Electric and diesel locomotives’ top speeds are governed by gear ratios and safe operations, like this Union Pacific westbound near Franklin Grove, Ill. Brian Schmidt Q What determines the theoretical top speed of a diesel locomotive? Is it the gear ratio? What other factors enter in? – Mike Pedersen, North Berwick, Maine A The maximum […]
Trains video contributor Kevin Gilliam takes us on a steam-and-smoke-filled look into one of North Carolina’s tourist gems: The Tweetsie Railroad. See what this narrow gauge railroad has to offer in the Blue Ridge Mountains, only from Trains! […]
Denver & Rio Grande Western 4-8-2 1513 pushes hard on the caboose of a 55-car freight climbing the Front Range of the Rockies where the line crosses Coal Creek. The date is March 14, 1942, and the lettering on the bridge shows that the line is still owned by the Denver & Salt Lake, which […]
The Skytop sleeper-observation car of the Milwaukee Road’s Olympian Hiawatha, highlighted by plenty of windows and chrome trim, stands at Milwaukee early in the train’s Chicago–Tacoma run. Classic Trains coll. […]
A northbound Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee train leaves the interurban’s Shore Line route and joins the Skokie Valley route at North Chicago Junction, Ill., on July 18, 1955 — one week before cessation of passenger service on the Shore Line. Overhead is the Chicago & North Western’s Chicago–Waukegan–Milwaukee line. William D. Middleton photo […]
Two E8 diesels lead the Phoebe Snow, the maroon, gray, and yellow pride of the Lackawanna Railroad, westbound across the Delaware River at Slateford Junction, Pa., in the 1950s. S. K. Bolton photo […]
This bird’s-eye view map from the April 1946 issue of Trains magazine shows the Pennsylvania’s extensive facilities in the New York area in the mid-1940s. Linn H. Westcott photo […]
Two biplanes trailing smoke accent a 1939 publicity photo of Florida East Coast’s Jacksonville–Miami Henry M. Flagler, named for the road’s founder. E3 No. 1001, emblazoned with the train’s name, was FEC’s first diesel. FEC photo […]
A Clinchfield Railroad 4-6-6-4 gets under way with a long string of northbound coal hoppers at Ridge, N.C., in 1952. Floyd A. Bruner photo […]
Pennsylvania class L1 Mikado No. 26, trailing an additional tender for extra water capacity, heads a train of empty coal hoppers west out of Renovo, Pa., in September 1955. Under PRR’s unorthodox numbering system, the 574-member L1 fleet ranged from No. 2 to No. 8636. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Drew Halverson flips the script when he heads to the Pacific Northwest for a little R&R. Of course, Charlie Conway hosts Drew around Northern Puget Sound, Seattle, Wash., and then a quick stop to catch the railroad action at BNSF’s Balmer Yard. […]
Charlie Conway and Tom Danneman launch into their exploration of the Columbia River Gorge. In addition to capturing images of spectacular scenery and engineering, the two find plenty of Union Pacific and BNSF freight trains snaking along the curvaceous riverfront main line. […]
