"Reading & Northern's" ex-Gulf, Mobile & Northern Pacific, "four and a quarter," leads two SD50's south from Tunkhannock, Pa., on the former Lehigh Valley RR main line in the Susquehanna River valley on an excursion to Jim Thorpe, Pa., and return.
Fort Wayne Historical Society's ex-NKP Berkshire performs a runby during the Memorial Day weekend when the 2-8-4 steamed again in excursion service for the first time in several years, from the railroad museum in North Judson, Ind., up the former Chesapeake & Ohio of Indiana. The cars came from the Ohio Central Railroad.
The pride of the Colorado Railroad Museum, this DRGW 3-foot-gauge Consolidation runs around the museum's circle at Golden, Colo., during one of the few special "steam-up" days held at the famous site west of Denver. Each "trip" consists of three trips around the loop.
The famed "Daylight" engine from Portland, Ore., steams northward through Ithaca, Mich., on her daylong excursion from the Steam Festival at Owosso up Great Lakes Central's former Ann Arbor Railroad main line to Alma and return. The engine was turned on a wye in Alma, but the train was not turned, so the Milwaukee Road Skytop observation car behind the engine northbound was properly on the rear end going back south. The Skytop and Super Dome are from the Milwaukee 261 group's collection in Minneapolis.
Constructed from scratch, this immaculate American type was trucked up from Illinois to debut at the Owosso Steam Festival, where she steamed back and forth around the Steam Railroading Institute's facility near the old Ann Arbor Railroad shops. The diesel is one of freight carrier Great Lakes Central's former Ann Arbor GP35s.
The country's smallest Pacific type, trucked up for the Owosso, Mich., Steam Festival from her home at Coldwater, Mich., returns into Owosso on a shuttle train on the Great Lakes Central's former New York Central Lansing-Saginaw line. Photo by Carol Ingles.
Bound from Owosso Steam Fest to Minneapolis for storage during the fall, the SP Daylight performs a runby at the Sturtevant, Wis., Amtrak station on her public ferry move from Chicago to Milwaukee, on CP's former Milwaukee Road main line, route of the Amtrak Hiawathas.
Steaming over the summit of a hill and under the outbound Missabe Road line from the yard, Soo 2719 begins the descent into Two Harbors, Minn., with the NRHS Duluth convention special on the North Shore Scenic's former Missabe Road line.
This little 30-inch-gauge, ex-Ferrocarril Mexicano Consolidation, returns with her homemade 4-wheel "bogie" type coaches into Virginia City Mont., where she runs in summer on about 1.5 miles of newly laid track. There was no railroad at this site in the past. Nelson Blount brought the engine from Mexico to Edaville, Mass., in the early 1960s, and reportedly wanted to re-gauge her to 24 inches, but her long wheelbase would not have handled Edaville's curves. She rusted away for years until the breakup of the Edaville collection after 1992. The Alder Gulch group bought her, moved her out west, repaired her, and put her in operation. Information from John Reading of Boston.
One of Promontory National Historic Site's two replica steam stars heads for the roundhouse after its last performance of the day, at 4 p.m., recreating the meeting with Central Pacific's Jupiter at the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Two of the "Silverton train's" famous ex-Rio Grande narrow-gauge Mikes prepare for the two morning trains from the old Durango station area up the Rio de Las Animas river valley and canyon to Silverton. K-28 473 loads its train at left, after whose departure larger sister 480 will come out from the roundhouse area and load her train.
The former Rio Grande 2-8-2 heads out of Durango, past the gliding strip that is the first truly open shot north of town, with the second Silverton train of the morning.
Tourist road RGS runs steam trips from Alamosa, Colo., over La Veta Pass to La Veta, Colo., on the former D&RGW line, and their former Lake Superior & Ishpeming 2-8-0 is returning across the San Luis Valley at Blanca, Colo., back toward Alamosa as late afternoon cumulus clouds typical of the area begin to fill the sky.
This newly restored oil-burning Pacific cannot make over about 15 mph on the former Rock Island branch line operated by the Abilene & Smoky Valley museum's tourist line, which is a shame, but she still makes a fine sight on the three or four outings each year. She's arriving in Enterprise, Kans., from Abilene, and will run around and tow the train, in reverse, back to Abilene. Photo by Carol Ingles.
Winter comes early to North Dakota as the SP Daylight, heading home from Minneapolis to Portland, Ore., over BNSF's ex-GN "High Line," steams quietly at the Amtrak depot before tying up for the night in Minot, N.D., where she'll lay over a day before continuing west on the route of the Amtrak Empire Builder.