A New York Central RS3 has a healthy seven cars in tow as it heads down the west shore of the Hudson River toward Weehawken, N.J., on June 4, 1953. This view is from the Bear Mountain Bridge. E. Treloar photo […]
West Shore train at Bear Mountain
View from Toledo Central Terminal
An elderly man looks out from the concourse of recently completed Toledo Central Union Terminal. New York Central built the terminal during 1947–50; C&O, B&O, and Wabash trains also called here. Classic Trains coll. […]
5 traits of the Western Pacific Railroad
Compared to the likes of the Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Western Pacific Railroad can be considered the “runt of the litter” for Class I U.S. railroading in the Far West. Yet these five traits of the Western Pacific help paint a bigger picture of this San Francisco-Salt Lake City system […]
Illinois Terminal passenger trains remembered
Please enjoy this photo gallery of Illinois Terminal passenger trains, originally published online in April 2017. All through November 2024, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of “The Traction.” […]
Top of the PRR
The pushers of two eastbound freight trains pass AR Tower in Gallitzin, Pa., summit of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Pittsburgh–Philadelphia main line in 1956. The track above the tower loops from the westbound main tracks. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Timeworn T1
Pennsylvania Railroad class T1 4-4-4-4 duplex 5536 shows the effects of hard service at Chicago in the late 1940s, but the engine is in fact less than five years old. Classic Trains coll. […]
Switching in New Orleans
One of New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal’s SW8 switchers gets ready to add a Southern Pacific express boxcar to a passenger train in 1954, the year NOUPT opened. James G. La Vake photo […]
Soo local in northern Minnesota
Pacific 2702 clatters across the Northern Pacific tracks at McGregor, Minn., 81 miles west of Duluth, with Soo Line’s Thief River Falls–Duluth train 64 in September 1954. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Small diesel in a small town
Minneapolis & St. Louis GE 44-tonner 149 stands beside the weathered depot at Roland, Iowa, (population 700) in September 1950. William F. Armstrong photo […]
New York’s Hell Gate Bridge
The imposing size, look, and name of New York City’s Hell Gate Bridge fits perfectly in a metropolis where one must “dress to impress” and “go big or go home.” According to Victor Hand in Classic Trains’ Fall 2021 issue, the name can be composed of three separate bridges that are connected by two viaducts […]
Illinois Terminal locomotives remembered
Illinois Terminal locomotives included steam, electric, and diesel over its existence. The Illinois Terminal was an electric interurban line serving western Illinois down to the St. Louis area. In the mid-1950s the railroad abandoned its electric operations, moving to all-diesel operation — the last steam ran in 1950, and dieselization had begun with […]
Secondhand 2-8-2 in West Virginia
Mikado 482 was built by Alco’s Schenectady plant for the Mobile & Ohio in 1928. It went to West Virginia short line Cherry River Boom & Lumber after the GM&O merger. It’s resting at Jerryville, W.Va., southwest of Elkins, in May 1952. Ed Theisinger photo […]
