Four events highlight the history of the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway: two spectacular accidents, a visiting steam locomotive, and a murder. Remarkable is that the TP&W rebounded from the negative incidents to last through 1983, when it was merged into the Santa Fe Railway. After three years, though, Santa Fe wanted out, and the […]
Virginian Railway H16-44 No. 36 was one of 430 B-B road-switchers Fairbanks-Morse built between 1947 and its 1963 exit from the market. The coal-hauling road dieselized completely with FM B-B and C-C road-switchers, plus one GE 44-tonner. C. R. Huff photo […]
A former Wheeling & Lake Erie 2-8-4, identifiable as such by its inside-bearing pony truck, footboards in lieu of a pilot, and other details, soars above “The Flats” area of Cleveland with a Nickel Plate Road local freight in the 1950s. NKP acquired the Wheeling in 1949. Herbert H. Harwood photo […]
Chesapeake & Ohio class T-1 2-10-4 No. 3006 makes 60 mph with a 5,000-ton merchandise train south of Linworth, Ohio, around 1940. Glenn Grabill Jr. photo […]
Baltimore & Ohio E7 diesels in A-B-A formation head a train carrying President Truman, on the campaign trail for re-election, at Gary, Ind., on Oct. 25, 1948. B&O photo […]
Carl Donald works the CTC board in the tower at Deshler, Ohio, in 1952. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]
Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-6 No. 1610, one of the road’s 60 giant Allegheny types, works as a pusher on a coal train. Classic Trains coll. […]
Among the most recognizable of all steam locomotive designs is the New York Central J-3a Hudson as styled by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss for the 1938 20th Century Limited. Just-completed No. 5445, the first of the 10 streamlined 4-6-4s, stands outside the Alco plant at Schenectady, N.Y. Classic Trains coll. […]
Milwaukee Road’s Minneapolis–Chicago Morning Hiawatha crosses from track 1 to track 2 as it passes over the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern diamonds at Rondout, Ill., on April 10, 1971. The streamliner is 32 miles from its destination and 20 days from its final run. W. C. Christopher photo […]
Amtrak inherited a menagerie of power at startup in 1971, but what were the oldest Amtrak locomotives? During the period leading up to the advent of Amtrak in May 1971, it wasn’t uncommon to see passenger train equipment, both locomotives and cars, of significant seniority. Regarding what came behind the locomotives, heavyweight (typically pre-World […]
Spokane, Portland and Seattle freight trains remembered: All through August 2022, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the grit, panache, and charm that was the Spokane, Portland and Seattle. As part of the celebration, please enjoy this freight train photo gallery as the perfect accompaniment. Each month since October 2019, Classic Trains editors have showcase one “Fallen Flag” railroad — […]
Please enjoy this photo gallery of Spokane, Portland and Seattle locomotives selected from files in Kalmbach Media‘s David P. Morgan Library. The principal Spokane, Portland and Seattle locomotive shop was at Vancouver, Washington. Initially a roundhouse, it was supplemented with a four-track, three-level diesel shop in 1949 that replaced the roundhouse after the last […]
