Thursday, September 27, 2012

Women at St. Louis Depot, 1928

Seems to be a group traveling together, probably for a club or conference meeting, on the B & O's National Limited. You can see some man looking out at them from inside the club car. In 1928, you got your group together and took the train.






This was offered for sale a little while ago by eBay seller tomrk5. Click to see a bigger version.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Railtown Steam

Hardly ever just post about somebody else's post or article. But this one is full o' great stuff, and here's a spot image:



How about that, eh?

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Online Resource for Burlington Photos

Daily Life Along the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad (Newberry Library) features hundreds of photos taken in the late 1940's for the publicity project that eventually became the book Granger Country.

 Here's one of the photos:



Thursday, June 21, 2012

Lionel 1926

A back-cover ad from the December, 1926 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. Click to make it bigger. Wouldn't that make a great poster?

Monday, June 4, 2012

Scenic Railway, Rio de Janiero, 1911

The cover illustration from the April, 1911 issue of POPULAR ELECTRICITY, which I just accidentally stumbled on while searching for something else on eBay. The seller is rhealee8, if you want to see more. I reshaped the photo to make it more, like, rectangular, as it had originally been. Click makes big.


Friday, June 1, 2012

The Last Steam Locomotive Through Greensboro

Photo taken in Greensboro, NC, probably in 1958, by Irvin R. "Buck" Squires, and used by permission of the Squires family.



Thanks to John Squires for forwarding this to us. Click for larger size.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Bowery, NYC, Elevated Railroad, 1897

I collected this image of a stereoview in 2002, but didn't keep a trail as to its source. It can stand on its own. Click = bigger.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Elevated Railway and Civic Beauty

In February of 1907, Ernest C. Moses, in an article of that title in the monthly magazine THE WORLD TODAY, claimed that the new elevated railroad system in Berlin was "The most artistic and most thoroughly constructed roadway of its kind in the world to-day." I scanned the article a few years ago, and have now taken the time to clean up the scans of the half-tone photos that were printed to illustrate the text. The captions of the photos do a good job of summarizing the points the author was making.

Here are the pictures: from Berlin, from Chicago, and a two-page spread (combined back into one by the magic of Photoshop) from New York. If you're desperate to read the text, and can't find it on Google or the Internet Archive of the Hathi Trust, send a note and I'll see if I can put it online somewhere. As always, click to see a bigger version.










Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Trolley Diner

Sui generis example from Falmouth, Kentucky, in a photo postcard. Click to big.


From a recent listing for sale by

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Balloon Route Excursion, Los Angeles, 1907

eBay seller had this booklet for sale last year, and his listing showed lots of the pages (not much rail hardware, sorry). If I'd been on the ball I'd have posted it then. Click for slightly larger versions.