Was it just my impression or, once the Chessie cats began to appear, did their unrepainted sombre sisters start to get a disproportionate number of assignments to the local jobs?

Try this on your model layout! An open-air interlocker, complete with semaphore home signal. It appears to have been staffed "as needed." Not an assignment you'd want in January, even in urban ... (more)

Never mind the drizzle, the overcast, the chill autumn air. There's an ore train on the move, and if I can't have Milwaukee's orange and black, I'll take those colors on the Bessemer!

Southern Pacific's SD39s were ordered with extra ballast for lugging freight through the Tehachapis, but this later date finds a number of them serving in the helper pool out of San Luis Obispo.

What can I say? It's obvious that time and toil have taken their toll on this once proud queen, now sitting on a wobbly yard track in outer San Luis Obispo.

A soot-stained power set moves back to pick up its train for the assault on the Santa Margarita mountains (in the background). These are the same locomotives shown subsequently crossing the Stenne... (more)

Three "Cadillacs" return to San Luis Obispo from assisting a northbound freight over the Cuesta grade. They'll shortly tie up until the next assignment on the oil-stained track in the foreground.... (more)

It was fun to see the "little guys" out on the high iron, too -- mainline action does not have to be only for the six-axle behemoths, however impressive they may be! Well, it WAS over twenty year... (more)

We were told this was the first Conrail ore train out of the Ashtabula docks in several years. It was given six four-axle units, led by GP38 7724. While the train was moving pretty well at this ... (more)

Back in the days, you never knew what you were going to see next. An ex-NKP GP30 (note the number and the bell notched into the nose!) leads an NW freight through busy Vickers crossing outside To... (more)

Before giving them the corporate livery, GTW used its ex-Rock second-hand Geeps quite extensively, as on this Southern run-through from Cincinnati to Flat Rock (inherited from the DT&I) at Diann.

Back in the days before hyper-sensitivity about security issues, railfans had a lot more opportunity to capture views like this, in the heart of Toledo's dock area.

This Baldwin was for years the DeKalb County Co-op's resident switcher. What a locomotive in which to have one's first cab ride!

The northbound "Maple Leaf" is about to resume its journey beside the Hudson river behind EMD's unique five-axle locomotive.

Back when crewmen kept a watchful eye from the rear end -- two C&O employees monitor a westbound coal train's progress around the Plymouth wye.