The consolidation of what was once hundreds of railroads into just seven class 1 railroads today (plus Amtrak) was always controversial. In 1901, to protect his railroads from raiders such as Edward Harriman, James J. Hill created the Northern Securities … Continue reading
Tag Archives: Booklet
This was published by the Santa Fe, but it was written by a David A. Wallace and made available to various railroads to distribute to their customers. Wallace wrote editions from at least 1928 through 1948, and the Michigan Railroads … Continue reading
As steam locomotion was winding down and General Electric was working with the American Locomotive Company to compete with General Motors, Westinghouse wanted a part in the electric and Diesel-electric market as well. Working mainly with Baldwin, it had built … Continue reading
Lima would produce steam locomotives for just three more years after issuing this beautiful, spiral-bound book with hard covers advertising its products. The book has photos and detailed specifications of nearly twenty large steam locomotives, ranging from the Southern Pacific … Continue reading
Based on a speech by General Motors vice-president in charge of public relations, Paul Garrett, this booklet only briefly explains why GM built (or had built for it) the Train of Tomorrow. The company’s goal, says the second paragraph, wasn’t … Continue reading
Although the cover is so non-descript that I’m using the title page in the image below, this booklet contains 31 color illustrations of General Motors passenger and freight locomotives and another 48 black-and-white photos of General Motors switch engines. The … Continue reading
This 1953 booklet is mainly about freight for shippers, but it includes a photos of passenger trains and stations. The Pennsylvania (no need to add the word “railroad” in those days) was still riding high after the war, so it … Continue reading
After the failure of the Union Pacific-Rock Island merger, UP sat on the sidelines as other railroads merged over the next decade and a half. Then, in 1980, the company decided to merge–really, take over–the Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific … Continue reading
In 1964, Union Pacific proposed to merge with the Rock Island Railroad. This merger seemed like it would gain quick approval as, at the time, the government favored end-to-end mergers rather than mergers of parallel lines such as GN-NP and … Continue reading
This is Santa Fe’s reprint of a pamphlet commemorating a 1905 trip from Los Angeles to Chicago in 44 hours and 54 minutes. At that time, the fastest regularly scheduled trains took about 68 hours to cover that distance, and … Continue reading