Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Monday, October 12, 2026

Nickel Plate Road 0-6-0 steam switcher


The Nickel Plate Road was officially the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad.  In 1964, the Nickel Plate Road and several other midwestern carriers were merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W).

This is a NKP class B-11a built by Alco-Brooks in October 1916. The 9 members of the class featured 57-inch (1.45-meter) driving wheels and were specifically designed to navigate tight industrial curves ranging from 18 to 30 degrees. They had 21x28-inch cylinders and a boiler operating at 180 psi.  All were retired by March 1953 and eventually scrapped.

(colorized)

A Nice to Digne, France, meter-gauge Renault autorail on a masonry viaduct, 1962

 See earlier posts.

South African Railways (SAR) Class 5E1, Bo-Bo type electric locomotive, early 1960s


Despite the name of the train being blue, the loco at this time was painted in green with yellow stripes. Developed by Metropolitan-Vickers (Metrovick), a total of 690 units of the 3 kV DC class were built across five distinct series between 1959 and 1969.

The Blue Train (Bloutrein) between Johannesburg and Cape Town adopted the name in 1946. It has been South Africa's luxury passenger train service with blue-and-silver cars since then. 

See earlier posts.

Sunday, October 11, 2026

Santa Fe 2-6-2 built by Baldwin in 1903

This is now on display in Boot Hill Park, Dodge City, Kansas with "Boot Hill Special" on the tender. Initially a Vauclain compound, in 1918 it was simplified during a rebuild in the ATSF Topeka Shops. It received a new boiler around 1940. Upon retirement in 1954 it was donated to Dodge City, which at one time was a notorious outlaw town.

Saturday, October 10, 2026

Friday, October 9, 2026

1940 Twin Coach bus used by Pacific Electric, greater L.A.

Model 35-RL with 37 seats, in the Macy St. Yards, probably a pic taken when new. (colorized)