Railroad History Archives - Page 3 of 23 - The Trackside Photographer

Posted on May 12, 2022May 19, 2022 by admin

Summers at the Station

Four friends who adopted me in the summers.

From 1966 until 1972, my parents rented a camp along Lake Pennesseewassee, in Norway, Maine. For my father, it was a break from his responsibilities on the Long Island Rail Road, and a chance to spend hours bass fishing, alone with his thoughts. When I wasn’t fishing or swimming, I’d head to Grand Trunk station in the adjacent community of South Paris. It took a bit of courage, but armed with a file of 8” X 10” glossy prints, I walked into the station and introduced myself to the block operator, a genial Quebecker named Guy Pomerleau. Guy smiled as he thumbed through the prints and told me to wait until the local switcher returned, as there was a conductor I should meet.

Posted on April 28, 2022May 5, 2022 by admin

Dickinson Yard

And Other Locations in the Kanawha Valley

Dickinson Yard, located approximately fourteen miles east of West Virginia’s capital city of Charleston, was the largest yard of the former New York Central’s Kanawha Secondary. The secondary ran from Corning, Ohio, about 60 miles south of Columbus, through Charleston and Dickinson to Swiss about 10 miles beyond Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. Under Penn Central the secondary was known as the Southern Branch.

Posted on March 10, 2022March 17, 2022 by admin

Spur Line

The Indigenous people who lived and thrived on the lakeshore called it Ha-AH-chu, meaning Little Lake. That name is remembered today by a vanishingly small number of speakers of the Duwamish language, Lushootseed. To the settlers and builders who supplanted the first people, it became, and still is, Lake Union. To railroaders, it was Region 4 of the Seattle Division. While that name is lost to time, a work of art remembers lakeshore life and the railroading that once was done there.

From nearly its earliest days, Seattle has been a railroad town. Locally mined coal, locally felled timber, locally produced cedar shingles, and silk fabrics imported from Asia by clipper ship were among the many products that transited the growing metropolis. War and economic boomtimes grew the railroads while economic busts, competitive modes of transportation and, most recently, gentrification have caused the presence of trains to shrink and become virtually invisible.

Posted on March 8, 2022March 8, 2022 by admin

Living History: Dispatchers

In the effort to preserve railroad history, our efforts are most often focused on the physical aspects of the railroad and its infrastructure. But another, and sometimes neglected, element of history lives in the memories of those railroaders who lived that history as part of their day-to-day job.

In this episode of Legacies: Living History, we talk with three retired train dispatchers for an insider’s look at the job of the dispatcher, the ups and downs of day to day railroad operations, and some memorable stories that took place over the span of nearly 50 years.

Edd Fuller, Editor

Posted on February 17, 2022February 24, 2022 by admin

Hi-Railing the Royal Gorge

Denver & Rio Grande Western train at Pueblo yard, 3/31/89

I had been traveling out to the Transportation Test Center near Pueblo for several years as part of my work with the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Research & Test Dept. The railroad activity around Pueblo fascinated me and I thought it would be interesting to see the Royal Gorge from track level. A friend on the D&RGW, Jim Ozment, offered to take me on a hi-rail trip up through the Gorge from Pueblo to Salida, Colorado. It was March 31, 1989 and it had really snowed the night before. Jim couldn’t get down from Denver, but the Roadmaster in Pueblo, Robert Valdez, was ready and waiting. We left the Pueblo yard shortly after it was light. It turned out to be an especially scenic ride because there was snow all the way up to Salida. No trains were scheduled in either direction that morning, so we had the railroad until lunch time. Robert patiently answered my questions about what his job entailed and how the railroad was maintained, and he explained some of the history of the line. But, for the most part, we just rode along looking for any trouble like fallen rocks or track defects. It was quiet and the snow made the incredible mountain scenery, track, and river even more stunning.

Posted on February 10, 2022February 17, 2022 by admin

Leaping Ahead to 1902

Not a sound on Friday, July 30th. Everything was ready.

An unprecedented event occurred on the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway on July 31^st – August 1^st. All, as in ALL of the remaining two-foot gauge locomotives in Maine were gathered together. Five in total, three in steam, for a photographer’s dream.

The following history was written by the WW&F Railway Museum and is used with permission.

The Historic WW&F Railway.

The Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway was one of fine common carrier two-foot gauge railway systems that served Maine during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The first two-footer was the Sandy River, opened in western Maine in 1879. The Wiscasset and Quebec (predecessor to the WW&F) was the last two-footer started, opening in 1895 between Wiscasset and Albion, Maine.