Mikado on Oahu

20190108

Oahu Railway 2-8-2 No. 70, a 1927 Alco, leads a train for Kahaku beside the Pacific Ocean east of Kaena Point in the 1940s. The railroad’s C-shaped main line extended from Honolulu on the south side of the island clockwise to Kahuku on the north side. Kent W. Cochrane photo […]

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Locomotives for Cincinnati Union Terminal

20190102

E units belonging to Louisville & Nashville, Chesapeake & Ohio, New York Central, and Pennsylvania idle on the ready tracks near the Cincinnati Union Terminal roundhouse in September 1952. Baltimore & Ohio, CUT, Norfolk & Western, and C&O steam engines populate the whisker tracks in the background. Wallace W. Abbey photo […]

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CSX’s eighth heritage locomotive honors the New York Central

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX’s eighth heritage locomotive is a salute to the New York Central. The ES44AH, which carries No. 1853 for the Central’s founding year, made its debut today. It took the Waycross, Ga., paint shop crew 22 days to adorn the locomotive with the Central’s classic lightning stripe scheme. The New York Central […]

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Calmed South Wind

20190121

Louisville & Nashville 4-6-2 No 295 stands at Winchester, Ky., with local train 3 for Hazard on May 3, 1952. Built in 1925 with three cylinders, the Pacific lost its middle cylinder and gained a big tender and some decorative sheet metal in 1940 to pull the Louisville–Montgomery, Ala., leg of the Chicago–Miami South Wind streamliner. Ed […]

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Wabash Railway history remembered

Blue-and-gray diesel locomotive on freight train of Wabash Railroad history

Wabash Railway history started with the Northern Cross, the first railroad in Illinois, in 1837.   The term “Fallen Flag” first appeared in Trains in 1974, as the title for a series of thumbnail histories of merged-away railroads. The series began with the Wabash, and employed the road’s flag emblem outline to illustrate the series’ […]

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Burly PRR Ten-Wheeler

20190128

Pennsylvania Railroad 5711 was one of 121 class G5s 4-6-0s the road’s Juniata Shops in Altoona, Pa., built in the 1920s. Designed for commuter and secondary passenger work, 90 of the heavy Ten-Wheelers worked on PRR’s own lines, while 31 were for subsidiary Long Island Rail Road. Harold K. Vollrath photo […]

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2-8-8-2 on Tennessee Pass

20190104

Rio Grande 2-8-8-2 3601 exits Deen Tunnel east of Pando, Colo., with an eastbound freight extra in March 1946. On the valley floor beyond is the Army’s 10th Mountain Division’s Camp Hale. R. H. Kindig photo […]

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L&N celebrity Pacific

Louisville and Nashville Railroad

Louisville & Nashville heavy 4-6-2 No. 295 was mechanically and cosmetically upgraded in 1940 for duty on the new South Wind streamliner. Some years later, No. 295 rests between runs at Louisville. Jack Fravert photo […]

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Chicago & North Western locomotives remembered

Streamlined Chicago & North Western locomotives with circus train passing signals

  In the steam age, most Chicago & North Western locomotives burned coal, but those assigned to divisions west of the Missouri River were oil burners; in addition, the four Pacifics rebuilt for the 400s were converted to oil. One group of light Pacifics was fitted with special grates for burning lignite, a low-grade coal. […]

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Camelback on Starrucca

Camelback locomotive crossing Erie Railroad's Starrucca Viaduct

In an early 20th century photo, a Camelback locomotive, probably a 2-8-0, crosses the Erie Railroad’s Starrucca Viaduct with a westbound freight. Completed in 1848 at Lanesboro, Pa., on the Erie’s main line west to Binghamton, N.Y., the 1,200-foot stone structure is still carrying trains in 2017. Erie photo […]

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