Five children watch a westbound Royal American Shows train at Hilton's Hill in Brookfield, Wisconsin. The children in the foreground are, left to right, two neighbors of the Farences, Connie and Adam Farence, and another neighbor. The children delight in merely seeing the train, in turn delighting ther viewer with their enthusiasm. The Royal American Shows provided midway attractions in the U.S....
A yard locomotive tows Milwaukee Road freight train 255 at the east end of the Portage, Wisconsin, yard because 255's crew had used up its service hours--"died on the law." The yard locomotive is in front of the three "covered wagons" (F7 type diesel units on the right). The train on the left is returning from leaving a coal train at Columbia power plant on the M&P (Madison & Portage) branch....
Norris R. Young of Hanover, Pennsylvania, worked for the Western Maryland as a locomotive fireman. As an enthusiast photographer, Norris was afforded opportunities to make images of railroading during the course of his work. In December 1948, he posed the crew of the local freight (train No. 303/304) that normally served customers on the railroad’s old mainline between Hagerstown and Unio...
Workers loading cattle into a stock car at Peach Springs, Arizona, on the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in 1972. This is believed to capture the last cattle loading on the entire Santa Fe system. Shipping livestock by rail was once common, dating back to the 1830s. Many railroads ran dedicated livestock trains, which were always given high priority in order to deliver the animals in optimum...
Station agent O. W. Pennington looking over a set of train orders at Yorktown, Texas on August 22, 1961. Prior to the advent of rule changes and computerized signaling systems, railroads utilized written timetables and train orders to govern all train movements. The timetable listed all scheduled trains; these were often amended, and "extra" trains added, via written orders. The dispatcher issued...