This weary-looking Alco high hood switcher, built in 1939, was one of Penn Central's oldest diesels, edged out only be a few ex-NYC SW1s. Former New Haven HH-660 0924 got a new number and a patche... (more)

The final switcher model offered by Alco was the 1000 hp T-6. Only 55 were built, six of which went to the Pennsylvania RR and on to Penn Central. As the sun came up on a late winter morning, PC 9... (more)

Switch on a Bridge

A Bethlehem Steel-bound Conrail ore train crosses the Lehigh River in Bethlehem, PA. The train is coming from the former Jersey Central main line, and is enteri... (more)

A Conrail C425 and a GP38-2 drift past the Amtrak station in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Today’s station is a vast improvement over the sparse accommodations shown here.

A former Pennsylvania Rail Road C628 stands in the former New York Central Collinwood yard.

Penn Central U33C's numbered 6540-6563. (3300hp)

Following the Penn Central merger, PC found a new use for some of its 25 ex-PRR RSD-12s by putting them to work as hump power in former NYC territory. A pair of the handsome six-axle Alcos slowly ... (more)

With a healthy burp of Alco smoke, an A-B-B-A set of former New Haven FAs and FBs accelerates past South Bay Tower in South Boston as they get underway with Penn Central train BL-1 for Lowell, MA,... (more)

Six-axle Alcos weren't especially common on Penn Central's former Boston & Albany line, but they did show up on occasion. Century 628 6304 paired with C630 6328 at Beacon Park in Boston on a sprin... (more)

Penn Central's black dip paint scheme is generally not remembered with fondness, but lots of classic locomotives wore it. Minimally decorated Century 630 6328, an ex-PRR unit, visited Boston in Ap... (more)

In the mid-1970’s, a weekend visit to the small engine facility in Phillipsburg, New Jersey usually yielded one or two pairs of RS11’s, RSD12’s sandwiching a GP9B, and a T6. On this visit, t... (more)

A grizzled veteran looking good in blue. Photo by Mike Dolenski, from my collection.

In 1968, GE raised the horsepower on its models, this time to 3300hp. Like its B-B brother the U33B, the U33C is also characterized by large "wings" on the long hood. Penn Central numbered the U... (more)

Pairs

The symmetry of two back-to-back locomotives of the same model lends a pleasing element to any railroad photo. Here a pair of Conrail C425’s works the yard in Altoona, whil... (more)

The times, they are a-changin’ – South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania has undergone quite a bit of change since the late 1970’s, and this image captures the beginning of the change. The Bethlehem S... (more)