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Christmas & Electric Trains
Train Topic: History
John Gruber, rail photographer extraordinaire, dies at 82 NEWSWIRE
John Gruber MADISON, Wis. — In the world of railroad photography, few practitioners have had an impact as profound as that of John Gruber. He arrived in the 1960s with a daring new approach to photographing the railroad scene, then went on to found the leading organization devoted to preserving and promoting the art form. […]
O. Winston Link exhibit features rare images NEWSWIRE
“Southern Pacific Local Freight crosses Intracoastal Waterway in Houma, Louisiana, 1951,” from the “Unseen Link” exhibit. Courtesy O. Winston Link Museum ROANOKE, Va. — The O. Winston Link Museum is now featuring an exhibit of rarely seen images by the famed rail photographer. “Unseen Link,” which opened on Sept. 14 and runs through Nov. 6, […]
Adventures of a rookie brakeman
An old GE doodlebug provided passenger services on the Apalachicola Northern in the 1940s. Classic Trains coll. I’m clutching the grab iron on the back of a steam locomotive cab, my feet on the apron between the engine and tender. I’m vibrating head to toe, with the heat from the boiler all over me. How […]
Serendipity on a mail car
Join Trains for a ride on a former Northern Pacific triple-combine express car as a retired mail car clerk, a historical interpreter, and a reporter meet to catch a mail bag full of history on a moving train on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway in October 2017. Only from Trains! […]
Serendipity on a mail car
Join Trains for a ride on a former Northern Pacific triple-combine express car as a retired mail car clerk, a historical interpreter, and a reporter meet to catch a mail bag full of history on a moving train on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway in October 2017. Only from Trains! […]
Steam locomotive smokeboxes
Hammond Lumber Co. 2-8-2T No. 16 displays an extended smokebox in this undated photo. The seam is just ahead of the smokestack. Martin E. Hansen collection Q I am unable to identify any particular pattern for when a smokebox is short or when it is long. I do note, in most cases, that when the […]
Famed photographer Shaughnessy dies NEWSWIRE
Jim Shaughnessey, shown in 2002 at Enola, Pa. Robert S. McGonigal TROY, N.Y. – Of all the pioneers who revolutionized railroad photography in the postwar decades, few equal the status of Jim Shaughnessy, one of the deans of the field, especially as measured by his powerful images from the steam-to-diesel era of the 1950s and […]
Historic photos, ceremonial spikes featured in transcontinental railroad anniversary exhibit NEWSWIRE
Andrew J. Russell (American, 1830-1902), East and West Shaking Hands at Laying Last Rail, 1869, albumen print. The ceremony spotlighted Union Pacific locomotive No. 119 meeting Central Pacific locomotive Jupiter. From left, shaking hands, are Samuel S. Montague, chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad, and General Grenville M. Dodge, chief engineer of the Union […]
NRHS announces 2019 convention hotel for Salt Lake City NEWSWIRE
SALT LAKE CITY — The journey to Promontory for 21st century rail enthusiasts wanting to taste the history of the first transcontinental railroad 150 years ago is becoming more clear. The National Railway Historical Society is urging members to reserve hotel space now for the event May 7-12 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The convention […]
Telegrapher at Wilbur
Although author Dinsmore’s territory was some 1,500 miles to the west, this 1966 scene inside Northern Pacific’s depot in South Superior, Wis., would be familiar to him. William D. Middleton When I picked up Classic Trains’ Summer 2008 issue, the cover blurb about the “Kid Telegrapher on NP’s Idaho Division” caught my eye. I searched out the […]
Niles Canyon Railway to celebrate 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike NEWSWIRE
Niles Canyon Railway, which fields both steam and diesel power, will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad in 2019. Trains: Jim Wrinn NILES, Calif. — 2019 will be a big year for the Pacific Locomotive Association and its Niles Canyon Railway. The association will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad with […]
