Avoiding Airline Cutoff, a Milwaukee Road Twin Cities time freight speeds under the Chicago and North Western Bridge at Wauwatosa, WI. CNW Hotshot 488 Class H 3002 is chewing up the rails to Chicago's Proviso Yard. Alert train dispatchers, aware of the competition between the two roads, keep juggling their time sheets to get the best of running times. "CNW might be ahead today, but wait 'til tomorrow", so says the Milwaukee Road. Both roadnames are gone, but the rails remain. Now it's CP RAIL vs. UNION PACIFIC, with diesel power instead of steam, and the rivalry is still there.

The travelers of Christmas 1935 departing Milwaukee aboard train 101 behind engine 1 have been given a special present by their host Milwaukee Road. The 100 mph+ speedster named for Longfellow's brave and contrasting so sharply with the station's grand clock tower will bring them to loved ones faster than they've ever traveled before. Santa has more Hiawathas in his bag, but none fancier than this.

Mid-Continent Railway Museum's Chicago &  NorthWestern R-1 4-6-0 1385 is back on home rails as she departs Butler, WI, for Green Bay on an educational mission for her parent road. Company SD45's 950-952 dutifully stand in the clear for 1907 Alco hallmark of C&NW steam as she forges a bond between industry professionals and laymen train-watchers.

The Great Depression scourges the U.S. but in Richmond, Ind., beside the bicycle factory, Pennsylvania K2s Pacific 5107 fireman and crossing watchman congratulate each other on their employment as the aging 4-6-2 (Juniata 1911) with the fortress gate of a trailing truck departs for Columbus, OH., 112.2 miles, with the afternoon all-stops local via Dayton. Unemployment that year: 20.1 per cent.

Here is Gen. William Wallace Atterbury's dream realized: a four-track-wide main line laid with 152-pound rail and veiled with 11,000 volt catenary, patrolled by trains which draw their energy through pantographs. Pin-striped. Loewy-styled GG1 4895 trailing the combine and 970 coaches of a Clockerto infinity condones the passage of an M.U. local protected by owl-faced MP54 569. A salute to W.W.A.

The hands of his watch reach for four o'clock on the murky morning of April 30, 1900, as Engineer John Luther Jones brings Illinois Central No. 1 through Pickens, Miss. Employing every ounce of his mastery of throttle and brake, Casey has coaxed Rogers Ten-Wheeler 382 to within minutes of being on time. But 6.6 miles ahead in Vaughan at 3:52 a.m., Jones will meet eternity and legend.

When the Erie Limited entered service in 1929, its creators and the train proved that 'The Erie is not only a freight railroad, but a railroad.' The westbound train, fittingly numbered 1, has topped Gulf Summit and coasted downgrade across Starrucca Viaduct toward Susquehanna, PA, behind K-5-A 2942. Now, says Erie, its shippers no longer have to ride on 'some other railroad.'

The journey seems to turn into an interminable odyssey after dark. The cinders seem more onerous sifting across the varnished window sill, the cigarettes taste flat, the whistle turns melancholy. You yawn, try to find a comfortable position on the green plush, wonder if the news butch will return with fresh coffee. You doze, then awake to lights outside. The train is clattering through switches. The conductor is calling, 'Central Station! All change!'

Fresh from their display at B&O's Fair of the Iron Horse in Baltimore in 1927, two of the most famous corporate symbols in railroading- Pennsylvania K4 Pacific 5475 and New York Central J-1 Hudson 5205-match each other stride for stride east from Chicago. The 5475 leads the Broadway Limited , the 5205 heads the 20th Century Limited. Who will win? Don't bet against the Hudson.

Between their passenger obligations, five famous engines represent as many railroads at the Cincinnati Union Terminal roundhouse. From left to right: New York Central Hudson 5265; Louisville & Nashville2-8-4 1970; Baltimore & Ohio Pacific 5319; Chesapeake & Ohio Hudson 307;and Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 612. Tomorrow they will be as far removed as Norfolk, Cleveland, Washington and Corbin, KY.

The snow of December 1934 cannot deter the passage of Pennsylvania Railroad train No. 65, the westbound New York-St. Louis American. Bringing his black K4 Pacific and Tuscan-red train out of a curve, the engineer checks his Hamilton timepiece against the employee timecard.He nods curtly at the laboring fireman- No. 65 will go into Richmond, Ind., on time at 9:48 a.m., winter notwithstanding.

Milwaukee Road train 5, a Chicago-Minneapolis maid-of-all-work, was normally the charge of a single F-6 4-6-4 but on this summer afternoon in 1938, the Baltic is absent. In her stead a pair of venerable but high-wheeled F-3 Pacifics come charging upgrade past the gray frame depot at Brookfield, WI. The dispatcher's train sheet will log the Express as on time today despite relief power.

A minute before their scheduled 11:45 p.m. departures, Wabash's Midnight behind Hudson 703, Illinois Central's Diamond in the charge of Pacific 1198, and Alton's Fast Mail with Pacific 5292 prepare to initiate their competitive overnight journeys from St. Louis Union Station's vast arching trains head to Chicago. In the summer of 1946, the businessman travels Pullman and he has a choice of trains.