This reboot of The Roundhouse, an on-camera interview series established in 2013, welcomes host Brian Schmidt, Editor of Classic Trains Magazine, and guest Rob McGonigal, former (retired) Editor of Classic Trains Magazine, back to the roundtable. Just as the Summer 2025 issue of the now 25-year-old periodical is set for publication, Brian and Rob sit […]
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A massive Norfolk & Western class A 2-6-6-4 dwarfs workers in the road’s yard at Roanoke, Va., in 1954. W. A. Akin Jr. photo […]
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In Boston, a two-car train of Metropolitan Transportation Authority PCC cars rounds the loop at Riverside in 1963. G. Mac Sebree photo […]
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Lehigh & Hudson River 4-8-2 No. 11 was one of three such engines built by Baldwin in 1944 for the 90-mile road. Because of wartime restrictions, they were duplicates of a batch of Boston & Maine engines delivered in 1941. Classic Trains coll. […]
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Railroad dome cars are a gleaming symbol of postwar passenger train status. The streamliner era in North America bookended the World War II era in the U.S., since new streamlined passenger cars were not a priority between 1942 and 1945. Following the end of the war in the latter year, they began to […]
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Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 750 gets under way at Bellevue, Ohio, with a westbound freight in September 1955. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
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The commander of a May 1953 U.S. Army troop train out of Fort Meade, Md., confers with a Baltimore & Ohio passenger representative, the train conductor, and the Pullman conductor. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
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The U30C was the most popular of General Electric’s “Universal” locomotive series, selling 592 units built beginning in 1967. Buyers included Burlington Northern, Louisville & Nashville (pictured), Milwaukee Road, Pennsylvania, Reading, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, and others. This unit has lost its L&N markings in the transition to a Seaboard System identity. Jim Hediger photo […]
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A Denver & Salt Lake passenger train pauses at Arrow, Colo., on the original Rollins Pass line in 1905. At left is the main line west to Middle Park, which has a 4-percent grade. Today, Union Pacific freights and Amtrak’s California Zephyr bypass this treacherous trackage with Moffat Tunnel, completed in 1928. L. C. McClure photo […]
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Running behind three Rio Grande GP40s and a GP30, this eastbound was working up the west side of Tennessee Pass near Red Cliff, Colo., on April 30, 1967. Out of sight are two F7 helpers on the rear. In the late 20th century Tennessee Pass had eight or more heavy trains climbing its 13 miles […]
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At the turn of the 20th century, the citizens and serving railroads of Kansas City, Mo., yearned to revamp how passengers arrived and disembarked from the growing gateway city along the Missouri River. The 1878-built Union Depot in the West Bottoms district couldn’t keep up with the thriving rail traffic and local desire to […]
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A Reading Company train works at Allentown, Pa., on Jan. 24, 1972, with power from three builders: GE U30C, Alco C424, EMD GP35, and Alco C630. The “Bee Line Service” logo on the lead and last units graced 15 six-axle units built in 1966-1967. Bob Wilt, J. David Ingles collection […]
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