On a summer day in 1959, we’re roaring down the L&N’s “Short Line” between Cincinnati and Louisville in the cab of E7 760. This wonderful photo by my long-time friend Charlie Castner was taken while he was a staff member of WHAS radio in Louisville. This assignment was to ride the cab of number 99, the flagship “Pan-American” from Cincy to Louisville. The fellow standing behind the engineer is the Short Line’s “traveling engineer.” That was L&N’s term for a road foreman of engines at the time (although they adopted the more common “RFE” title a few years later). Notice there are two whistle cords. The engineer is pulling the cord on the engine’s “country” horn, since they’re sprinting down the largely rural area in this region just miles east of the Ohio River. The older L&N E6s and E7s came with two air horns—both single note Leslies. The higher pitched (and smaller) horn was the “city” horn, for urban areas, while the “country” horn was a much larger but lower octave “honker” that resonated over many miles.
Photos of North America's favorite First Generation locomotives. EMD, ALCO, Baldwin; essentially anything that represents the OG wide cab diesel locomotive
