The Rio Grande passenger train named Royal Gorge paused for 10 minutes of sightseeing at the bottom of the chasm in the 1960s. Here we see the train running in its namesake Colorado gorge. Photo by Bob Borcherding […]
‘Royal Gorge’
Magazine: Classic Trains
‘Rebel’ rails
Alco’s distinctive pre-war DL passenger locomotives were styled by industrial designer Otto Kuhler. The diesels also featured a distinct sound, with a pair of 539 engines—the post-war PAs had a single 244 power plant. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio’s pair frequently pulled trains 15 and 16, the Gulf Coast Rebel, between St. Louis and Mobile. Photo by […]
Seaboard Coast Line E7
Former Atlantic Coast Line E7 537 was relettered for Seaboard Coast Line following ACL’s mid-1967 merger with Seaboard Air Line. ACL owned 30 of the 2,000 EMD passenger diesels, while SAL bought 35. Photo by Seaboard Coast Line […]
Refueling at New Orleans
A hostler tops off the fuel tank of an Illinois Central E unit at the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal locomotive facility in 1954. The E unit will go out later on the Panama Limited to Chicago. Photo by James G. La Vake […]
Pullman on a turntable
Central Vermont 0-8-0 501 stands by as a New Haven sleeping car is turned on the turntable at St. Albans, Vermont, in September 1955. Photo by Philip R. Hastings […]
Pride of the Pennsy
The westbound Broadway Limited is just a few miles from its destination as it pauses at Englewood Union Station on the South Side of Chicago in 1933. The Pennsylvania Railroad’s premier train traded its heavyweight cars for streamlined equipment in 1938. Photo by Rail Photo Service […]
Prairie tanks for the Doughboys
At least eight 60-centimeter-guage 2-6-2Ts of the type used by the U.S. Army on temporary railways in France during World War I are visible in this scene at Fort Benning, Georgia, after the war. Baldwin, Davenport, and Vulcan built some 296 of the diminutive engines. Fort Benning’s 27-mile line moved men and material around the […]
Mount Clare makes a Mountain
Between 1942 and ’48, Baltimore & Ohio’s Mount Clare shops in Baltimore created 40 essentially new dual-service 4-8-2s. The class T-3 Mountain types were “essentially” new because their boilers came from retired Mikados and Pacifics. Here, the first T-3, No. 5555, nears completion. Photo by Baltimore & Ohio […]
Mohawk at Waterloo
New York Central 4-8-2 2952 storms through Waterloo, Indiana, 367 miles west of Buffalo, with a westbound freight in 1948. NYC called its 600 4-8-2s “Mohawks” after the river the road’s main line followed across New York state. Photo by Robert A. Hadley […]
Milwaukee’s “Viroqua Patrol”
Alco RSD5 572 leads the Milwaukee Road’s local freight to Sparta and Viroqua, Wisconsin, out of La Crosse in October 1971. At right is Grand Crossing tower, guardian of a tangle of tracks that includes the Chicago–Twin Cities main lines of MILW and Burlington Northern. Photo by J. W. Schultz […]
Norfolk & Western’s ‘Big Three’ steam locomotives
Roanoke, Va., headquarters of the former Norfolk & Western Railway and once known as the “Alamo for Steam,” is home to the renowned East End Shops. This facility, still standing today, was where the bulk of the railroad’s steam fleet was built. Among these were three locomotive classes from the 1940s-50s, known as the “Big […]
How to host an Open House
This article was originally published in the November 2002 issue of Model Railroader. Hosting an open house is a great way for model railroaders to share the hobby with others. But coordinating one that people will never forget requires not only good planning, but practice. In the past two decades, I’ve hosted several open houses, […]
