Extra Board
Welcome to Trains & Railroad of the Past’s Extra Board! We explore a different perspective of classic late era railroading every month. Extra Board welcomes your submissions. We’re looking for about 1500 words accompanied by two or three photos. Each photo should be no smaller than 14 inches (or 1024 pixels) across at 72 dpi (no verticals, please). Brief caption information must accompany each photo. Please send your inquiries to the Webmaster for consideration.
January 3, 2017
Chessie System M&K Memories
The Baltimore & Ohio in the Chessie System era remained a busy conduit for freight, especially across the M&K Division in West Virginia. Join photographer Dave Ori for a colorful look back.
October 18, 2016
1960 and Steam Still Ruled
An article in the April 1960 Railroad Magazine sure caught my attention and prompted youthful thoughts of a possible adventure. According to the story, thirty-one steam locomotives were still very busy on the 39-mile Sydney & Louisburg Railway hauling coal at the northeast end of Nova Scotia in Canada.
August 18, 2016
Railfanning G&W at Retsof
It may be hard to believe but there once was a time when the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad was a single 14.5 mile railroad in western New York state, not the owner-operator of more than 120 railroads that has spread fleets of orange colored locomotives to three continents.
April 26, 2016
Classic Maine Central
If it weren’t for the paper industry, you probably would never have heard of the Maine Central Railroad. Railfans found the railroad to be a great target for their cameras. The motive power was well-maintained and painted in a very attractive scheme.
March 7, 2016
Looking Back at the Soo Line
Most of the Soo Line’s trackage runs through the rural landscape of the lightly populated upper Midwest. That belies the importance of this rather quiet railroad that never really acquired the celebrity status of other carriers.
January 18, 2016
Crazy for Conrail
If the Penn Central merger that brought the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central together was a disaster, what would you expect to get when you add five more ailing bankrupt carriers? That’s what the managers of Conrail were faced with on April 1, 1976. There is one thing for sure, it was one of the most interesting times to be a railfan!
November 9, 2015
A Time for Turbines
It sounds like the roar of a jet engine coming around the sharp curve at Summit’s west end and coming into view with a heavy eastbound drag is what appears to be another snub-nosed diesel in UP livery. It looks like a diesel carbody, but sounds like an airplane struggling to become airborne.
October 30, 2015
You Still Shoot Slides?
You could say I’m a bit of a dinosaur because I still shoot film. I’ve been shooting slides since 1999, somehow avoiding the whole digital revolution altogether…
October 13, 2015
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
It’s too late to experience the old Western Pacific in the hills of California… Or is it? Just because the trains are simulated at a museum or tourist railroad, does it make the experience any less real?
