Prior to the time of the streamliners, North American passenger trains were not particularly colorful. Most sleeping cars were Pullman green, although there were exceptions; both the Pennsylvania and Canadian Pacific utilized shades of red on their passenger equipment, for example. With the arrival of streamlined lightweight equipment as of the late 1930s, […]
Santa Fe’s Golden Gate, a secondary Bay Area train, pulls into Merced, Calif., in May 1958 as a tour group prepares to board. Jim Neubauer photo […]
Canadian Pacific 4-4-4 No. 2929, last of 20 class F1a Jubilee types received from Canadian Locomotive Co. in 1937–38, sits with a short train at Montreal West station on May 11, 1957, as 4-6-2 No. 2472, last of CP’s 173 G3-class Pacifics, arrives on the next track. Bob Krone photo […]
This 1949 view of the erecting floor at EMD shows a 567 diesel engine, generator (on the deck at the left of the engine), and electrical cabinet (far left) in place on an F7 frame. An FP7 is taking shape in the background. EMD photo […]
It was my bittersweet duty last week to write an obituary for illustrator Bob Wegner, one of the all-time greats from the heyday of Kalmbach Publishing Co. He was a versatile illustrator and (best of all from my perspective) a railroad mapmaker extraordinaire. Bob put in more than 40 years at KPC, turning out hundreds […]
At Pittsburgh in 1956, a Pennsylvania Railroad SW1 switches cars on the “Panhandle” side of the station as passenger trains pass on the “Fort Wayne” bridge over the Allegheny River in the distance. The names refer to PRR predecessors Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway and Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway, respectively. Philip […]
A GP9 and RS11 work in Crookston, Minn., on Aug. 15, 1969. Northern Pacific went from hauling 35 percent of its tonnage behind diesel in 1950 to complete dieselization in January 1958. Bells retired from steam locomotives found their way onto GP9 replacements. Doug Wingfield photo […]
All through January 2025, the Grand Trunk Western is Classic Trains‘ Railroad of the Month! In this photo gallery, please enjoy images of Grand Trunk Western passenger trains selected from the archives of the David P. Morgan Library at Firecrown Media! This photo gallery had previously been published in May 2020. Only from Trains.com! […]
By 1935, it would have been sensible to consider the 4-4-2 Atlantic-type steam locomotive all but obsolete, at least insofar as new construction was concerned. In the U.S., the design could be traced back to the 1880s, and ultimately about 1,900 of the type were built. Its heydays were the years surrounding World War […]
The joint Southern Pacific-Union Pacific-Chicago & North Western City of San Francisco crosses the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake. Introduced in 1936, the train covered the 2,258 miles between Chicago and Oakland, Calif., in less than 40 hours. Southern Pacific photo […]
Great Northern 434 was one of the road’s 14 F45 freight diesels. Built in 1969, they carried GN’s “Big Sky blue” scheme of black, white, and blue. EMD built 86 F45s, for Santa Fe, GN, and Burlington Northern, during 1968–71. EMD photo […]
On June 6, 1956, one of Chesapeake & Ohio’s 60 collossal Lima 2-6-6-6 Allegheny types is westbound at Handley, W.Va., 24 miles east of Charleston. The train, framed by a signal gantry still in primer, is a mixed freight, not one of the coal trains more commonly found on this line along the Kanawha River. […]
