Townspeople of South Charleston, W.Va., inspect C&O 500, first of the road’s trio of colossal steam-electric-turbine locomotives intended for its new Chessie train, on Dec. 4, 1947. Ogden Willis, William J. Sparkmon coll. When Robert R. Young took over control of the Chesapeake & Ohio, he started looking for ways to improve the railroad. After […]
CB&Q Hudson 4000, a sister to the 3012 that surprised Bob Jack on a freight, works tonnage at Galesburg, Ill., in 1954. Robert Milner Steam died in various ways, depending on the railroad. I nominate the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, “The Q,” for having done it in the most agreeable fashion. On some roads, steam’s […]
For three days in July 1905, the American public was transfixed by a fast train, racing from Los Angeles to Chicago with one goal: to make the trip faster than anyone had before. The train did, making 2,265-mile trip in 44 hours, 54 minutes, a new cross-country record. But after the hype died down, questions about the […]
NORFOLK, Va. — To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Norfolk & Western/Southern merger in 1982, Norfolk Southern plans to honor many of the railroads that make up the present day NS system. As Union Pacific did a half-decade ago, NS plans to create a fleet of heritage locomotives, though NS’s plans are bigger: 18 […]
While waiting for their train at Bellows Falls in 1952, author Beardsley and his dad saw Rutland 4-8-2 No. 93. Kenneth D. Beardsley Catching up on my reading a while back, I had my memory jogged by David Lustig’s “One Day in March” and Curt Tillotson Jr.’s “Magic Carpet to Durham” in Spring 2003 Classic […]
B&O men pose with Baldwin switcher 428, the first diesel on the mixed train to Ripley, W.Va., in late 1953. Six years later, a sister Baldwin took a hard hit on the same job. F. Altizer It was dark and cold on the night of January 4, 1960, when Baltimore & Ohio train 961 arrived […]
Bought from a pawnshop when the author was a boy, this Hamilton Railway Special 992 watch passed many an official time check during his 44 years on the railroad. Jack O. Elwood I knew I wanted to be a railroad man, specifically a locomotive engineer, when I was about six or seven years old. This […]
The lead F-unit of six pulling a westbound Baltimore & Ohio Time Saver train eases along in front of the Cumberland, Md., station on a July 1956 day. The train is bound for points west via Grafton, W.Va. Read more about Cumberland, the shop, and the B&O in the March 2012 issue of Trains. Photo […]
Grand Trunk Western 4-8-2 No. 6040 on the Maple Leaf stands beside Santa Fe E1 diesel No. 2 on the Kansas Cityan at Chicago’s Dearborn Station. Frank M. Rogers I think I was a railfan by the time I was 5 years old. My father had been a fireman on the Milwaukee Road since he […]
In the January 2012 Model Railroader, Jim Richards explains how he kitbashed a Walthers double-track swing bridge into an offset swing bridge. The prototype Milwaukee Road bridge Jim modeled first appeared in the July 1947 MR. […]
Frisco 4501, one of the road’s three 4500-series 4-8-4s assigned to passenger service, rolls the Meteor into St. Louis. Ben F. Cutler About midnight on a Saturday in 1944 on the station platform in Neosho, Mo., are 500 guys with suntans, each carrying a one-day pass and probably a railway ticket tucked in his wallet. […]
Amtrak inherited from Penn Central these self-propelled Rail Diesel Cars with distinctive front ends built for the New Haven Railroad’s Roger Williams. Budd Co. delivered six RDCs in an A-B-B-B-B-A formation to the New Haven in 1956. The slapped-on Amtrak logo from this February 1975 view would be replaced four years later with the company’s […]
