Catching the Gulf Wind

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The sight of an approaching Seaboard E7 signaled adventure: a boy’s first train ride.  Wiley M. Bryan I don’t know how my fascination for trains began, but ever since I could remember, I had been drawn to their mystique. I like tracks, switches, sidings, and depots. I like everything associated with trains. So, in November […]

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Fall 2025

The fall 2025 cover of Classic Trains magazine, which features a steam locomotive in a black and white photograph

Welcome – Never stop learning Head End – A potpourri of railroad history, then and now Fast Mail – Letters from our readers True Color – Rush hour at Kansas City The Way It Was  – Tales from railfans and railroaders Looking Back – Santa Fe all the way […]

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Journeys on World War II troop trains

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A Union Pacific 4-6-6-4 leads a troop train east through California in 1946. George M. Speir In early May 1945, I boarded a troop train at Fort Knox, Ky., and headed west on the Louisville & Nashville, destination unknown. The war in Europe had just ended and my fellow 18-year-old replacement tank crewmen had been […]

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