service that took over rail passenger service from the independent railroads in 1970. It mostly operates trains over those independent railroads with its own equipment, but owns and operates the old Pennsylvania Railroad electrified line from Washington D.C. to New York City. They call it their “Northeast Corridor” service, and it has since been extended to Boston, over the old New York, New Haven & Hartford [NYNH&H] route, which was later included in Penn-Central.)

An “E7” is a standard full-bodied passenger locomotive made by EMD. (“EMD” is Electromotive Division of General Motors, GM’s manufacturer of diesel railroad-locomotives. Most railroads used EMD when they dieselized; although many now use General-Electric diesel railroad-locomotives.) —It was rated at 2,000 horsepower, having two 1,000-horsepower V12 diesel engines. It had six-axle trucks, although the center axle wasn’t powered. There were other EMD E-units; like the E6, E8, and E9.

To “run away” is for the train to lose control, usually downhill, usually due to brake failure. It can’t be stopped until it hits an uphill. —A “runaway track” is a separate track switched off the downhill to route a runaway train off the line. A runaway track may be short and into the woods, so the runaway train derails. At Saluda the routing is permanently switched to the runaway track, so a downhill train has to stop to throw the switch. (Uphill is the same.)

“RoadRailer” is a train of highway trailers on rail bogies (railroad trucks [wheel-sets]); engineered to allow highway trailers to travel the railways. “RoadRailer” trailers can’t couple to regular railroad equipment.

The “Rat-hole” division was a railroad across Kentucky, through its mountains. It had many small difficult tunnels, nicknamed “rat-holes.” The line has since been rebuilt, removing many of the tunnels.

A “steeple-cab” is a locomotive designed with the cab in the center between two ends. The GG1 is a steeple-cab; although the “steeple” is elongated. Pennsy built a P5 (4-6-4) electric locomotive earlier, at first with a box-cab. Later the P5a was built, an improvement of the P5. Later yet a “steeple-cab” version of the P5a was built, to improve crew survival in collisions. (The P5a was seen in both box-cab and steeple-cab versions.)

The “T1” was essentially a Pennsylvania Railroad 4-8-4 steam locomotive, with four cylinders (a “duplex), each powering four wheels (so it looked like a 4-4-4-4). It went into service after WWII, but wasn’t very successful. It was poorly developed; too much too quickly.

The “K4 Pacific” (4-6-2) was Pennsylvania Railroad’s standard passenger steam locomotive for many years. It was designed in the ‘teens, and never replaced with more modern power. To handle increased train-weights, Pennsy would double-head two K4s at the front — that’s two crews, since steam-engines can’t be MU-ed (multiple-unit) like diesel-locomotives. But Pennsy was making so much money they could afford to double-head. Development after the K4 went into electrification. (There were earlier Pacific locomotives; e.g. the K2.)

“Baldwin Locomotive Works,” near Philadelphia, PA, was one of the two main constructors of railroad steam-locomotives. The other was American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, NY. Neither exist any longer. —A third (but smaller) was Lima (“LYE-mah” not “LEE-mah”) Locomotive Works in Lima, OH. All are out of the locomotive business, and began failing when railroads began switching over to diesel power; mainly from General Motors’ ElectroMotive Division. (Both Alco and Baldwin are gone.)

A “cab-forward” is a steam-locomotive with the cab/firebox/boiler turned 180° so the cab faces forward. “Cab-forwards” burned fuel-oil, since coal could not be transported up front from the following tender, yet fuel-oil could be pumped. The engine pictured is an “articulated:” two (or more; but usually two) driver-sets, both powered by the same boiler. But one driver-set is hinged to the other so the locomotive can track through sharp turns (e.g. crossover-switches) despite its extreme length. One set is permanently attached to the boiler, but the other is hinged — the definition of “articulated.” (Crossover-switches are tracks to get from one track to an adjacent track on a multiple-track railroad.)

Saluda Grade was originally Southern Railway, but then 25 years ago Norfolk & Western Railroad and Southern Railway merged, forming Norfolk Southern. NS has since become a major player in east-coast railroading. NS got most of the ex-Pennsy lines when Conrail was broken up.

A “5%” grade is five feet up for every 100 feet forward; extremely steep for an adhesion railroad (one that depends on adhesion of the powered wheels against the railheads — as opposed to a cog railway. Go any steeper and the driving-wheels won’t hold the rail; they slip. —A train climbing Saluda grade had to be broken into three or more sections — too heavy for 5%.

“Restored Nickel-Plate steam-engine #765” is a restored Nickel-Plate Berkshire (2-8-4) steam locomotive that operates in railfan excursion service. It’s the best there is, mainly because it’s run like it was designed: fast and hard. (“Nickel Plate,” which no longer exists, is the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, called the “Nickel Plate” long ago by a New York Central executive because it was so competitive. The railroad eventually renamed itself the “Nickel Plate.” Nickel Plate never actually attained New York city; it stopped at Buffalo. —The locomotive is owned, and operated, by a historical society.