With its restoration complete but its boiler jacket incomplete, Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 tests on Sept. 20, 1979. Wayne York, Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society With its restoration complete but its boiler jacket incomplete, Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 tests on Sept. 20, 1979. Wayne York, Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society With […]
On a hot afternoon in August 1960, the year before the author began his Erie employment there, five Alco cab units thundered past SN Tower with a 99 freight. J. David Ingles In 1961 my dream came true. For the past six months or so I had been hanging out at various towers on the […]
Bruceton was a busy junction in west Tennessee on the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway. One engineer who worked out of there was known for his pompous, stuffed-shirt manner and lordly bearing which often grated upon others. Drawing a hotshot run out of Bruceton, this engineer put his 2-8-2 to serious work and was […]
Way back in 1940, I took a fling at railroading. After ditching art school, I went to work for the Alton Railroad at its roundhouse at Glenn Yard in southwest Chicago. My job was mechanic’s helper. One of my duties was to tighten the bolts on locomotive cylinder heads. I attacked the task with vim […]
Few would argue that Ted Benson is a great writer and photographer. His contributions to Trains over the years have been among our readers’ favorites. But did readers of our February 1977 issue realize Benson might also be prophetic? In “Andover Afterward,” he wrote of Southern Pacific 4449 returning to mainline rails after a 16-year […]
Click the image to download this interactive PDF. Many who love narrow-gauge railroads consider West Virginia’s Babcock State Park hallowed ground, for that’s where the Mann’s Creek Railway operated. From 1886 to 1955, this 9-mile threefooter hauled Sewell-seam coal from Clifftop, along the old Midland Trail about 70 miles east of Charleston, to Sewell, in […]
Watch video clips of Pennsy and Santa Fe 2-10-4’s from the Herron Rail Video program “Pennsylvania Glory, Part 2.” The PRR leased 12 5011-class engines from Santa Fe in summer 1956 for use on the Columbus-Sandusky line, where they worked beside PRR’s own J1’s. The Fall 2010 issue of Classic Trains features a study of […]
Watch video clips of Pennsy and Santa Fe 2-10-4’s from the Herron Rail Video program “Pennsylvania Glory, Part 2.” The PRR leased 12 5011-class engines from Santa Fe in summer 1956 for use on the Columbus-Sandusky line, where they worked beside PRR’s own J1’s. The Fall 2010 issue of Classic Trains features a study of […]
V&T 11 and 27 with a railfan special on the 2 percent grade at Moundhouse, Nev., June 5, 1938. T.G. Wurm V&T 11 and 27 run light into Virginia City to turn on the turntable after pulling a railfan excursion from Carson City to Gold Hill on June 5, 1938. T.G. Wurm Last train from […]
In Historic Trains Today, David Lustig tells of seven cool diesels you can visit in museums today. Here are four more examples of neat historic locomotives you can see, and in some cases, ride behind. Wisconsin Central GP30 No. 713 rests between assignments at Waukesha, Wis., on May 3, 1989. The ex-Soo Line unit rides […]
Soldiers and citizens pose in front of the Union Pacific depot in North Platte, Neb., on April 27, 1898. Union Pacific Museum Before there was a burning man festival, North Platte threw the biggest party in the West, when Union Pacific tracklayers made a winter camp with miners, traders, Mormon emigrants, and stagecoach drivers in […]
Preservation of former railroad stations takes many forms, from visitor centers and museums to offices and restaurants. Ciddici’s Pizza of Albany, Oregon, retains most of the original exterior features of the Oregon Electric structure, especially the “OER” logo. Scott Lothes The locomotive John Bull, donated by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1884, was the Smithsonian Institution’s […]
